EDDIE JONES REMAINS “one hundred percent” confident the Wallabies can win the Rugby World Cup despite suffering a fourth straight defeat in his return to the head coaching role.
Australia produced comfortably their best performance of Jones’ second stint in charge in Dunedin on Saturday, leading the All Blacks 17-3 at halftime before falling behind in the dying minutes of a 23-20 defeat.
Having kept faith with most of the young players who were swept aside 38-7 by New Zealand a week earlier in Melbourne, Jones was delighted to see a more “in their face” defensive display and more quality across all parts of their game.
Asked if he felt his eighth-ranked side could be champions for a third time at the World Cup starting in France in five weeks, a typically bullish Jones replied: “one hundred percent, in fact I think we will mate”.
New Zealand responded to their half-time deficit with two unanswered tries in the second half and a 79th minute penalty by Richie Mo’unga.
Both All Blacks tries went to debutants, winger Shaun Stevenson and flanker Samipeni Finau, as they put an error-prone first half behind them and sealed victory when flyhalf Mo’unga landed his angled penalty shot from 35m out.
A vastly inexperienced Wallabies side, led by new captain Tate McDermott, crossed for two tries in the first seven minutes – first from Marika Koroibete and then flanker Tom Hooper – and threatened to produce a first win over the All Blacks on New Zealand soil since 2001.
But an All Blacks side featuring 12 starting changes held their nerve to make it four wins from four this year and extend their unbeaten streak to 11 Tests.
Captain Sam Cane conceded the All Blacks had been pushed to the limit.
“That was a proper Test match, they were firing all the shots in the first half, to be fair, we were just hanging in there. They took it to us in a big way,” he said.
“I’m really proud of the composure and the way we fought our way back.
“We showed composure and the ability to grind our way back into the game when we were under a fair bit of pressure.”
Flyhalf Damian McKenzie was guilty of wayward kicking and replaced early in the second half after being outplayed by inexperienced opposite Carter Gordon.
Gordon’s retention was staunchly defended by Jones in the leadup following a mixed performance in Melbourne, when New Zealand comfortably retained the Bledisloe Cup.
Jones was more pragmatic in his assessment of Australia’s overall performance, which highlighted shortcomings.
“There’s the good parts and there’s the bad parts and there’s the ugly parts. In the second half our scrum got ugly, didn’t it?” he said.
“I couldn’t say I’m happy. Four losses are four losses but … sometimes the result sheet doesn’t reflect what you’re actually doing and that’s hard for people to understand.
“I think we’re definitely moving in the right direction but we’ve got to win games.”
Elsewhere, Samoa ran in four tries as they continued their preparations for the Rugby World Cup with a 34-9 bonus-point win over Ireland’s World Cup group opponents Tonga in the final round of the Pacific Nations Cup.
