Coach Joe Schmidt said the Wallabies have to learn to “adapt to Andrea Piardi” but declined to apportion any blame to the Italian referee for another heartbreaking loss to the All Blacks at Eden Park.
It was a case of so close but so bitterly far for the Wallabies in Auckland, where a gutsy performance saw the team on the cusp of beating New Zealand at the Auckland venue for the first time since 1986, but ultimately end up going down 33-24.
In a two-game series, the defeat meant the Wallabies farewelled the Bledisloe Cup for a 23rd straight year and conceded a record-equalling 10th straight loss to the All Blacks.
But it was almost a night of more history-making for the Wallabies, who rallied from a 17-point deficit early in the game to trail by just three at half-time. In a second half where they were hammered by Piardi 10-3 in the penalty count as the Kiwis pushed out to lead 26-17, but again the resilient Wallabies hung in and scored to trail by just two points in the last 10 minutes.
Piardi, who refereed the contentious second Test against the Lions in Melbourne, again made a big call against the Wallabies, however, when he sin-binned winger Harry Potter for hands in the ruck in his own 22. It appeared to be a fair pilfer, but the All Blacks used the territory and the extra man to score late and seal the win.
It was a gut-wrenching defeat for the Wallabies, who made plenty of mistakes throughout the night but still looked to be finishing the stronger, and were in with a genuine chance to become the first Australian side to win at Eden Park since 1986, and the first of any Test side to beat the Kiwis since 1994.
Unforced errors, like failing to find touch on three penalties, losing the aerial battle and missing too many missed tackles hurt the Wallabies. So did losing the penalty count 15-10. The Wallabies were pinged 7-0 in the last 27 minutes.
Former Wallabies centre Morgan Turinui didn’t miss Piardi in commentary on Stan Sport, saying the Italian was “not up to this occasion, that’s been appointed by World Rugby in error”.
But Schmidt declined to criticise the ref, saying the Wallabies have to learn to adapt and not let match officials control their fate.
“It felt a little bit like Cape Town to be honest, where, you know, we got behind and fought our way back ... and were in the game. It’s disappointing for sure,” he said.
“We’re disappointed we were penalised 15 times and we’ve got to be better than that. We’ll have a good close look at them, you know, but … the results are results.
“We’re at 40 per cent of the possession in that game and we [lost] four tries to three.
“That’s probably reflective of what we need to do better. We missed probably three or four times as many tackles as the All Blacks did, and so that’s on us. The referee’s not going to make the tackles for us. We’ve got to roll our sleeves up and make sure that we deliver those.”
Asked about Potter’s crucial yellow card, Schmidt said: “Cards are cards. And he said that the ruck was already formed, so we can’t play the ball and we’re under pressure five from our line. So that’s the risk you run.
“If we defended better higher up the field, then we don’t get that sort of pressure. We’ve got to be better so that we’re not at the mercy of decisions that we don’t control.”
The loss came at a severe cost, too, with halfback Tate McDermott suffering an apparently serious muscle tear in his leg which looks likely to sideline him for a while. Ryan Lonergan had a strong debut after coming on to replace him in the first half and Jake Gordon is fit, too. But Schmidt didn’t shut down the notion that Nic White may come out of retirement a second time to provide cover in next week’s second Bledisloe clash in Perth.
The Wallabies looked shot early when they fell 20-3 behind after 22 minutes, but a typically resilient fightback saw them rally and go into the half-time break trailing by just three points.
Schmidt said a lack of discipline had seen the Wallabies again fall behind, and simple errors like O’Connor missing touch compounded the problems.
“We weren’t getting a lot of penalties. So they became very precious moments that we missed. And you can’t afford to miss those moments,” he said.
The Wallabies fell behind by nine points in the second half but finally struck in the 68th minute after chancing their hand with some wide attack. Having built pressure, Carlo Tizzano scored via a rolling maul – and just for a moment, it looked the Wallabies were on the cusp of finally ending the Eden Park hoodoo.
“We had plenty of confidence there,” captain Harry Wilson said. “We didn’t really get too much ball in the second half. When we did there, we obviously scored straight away, which gave us a lot of confidence. There was plenty of belief there in the group, but obviously didn’t get the job done in the end there, which was disappointing.”
All Blacks captain Ardie Savea praised the Wallabies for their fight, and said next week’s second clash in Perth would be another tough battle.
“They’ve got great leaders and great players and experience in their squad. They know how to deal with pressure and when they are down,” Savea said.
“We’ve seen that in the British-Irish Lions, and against Africa and Argentina. So, you know, we’ll celebrate this win and then, like Razor [Scott Robertson] said, I think we’ve got to be harder on ourselves after this. We can’t sit on our laurels.”