What promised to be a great night for Australian rugby ended in the same old story. Defeat.
Despite holding a nine-point lead at half-time, the Wallabies conceded 30 straight points in the second half to lose to France 42-26 in Brisbane on Saturday night.
France’s Romain Ntamack scores a try. AP Photo/Tertius Pickard
It was the Wallabies’ sixth straight loss and their ninth defeat from their past 10 Tests.
The 16-point defeat also meant outgoing coach Joe Schmidt’s win percentage dropped to 36.66 per cent – the lowest of any Australian coach since the game turned professional in 1996.
“We’re learning that you’ve got to play a good 80 minutes. We keep losing moments and a team like France put 30 unanswered points on us, and it’s not good enough,” captain Harry Wilson said.
“There’s 52,000 Australian supporters here, and we let them down, we let ourselves down with the second half. We’re gutted, we’re hurting, we’re going to keep improving. But we need to get results. Talk’s cheap.”
By winning, France made it four straight wins over the Wallabies for the first time in 60 years as they piled on the points and the pain.
Despite a strong period leading into half-time, the Wallabies were outclassed across the board as the lack of experience told.
While Schmidt selected rookie Declan Meredith to wear the No.10 jersey after last week’s playmakers Carter Gordon and Ben Donaldson picked up calf injuries, Fabien Galthie were superbly led by halfback Maxime Lucu and his Bordeaux teammate Matthieu Jalibert, who shifted to fullback to accommodate the excellent Romain Ntamack.
The move worked a treat as Ntamack finished as the game’s player of the match.
Jeremy Williams of the Wallabies looks dejected. Getty
“I’m really proud of the players,” the classy Toulouse playmaker said. “It was a tough first half against the Wallabies and we needed to keep pushing and it paid off.”
The turning point came in the 45th minute as rising winger Max Jorgensen was penalised for lifting Theo Attissogbe beyond the horizontal, with the Television Match Official Glenn Newman jumping in to alert Karl Dickson.
While Lucu only banged over three points to cut the deficit to six points, it denied the Wallabies a penalty inside France’s half and a chance to start the second half strongly.
From there, France never looked back.
The visitors scored four straight tries as debutant winger Aaron Grandidier Nkanang scored his second, Ntamack joined the party by slicing over out wide, lock Florian Verhaeghe barged over under the posts and flying winger Attissogbe scored out wide. Two of France’s tries came with Tom Wright in the sin bin for failing to roll away quick enough following a linebreak.
While the Wallabies scored a late try through Jeremy Williams, there was little to dampen France’s second-half masterclass.
Brandon Paenga-Amosa of the Wallabies celebrates scoring a try earlier in the game. Getty Images
The Wallabies had some standouts.
Brandon Paenga-Amosa scored early and was one of the Wallabies’ best after coming on early for a concussed Josh Nasser.
The replacement hooker was excellent around the park, while his set-piece efforts, especially his scrummaging, was a feature.
Breakaway Fraser McReight scored twice and was a menace around the park, getting on the ball to make a couple of crucial turnovers.
Tom Wright also peeled off a couple of important 50-22s in the first-half, which gave the Wallabies the momentum.
But it wasn’t enough as France turned the screws on the home side shortly after half-time and never looked back.
Emmanuel Meafou received a yellow card for this hit on Wallabies flanker Rob Valetini. Stan Sport
Outgoing Wallabies coach Schmidt bemoaned the second straight second-half capitulation, having also coughed up a 24-12 lead to Ireland last week.
“Two good first halfs, but what we can’t do is not stay in the second half,” Schmidt said.
The Wallabies will meet Italy, who went down to the All Blacks earlier on Saturday, in their third and final July Nations Championship fixture next weekend..
“We have to get a result next week,” Schmidt said.