The Wallabies were flashier in attack, more menacing in defence and scored more points. They had changed the team, altered the game plan and upped the intensity. They broke more tackles and effected more too. They threw bold passes and made stunning busts. They improved out of sight. But they still lost to Argentina 34-31 to get alarm bells ringing louder.
In a pulsating contest of eight tries that ended with a controversial last-minute touchdown to Los Pumas, Australia were again their own worst enemy, giving away 68% possession to the visitors and compounding it with silly penalties, butter fingers and erratic defence. With just 55 days until the World Cup and Australia winless from their two outings – and with the all-conquering All Blacks looming large on the horizon on 26 July – trouble is brewing.
Despite a strong crowd of 25,922 at Parramatta Stadium, Argentina won the opening exchanges, almost scoring in the first minute. But when the penalty kick from Emiliano Boffelli hit the post, Australia scrambled on the line. The gold wall held and minutes later a Wallabies lineout win on halfway got Will Skelton steering the maul over the gainline and home debutant Mark Nawaqanitawase breaking through.
Fly-half Quade Cooper had backpedalled all game in Pretoria but now he saw space. A flat four-man cutout pass found recalled starter Samu Kerevi on the wing and his smart overhead pass hit Len Ikitau who skidded into the corner to score. Cooper’s kick made it 7-0 but Ikitau had injured his shoulder in the tackle and last week’s sparkplug Carter Gordon came on to replace him. Nawaqanitawase sparked the next raid, pinballing out of a series of defenders to draw a penalty Cooper turned into 10-0.
Badly exposed last week, Australia’s line speed was much improved. Reds flanker Fraser McReight, replacing co-captain Michael Hooper, was a hammer at the forge, winning countless collisions with low hits. Big second rower Will Skelton rumbled into the fray like a grizzly on the charge. But Australia were the team most under siege, forced to work overtime in the opening quarter and laying 71 bone-sapping tackles to Argentina’s 13.
All the talk in the lead up had been about Los Pumas’ battering rams through the middle but as South Africa had last week, Michael Cheika’s men stretched the Wallabies out wide instead, pushing to the edges, probing for - and finding – weaknesses. If not for Gordon putting on two crucial hits in five seconds to snuff a raid, Los Pumas might have scored two tries, not the solitary penalty goal. Instead, after 26 minutes they spurned three points to chase five, stabbing at the line 10 times from short range to no avail before spitting the pip left where Jerónimo de la Fuente scored. With extras from Boffelli it was 10-all at halftime.
The Wallabies conceded their ninth and 10th penalties to set Argentina up to score first after the break. After defending stoutly for a dozen phases, pressure became points when a rolling maul put Julián Montoya over the paint and land the visitors the lead for the first time. But Australia responded soon after, long passes and hard charges setting them up on the goal-line. Behind a maul going nowhere fast, Nic White scampered left, saw a wall of white and blue buffaloes, so scampered right to cross untouched and level it up at 17 apiece.
Buoyed by a vocal assembly of Pumas fans in the corner, Argentina turned the screws, upsetting Australia’s discipline further and kicking ahead to 20-17. Spotfire brawls were starting to spark on and off-field, sending even referee Jaco Peyper flying at one point. When the Wallabies gave away yet another penalty to surrender possession, Eddie Jones snapped in the coach’s box, tearing off his microphone headpiece and smashing it into the desk.
after newsletter promotion
Worse was to come. Tom Wright spilled a tricky rolling kick and Argentina, with a scrum feed on Australia’s 22, sent Mateo Carreras spearing over to stretch the lead to 10 points. But Australia refused to yield, finding space down the left and keeping the ball alive through Cooper to get Kerevi over the stripe for a much-needed try that kept the comeback alive.
When Wright’s butter fingers got Australia pinned on their line yet again, all looked lost. But as Argentina went wide, a final looping pass gave one man a sniff. Outnumbered but not out of ideas, Nawaqanitawase jumped, plucked it out of the air by his fingertips and sprinted 80 metres to score under the posts and give Australia a 31-27 lead.
Yet Australia fumbled the final stages to give Argentina a final sniff. Los Pumas rolled forward and inch-by-inch got to the line, then somehow – according to referee Peyper – over it, as Juan Martín González touched down.
The men in gold slumped. But their heads hung lowest. They’d thrown it away again. An improved performance and 31 points hadn’t been enough. In a World Cup year it never is.
"lose" - Google News
July 15, 2023 at 07:31PM
https://ift.tt/DXu7wxZ
Eddie Jones’s Australia lose again as Argentina pinch victory with last-gasp try - The Guardian
"lose" - Google News
https://ift.tt/LNdQfyB https://ift.tt/LkZV42t
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Eddie Jones’s Australia lose again as Argentina pinch victory with last-gasp try - The Guardian"
Post a Comment