Win breaks drought but tough losses linger
THE Wallabies are keeping the lid firmly in place despite the euphoria of their Bledisloe Cup breakthrough, with coach Michael Cheika reminding his team they have won nothing yet.
Australia defeated New Zealand 23-18 in Saturday’s third Test, scoring three tries to two at Suncorp Stadium to snap a seven-game trans-Tasman losing streak. It took a ferocious defensive effort in the second half to repel the rallying All Blacks but for once, the Wallabies were able to protect their hard-earned lead and grind out a terrific, hardearned result.
It was only a dead rubber but the expressions on players’ faces showed just what it meant after a year where Australian Super Rugby sides lost all 26 matches against Kiwi opposition. But Cheika was quick to put it into context.
“As enjoyable as the win was, the disappointment of not winning the cup still resonates for me,” he said. “We’re certainly not going to be making any mistakes, starting to blow trumpets or anything like that.
“We worked hard, we fought for the game – it could have gone either way at the end very easily and you could have been sitting here saying you lost again.”
Australia led 17-13 midway through the second half and they withstood the visitors’ charge, via Rieko Ioane’s 71st minute try.
Damian McKenzie missed the conversion in a major letoff for the Wallabies before Reece Hodge went on to boot his second long-range penalty of the night with two minutes to go to send them on their way.
The cool, calm and collected finish was in contrast to the way they coughed up the second Bledisloe Cup Test in Dunedin.
Cheika told his players at halftime that it would come down to the last five minutes and his words were prophetic.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out the game’s going to pretty much go down to the last few minutes because they’re so dangerous at any stage,” he said.