Be patient, says Giteau

Legend defends Wallabies

WALLABIES legend Matt Giteau has taken to social media to urge Australians to show patience with Dave Rennie’s young team, after it suffered the heaviest-ever trans-tasman defeat at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night.

The 43-5 trouncing not only was the biggest defeat in the 89-year history of the Bledisloe Cup, but was without equal in the 117 years that Australia has been playing New Zealand in rugby.

The NZ media went into overdrive about the performance of the All Blacks, warning that this is what happens when you pit boys against grown men, while the reaction in Australia was equally damning.

The result has undone much of the work Australia achieved with a 16-16 draw in Wellington and left Rennie with the testing job of rebuilding confidence for Bledisloe IV at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday, now a dead rubber.

“A lot of negative press about Wallabies at the moment,” said Giteau on Twitter. “I agree, last night wasn’t great but we need to support and show patience with this young team as they build confidence. A lot of great new talent getting capped versus the best team in the world. Hard ask. Congrats to the debutants.”

Before the three recent Bledisloe internationals, the All Blacks had played six three-test series this century, two against the British and Irish Lions and others against France, Wales, England and Ireland for 16 wins, a draw and a loss. The All Blacks made clean sweeps against the four national teams and in each series progressively ground down the opposition to achieve their biggest scores in the final Test: beating France 49-14, Wales 46-6, England 36-13 and Ireland 60-0.

In those 12 Tests, they outscored the opposition 59 tries to 13.

Those results don’t in any way absolve the Australian performance, but they do put into perspective what Giteau is arguing, that the Wallabies are up against a powerhouse.

It is worth remembering that the previous record loss to New Zealand happened in 1996, when the “Woeful Wallabies” were beaten 43-6 in Wellington. Included in that Australian XV were eight players who just three years later would be in the starting side when the Wallabies won the 1999 World Cup.