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Dave Rennie lamented the “silly mistakes,” but declared the Wallabies’ third draw in six Tests “different” after Saturday’s Three Nations showdown with Argentina ended in a 16-16 stalemate.
The Wallabies dominated possession and territory, but had to come back to finish tied at Bankwest Stadium.
It was Australia’s third draw in six trials with Rennie, as Reece Hodge, for the third time, missed a long-distance penalty goal to death that would have sealed the victory for the home side.
“What did a tie pay for today? $ 1.15 maybe, ”Rennie joked after the game.
MORE: Things We Learned After the Last Wallabies Drawing
“It feels a little different than the draw from a couple of weeks ago mainly because we were down by 10 in one stage and by seven when we got a red card (issued to Lukhan Salakaia-Loto for a high tackle in the 60th minute ).
“The guys showed a lot of character to fight to get back to that in challenging conditions and they kicked smartly in the second half and were able to get a draw and almost steal it again.”
Rennie added about Hodge, who had a helpless figure at full time after his 79-minute miss: “I’m sorry for him because he kicked quite well, the quality of that conversion from outside to level up and there weren’t too many people. lining up to take that picture.
“So yeah, it would have been nice if I could convert that, but it is what it is.”
The New Zealand-born coach declared the Wallabies a ‘work in progress’ and denied that their inability to close games is mental.
“We have put ourselves in a position to win them all, so I don’t think it’s psychological,” he said.
“I think all those games shouldn’t have been reduced to a last minute penalty attempt.
“We had opportunities tonight to convert and put a little pressure on the scoreboard.
“But Argentines are very good at hanging in games, they don’t play much and the conditions probably suited them quite well tonight and we had to resort to some kicks.
“… There is no lack of heart or effort, but we have to be much more clinical.
“We have defended quite well over the last few weeks so we have come a long way in that area, but as I have talked a bit about our discipline, tonight was disappointing.
“We let them squeeze us a bit and we made some silly mistakes and we got punished for it.
“… We won one out of six if you look at it from that perspective … it’s disappointing, but I think we understand where we are.”
