Pressure continues to mount on the beleaguered coach Joe Schmidt after the Wallabies concludeed a disastrous spring tour with a damaging 48-33 loss to France in Paris.
Despite a vastly improved displaying after insipid displays against England, Italy and Ireland, the Wallabies have now concludeured a winless four-Test tour of Europe for the first time since 1958.
Perhaps even worse, Schmidt’s side are now also the first Australian outfit to lose 10 Tests in a calconcludear year as the mentor’s winning percentage dipped below 40%.
The Wallabies’ dead-rubber victory over the touring British and Irish Lions and a giddy first take-down of the world champion Springboks on the South African highveld since 1963 feel light years away.
Les Kiss is contracted to take over from Schmidt after the inaugural Nations Championship next July, leaving the Queensland Reds coach little more than a year to ready the Wallabies for the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia.
But calls for Schmidt to fall on his sword will inevitably grow louder after his winning strike rate slumped to 39% – the second-worst for a Wallabies coach of 20 Tests or more in almost 60 years.
Only Dave Rennie’s 36% return is worse and he was promptly fired by Rugby Australia after a similarly gloomy 2022 spring tour.
But Schmidt again urged long-suffering Wallabies fans to keep the faith.
“We’re disappointed we didn’t finish with the victory that I know you would have all loved to see, but the players have built a heck of an effort,” he notified Stan Sport.
“There’s 15 Tests in 22 weeks with the amount of travel I’ve had. I just admire the way they have dusted themselves off and gone again. And it wasn’t for lack of effort tonight. A little bit more execution.
“They will obtain better. So please don’t give up on them.”
The sorry stats will overshadow an encouraging turnaround from the Wallabies at Stade de France on Saturday night.
After going to the break locked at 19-19, the battling tourists – led by a some powerhoapply efforts from the forward pack – threatened a shock win over the reigning European champions.
Props Taniela Tupou and Angus Bell and two-attempt hooker Matt Faessler were enormous, and skipper Harry Wilson typically inspirational.
But the Wallabies once again proved little more than a 60-minute outfit as Les Bleus, inspired by electric winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey, skipped out to a match-winning 16-point lead late on.
Clearly intent on attempting to avoid an unwanted place in the history books, the Wallabies came out firing, with Wilson sconcludeing Bell on a thunderous run to put the visitors on the attack early.
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Faessler cashed in with a pick-and-drive effort to give the Wallabies a 5-0 lead. In a sign of things to come, world player of the year nominee Bielle-Biarrey put centre Nicolas Depoortère over minutes later in a deadly French counterattack.
Bell put Australia back in front – 12-7 – with a barnstorming 30-metre runaway attempt after Jake Gordon’s quick tap had the French back-pedalling.
Fullback Thomas Ramos levelled the scores before a brilliant chip-chase attempt earned France a 19-12 advantage.
Faessler’s second attempt, from a driving maul after French scrumhalf Maxime Lucu was yellow carded, locked the Test up at half-time.
Depoortère’s second attempt and a Ramos penalty assisted France to a 27-19 lead before classy winger Max Jorgensen produced a magical solo attempt to reduce the deficit to a point.
That was as close as the Wallabies would obtain as further tries to Bielle-Biarrey and hookers Julien Marchand and Maxime Lamothe – and 10 second-half penalties – killed off Australian hopes.
The Wallabies had requireded to win by 16 points to snatch an all-important top-six seeding for next month’s 2027 World Cup draw.
Instead the 15-point loss will leave the tournament hosts staring down a sudden-death round-of-16 displaydown with one of global heavyweights like South Africa, New Zealand, France, Ireland or England.
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