WELLINGTON: Coach Joe Schmidt insists there are some green shoots among the Wallabies regeneration despite another barren Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup campaign.
Australia’s 33-13 loss to the All Blacks at Sky Stadium on Saturday consigned them to a 0-2 Bledisloe clean sweep while they also collected the championship wooden spoon with a 1-5 record.
The Wallabies are ranked 10th in the world, equal with their worst-ever status that they also slumped to during last year’s disastrous Eddie Jones coaching reign.
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Australia also conceded their most ever points against in tournament history – 213 – at a rate of more than 35 per Test.
The Wallabies genuinely troubled the All Blacks in both trans-Tasman encounters but consistency remains painfully elusive.
“Look, I don’t really look at rankings,” Schmidt, a former World Rugby coach of the year, told reporters as the campaign came to a close.
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“I look at performances and aspects of performance.
“I know they didn’t win a game in the championship last year (0-3) and we did this year, and we got within three points and scored four tries against the All Blacks last week. We missed a few today.
“What I can’t control is the outcome, but what I can contribute to is the process of trying to get the right people and connect them well enough that they can perform. Other people will tally up rankings and they’ll look at outcomes.
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“Professional sport is about outcomes, but it’s also massively about the process to try to make sure that we give ourselves the best chance of getting those outcomes. The whole coaching group, that’s our focus at the moment.”
Schmidt has handed out a whopping 16 new Test caps this season as well as shuffling through four captains before settling on wholehearted No.8 Harry Wilson as a leader of promise.
“This year’s big project was about building depth,” Schmidt said.
Australia will now take a breather before embarking on a daunting Spring Tour that is set to include NRL convert Joseph Suaalii.
The Wallabies will meet England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland in a calendar that kicks off in London on November 10 (AEST).
“Those four Test matches, they make up the Lions for next year, so we get a good look at their personnel. Some of them I still know from having coached them and I know how good they are,” former Ireland coach Schmidt said.
“It’s a bit like when we come up against the All Blacks here, you know it’s going to be a really tough tour but if we can get building through that tour then I think we’ve put ourselves in a position of potentially being competitive next July (against the Lions).”
Schmidt now has a 4-5 record overall with the Wallabies since taking the reins from Jones.
“We are growing as a team and I feel like we’ve got to take our lessons learned and come northern tour, it’s going to be epic. Four games over there,” Wallabies flanker Fraser McReight said.
“If you look at the teams we’re coming up against, you’ve got (World Cup) semi-finalists, quarter-finalists, tough teams over there. I feel like we want consistency on the board. Obviously, we want wins – we want to be competitive. It’s probably the way you want to put it.
“Wins are obvious but to be competitive on the scoreboard, competitive in most things around the park – set-piece, defence, attack. We don’t want it to be one way or the other for sure.”
South Africa clinched the tournament with a dominant 48-7 win over Argentina on Sunday (AEST).