{"id":141914,"date":"2025-09-14T05:59:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T05:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/141914\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T05:59:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T05:59:14","slug":"joe-schmidt-left-convinced-by-stats-as-oconnor-decision-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/141914\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Schmidt left convinced by stats as O’Connor decision looms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt felt \u201cdominated by disappointment\u201d after Australia\u2019s hopes of ending a 10-year Rugby Championship<\/a> drought were knocked off course by an ill-disciplined 28-26 loss to Argentina.<\/p>\n

Schmidt\u2019s side, inspired by free-wheeling substitute fly-half James O\u2019Connor<\/a>, nearly pulled off a miraculous comeback on Saturday, piling on 19 points in the final 13 minutes at Allianz Stadium.<\/p>\n

But unlike last week\u2019s last-gasp win in Townsville, Australia<\/a> couldn\u2019t conjure up a knockout blow in Sydney on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"VideoWallabies captain Harry Wilson spoke to media from Sydney<\/p>\n

The Wallabies gold is suddenly cool again, and skipper Harry Wilson doesn\u2019t want his team\u2019s resurgence to be a flash-in-the-pan phenomenon.<\/p>\n

\"VideoWallabies captain Harry Wilson spoke to media from Sydney<\/p>\n

The Wallabies gold is suddenly cool again, and skipper Harry Wilson doesn\u2019t want his team\u2019s resurgence to be a flash-in-the-pan phenomenon.<\/p>\n

The Wallabies picked up two bonus points in the narrow defeat after scoring four tries to Argentina\u2019s one and will enter the penultimate round of the Rugby Championship top of the table with a 2-2 record.<\/p>\n

But while Australia may sit in first place, the path ahead is fraught with danger.<\/p>\n

The Wallabies will face an All Blacks<\/a> side at Eden Park on September 27 smarting from a 43-10 loss to South Africa<\/a> on Saturday, before a home Test at Perth\u2019s Optus Stadium on October 4.<\/p>\n

If Schmidt\u2019s side are to trouble New Zealand<\/a> on the road at a Test venue where they have dominated for 30 years, they will need to fix up their discipline.<\/p>\n

Australia gave away 14 penalties to Argentina\u2019s seven and struggled to build pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m dominated by disappointment,\u201d Schmidt said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had enough of the game to get the result, but a lot of it was our own errors.<\/p>\n

\u201cArgentina<\/a> are a really good team, but when we\u2019re making 11 line-breaks to three and scoring four tries to one and we don\u2019t get a result? It\u2019s incredibly frustrating and disappointing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would stack some good work together and then cough the ball up or give it away too easily.\u201d<\/p>\n

Argentina fly-half Santiago Carreras<\/a> made Australia pay for their ill-discipline, kicking seven penalty goals from seven attempts.<\/p>\n

Carreras had got the Pumas<\/a> on the board with a second-minute penalty, before Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii<\/a> powered his way over the line shortly after to put the Wallabies in the lead.<\/p>\n

Tane Edmed, in his first Test start at fly-half, converted Suaalii\u2019s try but then brought his work undone when a free kick was charged down and pounced upon by captain Julian Montoya<\/a> for Argentina\u2019s only try.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat will be a big learning curve for a man who worked his socks off,\u201d Schmidt said of Edmed\u2019s blunder.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t get the continuity of the ball for him to bring us into the game, so it was pretty tough for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Australia did well to survive a period when they were down to 14 men after winger Max Jorgensen<\/a> was sin-binned for a knockdown in the 18th minute.<\/p>\n

Carreras, who had converted Montoya\u2019s try, kicked three more first-half penalties to give Argentina a 19-7 halftime lead.<\/p>\n

The Wallabies failed to heed the lessons of the first half and watched on as Carreras guided two more penalties through the posts.<\/p>\n

Needing a change of pace with his side down 25-7 after 55 minutes, Schmidt brought Edmed off for O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n

Suaalii and O\u2019Connor combined to send Andrew Kellaway<\/a> over the line, before the veteran playmaker helped set up Filipo Daugunu<\/a> for a second try in the space of two minutes as Carreras watched on from the sin bin.<\/p>\n

Daugunu scored a minute from time off a certain forward pass that had Argentina coach Felipe Contepomi<\/a> blowing a gasket.<\/p>\n

Australia failed to conjure a try in the final phases, the Wallabies conceding a penalty deep in their own 22m to finish the match.<\/p>\n

Schmidt remains unsure if O\u2019Connor, set to link up with English club Leicester<\/a> in coming weeks, will be available for the Wallabies\u2019 encounters with the All Blacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will definitely be having a chat to James this evening or tomorrow morning because we have to make a decision pretty much straight away,\u201d the coach said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt felt \u201cdominated by disappointment\u201d after Australia\u2019s hopes of ending a 10-year Rugby Championship drought…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-141914","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\/141914","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=141914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}