Rugby as God intended … but Wallabies can’t conjure a miracle this time

4 hours ago 1

Opinion

September 13, 2025 — 5.36pm

If rugby is indeed the game they play in heaven, it would look a lot like this. Lord help me, Jesus, count ’em off:

A wonderfully sunny Sydney day in early spring.
A perfect, green pitch – so smooth, lush, and dry, it was just made for running rugby.
Two wonderful international rugby teams, in the Wallabies and Pumas, both rising hard and coming off a thrilling match last week.
A full house, with a rugby ravenous crowd, that included a colourfully attired Argentine mob up one end complete with flags and songs.

And in the first five minutes, a slice of heaven was confirmed when, after two successful Puma penalty goals, the ball came out to Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii on the fly, who simply surged into space and sliced the Argentine defence open with the skill and dexterity of a surgeon’s knife to score ten metres to the right of the post. Try!

Wallabies lead, 7-6, and everything was right with the world and in heaven above. But now it started. You say tomato, I say tomarto; she says yin, I say yang; and now came the hell we feared.

For the better part of the next 60 minutes, the ball went up and down the field and from side to side, only for the visitors to pick off a seemingly endless harvest of penalty goals and one try. Time and again the Wallabies threatened to break out, only to break down instead. Some passes didn’t quite stick. Others went forward. Max Jorgensen received a yellow card for a deliberate knock-down. Balls were knocked on with the line wide open, and the Wallabies threatening to score.

Compounding all of the above was the endless box-kicks from both sides. I don’t have the stats – they bore me – but it was obvious to all that theirs worked and ours didn’t. Every time theirs went high, they were at least a 50 per cent chance of recovering them. Every time ours went high, they seemed to field them without problem.

Worse, their forwards were at least as valiant as ours and their backs were quicksilver and threatening every time they got the ball. An hour in, it was hard to escape the conclusion that the Pumas were simply a better side – at least when we were having an off day – as they continued to pick off penalty goals from all over the park.

With 15 minutes to go the Wallabies were down 28-7. Lord, if you can hear us, we need a miracle!

Right on cue, the Argentines are shown a yellow card of their own and within seconds, Suaalii’s surgeon’s knife probed through weakness again, slicing through and put fullback Andrew Kellaway over under the sticks. We’ve closed to 28-14!

Two minutes later, Suaalii does it AGAIN, breaking through on the left to release winger Filipo Daugunu, who goes over the in the corner. Unconverted, the score stood at 28-19, and we all took it back. Maybe there is a God, after all!

Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii was a constant threat.

At this point, it seemed obvious to this little black duck, at least, that the go was to take a leaf out of the book of the little Kiwi boy who once sent a fax to the All Blacks on the eve of the World Cup Final of 1995, saying: “Remember, rugby is a team game, so all 14 of yers pass the ball to Jonah!” In this case, with the Pumas still missing a man in the backs and Suaalii on fire, the go was to get the ball to “His-name-is-Su.”

Instead, unaccountably, halfback Tate McDermott – who is normally fantastic in the second half darting from the base – tried a couple of box-kicks, neither of which worked. Get thee behind me, Devil!

Still, again the Lord smiled, and with just two minutes left on the clock, Daugunu goes over once more in the corner after a little more slicing and dicing from Suaalii on the left. Converted, it gave the Wallabies – now down by just two points, 28-26 – just 30 seconds to work their magic.

All we needed to do was get the ball from the kick-off, avoid errors, work our way downfield and either win a kickable penalty or go over for another last-gasp winner.

And they tried, they really, really tried. For well over a minute, they kept the ball in hand, despite fierce hammerings from the visitors, until, right on full-time, in extremis, something had to give. Alas, instead of the Argentine defence, it was the Wallabies’ sang-froid, and the ball was spilled.

Game over. Victory to the Pumas, 28-26.

Oh, what might have been!

Despite the disappointment, it confirmed the news of this wonderful international season: the Wallabies are indeed a very good side, and scored four tries to one, exhibiting some wonderful play throughout. But Argentina, too, have genuinely arrived on the international rugby stage and are not only fabulous competitors, but play the game in the spirit was intended. Bravo the lot of them.

For the Wallabies, onwards to the All Blacks in a fortnight!

Watch all the action from the 2025 Rugby Championship on Stan Sport.