When the Wallabies arrived in Italy three years in the past, little did they know the course of Australian rugby was about to be modified perpetually.
Already 2022 had been a curler coaster yr. Having crushed England within the first Check of the season, Australia would finally go on to lose the sequence to Eddie Jones’ aspect 2-1. The Wallabies then break up two Exams towards the world champion Springboks one apiece, having already executed so towards Argentina.
Who then may overlook the Bledisloe Cup time-wasting debacle, which robbed the Wallabies of a drought-breaking win over the All Blacks? Bernard Foley definitely hasn’t, nor have any of the 50-odd thousand followers that poured into Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium to see French referee Mathieu Raynal create rugby historical past.
So when the Wallabies lobbed into Florence, that attractive renaissance metropolis on the Arno River as soon as house to Michaelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, they have been nonetheless making an attempt to color an image of a crew on course.
Cue a Picasso-esque scramble of a Wallabies beginning XV, a first-half 17-8 deficit and an eventual 28-27 defeat, a primary ever loss to Italy proving to be one of many ultimate nails within the teaching coffin of Dave Rennie.
However not earlier than alternative fly-half Ben Donaldson, on his Check debut, stroked a match-winning conversion broad of the posts in one of the brutal worldwide bows any rugby participant has ever endured. Donaldson had been on the sector for simply 5 minutes when requested to win in for Australia.
“That first recreation, clearly not the top you need in your debut recreation,” Donaldson, who bounced again to assist fireplace Australia previous Wales in a while that spring tour, mirrored to ESPN the next yr.
“However I’ve taken plenty of learnings from that recreation, mentally I’ve simply grown as an individual on and off the sector, simply studying so much about how one can transfer on from issues like that.”
The defeat was on no account Donaldson’s fault, the Wallabies had been largely terrible that day. They gave up 16 penalties, had Jake Gordon sin-binned, and located a comeback from first 17-8 after which 25-15 one step too far.
However in an alternate universe, had Donaldson stroked his penalty between the Stadio Artemio Franchi sticks, then Australian rugby may not have undergone the identical dramatic shift that adopted.
Whereas then Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan may nonetheless have moved to recruit Eddie Jones, which turned out to be an unmitigated catastrophe on and off the sector, Rennie’s goose would have been that little bit more durable to cook dinner had his gamble to relaxation 13 gamers towards the Azzurri paid off.
As an alternative, he was sacked through Zoom in early January 2023.
Practically three years on, the rugby world continues to attend patiently for Rennie’s model of occasions and simply what he has to say about McLennan and the state of chaos during which Australia almost all the time appear to exist.
However within the measure of the person, Rennie attended the Wallabies Check with Japan, now paradoxically as soon as once more being coached by Jones, and later spoke with Joe Schmidt, shedding some gentle on simply went improper in 2022.
“We’re aware of final time we went to Italy. Effectively I’m, as a result of I regarded again at that recreation and I caught up with Dave Rennie in Japan, and we mentioned it briefly,” Schmidt stated after Australia’s listless 25-7 loss to England final weekend.
“However all we are able to have an effect on now’s how we put together and go into that recreation and provides a efficiency that’s extra correct than what we put out tonight [against England].”
It is unlikely that Schmidt will make comparable gambles to Rennie this weekend in Udina, the place the Wallabies will face Italy on the house of Serie A soccer membership, Udinese.
He has a choice to make at fly-half, both sticking with Tane Edmed for the fourth-straight Check or turning to the returned Carter Gordon, who’s match once more after overcoming a quad pressure the Queenslander suffered on his reintroduction to life with the Wallabies.
However when it was possible Schmidt was making ready to set Len Ikitau and Tom Hooper for Eire every week later, the Kiwi is below mounting strain to deliver the Exeter duo straight again into the matchday 23, so missing was the Wallabies’ capacity to win the gainline in London.
It’s nonetheless Schmidt’s determination at No. 10 that may garner the best consideration in Udina this week. There will not be 13 modifications as there was in 2022, however the likelihood that both Gordon or three-Check scrum-half Ryan Lonergan are requested to come back off the bench and stroke a match-winning conversion or penalty isn’t past the realms of chance.
The shivers such an eventuality may ship down the backbone of Donaldson, who’s at present holidaying in Vietnam, and that of each Australian rugby fan aren’t price considering.
Fortunately, a repeat of the 12-month interval of carnage that adopted that consequence, with Rugby Australia’s teaching succession plan already in place, is subsequent to no likelihood of unfolding ought to historical past repeat towards the Azzurri.
Relaxation assured, although, {that a} second straight defeat to the Italians will close to wipe away fully the progress the Wallabies have been seen to have made earlier this yr.
