Joe Schmidt delivers ‘realistic’ assessment after Wallabies’ Rugby Championship defeat to All Blacks
Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt.
Despite suffering a narrow 31-28 defeat against the All Blacks in Saturday’s Rugby Championship clash in Sydney, Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt feels there is still plenty of room for improvement.
The Wallabies came into the encounter under plenty of pressure after sustaining a humiliating 67-27 loss in their previous math against Argentina a fortnight ago.
And it looked like it was going to be a similar story against the All Blacks after the visitors raced into an early 21-0 lead after 15 minutes and they also led 31-14 during the early stages of the second half.
Strong Wallabies finish not enough to secure victory
The Wallabies finished stronger, however, and late tries from Hunter Paisami and Tom Wright set up a tense finish but the All Blacks managed to hold on for the win.
Although there were some positives for his team, Schmidt highlighted that the end result is what mattered for him.
“We really rolled our sleeves up in the second half, but the reality is they could’ve had more of a margin on the scoreboard if they didn’t miss a couple of chances,” said Schmidt.
“We’ve got to be realistic about that. We lost the Test match. We can’t finish a close second.
‘Some things to be proud about’
“There’s some things to be proud about… the way we were building our way back into the game. But you give New Zealand a start like that, it’s too tough to overcome that.”
Although his team came very close to clinching a victory, they were outplayed in most facets of play with New Zealand coming out on top of the breakdown and lineout battle while the Wallabies made nearly double the amount of tackles.
Schmidt there were areas which his side will look to improve on ahead of their rematch with the All Blacks in Wellington next Saturday.
“Once it became tight, we probably had a few chances that we didn’t put away,” he said.
“But pleased with the way we dug in, to build our way back.”
