Allan Alaalatoa reflects on Wallabies’ record defeat in Argentina

Prop Allan Alaalatoa has opened up on what it was like to be inside the Wallabies’ camp after the team’s record 67-27 loss to Los Pumas. In Sante Fe, Argentina ran in 50 points in the second half alone to hand Australia their heaviest defeat ever in Test match rugby.

To make that result even tougher for Wallabies fans, the visitors led 20-3 during the first half as they appeared on track for what would’ve been their second win over Los Pumas in seven days. But 80 minutes is a long time at the international level as that Test match showed.

Argentina scored 38 unanswered points over about 34 minutes of rugby as they ran out to a shock 41-20 lead. The Santa Fe crowd was loving every minute of it, and while the visitors struck back through replacement Tate McDermott, it was one-way traffic from there.

Juan Cruz Mallia scored a quick double in the space of a few minutes, Joaquin Oviedo scored with four minutes left to play, and Lucio Cinti scored in the final play of the Test to complete a famous win. For those who are unaware, this all happened within the last 10 minutes.

That was the most points conceded by the Wallabies in a Test ever, surpassing the 61 points put on them by the Springboks in 1997. With the team returning home to Australia, that gave them a lot to think about.

“Yeah, it was tough. There was certainly some disappointment post-game,” Alaalatoa told reporters on Tuesday afternoon.

“Flying home, I thought it was really good to get home and connect with our loved ones, our families.

“Then we came in a couple of days ago and just reviewed the last game and understood that when we put our gameplan together, we were really good. There were passages there in the second half where we didn’t and then we’re poor.

“It’s important to understand those learnings and to move on but to apply that at training to get that confidence to then go and execute on Saturday.”

After returning home to Australia, the Wallabies had the chance to go away on a small break before regrouping on Sunday. The Wallabies have an opportunity now to put the past behind them as they set their sights on what’s to come: a Bledisloe Cup Test in Sydney.

The Wallabies haven’t held the Bledisloe Cup in 22 years, with the likes of Richie McCaw, Kieran Read and Sam Cane leading the All Blacks to some memorable triumphs over that two decades of dominance.

If you were to poll rugby fans around the world, a majority would likely agree that the All Blacks are once again strong favourites to lift the giant trophy once again. They need to win at least one of the two Tests, or at least avoid drawing one and losing the other.

New Zealand are coming off two losses in South Africa, and they’ll be hungry to make amends – just as the Aussies are after their trip to Argentina. So, with a handful of days still to go until the Test at Accor Stadium, the stage is set for another epic.

“The All Blacks are a tough outfit, as we all know, but a lot of our players played a lot of the individuals in Super Rugby which I think is good for us,” Alaalatoa explained.

“Again, our focus is on ourselves. We understand the threats that they’re going to bring but we want to pour all of our attention into us delivering our system over and over again as much as we can.

“Delivering that for 40 (minutes) isn’t good enough, you’ve got to be doing it for 80, and those are the places where we’re going to be pouring in our energy throughout this whole week to then again give us that belief and confidence to go out there on Saturday and just play.”