No pressure Michael, just a clean sweep
Rugby Australia’s Kiwi boss Raelene Castle has set the bar high for the Wallabies, saying there is ‘‘no reason’’ they can’t win all three tests in Europe this month.
Castle said wins against Wales, Italy and England was the bar Michael Cheika and the team had set for themselves after a disappointing loss to New Zealand in Japan last week.
Rejecting talk of a ‘‘pass mark’’ for Australia, she said three wins were achievable.
‘‘They are determined to go there and win all three games. That’s the start point, the pass mark from their perspective, that’s the expectation that Michael’s setting for them,’’ Castle said.
‘‘There’s no reason they can’t do that. They would be very confident that they can come home with three wins.’’
It will be a radical upswing in Australia’s performance and a huge marker for the year ahead if the Wallabies pull off a clean sweep in Europe. They have won only three of their 10 tests this year and only three from their past 12. They lost to Scotland and England last November but beat Wales 29-21 in Cardiff.
Since then the Warren Gatland coached side has been on upward trajectory, finishing second behind Ireland in the Six Nations in February and beating South Africa and Argentina in June.
And although Australia have not lost to Wales since 2008, invariably the winning margins have been small. Apart from two blowout wins in 2016 and 2009, the Wallabies have never won by more than nine points in their past 13 clashes.
Castle said the team’s 37-20 loss to the All Blacks was disappointing but contained some tangible gains that Cheika had targeted in his pre-tour briefing to the Rugby Australia board.
‘‘The great thing about the third test was we saw some improvements, some things they’d identified they were concerned with,’’ she said.
‘‘I’m not justifying the result, we all wanted to win, but if you think about building in to a World Cup there were some very specific improvements, around defensive patterns and things I know they had targeted, that Michael had said was important for that game.’’
The Wallabies are now holed up in Odawara, in central Japan, where they are familiarising themselves with their World Cup base next year.
‘‘This is really a five-week session for them to be all in camp together, which is not dissimilar to what they’re all going to be like at the World Cup next year,’’ Castle said. ‘‘They’re all together, away from home, so I think is a really good preparation for the World Cup next year.’’
Compounding fan frustrations was the release of the shortlist for the International Rugby Players’ try-ofthe-year award. Two of the four were tries scored against Australia in the opening Bledisloe Cup tests this year, a nasty reminder of the season’s low points.
Castle said the recent run of losses was not good enough.
‘‘No-one is suggesting we’re happy with the lack of wins,’’ she said. ‘‘We also play the All Blacks more than any other country in the world, so we have that benchmark that we set for ourselves.
‘‘We beat Ireland in the first test [in June] – they’re second in the world – arguably should have won that series, gave ourselves enough opportunities.
‘‘So as we move into the UK tour, it’s a slightly different style of rugby, different emphasis, and I think the preparation the All Blacks will have given us is the best platform we could have going into that spring tour.’’