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Brittany Mitchell, ESPN Assistant Editor
Australia’s dreams of a historic Grand Slam triumph 40 years in the making have been shattered at the hands of Scotland magician Finn Russell and his side’s defensive tenacity, with the Wallabies’ rose-tinted glasses lifted and the side left to wonder what could have been.
After a disrupted build-up which saw just one field session after a heavy dumping of snow, a red-card judiciary hearing and the late exclusions of Matt Faessler and Jeremy Williams, the Wallabies looked in the contest and on track to keep their Grand Slam hopes alive. Twenty minutes in though, and the cracks were visible.
Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii was once again in the thick of the action in just his second start in the gold jersey, soaring high and tipping the ball back at the restart, using his quick hands to shuffle the ball along on multiple occasions, while he also looked threatening with his two carries. His huge hit on Sione Tuipolotu in the 30th minute also laid doubts of his defensive capabilities to rest. It was his last act in the match though, with the centre taken from the pitch with a wrist injury. His absence was keenly felt from then onwards.
Will Skelton too was strong in the opening 15 minutes with five big carries of his own as he constantly hammered at the Scottish line.
It wouldn’t be enough to give his side an edge though.
After scoring 94 points over their opening two matches, the Wallabies’ attack stalled. Tom Wright and Len Ikitau hardly made an impact, while Noah Lolesio struggled for opportunities due to a lack of front-foot ball. Harry Potter looked busy in the opening minutes but remained relatively quiet until his consolation try late in the match with some magic in the in-goal, meanwhile Andrew Kellaway’s shift into the centres saw perhaps his worst defensive game in the gold jersey to date.
Their lineout and destructive rolling maul weapon quickly fell to pieces too, picked off and dismantled on multiple occasions as the side continually battered at an unbending blue line, unable to unlock Scotland’s defence.
The game soon descended into a tough arm-wrestle. The breakdown became messy as Scotland’s back-row muscled up with a huge shift from Jamie Ritchie determined to slowdown the Wallabies’ ball, while Australia’s bad habit poor-discipline reared its ugly head once more.
Too often the Wallabies helped piggyback Scotland up the pitch with silly penalties including Skelton engaging in the air at the lineout and Carlo Tizzano going for a second bite at the breakdown, while their defence was struggling under pressure, racking up 13 missed tackles. It was only thanks to Scotland’s many handling errors — eight turnovers by the break — that the Wallabies remained in the contest at the halfway mark with Tuipolotu’s 21-minute try giving his side the four point advantage at halftime.
Overlooked in the opening weeks in celebration of their two big wins, the Wallabies defensive lapses were brought front and centre against a Scottish attack led superbly by fly-half Russell.
The Wallabies gave up 34 missed tackles by fulltime as the playmaker pulled the strings like a maestro, his deft kicks in hand constantly turning the Wallabies around, while his beautiful passes put his centres in the gaps. The mastery from Duhan van der Merwe and Darcy Graham to stay on their feet and keep the ball alive added to an attack that broke the game open in the second half.
“It was intense, I felt like we were in the contest particularly in the first half,” Schmidt told TNT Sports post-match. “I felt we should have converted a few more points in the first half, particularly with the pressure we had.
“The breakdown was pretty messy, and I think that’s just the way Scotland like it. It makes it very, very difficult to construct your play and we also found it very difficult trying to get past guys around the breakdown. But that’s just something we’ve got to solve.
“I thought we just fell off too many tackles. You miss over 30 tackles in an international, you’re just not going to win them.
“I think our guys carried hard and cleaned well, but we’ve got to be better than that. I think defensively when you’re in a tight tussle against a really good team like Scotland you’ve got to be water-tight defensively and we just weren’t.”
The Wallabies were by no means blown out of the contest, they were given plenty of opportunities with Scotland handing over 14 turnovers with poor handling and line-out lapses of their own, but they showed they’re still a step away from converting those moments into points.
Trailing 17-6 with 18-minutes on the clock, a loose ball from a Scotland lineout hacked downfield by Rob Valetini and recovered within Scotland’s 22 was an opportunity that should have resulted in points, instead Tate McDermott misjudged the cross-field kick, and the Wallabies were turned back around. Scotland would score only a few moments later. In the final minutes, drive after drive at Scotland’s line should have seen the deficit reduced, instead, as was emblematic of the night, the forward pack was turned away and held up as the final whistle blew.
After a two-week high the Wallabies have been brought back down to earth by a very good Scotland side in what was the first real test of their Grand Slam tour. Conceding 14 penalties with just 79% tackle rate was never going to be good enough in Scotland, while they’ll be left pondering what could have been if some of their attacking opportunities had stuck.
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