mens
nations-championship
Australia Head coach Les Kiss was left rueing a missed opportunity to grab a late victory after seeing his side slump to a fourth straight Test defeat against Scotland in Murrayfield.
After Max Jorgensen’s 79th-minute try and Ben Donaldson’s conversion cut the home side’s lead to 15-12, the Wallabies launched a final attack from their own 22.
Joseph-Aukuso Sua’ali’i’s line break suddenly had the Scots scrambling back before he released Jorgensen on the right touchline, who quickly cut inside to Tom Wright.
But just as it looked like the full-back might get away, Scotland winger Darcy Graham produced a superb tackle to put Wright in touch and ease the danger in the final play of the game.
“Maybe we passed the ball a little earlier, we could have been a little sharper about it,” Kiss lamented. “But it really gives you a lot of confidence, that we can move the ball like that and play like that – like our first try (for the Harry Potter wing) down the left.
“We know those moments are within us. We set the physical platform and maybe we could have been a little more coherent with it at times. That was a moment that could have gone the other way.”
“We would be disappointed because some things weren’t right, but the loss is the main thing for us, you know. We want to win this.”
After conceding 21 tries in the last three Tests – back-to-back Bledisloe Cup defeats to New Zealand and last week’s shellacking by England – Kiss took heart in a much-improved defensive effort to restrict Scotland to just two tries, although wet conditions played a part.
“We just set the tone in terms of what it means to be a fighter defense unit,” Kiss said. “If you have that energy and that hunting mindset, it seems to solve some problems on its own and all of a sudden you feel like you’re in a good space. You have hungry eyes and hungry feet, ready to put a shoulder where we needed to be. I thought there was a real step up in that area, as well as in the defense of their thief, which they often had.
“And we went at them (with our own kicking). Unfortunately it wasn’t allowed (Billy Pollard had a score ruled out for obstruction by Jeremy Williams). So I think there were good things in the Test match that we brought out, for sure, but the defense definitely stepped up where it needed to be.
“If we can iron out a couple of little cohesion things that we want in the back, with Carter (Gordon) coming back there, we’ll find some more joy. I’m really proud of the effort, but we want to win Test matches and that’s what we’ll do on the short turnaround going to Wales.”
Fly-half Gordon’s return, after two months out with a broken fibula, was described by Kiss as “really positive”.
“I thought the ‘Lonners’ (scrum-half Ryan Lonergan) and him, a combination that’s very new, there were some good things in that area as well. We felt trying to get a bit more space to play with them would have been nice, but we just couldn’t get it as often as we would have liked.
“But I thought when Carter got involved, especially in the early stages of the game, he created good space. Most of the time I thought Lonners’ shots were good, and when Carter was shooting it was good, at least one. But overall, I thought it was a pretty good performance by Carter.”