Wallabies’ captain Harry Wilson and head coach Joe Schmidt conceded the 48-33 loss to France felt like many of the results from earlier in their Spring Tour, with their lapses at lineout, discipline, and second-half momentum proving pivotal in Les Bleus’ victory.
However, the experienced head coach believes the side will be better off for the tough experience in the long term, as his plans now turn to preparing his handover to Reds coach Les Kiss.
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The Wallabies conceded ten penalties in the second half, with three lineouts also lost and key lapses of execution deep in French territory proving critical.
“I think it is probably reflective of a lot of the games on the tour,” Schmidt said in the post-match presser. “We've been in every game at half-time, and we haven't finished them off well enough.”
“There's a lot of learning about trying to manage big moments, trying to manage ourselves. When we start to just miss a couple of things, and you didn't have to miss much for some of the French athletes to get away from us tonight, they were very quick to do so.
“At the same time, I felt we caused them quite a few problems. Scoring five tries is at least reflective of the effort that was made, but we can't afford to concede the number of points that we did.”
“It's obviously quite a disappointing tour, to be frank,” the Wallaby captain added.
“There's been plenty of learnings. We've learned a lot about ourselves, a lot about our teammates, and there've been some tough times, and we've stuck together as a group, which is something I guess we take a lot of pride in.
“Tonight, I thought we came out and played some good footy, a little physical, using a lot of tips and out the backs. We thought we were creating a lot of space for ourselves, and then that second half, I guess we just couldn't get any momentum back in the game.
“We missed that opportunity, which is disappointing.”
Wilson stopped short of listening to the outside criticism around the team, believing the current side has everything they need to succeed long term.
“We definitely didn't use it as motivation, to be honest,” Wilson said when asked about the external criticism.
“We care about every single person inside our walls, the 36 players, the ten coaches, the 20 behind the scenes. It was really disappointing not to get the results, but I know as a group, we kept working hard, we kept training well, we prepped well, and I just feel disappointed that we probably let our group down with the results.
“If there is a lot of criticism back home, I've been trying not to look at that sort of stuff because it's quite crippling if you keep looking at that, and I love every person in our squad, the coaching staff.”
“I'd endorse everything Harry said, just about the coaching staff, the physical training, the support staff across the board,” Schmidt added.
“That's why I just love the players to have got a couple of results because they're working hard.”
The Wallabies will make their return home after a gargantuan season that started back in July against Fiji in Newcastle, with the only notable break coming in the form of a nine-day gap between the end of the Rugby Championship and the start of their November tour.
Schmidt, after a break, will also enter the home stretch of his own time as Wallabies’ head coach, handing over to Les Kiss after the July 2026 Nations Championship fixtures.
Despite the disappointment of the tour, the coach believes that in the long run, his decision to stay on will prove beneficial in the Wallabies' preparation for the 2027 Rugby World Cup on home soil.
“I'm getting pretty old, and I think this group of young men will continue to grow,” the head coach added.
“They will get something out of this tour. They will learn from this tour, and I think they'll improve from the tour.”
“They'll improve when they've had the chance to digest it and recharge. One of the things is that next July, the three teams that were played over the last three weeks, the players will get to measure themselves again against the same three teams.
“I was supposed to finish earlier, and it would have been easy to finish earlier because I knew how tough this tour was going to be, but you don't walk away from a group of men who are working this hard and leave them asunder.
“We're just going to roll up our sleeves, and we're not finished yet.”
