1. Where does Joseph Suaalii fit into the improving Wallabies?
If the Wallabies hadn’t blown three first-half chances against the All Blacks in Wellington – Jake Gordon’s knock-on and poor passes by Hunter Paisami and Tom Wright – they would have built some real scoreboard pressure.
But the fact they are creating opportunities is a tick, given the question marks around the attack after the opening two rounds. The attacking shapes had the All Blacks chasing shadows at times, and there was an impressive display by Dylan Pietsch in the No.11 jersey, with one hard running line in the opening 40 minutes catching the eye.
The ongoing debate about Joseph Suaalii’s best position in rugby should make everyone nervous, given how difficult the transition is, and after the second Bledisloe Test it is not immediately apparent where he will even fit in.
2. Wallabies finish last – but this is the world’s hardest comp.
Three of the four Rugby World Cup semi-finalists, led by a historically good South Africa team. With due respect to the Six Nations, the Rugby Championship is the toughest tournament in the world.
I love the Six Nations, but with Wales in a trough and Italy losing to Samoa in July, it can’t legitimately claim to be at the same high-performance level as the southern hemisphere showpiece at present. The Wallabies’ northern tour will be daunting, but winning two of the Tests does not feel out of the question.
3. Where it went wrong for the Wallabies.
In a nutshell, too many passive defensive sets in the third quarter. Perhaps the All Blacks’ late try in the first half knocked the stuffing out of them, but the Wallabies conceded too many easy metres – by Test standards – at the start of the second spell.
Matt Faessler tries to get an attack going for the Wallabies.Credit: Getty Images
The issue was compounded by a couple of kicking errors from Wright and Pietsch that immediately put the Wallabies under pressure, even though they had already done the hard work by exploiting the space on the All Blacks’ edge. They’ll be frustrated by that because they invited the All Blacks into their territory rather than being blown away by the quality of the New Zealanders’ play.
4. Super Rugby’s future to be known by February.
This masthead spoke to new Super Rugby Pacific chief executive Jack Mesley this week, and the strategy work on the competition’s future is high on his agenda. Tthe outcome of that work will be known relatively soon.