{"id":131270,"date":"2025-09-09T22:25:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T22:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/131270\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T22:25:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T22:25:11","slug":"wallabies-not-short-of-fuel-for-new-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/131270\/","title":{"rendered":"Wallabies not short of fuel for new fire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There\u2019s no danger of complacency creeping into the Wallabies after their recent run of form, with their 2024 Rugby Championship<\/a> collapse a painful reminder, says halfback Tate McDermott.<\/p>\n

The Australians have strung their most consistent rugby in years together, opening the four-nations tournament with two wins and a loss.<\/p>\n

That includes a rousing 28-24 comeback victory over Argentina<\/a> six minutes into injury time last week in Townsville.<\/p>\n

Last year, the Wallabies kicked over a last-gasp penalty to edge Argentina 20-19 in their first Test, but the hosts responded in emphatic fashion.<\/p>\n

McDermott was part of the match-day squad in Sante Fe that suffered a record 50-point loss to the Pumas, the home side scoring seven second-half tries.<\/p>\n

The No.9 expected Argentina to mount a similar fightback on Saturday at Sydney\u2019s Allianz Stadium, with the match a sell-out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know, particularly from that first half, the Argentinian side are going to be unbelievably good this weekend,\u201d McDermott said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going to be disappointed with how that game finished because they probably should have closed it out, and they didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Head-to-Head <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Last 5 Meetings<\/p>\n

Average Points scored<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

While coach Joe Schmidt was pleased with his team\u2019s form, the Reds<\/a> playmaker said there was still plenty to work on, with complacency not part of the picture.<\/p>\n

\u201cComplacency\u2019s never really been an issue for us \u2013 we only have to look at last year, for example,\u201d McDermott said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a really good performance and then they put 60 on us the next week, so there\u2019s absolutely no complacency from our point of view.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, Joe, post-game, was happy with the result, but the actual game itself, we\u2019ve got a hell of a lot to work on, and that\u2019s what we\u2019ve been doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been real with the feedback we\u2019ve received and some honest chats around where we need to get better.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s great because we\u2019re turning in the right direction and we\u2019ve got to make sure every single day we continue to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDermott said producing consistent performances was an indicator of their growth under Schmidt, with the Australians in the hunt in each match this year, win or lose.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been a lot more consistent this year than we were last year under Joe,\u201d the 26-year-old said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s definitely something we\u2019re working towards \u2013 we want to be a consistent team that performs week in, week out, regardless of who we go up against.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw that against South Africa<\/a> twice, whilst we didn\u2019t get the victory in the second game we were there, thereabouts, and we had a chance to win it, we just weren\u2019t good enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s burning in the background, those tight results, where we know on our day when we actually put all the pieces together, we win games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to make sure we\u2019re putting those pieces together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schmidt will name his team on Thursday, with McDermott vying with Nic White<\/a> to start at No.9.<\/p>\n

McDermott said Tom Lynagh<\/a> was still troubled by a hamstring niggle, but the flyhalf was available for selection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s no danger of complacency creeping into the Wallabies after their recent run of form, with their 2024…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-131270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}