Wallaby coach Ewen McKenzie
Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie still believes that his side’s thrashing by the All Blacks at Eden Park last Saturday was an “aberration” rather than a confronting measure of the gulf between the two sides.
McKenzie is playing down the need to make sweeping changes to his line-up despite the Wallabies 51-20 loss to the world No.1 New Zealanders in the Rugby Championship.
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He said the side he selects for next Saturday’s Test against the Springboks in Perth, will be both a response to the loss to the All Blacks as well as the challenge expected from the South Africans, who have won both their games against Argentina in the championship.
“It’s about whether you feel you are improving,” McKenzie said. “You can’t say we have improved to last week.
“We have to work out whether it was an aberration or whether we need to continue to look.
Asked whether he felt the defeat to the All Blacks after a 12-12 draw with them in Sydney the week before was an aberration, McKenzie said: “In my mind that is exactly what it is. I can look at the game … in fact the last two games.
“There were so many things that we could have done better, [but] that’s a function of pressure.
“There are so many ways we could have been tidier in our approach and limited their opportunities.
“They scored a bunch of tries from turnovers… There is the turnover itself, but what you do with the turnover ball [is important]. If you can control that, you can force them into set-piece, and they have to win the ball to play it. We can handle those situations much better.”
McKenzie said the Wallabies needed to win Saturday’s Test to avoid a further dip, after the progress made in last year’s Spring Tour and the domestic French Test series this June.
“We had a loss we didn’t want, but we want to be consistent,” McKenzie said. “So it’s important to get back on the horse.”
The signing of James O’Connor and Karmichael Hunt by the Queensland Reds left Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie happily declaring the “more people we have to chose from [for the World Cup] the merrier”.
But McKenzie also made it clear before the Wallabies flew from Sydney on Sunday to Perth where they will play their next Rugby Championship Test against the Springboks on Saturday that neither is guaranteed a place in the World Cup squad.
McKenzie was responding to a media report in France that O’Connor, who has 44 Test caps and is playing for Toulon, had brokered such a guarantee before Friday’s confirmation he had signed with the Reds for two years.
McKenzie said he has kept in regular contact with O’Connor, 24, and last spoke to him on the telephone “about four nights” ago when O’Connor told him of his Reds deal.
But McKenzie then said: “Anyone who knows me [knows] that you don’t get any guarantees out of me about anything.
“How that has been reported … I know that is not his mindset. The fact I have had a conversation with him doesn’t mean he is guaranteed selection. You have to earn your way in and that will be done next year.”
As for whether O’Connor has fully learnt from his off-field issues at the Western Force and then Melbourne Rebels that led to him being released by the Australian Rugby Union late last year and moving to England to play for London Irish and now Toulon in France, McKenzie said that “will become obvious” when he returns.
But he added: “There is nothing untoward since he has been over there that I am aware of.
“The World Cup is in September. You have to get through January through to September … but that’s for everyone in terms of the whole Australian rugby fraternity doing the right things.
“He has made all the right moves to come back. He has made the effort.
“From my perspective, the more people we have to choose from the merrier.
“We know he can function at Test level and make a difference. It’s just a matter of getting back, playing and putting his credentials forward on and off the field like everyone else.”
McKenzie said he will be equally tough with Hunt, 27, who will now join Wallabies back Israel Folau as a triple code player.
Hunt played with the NRL before switching to AFL at the Gold Coast Swans who he will leave for the Reds on a three-year deal, and played rugby for one year with French side Biarritz.
McKenzie said of Hunt’s Wallabies hopes: “That’s a function of how you play and when he starts playing. Whoever is in the pot next year we’ll assess where we are…
“But I saw him playing in France when he was at Biarritz. He played pretty well.”
McKenzie has also been impressed with Hunt “the person” in meeting him.
“The skill set is one thing, the person is another,” McKenzie said. “You have to get both right to have a chance of getting a good outcome … ultimately it will be how well he can play.”
McKenzie said that crucial to Hunt’s progress will be where the Reds play him.
“He has payed at 13 for Biarritz,” McKenzie said. “You would think he will be playing 13 and wider, so put him on the wing or fullback.
“Fullback is probably where you would think he would make that transition. That’s where he has played to date. Schoolboy footy, he might have played closer in but that was a long time ago.”
McKenzie also hopes that Hunt may get to play some National Rugby Championship games this year, pending what leeway his contract with the Reds will allow.
“The NRC does give games right up until November. So, theoretically, he could go into the Super season next year with four or five games under [his] belt,” he said.