Monday press conferences after a Bledisloe Cup defeat would have to rank among the least appealing assignments for any Wallabies player.
Particularly when Saturday’s 50-19 capitulation against the All Blacks at Eden Park marked Australia’s 12th consecutive defeat to their trans-Tasman rivals.
On the second floor of a hotel across the road from Accor Stadium at Sydney Olympic Park, the venue for Saturday’s dead-rubber Bledisloe clash, Wallabies fullback Tom Wright was the one chosen to explain how Australia had conceded so many points.
“The guys were obviously really disappointed with the result,” Wright said. “The group came together on Sunday morning [to] face the music.”
Face the music? From coaches? Or senior players laying down the law?
“The music of the scoreboard,” Wright said. “No one wants to be on the receiving end of 50 points. No one wants to be on the receiving end of a loss. At 17-14 [in front], we’re right in the contest, and the game was there to be taken. We knew the opportunity was there for us.
“We felt like all the guns were loaded, and we had the ammunition to fire shots and win the game. We didn’t. That’s the music that we’re talking about. You can be internally so driven to win and when you don’t … that’s the disappointment you’ve got to face.”
For all the optimism generated by a six-game unbeaten streak before last weekend, including a surprise win over the Springboks, the broader Australian sporting public ultimately judges the Wallabies on one thing: whether they can beat the All Blacks.
And when it comes to New Zealand, the same old problems keep resurfacing.
Some would have turned on the television expecting a spirited second-half performance, but all they got was a botched Australian lineout deep in Kiwi territory that became the catalyst for an All Blacks onslaught that turned a contest into another humiliating defeat.
It was a familiar script, even if the Wallabies had spent much of the first half threatening to rewrite it. The aerial contest wasn’t a contest.
Inevitably, out came the same questions that get rolled out every year. What is it about the All Blacks? Is there a mental inferiority complex when it comes to Eden Park?
Wright, one of Australia’s best on Saturday after scoring the opening try on Saturday, is not one for magic solutions.
“If I had the golden egg answer, it’d be pretty handy,” Wright said. “But I certainly don’t think there are any mental scars.
“They’re not a poor team. The narrative will always be that ... we haven’t got our hands on the Bledisloe Cup, and we haven’t got a win against them [in 12 attempts].
“We know that the Bledisloe Cup remains across the ditch. We can’t carry that disappointment into the rest of this week because it’s not going to help us win on Saturday, is it?”
Former Wallaby Tim Horan spoke for plenty of frustrated Australian supporters on Sunday when asked on Channel Nine about the familiar narrative that the Wallabies would “learn” from their mistakes across the ditch.
“I just don’t like hearing, ‘oh we’re going to learn from this’. I think Aussies are sick of getting beaten by the All Blacks,” Horan said.
Add Wright to that list.
But for the doom and gloom around Australia’s inability to reclaim the Bledisloe Cup, a drought now stretching 24 years, the Wallabies have promised themselves they won’t spend the week feeling sorry for themselves.
The trophy is gone for another year, but Saturday presents an opportunity to restore some pride and avoid a clean sweep.
Australia and New Zealand also face each other in the pool stages at next year’s Rugby World Cup at the same venue. There will be an element of wanting to land an early psychological blow ahead of a game that really matters.
“You can be disappointed, but you’ve got to pick up the pieces pretty quickly to be able to move on and give ourselves a good opportunity this Saturday,” Wright said.
“The guys are pretty keen to get back on the horse.”
One player unavailable for the Wallabies’ final match before their European spring tour is Jordan Petaia, who missed the Auckland clash after suffering a syndesmosis injury at training last week.
Petaia is expected to be sidelined for about a month after being caught in an awkward tackle involving several Wallabies players, including Max Jorgensen, in the lead-up to the first Bledisloe Test.