Top Rugby Champs spot remains Wallabies' focus
SPOTLIGHT: Thoroughly focused on maintaining the top spot in the Rugby Championship, the Wallabies won’t celebrate their victory over Argentina too much, instead they are firmly focused on gearing up to face Los Pumas in the second test in San Juan.
Talking about the 41-26 bonus-point victory over the weekend, hooker Folau Fainga’a said it was a special one for the group.
“That’s probably top five [performances], it’s a pretty special one with the week we’ve had as a playing group and the courage the boys had to put that performance together in front of a sold-out crowd was special,” Fainga’a said.
“We’ve built very good depth in this squad so there’s a lot of confidence as well. It just shows the boys have a lot of courage.”
The 27-year-old had one of his better test matches with a solid performance in the set piece and the line-out. He played with the aggression and intensity that was a message to the selectors that the injured Dave Porecki, when fit, simply won’t walk back into the starting side.
The Wallabies’ rolling maul resulted in three of their five tries, including a penalty try that saw lock Matias Alemanno yellow-carded.
“At International level, set-piece is crucial and I think the work we put in during the week can help us through the line this week.”
“We’ve been putting a lot of work on it nailing down our detail and getting our small things right,” Fainga’a said.
“Dan’s [McKellar, Wallabies forwards coach] been a big influence on that and it’s been a very good weapon for us.
“The boys have been good at tuning in and all the other (Brumbie) boys under Dan have chipped in to help everyone else out.
But the Aussies were not getting ahead of themselves as they admitted several areas still needed improvement, like another slow start as Argentina took a quick 13-3 lead after 15 minutes.
Discipline was also an issue, confirmed scrumhalf Nic White.
“I’m not sure [the reason for the slow starts], that’s the question we’re getting through so we get another chance to have a look at that,” scrum half Nic White added.
“I guess it’s about getting into the grind of things and getting positive outcomes early in the game, flirting with the idea of having a crack whilst understanding the game can’t be won in the first 5-20 minutes but it can be lost.
“We want to throw some shots but we don’t want to be too reckless and give up territory too easily.
“Trailing 10-19 wasn’t disastrous after what felt like a pretty disappointing half for us. We turned that around and that’s going to be a big point is sorting out the discipline because there’s a number there that are just silly penalties. We need to force teams to exit rather than give them a piggybank up the field.”
Additional Source: @rugbycomau
