Joe Schmidt praises Wallabies star who ‘backed himself’ in a ‘hostile environment’ against Argentina
Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt and fly-half Noah Lolesio.
Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt praised his team’s resilience after they got their Rugby Championship campaign on track courtesy of a 20-19 victory over Argentina in Buenos Aires on Saturday.
As the scoreline suggests, it was a tightly-fought contest and Australia only sealed their win when replacement back Ben Donaldson slotted a penalty in the game’s dying moments.
Schmidt‘s troops were under the cosh for long periods, especially in the opening half when Los Pumas raced into a 10-0 lead and the hosts were up 16-7 early in the second half before a Rob Valetini try narrowed the gap to two points.
After that, the Wallabies took the lead for the first time when Noah Lolesio slotted a 58th-minute penalty before Argentina went in front again 10 minutes later via a three-pointer off the kicking tee from Tomas Albornoz.
Test played in rainy conditions
The Test was played in rainy conditions and Los Pumas thought they had the game secured before Donaldson’s late heroics sealed the visitors’ first Rugby Championship win of the year.
“Really proud; we made a few things hard for ourselves, giving them a big start at home, big crowd, difficult conditions,” Schmidt said after the match.
“We put ourselves straight back under pressure by dropping restarts, but we fought… scored tries and created some other chances that would have been great.”
While the likes of Valetini, new captain Harry Wilson, Angus Bell, Taniela Tupou, Len Ikitau and Jake Gordon all came to the fore with impressive performances, Schmidt had special praise for Lolesio.
This, after the young fly-half made a rough start to the game but came back strongly as the match progressed and set up the match-winning penalty with a superb line break.
“I loved the way he backed himself,” Schmidt said.
“He backed himself in the air a couple of times and didn’t quite get the result, but backed himself on the ground and ran out from zone 22, almost set up Max Jorgensen for what would have been a fantastic length of field, almost length of field try and forced the ball to Nick Frost at one stage when I think he would have been better off going downtown, but it’s easy for people in the box with a full view to be able to make those decisions.
“He’s in a very swirly, wet arena, a fairly hostile environment, and I thought he managed himself really well.
‘He’s challenging himself more and more’
“There’s always things that he will pick apart. He’s challenging himself more and more, and I like that in the way that he’s trying to build his game.”
The win means the Wallabies are still rooted to the bottom of the Rugby Championship table but they are just one point adrift of Los Pumas, while the Springboks are setting the pace at the top of the standings and the All Blacks occupy second position
Australia and Argentina are set to face off again next weekend in what is expected to be better weather in Santa Fe.
“Hopefully it’ll give us a little bit of a springboard, but in very different conditions we’ll be playing a different Pumas side,” Schmidt said.
“At the very top level the margins are fine and things can swing very quickly.”
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