VIDEO: Wallaby rubbishes 'ridiculous' losing mentality jibe
SPOTLIGHT: Wallaby wing Harry Potter rubbished suggestions that Australia have a “losing mentality”.
However, he admitted they must be better in the second Test against the British and Irish Lions.
England’s World Cup-winning coach Clive Woodward slammed the home side after captain Harry Wilson kicked the ball dead after the hooter to end the first Test in Brisbane, rather than try to score when 27-19 down.
“Talk about a losing mentality,” said Woodward.
“For me, it is the last play of the game, so why not have a mentality to try and score, as this could be the situation in seven days, only closer?” he wrote in a British newspaper column.
“Why would any player, especially the captain, want to end the game?”
Potter blasted Woodward’s claim as unwarranted.
“It’s pretty ridiculous to suggest that the 23 people who played on the weekend have a mentality of losing,” he said at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which will host the second Test on Saturday.
“We went out there to win the game, and we didn’t win the game. But it was our intention very much and you could tell from every player in the team we wanted to win that game.”
Potter said coach Joe Schmidt and the side learned plenty of lessons which they will take into Saturday’s showdown in front of an expected crowd of 90,000.
“It’s been tough looking back at that game, certainly learnt a fair bit,” he said.
“It felt like we didn’t put our best foot forward, particularly the first 50-60 minutes.
“Lot of lessons to take out of that one. They’re an incredibly strong team, but we know that we’ve just got to come out better and start the game stronger.
“And I suppose there were some positive signs towards the end of the game where we felt like if we string enough things together, then we can go a lot better than we did,” he added.
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The Wallabies need to win on Saturday to keep the three-Test series alive, and Potter said there was no lack of determination within the squad.
“Emotionally, it’s straightforward this week and we all know the task at hand, so I don’t think anyone’s got any questions about what’s at stake,” he said.
The third and final Test is in Sydney on August 2.
