Who then could defend the honour of Southern Hemisphere rugby, against the haughty and newly strutting northerners? That would be our blokes.
After a weekend when Wales had beaten the All Blacks for the first time in 73 years and France had bested the Boks in a thriller, it was left to the Wallabies to try and restore order against the flower of Scotland at a nearly sold-out Murrayfield in wet and misty Edinburgh.
From the first there was far more penetration from the men in green and gold courtesy of Carter Gordon being returned from injury at fly-half, and Rob Valentini being restored to the back-row. Gordon’s darts unleashed his outside backs just often enough that there was hope. Valentini’s endless go-forward allowed set up his own pack to match him in kind, and all of Fraser McReight, Harry Wilson and Josh Canham got through a mountain of work, as did prop Alan Alaalatoa who was outstanding in defence.
Whatever, else, the Wallabies were competing against a team that had seriously tested the All Blacks the week before. Two Scotland tries in the first half were matched by a beauty from Wallaby winger Harry Potter, and there would have been another to our hooker Billy Pollard bar his great effort being called back for a technical infringement at the lineout. Down 12-5 at the break, it was time to assess.
Look, at least we were going far better than we were in the last three Tests against the All Blacks and England, where a certain round-heeled quality to our defence had seen the Wallabies concede over 40 points each Test. But not this time. Those two Scottish tries notwithstanding, our defence was much stronger than it had been. In attack, Gordon was at least asking the question, and we saw further flashes of genius from Potter, Max Jorgensen and Len Ikitau to very nearly get through again, only to come up against Scotland’s modern answer to Hadrian’s Wall – fifteen men in blue with white thistles on their chest, who simply refused to budge.
Meantime, their aerial game was doing us damage. Time and again they were putting it high and retrieving it, putting such pressure on us that fifteen minutes into the second half, Scotland had 63 per cent territorial domination over all. If only we had our own aerial expert.
But hang on, we do . . .
“His-name-is-Su”!
But where was he?
Playing at outside centre, Joseph Aukuso-Suaalii got his hands on the ball just five times in the entire match. One of those times was when – well, whaddya know? – he leapt high off our kick-off to tap it back. On that occasion it didn’t quite work and they recovered, but it remains a complete mystery to me why he is not thrown into every Wallaby kick-off, done short to give him every chance of recovering.
Ditto, high-balls with him as our weapon-of-choice rushing through. We’ve got a bloke with a bazooka out there, and only let him fire it once? Seriously, Australian rugby has committed $5 million to him, keep the change, and we know he is brilliant at one facet of the game in particular. And I repeat: we used it once in 80 minutes! Those other four touches are starting to look expensive.
Meanwhile, just when it looked like a dull war of attrition was going to fade into yet more Wallaby contrition at the loss of a winnable Test, the whole thing burst into life. With 60 seconds to go and down 15-5, suddenly shots are fired!
Tate McDermott fires to Ben Donaldson, who double-pumps to confuse the defence, allowing the ball to get to the busy Wallabies lock Jeremy Williams. He flicks it out of the back of his hand to Jorgensen, who darts over for the converted try to bring it back 15-12!
Are we about to see, what would ever afterwards be known as the Miracle at Murrayfield?
Scotland kicks off with the clock into injury time, and the entire match is on the line. Wilson gets a clever pass to Carter Gordon, who gets it to His-name-is-Su, who at last shows what he can do on the ground, too, and bursts through on the right flank! Out to Max Jorgensen on the wing, with fullback Tom Wright inside him.
A Miracle at Murrayfield, I tell you! It’s on, and . . !
And it is over. Just like that.
The cover defence closes in, and though Wright tries valiantly to get the ball back to Jorgensen, the swarm of blue jerseys is just too thick and the ball goes into touch. Game over, 15-12.
All up, a better performance, but still not remotely close to what they have already showed us they are capable of this year.
But at least they’ll beat Wales next week, at Cardiff, who just beat the All Blacks. You heard me. Rub my nose in it if they don’t.
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Peter FitzSimons is a journalist and columnist with The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X.From our partners
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