Wallabies v Los Pumas: Five takeaways as hosts’ ‘mental toughness’ comes to the fore in clutch victory
Argentina centre Santiago Chocobares (inset) and Wallabies prop Angus Bell celebrates his try with team-mates.
Following the Wallabies’ thrilling 28-24 triumph over Argentina in their Rugby Championship encounter in Townsville on Saturday, Planet Rugby picks out five takeaways from the thrilling action.
The top line
Australia turned around a 14-point half-time defict to take a thrilling Townsville Test match into an injury time win courtesy of a brace of tries from their brilliant centre Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii.
It was the calm head of skipper Harry Wilson that thought clearly under pressure, as he turned down three easy kicks at goal to draw the Test, and saw his team home with the very last play of the match to take the game by four points.
It was a cracker of a Test; Los Pumas looked a top four world side for 60 minutes, but the relative impact of the benches cannot be underestimated as James O’Connor and Tate McDermott defined impact in their stints.
The Wallaby tries came from Nic White, Angus Bell and the superb Suaalii (2) with Los Pumas replying through their electric wings, Bautista Delguy and Mateo Carreras.
Australia will be delighted with their mental toughness; this was a game that 12 months ago they’d have lost – and they’ll be delighted with their focus. But equally, Argentina will be bitterly disappointed with their inability to close out a Test that they could have won – and they’ll have to look no further than their collapse in legality in the last 20 to see where they lost the match.
The game in numbers
Discipline. That’s the key word that summed up the swing and sway of this match.
Argentina’s first half burst of tries came from some really dumb offside and breakdown penalties by the Wallabies – eight consecutive calls went against them as they lost collision after collision in midfield, biting in at the Los Pumas power runners or overshooting clearouts to try and win the shoulder.
Some harsh words must have been spoken by Joe Schmidt at half time as the Aussie discipline improved no end in the second period, partly down to better ball retention but largely down to better accuracy against the tiring and massive Los Pumas pack.
One penalty in that second half sums up the change of focus and turnaround, and to compound matters, Los Pumas conceded a further nine in the same period, the key to the way Australia clawed their way back into the game.
The ruck speed underlined the change; from over three seconds average in part one, Australia hit sub two in the second, as they went lower and quicker under fatigued bodies.
Factor in 19 missed tackes, (compared to seven in the first half) by Argentina and you’d rightly conclude that it was accuracy that was the biggest influence on Australia’s re-emergence in that chaotic second half.
Bench impact and yellow card
Australia can thank their bench and the indiscipline of Argentina in the second half as they turned around a 14 point half time deficit to take the match in the dying moments.
Wallabies late show stuns Argentina in Rugby Championship thriller in Townsville
For all money, they looked dead and buried, with Tom Lynagh struggling to get any form of go-forward or shape into the Wallaby backline. Nic White gave his team yet another magnificent try-scoring 50 minutes, but it was the entry into the battle of O’Connor, McDermott and the excellent Carlo Tizzano that really brought the Wallabies back into a winning position.
O’Connor gave Australia both shape and variety, keeping the Argentinian defence guessing with fast delivery into his powerhouse midfield, and some real footwork to take the ball deep into the defence and hit his runners with some delicious cutback passes.
McDermott’s bromance with White is a relationship of equals; what White starts, so McDermott finishes and his spike around the fringes, low and under the big Pumas defenders, caused all sorts of issues. It was his work that drew a litany of offside offences from the visitors and cost them a yellow card, an absolute turning point in the match.
With the Argentinian defence short of one on the fold area, the massive frame of Suaalii needed no second invitation to crash over, but it was the impact of his bench and replacement half backs that created the chaos in which he thrived.
Back-row blitz
There’s a powerful argument to suggest that the two best back-rows in the world were in direct opposition in this game and they certainly lived up to their billing.
At the heart of the Argentinian defence was the massive figure of Marcos Kremer, a man that resembles a human flood barrier, as he completely dominated the gainline as he switched on his best Terminator mode.
His battle with Fraser McReight was the archetypal clash of brawn v brain, Kremer focusing on winning the collision, with McReight prepared to cede that battle to focus on his superpower of winning the ball on the floor after the collision. Kremer’s ability to self-recycle and get back into defence was a key feature of his work, allowing him to deliver a series of hammer hits and recording 17 dominant interventions, whether in defence or in massive carry.
Kremer was a bruising menace, but the second wave of contest came from the exquisite skills of Juan Martin Gonzalez, a man whose game is based on skilful niggle and disruption, to spoil and slow any possession that Australia had after those hammer hits in the primary defence.
Australia did their best to stay with them; Harry Wilson was at his bustling best, a crucial figure in the early White try as his carries were once again a feature of his rounded game, and his kick and charge down showed his superb skillset. Add in a superb shift off the bench by Tizzano and it was really a head-to-head of the highest order, one that perhaps Argentina shaded in physicality and Australia edged in intellect, but we talked about brain and it was Wilson’s coolness in decision making under pressure that sealed the win for the Wallabies in a brilliant back-row feast.
Aerial battle v narrow side skill
If anything defined this match it was the relative superpowers of both teams – the aerial superitory of Australia and the brilliance with which Argentina exploited the short side.
Australia kicked from hand for a massive 827 metres, but reclaimed crucially on 12 occasions, a 52% success rate of chase retention, a critical advantage in a Test match of such fine margins. Argentina have been brilliant in the air this season, but the athleticism of the Wallabies in the jump was a clear advantage, getting them into place to hurt Argentina.
On the flip side, a word for the creation of two world class tries down the short side from Argentina.
The first was a sumptuous move from Gonzalo Garcia who broke down the right of a scrum; he took out the Aussie midfield with a lovely pass to Argentina’s outstanding back, Santi Chocobares, who smashed it up to see Delguy crash over for a memorable first phase move.
The second saw some divine handling and interplay down the left, keeping the ball alive as Mallia and Cinti kept momentum down the tramline to see Matteo Carreras round and in for Los Pumas’ second.