Dave Rennie takes another jab at All Blacks as Wallabies pair ruled out

Publish Date
Sunday, 29 August 2021, 10:29AM
Photosport

Photosport

Wallabies coach Dave Rennie has taken another jab at the All Blacks as the build-up intensifies ahead of the third Bledisloe Cup test.

Australia will be missing two players for next Sunday's clash in Perth and Rennie says both would have featured had the game gone ahead this weekend as originally planned.

Centre Hunter Paisami and lock Lukhan Salakaia-Loto have left the Wallabies' camp to return home for the births of their first children, with Rennie saying the pair would have "probably" been available to play today.

He told AAP: "Their partners are due on the first [of September] and beyond so they both came here originally and have since left."

The Wallabies won't be the only one missing players through parental commitments, with senior All Blacks trio Sam Whitelock, Aaron Smith and Richie Mo'unga having all remained in New Zealand.

But despite Australia losing the services of Paisami and Salakaia-Loto, Rennie said his side would not need to use the scheduling issues as a motivational tool for the match in Perth.

"We're not necessarily using it as extra motivation," the coach said. "The disappointment for us was we knew that the Rugby Championship was going to be played somewhere in the world on the 12th of September.

"The All Blacks committed to play us originally on the 21st [of August] and then the 28th, and had they come over here, what we knew was on the 29th we're all jumping on a plane heading to somewhere in the world.

"Whether that was Brisbane, South Africa or that was the UK - and, from that perspective, we felt they should have been on the plane and come over and fulfilled their commitments.

"But anyway...they're here now. There's plenty of motivating factors and the biggest one is the scoreline last time we played."

That encounter at Eden Park earlier in the month saw the All Blacks romp to a record 57-22 win, providing Rennie's side with all the fuel they would need ahead of the rematch.

"We had a pretty brutal review, which you should do," he said. "We did a lot of really good things in that test but not for long enough, and made too many errors and gave their key playmakers time and space.

"We knew heading in that would be fatal so we've got to be better. To leak that many points, that's been all the focus - not on the good things we did."

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission

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