Wasteful Wallabies need to be hard on themselves after loss to Ireland

July 5, 2026 — 11:33am

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

Brave? yes. Wasteful? Definitely. The Wallabies blew the chance to get their Nations Championship off to a winning start, turning a 24-12 lead after 28 minutes into an agonising 33-31 loss in Sydney on Saturday night.

That might sound harsh after the Wallabies matched or beat the Irish in a number of areas, but they need to be hard on themselves because Ireland were sluggish for the first half.

A couple of Wallabies’ mistakes around the 60-minute mark summed up a lack of composure and accuracy. First, Max Jorgensen fired a wild pass into touch after the Wallabies had created space.

Then, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii threw a loose offload to no one after initially doing well to straighten the line. That’s not good enough, and the mistakes squandered the precious territory and possession that had been won by a strong Wallabies scrum that had been lifted by a noticeably fitter Taniela Tupou.

The goalkicking woes of Carter Gordon and Ben Donaldson were also costly, but the unforced errors in possession need urgent attention as next Saturday’s opponents French will arrive ready to play.

They were very close to beating the All Blacks in Christchurch on Saturday and will add further firepower to the team that will face the Wallabies in Brisbane on Saturday. Their........

© WA Today