Great Dane leads truly dogged effort

WALLABIES fullback Dane Haylett-Petty was so sick with stomach cramps in the lead-up to yesterday’s Test against Argentina that he wasn’t sure he was even going to make it on the field.

Not only did he recover in time, but he produced a man of the match performance with two second half tries in one of the greatest comebacks seen in Wallabies history.

“Our medical staff did a really good job getting me right,” he said.

“I was obviously a little bit nervous pre-game but once I got out there and started to warm up I felt pretty good and I was able to get through 80 (minutes).”

At halftime, Haylett-Petty must have wondered why he bothered getting out of bed because the Wallabies were playing as crook as he had felt all week.

Down by 24 points, it was shaping up as a new low point for the Wallabies before a salty halftime rant from coach Michael Cheika triggered an astonishing comeback.

Like everyone else, HaylettPetty wasn’t able to explain why the Wallabies started so badly but he said the way they fought back was proof that when they got it right, they were unstoppable.

“I think there’s a big lesson there for us, obviously the second half is how we want to play and the first half is not how we want to play,” he said.

“We have to come out and be more consistent, but it wasn’t so much technical, it was just heart probably.

“We knew we had to respond, we knew this was an important game.”