{"id":73426,"date":"2025-08-17T14:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T14:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/73426\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T14:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T14:18:09","slug":"ive-thought-in-my-mind-jeez-have-i-bit-off-more-than-i-could-chew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/73426\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;I&#8217;ve thought in my mind, &#8216;Jeez, have I bit off more than I could chew&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>After fearing he\u2019d played his last Test, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/james-oconnor\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">James O\u2019Connor<\/a> is being lauded for delivering maybe his best performance yet in a Wallabies gold jumper.<\/p>\n<p>A record-breaking 17 years after debuting as a teenage utility in Padova, O\u2019Connor pulled all the right strings as chief playmaker in Australia\u2019s extraordinary 38-22 comeback win over the world champion Springboks in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n<p>Only drafted into the squad following injuries to preferred flyhalves <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/noah-lolesio\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Noah Lolesio<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/tom-lynagh\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tom Lynagh<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/ben-donaldson\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ben Donaldson<\/a>, O\u2019Connor played a starring role in the Wallabies\u2019 first win at Ellis Park since 1963.<\/p>\n<p>Despite turning 36 next year and having only been used as a cameo finisher off the bench during the Crusaders\u2019 triumphant 2025 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/super-rugby\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Super Rugby Pacific<\/a> campaign, O\u2019Connor controlled proceedings for the entire 80 minutes on Sunday morning (AEST).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLook, genuinely, words can\u2019t describe right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>      Rugby Championship       <\/p>\n<p>P<\/p>\n<p>W<\/p>\n<p>L<\/p>\n<p>D<\/p>\n<p>PF<\/p>\n<p>PA<\/p>\n<p>PD<\/p>\n<p>BP T<\/p>\n<p>BP-7<\/p>\n<p>BP<\/p>\n<p>Total<\/p>\n<p> 1 <\/p>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755440288_654_811.png.webp\" alt=\"New Zealand\"\/>   <\/p>\n<p> 1 <\/p>\n<p> 1 <\/p>\n<p> 0 <\/p>\n<p> 0 <\/p>\n<p> 5 <\/p>\n<p> 2 <\/p>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755440288_301_802.png.webp\" alt=\"Australia\"\/>   <\/p>\n<p> 1 <\/p>\n<p> 1 <\/p>\n<p> 0 <\/p>\n<p> 0 <\/p>\n<p> 5 <\/p>\n<p> 3 <\/p>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755440289_356_815.png.webp\" alt=\"South Africa\"\/>   <\/p>\n<p> 1 <\/p>\n<p> 0 <\/p>\n<p> 1 <\/p>\n<p> 0 <\/p>\n<p> 0 <\/p>\n<p> 4 <\/p>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755440289_174_801.png.webp\" alt=\"Argentina\"\/>   <\/p>\n<p> 1 <\/p>\n<p> 0 <\/p>\n<p> 1 <\/p>\n<p> 0 <\/p>\n<p> 0 <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s personally definitely my favourite win. It meant so much.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of emotion this week, a lot of reflection. I thought my time in the gold jersey was done three years ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI fought bloody hard to get back here and the opportunity came with some of the guys getting injured, but I\u2019m here now and I\u2019m loving it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As well as slotting four conversions, O\u2019Connor helped set up Australia\u2019s opening try for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/dylan-pietsch\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dylan Pietsch<\/a> that sparked the remarkable comeback from 22-0 down, then threw a magical two-man cut-out pass for the 65th-minute five-pointer from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/max-jorgensen\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Max Jorgensen<\/a> that virtually sealed the Wallabies\u2019 famous win.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe just grew into the game,\u201d said Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought he got a little bit rattled in the first 20 minutes, just with the heat that the Boks brought.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut the longer the game went on, I felt he started to manage it really well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Connor readily admitted returning to the Test ranks after a three-year absence had been daunting at times.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not going to lie,\u201d he told Stan Sport.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s been plenty of times I\u2019ve thought in my mind, \u2018Jeez, have I bit off more than I could chew here\u2019 because training\u2019s quick, everything\u2019s hard, everything\u2019s quicker.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I thought, \u2018Man, I might have talked it up too much now\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut the boys who got around me, they\u2019ve looked after me and we\u2019ve slowly just built into this game plan and, yeah, I\u2019m really loving that detail that Joe\u2019s bringing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s allowing us to play and really execute in killer moments of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 65-Test veteran agreed with Schmidt that it took a while to find his feet as the Springboks made a ferocious start to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/the-rugby-championship\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rugby Championship<\/a> with three tries in the opening 17 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA scratchy first 20, but I could feel the gaps were there,\u201d O\u2019Connor said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe space was there. I just couldn\u2019t get the ball to that space in the first 20.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen I felt we eased into the game in that second 20 minutes of that first half.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI felt like we built momentum well and we started to get some outcomes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo halftime we spoke about it. \u2018Look, we\u2019re in this game, we know we can score points. It\u2019s just about trusting what we\u2019ve built.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat belief is strong in us now. We\u2019ve been building. You could see in that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/lions\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lions<\/a> series that we\u2019re building belief.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo doubling down and there you go, that\u2019s a result, so super proud and stoked.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After fearing he\u2019d played his last Test, James O\u2019Connor is being lauded for delivering maybe his best performance&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-73426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}