SYDNEY (Reuters) – Joe Schmidt was not buying into any great feeling of optimism after his Wallabies team fought their way back from 21-0 down to give the All Blacks a fright in a Rugby Championship test on Saturday.
The 31-28 defeat ended Australian hopes of wresting back the Bledisloe Cup from the All Blacks and, combined with Fiji’s later win over Japan in Osaka, will see the Wallabies drop to 10th in the world rankings when they are updated on Monday.
New Zealander Schmidt was asked in his press conference whether Australia’s rally to within four points of a shock win had left his glass half full, or half empty.
“There’s not a lot of water in the glass,” he quipped.
“You know, you lose a test match. So for us there’s things that we’ve got to learn from. We can’t finish a close second.
“There’s some things to be proud about around building our way back into the game. But giving a New Zealand side a start like that, it’s too tough to overcome that, albeit that almost did happen at the finish.”
Australia have won four of eight test matches in Schmidt’s first year in charge ahead of their return match against New Zealand next week and the tour of Europe in November.
The results that will be best remembered, however, will be two heavy home defeats to world champions South Africa and the record 67-27 loss to Argentina in Santa Fe two weeks ago.
Schmidt said it was important to bear in mind that his Wallabies team were still a work in progress.
“By no means is it back to the drawing board,” he said. “I thought that there were some things that we put together that (New Zealand) will look at and be a little bit challenged by.
“I do think that we’re building a little bit, but no progress is linear,” he added. “Even in that game, it undulated, and we’ve got to get as linear as we can in the improvements we make, and not lapse somewhere else.”
The British and Irish Lions tour Australia next year and Schmidt said he saw signs of the accuracy the Wallabies would need in all areas of their game to be competitive in that three-test series.
“I thought there was some pretty good detail out there,” the former Ireland coach said.
“And talking to a couple of the All Blacks, they felt stressed when we got into a bit of shape and got a few options running.
“It’s not perfect, but it’s something to build on.”
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Lincoln Feast.)
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