Another collapse leaves Pivac on the edge
Wales……………………………. 34pts
Tries: Morgan 10, 47; Faletau 22, Dyer 52 Conversions: Anscombe 11, 23, 48, 53 Penalties: Anscombe 19, 28
Australia………………………. 39pts
Tries: Fainga’a 34, Nawaqanitawase 58, 68; Penalty try 74, Lonergan 78 Conversions: Donaldson 35, Lolesio 69, 79 Penalties: Donaldson 4, 15
When it was all over, Wayne Pivac rose from the hottest seat in the game painfully unaware whether he will be granted a stay of execution.
If so, for how long? Nobody could say whether he would be back in the same singeing seat for the next match, Ireland in Cardiff in February, because the latest setback raises the spectre of Wales once again indulging their chronic habit of sacking coaches within 12 months of a World Cup.
Their fragile team having found an outrageously extravagant way of losing another Test match, the more hawkish wing within the politburo of the Welsh Rugby Union will have hardened their belief that a change has to be made, not after the World Cup next autumn but before the Six Nations in the New Year.
Pivac’s fate rests now on the usual review into the autumn series with the agenda revolving around one stark question being asked by his employers: Is he still the man for the job?
His position had been precarious enough before the Wallabies hit town at the start of the week, the dreadful implosion against Georgia provoking the inevitable rumours of Warren Gatland being re-hired as a stop-gap measure through to next autumn. At one stage yesterday, with Wales 21 points clear and almost out of sight on the strength of some exhilarating rugby, speculation as to Gatland, or anyone else, being lined up might have sounded about as implausible as reports of Liz Truss returning to No. 10.
A collapse on a larger scale than the one seven days earlier inevitably makes Pivac’s position still more precarious, if not untenable. In a business where wins and losses trump everything else, he has too few of one and too many of the other. Over the course of the year, Pivac has picked 54 players for 12 Tests. Wales have won three and lost nine, figures which blot his track record like an indelible stain, all the more so since two of those nine include Italy and Georgia, both on the green grass of home.
His critics among the Union’s power-brokers believe not simply that Wales have regressed since Pivac almost landed a Grand Slam at the first attempt in 2020 but that they have lacked real improvement in a number of areas on the field.
Still adamant that he is the man for the job, the 60-year-old Kiwi will continue until someone tells him otherwise. Today he is due to be in France to carry out a recce on hotels and training facilities for the World Cup next September.
There was a time yesterday when it looked as though he would be gliding across the Channel on the thermals generated by the warmth of a record win over Australia, albeit one severely handicapped by a list of absentees stretching to 25 or thereabouts.
After 52 minutes, Wales 34-13 on the scoreboard and 4-1 on tries, two from mauler-in-chief Jac Morgan, one from Taulupe Faletau on his 100th Test and the other finished by Rio Dyer but made possible by Gareth Thomas.
The collective Welsh mauling of the Wallabies had hounded them into losing an awful lot more than two players to the bin. Had they been playing under the more merciful Queensberry rules, the referee would have considered the humane action of stopping it inside the distance.
Without recourse to such a law, English referee Matt Carley, authoritative from start to finish, had no option but to let the match take its course. Rarely can any Test have done a U-turn to such devastating effect.
Instead of Wales, forced by Leigh Halfpenny’s 11th hour withdrawal to redeploy Josh Adams at full back, closing in on 50 and signing off in style, they conceded 26 unanswered points in 20 minutes. The complete role-reversal process extended to the yellow cards, Justin Tipuric and Ryan Elias sitting side by side on the naughty chairs as the Welsh lead eroded and then disappeared like a cliff falling into the sea.
The first major turning point took place in the final play of the first-half. Australia, a man short after losing scrum-half Jake Gordon to the bin, faced a five-metre Welsh scrum.
In their desperation to stop Wales going 18 points clear, they collapsed it three times. When they held it up after a warning from Carley, Wales attacked the blindside when they ought to have seen oceans of space left on the openside by undermanned opponents.
The chance had gone and ultimately it proved crucial. The second turning point happened in the 64th minute. Wales, their control weakened by Mark Nawaqanitanase’s electrifying finish, resorted to tripping Pete Samu rather than risk the Wallaby substitute scoring an intercept try.
Tipuric’s sly footwork cost him 10 minutes. By the time he returned, Wales were on the slide, their lead slashed to two points by another strike from the big wing with the longest name in the game and, more damagingly, by a penalty try.
Worse still, Ryan Elias’ illegal work in trying to stop the green-and-gold maul left the Scarlets’ hooker kicking his heels in the bin. Eight minutes remained, far too long to prevent the inevitable and the ultimate anti-climax.
Australia bided their time and when the chance came to exploit the numerical advantage, who should pop up on the right hand touchline to touch down the winning score but Lachlan Lonergan, the substitute loosehead.
For a Wallaby squad decimated by the cumulative effect of multi-concussions and multifarious other blows, that was some way to finish the most gruelling of European tours, five Tests in five weeks.
For Wales, the Six Nations looms tougher than ever. For their long-suffering fans, the misery goes on not the least bit soothed by what the neutrals would have seen as a 73-point thriller and loved every topsy-turvy minute of it.
For Pivac, last seen addressing the players encircled around him, it leaves him in danger of following Mike Ruddock (2006), Keith Bowring (1998), Alan Davies (1995) and Ron Waldron (1991) as the fifth head coach to part company with Wales before a World Cup.
