Wallabies halfback Nic White has conceded Australia is nicely “off the mark” with solely 4 Test matches remaining earlier than the beginning of the Rugby World Cup in September.
While his teammate Samu Kerevi on Monday insisted the Wallabies had loads of time to rectify a bunch of issues evident in an embarrassing 43-12 weekend loss to South Africa in Pretoria, White’s evaluation of the state of affairs was much less encouraging.
“That’s not one we’re real proud of,” White stated on Tuesday.
“We went over there with a plan, (but)things didn’t go to plan. They (the Springboks) showed why they’re world champions.
“It shows how far off the mark (we are) … it’s a bitter pill to swallow.
“We’re not quite where we want to be, a long way off actually.”
The Wallabies will search redemption when their Rugby Championship marketing campaign continues on Saturday evening towards Argentina at Sydney’s CommBank Stadium,
However, endurance is likely to be wanted from Australian rugby followers, with White saying the Wallabies had been nonetheless looking for “clarity” beneath Eddie Jones, who is only one Test into his second tenure as nationwide coach.
“We’re focusing on clarity. We’ve been together for a short period of time,” White stated.
“I’m not making excuses but we’re still finding a bit of clarity in the way we want to play. We’re getting there.
“Now the opportunity is to see where we fell short … and to really look at those areas.
“There was no sugar-coating it. We were straight into it after the game in areas that we weren’t up to scratch in and we need to find answers in.
“We’ve spent the last two days finding those solutions.”
White had little question the Wallabies could be “up” for the problem of beating Argentina.
“There are a lot of boys hurting in this group at the moment, and would have loved the chance to have played yesterday if they could just to get rid of the demons,” he stated.
“We don’t want to be the side that has to lose to get up to find a win. We want to get to a stage where we are consistent, like the good sides in the world.
“We know where we are and where we’ve been is not good enough, and where we want to go. There’s going to be a bit of a road there.”
Powerful prop Taniela Tupou, who is constant his restoration from an Achilles harm, has left the Wallabies squad to get sone much-needed recreation time with Australia A, who meet Tonga in Nuku’alofa on Friday.
Props Blake Schoupp and Pone Fa’amausili have been added to the Wallabies squad.
Source: www.news.com.au
