Max Jorgensen identifies humiliating Argentina loss as ‘turning point’ in Wallabies revival
Wallabies speedster Max Jorgensen.
Rookie Wallabies speedster Max Jorgensen is keen to continue with his impressive form when they face Argentina in their Rugby Championship encounter in Townsville on Saturday.
Jorgensen, who turned 21 on Tuesday, has been at the forefront of the Wallabies’ revival under the guidance of head coach Joe Schmidt and has already scored important tries for Australia, England, Ireland, South Africa and the British & Irish Lions since making his Test debut against the Springboks during last year’s Rugby Championship.
He has already scored six tries in 13 Tests and admitted that his introduction to international rugby has been “unreal”.
‘It’s been an unreal journey’
“Sometimes I’ve got to pinch myself,” Jorgensen told reporters. “It’s gone pretty quick, to be honest. It feels like I was at school yesterday, but it’s been an unreal journey.
“I’ve loved every minute of it and [I’m] still building as a player and learning from all these boys here, which has been unreal.”
After two rounds of action in this year’s Rugby Championship, all the competing countries have won one and lost one match in the tournament, and only two points separate the teams in the standings.
The All Blacks are currently setting the pace at the top of the table with six points, while the Wallabies are in second position, just one point adrift, with the Springboks and Los Pumas having each amassed four points.
It’s a far cry from last year’s Rugby Championship when Australia were the competition’s whipping boys as they finished at the bottom of the standings with just one victory from six matches played and five points in the standings.
The Wallabies have shown considerable improvement since then. They demonstrated in 2025 that they can deliver competitive performances against the world’s leading sides, having already beaten highly rated teams like the British & Irish Lions and the Springboks this year.
A big stain on their 2024 record was a 67-27 defeat to Los Pumas in Sante Fe, which is the most points ever conceded by Australia at Test level.
Jorgensen revealed that the Wallabies’ performance in that match has served as a lesson for the team and helped a lot with their recent revival in the international arena.
‘We’re a very different team now to what we were a year ago’
“We’ve been watching a lot of film from that game and I think we’re a very different team now to what we were a year ago,” he explained.
“Looking back at some of those clips, we talked about that’s not us and that’s not how we play, but ultimately, we started that game really well. I think we were 15-0 up, and then after 30 minutes, we lost it.
“I think the big change for us is that we’re turning more into an 80-minute team now. When you look back at some of those games, we were only in it for about 40 minutes or so and sort of lost it there.
“We’ve developed so much as a squad and as a team since then, so we’re ready to go this weekend.
“No one really likes losing games by that much in that state, especially when we were up by 15. It was definitely a turning point for the boys. We know we had to really dig deep and turn things around so that wouldn’t happen again.”