Relief for Rennie as Wallabies stop the rot

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Coach Dave Rennie says his overwhelming emotion was “relief” after Australia ended a three-match losing streak with victory over Scotland on Saturday.

The Murrayfield Test was in the balance right until the finish, with flyhalf Blair Kinghorn missing a 40-metre penalty in the closing seconds that would have condemned the Wallabies to a fourth successive defeat by Scotland.

Scotland led 15-6 going into the final quarter after Kinghorn, impressive in open play, created a try for fullback Ollie Smith and scored one himself.

But the match turned Australia’s way when Scotland replacement Glen Young was sin-binned for a dangerous challenge on Australia scrumhalf Tate McDermott.

Australia made their man advantage count, captain James Slipper forcing his way over for a converted try before flyhalf Bernard Foley’s penalty nudged the Wallabies a point in front 10 minutes from time.

The result meant Australia launched their European tour with a morale-boosting win ahead of next week’s game against Six Nations Grand Slam champions France, the 2023 World Cup hosts, in Paris.

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“A bit of relief, especially with Blair Kinghorn lining up [to take the penalty],” Rennie told reporters.

“There was a hell of lot of noise in the crowd, I thought it was over, seeing there were a lot of Aussies or a lot of drunk Scotsmen in the stands.”

The New Zealander, a former Glasgow coach, added: “At 15-6, we’d given up a soft one [try] straight after half-time but we fought our way back in and got our nose in front.”

For prop Slipper, leading an Australia side where former captain and star flanker Michael Hooper returned to Test action on Saturday after a mental health break, there was pride in seeing the Wallabies edge a close match following some agonising recent losses.

“We’ve had a season where we’ve lost a fair few games in the last kind of 10 minutes,” he said.

“It was nice to actually come out on the right side of the scoreboard tonight so that’s probably the,most pleasing thing but as Ren said, the character shown by the boys to hang in there.”

Photo: @wallabies/Twitter

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Devin Hermanus