{"id":321416,"date":"2023-08-05T05:47:24","date_gmt":"2023-08-05T05:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=321416"},"modified":"2023-08-05T05:58:44","modified_gmt":"2023-08-05T05:58:44","slug":"gutted-wallabies-blow-big-lead-in-comeback-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=321416","title":{"rendered":"'Gutted' Wallabies blow big lead in comeback thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"

The more things change, the more they stay the same \u2013 and although the All Blacks<\/a> made sweeping changes to their starting XV<\/a>, the Wallabies<\/a> couldn't convert a scintillating start into victory on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The men in gold stunned the sea of fans dressed in black to lead 17-3 at halftime, dominating the first 40 minutes with 75 per cent possession under the roof at Forsyth Barr Stadium.<\/p>\n

But if the Wallabies were a 20-minute side in their opening Bledisloe Cup loss in Melbourne<\/a> then they were a 40-minute side in Dunedin.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2023 Rugby World Cup and Summer Nations Series on the home of rugby, Stan Sport.<\/em><\/strong> All matches streaming ad free, live and on demand<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Shaun<\/p>\n

There was a noticeable momentum shift in the second half and by full-time the All Blacks were 23-20 winners<\/p>\n

Having been so strong in the first half, the Wallabies' dreaded 'd word' \u2013 discipline \u2013 came back to haunt them as they conceded penalties and gave the All Blacks the opportunity they needed to come from behind in the second.<\/p>\n

The Wallabies had sought to end a drought dating back to 2001, when they last won a match against the All Blacks on New Zealand soil, also in Dunedin but at the since demolished Carisbrook.<\/p>\n

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\"Richie<\/p>\n

It was a disappointing Wallabies captaincy debut for 24-year-old Tate McDermott, who showed poise under pressure.<\/p>\n

"Yeah, obviously gutted," McDermott said.<\/p>\n

"We put ourselves in a position to win it. We were chasing our tails that whole second half.\u00a0<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportRugby\/status\/1687687422191034368<\/a><\/p>\n

"You have to give them credit for the way they came out of the blocks. We spoke about it, we knew they'd come like that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"Disappointing with our result but I'm proud of that effort. Obviously not happy with it, but from where we were last week to where we are now, a massive step up."<\/p>\n

Of the first half performance, McDermott said: "We retained the footy because of our speed to set and our urgency at the breakdown. We kind of lost that in the second half.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"We turned over a lot of possession. What we did well in terms of keeping our foot down here, it's themes we chatted about all week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"From that point of view, I'm bloody pleased with that, but we've still got a lot of work to do on the defensive side."<\/p>\n

\"Millimetre<\/p>\n

Initially, the Wallabies stormed ahead courtesy of some millimetre-perfect action from Marika Koroibete, who scored in the third minute of the match when he dived into the corner.<\/p>\n

After an agonisingly long look by the TMO, the try was awarded.<\/p>\n

Just four minutes later, Tom Hooper steamrolled Damien McKenzie and debutant Shaun Stevenson to score in the same spot as Koroibete for a shock 14-0 lead.<\/p>\n

\"Hooper<\/p>\n

The Wallabies looked like they might score again in the 29th minute, only for Ardie Savea to pull off an incredible try-saving effort on McDermott in the in-goal.<\/p>\n

That was the first missed opportunity of several for the Wallabies.<\/p>\n

Another came just three minutes shy of halftime when the visitors took too long to form an attacking lineout off the back of a Carter Gordon 50-22.<\/p>\n

"A golden opportunity wasted, so close to half-time," Sean Maloney said on Stan Sport.<\/p>\n

\"All<\/p>\n

The second half momentum quickly swung in favour of the All Blacks who as Shaun Stevenson scored after four minutes to draw the gap back to 17-10.<\/p>\n

The All Blacks looked to rub salt into the wounds of the Wallabies when Leicester Fainga'anuku appeared to have scored under the posts in the 55th minute, only to be referred to the TMO who found he'd knocked the ball on.<\/p>\n

Another All Blacks rookie then scored a try in the 64th minute as Samipeni Finau's effort got the home side ahead for the first time in the match<\/p>\n

The Wallabies weren't the only ones conceding penalties.<\/p>\n

In the 73rd minute the Wallabies got a sniff of victory when the All Blacks infringed and gave Quade Cooper a shot at the posts to collect three points and level at 20-20.<\/p>\n

\"Richie<\/p>\n

But one last penalty was what decided it in the end as Mo'unga converted.<\/p>\n

McDermott was nevertheless optimistic about the Wallabies' fortunes despite four losses on the trot.<\/p>\n

"We're a really good side when we're direct. As soon as we tried to play a little bit more expansive, it kind of fell out of our favour a little bit," he explained.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportRugby\/status\/1687683982056386560<\/a><\/p>\n

"We'll learn from that. We're trending in the right direction. It's frustrating here, particularly for the guys back home, must drive your head in, but we truly believe what we're doing, particularly in the attack space, is going to work a treat for us in the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"We've just got to continue to be hard on ourselves and have to hold the ball in that space."<\/p>\n

The Wallabies will name their Rugby World Cup squad on Thursday in Darwin.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The more things change, the more they stay the same \u2013 and although the All Blacks made sweeping changes to their starting XV, the Wallabies […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":321418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321416"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=321416"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321425,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321416\/revisions\/321425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/321418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=321416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=321416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=321416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}