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A “disappointed and frustrated” Australia coach Dave rennie says his team should do better after wasting a chance to beat a stoic Argentina, complaining that his Wallabies players seemed bored.
Australia held a 15-6 lead with just 20 minutes left until the Three Nations clash in Newcastle, north of Sydney, on Saturday night, but poor decision making and poor discipline allowed the Pumas to return to the game. game.
It ended in a resounding 15-15 draw and no attempt, with Rennie unhappy.
“Really frustrated. Really disappointed,” he said.
“At 15-6 we were in control of the game. We had opportunities to nail them in the corners. We were quite successful kicking, but it’s like we got bored.
“We should have closed that,” he added.
“We really blame ourselves. It has to be better across the board.
“We have to be more clinical and turn the pressure into points. Argentina never really seemed to score a try all night.”
Australia had all the starting possession and should have finished the game in the first half, but two illegal attempts hampered their progress.
They went into the break 9-6 up front and stretched the lead to nine points before letting Argentina return to the game with silly infractions and poor execution.
“If we could have scored straight after halftime, it probably would have opened the game. They made a lot of tackles and we felt like they were tiring and just holding on,” Rennie said.
“But we didn’t get them out of it and in the end it hurt us.”
The midfielder Nicolás Sánchez, through his lethal boot, again scored all the points for Pumas to bring his score to 40 in two games. His counterpart Reece Hodge also nailed five penalties.
But Hodge crucially missed the one that mattered, sending what should have been a game-winning kick with two minutes remaining.
After their loss to New Zealand last week and Saturday’s draw, Argentina is in a prime position to lift the Tri-Nations trophy.
All three teams have six points, but the South Americans have one game less.
Next weekend they face a decisive second leg against the All Blacks before facing Australia again.
Mario Ledesma’s side entered the game at the top after their first win against New Zealand in 35 years, and while they created few opportunities to score, their defense was solid and they took advantage of the chances when presented to them.
Ledesma felt a draw was a fair result and praised his men after their grueling exploits against the All Blacks.
“We weren’t clinicians and we weren’t very fit, so they are quite disappointed in their performance,” he said.
“But they just don’t realize how difficult it is to play the All Blacks, to be emotionally and physically drained … and to play a new Australian team that had the week off and a great game plan and all the opportunities.”
“But the first emotion I have is to be proud of the boys.”
