Despite impressive victories in London and Cardiff, the Australian rugby team suffered a 27-13 defeat against Scotland in Edinburgh. This loss serves as a timely reminder that while the team has shown promise this autumn, there are still areas requiring improvement.
It had been a fortnight of razzle-dazzle and eye-catching headlines. Offloads and sidesteps, pyrotechnics and sliding tries in the corner had filled highlights reels and provided content for podcasts and think-pieces. There wasn’t a spare seat on the bandwagon. The hype train was chugging along at full throttle. Everyone wanted to know: Were the Wallabies back?
Not all of these questions yielded positive responses. Sione Tuipulotu scored Scotland’s first-half try after collecting from a long throw at a lineout and running straight through the guts of the Wallabies. Australia’s own lineout lacked variety and the maul failed to crank through the gears. More than once the visitors turned down kickable penalties only to cough up possession after nudging the ball into the corner. The scrum too struggled and regularly creaked and conceded penalties.
But composure was lacking. When they found the edge or pounced on Scottish mistakes they fumbled the ball or lost their heads. Late in the piece, when there was still an outside chance of a dramatic comeback, Tate McDermott picked up the ball at the base of a ruck inside Scotland’s 22, looked up, saw a string of backs forming an overlap to his left and inexplicably unfurled a nothing cross-field kick that was easily marked by Tuipulotu.
Scotland doused those flames early with some hard hits and an ultra-aggressive approach at the breakdown. It almost worked against the South African Springboks. Here it made a mess of Schmidt-ball and soon enough several Australians got themselves in unnecessary scraps. The usually cool Suaalii went nose to nose with a smiling Tuipulotu.
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