Australia scrumhalf Nic White has indicated that enough is enough as far as his team’s performances are concerned and they need to stop talking about learning how to win test matches and actually do it.
The Wallabies escaped with a 15-15 draw in their Tri-Nations clash against Argentina in Newcastle on Saturday despite dominating territory and possession and holding a nine-point lead with less than 20 minutes to go.
Coach Dave Rennie was scathing afterwards, blaming his side’s lack of clinical ability to finish off the Pumas, who seemed content to allow the Wallabies to play all the rugby and feed off mistakes.
“That game was there for us to close out,” a dejected White told reporters. “We’re pretty disappointed that we didn’t.
“Moments like these we need to learn (from). We can’t make these mistakes again. (But) we can’t be going day in day out, week in week out saying ‘look guys we have spoken about this’. We need to start owning it.”
White said the team expected a “tough two weeks” of training under Rennie’s coaches ahead of their final clash of the season, against the Pumas in Sydney on December 5 where they could still be in with a chance to clinch the Tri-Nations.
The side, however, were also reminded on Sunday they could have already had one hand on the trophy and could have given the under-pressure sport some confidence heading into 2021.
“Win that match and Dave Rennie would have finished his first season as coach with a major piece of silverware,” the Sydney Morning Herald’s Sam Phillips wrote.
“The Tri Nations trophy sitting pretty in Rugby Australia’s Moore Park headquarters and 2021 would have started with levels of optimism not seen in Australian rugby circles for many years, if not decades.”
