Dave Rennie ‘rapt’ with much-needed victory

Colin Newboult

Australian coach Dave Rennie is seen before the Tri-Nations rugby union match between the Australian Wallabies and the New Zealand All Blacks, at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Saturday, November 7, 2020. (AAP Image/Darren England) NO ARCHIVING, EDITORIAL USE ONLY ** STRICTLY EDITORIAL USE ONLY, NO COMMERCIAL USE, NO BOOKS **

Australia head coach Dave Rennie was delighted with his side after they secured their first victory under his stewardship, defeating the All Blacks in Brisbane.

The Wallabies were heavily criticised after their performance last weekend, succumbing to a record 43-5 defeat to New Zealand, but they responded superbly.

Rennie’s men were hugely impressive in securing a 24-22 triumph in Brisbane and the new boss was pleased with their progress.

Plenty of character

“I’m rapt,” he said. “There was a lot of character shown today. We said we wanted a response after last weekend, and we got it.

“We talked about scoreboard pressure and we hadn’t been able to do that in previous games, and Hodgy (Reece Hodge) kicked pretty well and we got our noses in front and were able to apply a bit more through that.

“We’ve got a long way to go, we’re going to get a lot better, but it’s good to get a result like this because it helps with a bit of belief.

“It’s only one day, but we’ll have a couple of quiet ones to celebrate.”

The Wallabies lacked intensity in their third Bledisloe Cup Test in Sydney and also made a number of basic mistakes, but this was a much tighter display according to Rennie.

“You’ve got to get all parts of your game right to be competitive against the All Blacks,” he added. “We looked after the ball better tonight, and we defended pretty well.

“I think our kick chase was a really important part of the game. I’m very happy.”

Although there were plenty of talking points during the match, including a red card apiece for the trans-Tasman rivals, there were no complaints over the defeat from All Blacks boss Ian Foster.

Ofa Tuungafasi and Lachie Swinton were sent off for high tackles, but Foster had no problem with either decision.

“They are what they are,” he said. “We’ll have to have a look later on, but they looked reasonable for both teams, and we just had to adapt to a similar situation. So there are no excuses.

“The rules are pretty clear. I don’t think now’s the time to debate the rules. We knew them, Aussie knew them and neither of us did very well in that area.”

New Zealand held a 15-14 lead going into the latter stages but a needless yellow card from Scott Barrett changed the momentum of the game.

Reece Hodge kicked the resultant penalty to give his side a lead they wouldn’t relinquish and Foster felt that decision from the lock significantly dented their chances.

“It was a messy game from both teams and ill-disciplined from both of us really, particularly that yellow card near the end (to Scott Barrett),” he added. “That hurt when we were really scrapping to stay in the game.

“It’s not nice losing. It was a game we still had a chance in over the last part. We just had to hold some composure, but we just gave up too many soft penalties really – one with a yellow card and another two or three to give kickable penalties. We’ve got to learn from that.”

 

Australia