Rennie calls on Tongan Thor
Newcastle: When Dave Rennie sat down in the Wallabies’ team room to watch the All Blacks face Argentina with his staff last Saturday, he expected the same result as the rest of the world – a comfortable Kiwi win. Two hours later, the Wallabies coach had a new level of respect for the team Australia have to beat to keep their Tri-Nations hopes alive at McDonald Jones Stadium on Saturday.
“I think the whole world thought the All Blacks would win,” Rennie said after naming his team to face the Pumas.
“I wasn’t surprised by how tight they were, because they’ve been locked away for a while. Without distractions, they’ve been training together for a long time.
“I always thought they’d be really well conditioned, like we were coming out of Christchurch.
“But what impressed me was that they just kept tackling. Even at times when they looked a bit vulnerable, guys made key tackles. “I can’t speak highly enough of them. It was impressive and a deserved result.”
Much credit for the result has been attributed to former Wallabies coach Michael Cheika – who is now Mario Ledesma’s right-hand man. While Rennie concedes he doesn’t know what role Cheika is playing in the Argentinian coaching set-up, he is sure the Pumas’ kick-first approach – they won that battle 28-16 against the Kiwis – hasn’t come out of the former Wallabies boss’ playbook.
“I’m not certain what his role is – I know he’s come out as some sort of specialist and is chipping in and helping out where required,” Rennie said.
“Certainly, it was a really impressive defensive effort. So if he’s had anything to do with that, he’s done a good job.
“They kicked the leather off the ball – I would assume he didn’t have a lot of influence in that.”
Cheika had a lot of influence in the careers of both Taniela Tupou and Ned Hanigan and Rennie has recalled the pair into the starting XV.
“There’s not much between (Tupou and Allan Alaalatoa) but I thought Taniela was massive off the bench (against New Zealand). He gave us real ascendancy at scrum time, carried really well and deserves a crack at the start,” Rennie said.
“We think we can get an edge against them at scrum time. They were very good last week against the All Blacks, so Taniela’s inclusion was important.”
The only other change to the starting XV was also forced. Scott Sio
will start his first test of the season in place of James Slipper, who suffered a dislocated elbow at Suncorp Stadium.
“We felt he lacked impact when he was coming into the (All Blacks) game. We wanted more out of him,” Rennie said.
“Ironically, we leave him out and that week, his training was superb. He did everything we asked of him.”
If the Australians can string their first set of consecutive wins in the Rennie era together, it will set up
a Tri-Nations decider at Bankwest Stadium in a fortnight.
“We’ve talked a lot about understanding we’re playing for something bigger than ourselves,” Rennie said.
“And understanding who we represent. We want the Australian rugby public – and the Australian public – to believe in us and to be proud of us.
“The only way we through performance.
“What we’ve done – we put in a solid 80 minutes. That doesn’t count do that is
for a lot if we don’t back it up again this week.”
Wallabies: Scott Sio, Brandon Paenga-Amosa, Taniela Tupou, Rob Simmons, Matt Philip, Ned Hanigan, Michael Hooper (c), Harry Wilson, Nic White, Reece Hodge, Marika Koroibete, Hunter Paisami, Jordan Petaia, Tom Wright, Tom Banks. Reserves: Folau Fainga’a, Angus Bell, Allan Alaalatoa, Rob Valetini, Liam Wright, Jake Gordon, Noah Lolesio, Filipo Daugunu. Rugby Heaven