The third and deciding Test between the Wallabies and Ireland in Sydney was billed as a grand final, the sense of occasion heightened by a record crowd for the last rugby international to be played at Allianz Stadium before it is torn down.
But the occasion proved too much for the Wallabies, losing 20-16 to a clever and cunning Ireland team, who out-thought the Australians more than they out-played them.
If a grand final was the context for this game, the Wallabies had little hope against the Six Nations champions and number two team in the world, which included several members of the European Cup-winning Leinster side.
Israel Folau to face disciplinary World Rugby hearing
The Irish know how to win and they know how to win big games. Conversely, no Australian team has won anything since the Waratahs lifted the Super Rugby trophy in 2014. The biggest game the Wallabies have won in recent years was their victory against the All Blacks last year, but that was a dead rubber, not a decider.
The Wallabies upset Ireland 18-9 in the first Test in Brisbane with a tactical kicking strategy, but they failed to execute the same tactic in the second Test in Melbourne where the Irish levelled the series with a typically gritty 26-21 win.
Coach Michael Cheika had allowed the senior players to devise the game-plan for the first two Tests, but he re-asserted his authority for the third, reverting to a ball-in-hand style of game in which kicking was a last resort.
The Wallabies were unable to unlock the well-drilled Irish defence, which manipulated the Australians into doing what the Irish wanted them to do, not what they wanted to do.
This was best evidenced by the useless ball the Wallabies wingers received out wide. The Irish would rush up on the Wallabies in the mid-field, forcing their playmakers to make desperate passes to the flanks.
On almost every occasion, the Wallabies men out wide had to virtually stop in their tracks to catch the ball, which sometimes went behind them, rather than run onto it, killing all momentum and advancement.
Significantly, the Wallabies’ only try to winger Marika Koroibete came from a grubber kick by five-eighth Bernard Foley, who put the ball behind the rushing Irish defence. Why the Wallabies did not use this tactic more is a mystery.
The first two Tests followed a similar pattern, with Ireland controlling possession and territory for much of the game before fading towards the end, weary after a long European season. The question heading into the third Test was: would the Irish be able to build a big enough buffer to withstand another strong Wallabies finish?
There were two crucial scores by Ireland. The first was a penalty goal on halftime by five-eighth Jonathan Sexton which put them up 12-9 at the break, and the second was a try by flanker CJ Stander in the 43rd minute to make it 17-9.
But Ireland’s eight-point advantage was reduced to one with Koroibete’s try in the 53rd minute. With the possession and territory statistics swinging towards the Wallabies, they had a splendid opportunity to put away the Irish, who were almost out on their feet.
But the Wallabies could not do it. Cheika was apoplectic with rage in the coach’s box at the refereeing of Frenchman Pascal Gauzere, but focusing on the officiating would miss the real point.
The Wallabies were tactically inept, while the Irish stuck to their process, trusting each other and trusting their defence. When Sexton kicked another penalty goal in the 78th minute, the Australians had to score a converted try to win.
The Wallabies were hell-bent on playing at a helter-skelter pace, which explained the curious decision to replace halfback Nick Phipps with the fresh legs of rookie Joe Powell for the last 20 minutes, a substitution that backfired.
The Australians’ skills, however, did not match the speed at which they attempted to play. As a result they made a lot of small but telling errors, which turned a molehill into a mountain that was too high to climb.
The last play of the game exemplified the Wallabies’ rush-of-blood-to-the-head approach when Foley, less than 10 metres from the Irish line, fired a death or glory pass which went behind winger Dane Haylett-Petty and rolled into touch. Game over.
Ireland defeat Australia to claim Lansdowne Cup in dramatic third Test
To put this series into perspective, the only Test the Wallabies won was the one in which Ireland coach Joe Schmidt did not select his strongest team. That means it was effectively a two-nil whitewash to the Irish, continuing an alarming trend.
For the last three years the Wallabies have not been able to win a series against a team from Britain and Ireland on Australian soil, losing to England 3-0 in 2016 and Scotland in a one-off Test last year.
Yet, the Wallabies have shown in the Irish series that they have the players to compete with the best. They possess the physicality to dominate teams, even the All Blacks, who they will meet in Sydney in eight weeks’ time.
But the Wallabies will have to play a lot smarter, and calmer, if they want to rise to the occasion and win the games that count.