'Regrets - I've sure got a few'

2008-09-02 08:09

Sydney - Timana Tahu says he is shattered by his nightmare run-on debut for the Wallabies, especially over missing an early tackle that led to a try.

The former NRL star, however, said the Wallabies backline was on the back foot early after the Springboks scored three quick tries on their way to the record 53-8 victory on Saturday night at Johannesburg's Ellis Park.

Tahu took over from the injured Berrick Barnes at inside-centre having previously played just 23 minutes of Test rugby.

"I've had a few [heavy defeats] in my career and it's just not the best thing in my debut in the starting side - you get given a chance to prove yourself and it's just shattering," said Tahu.

"I was looking for a rope to hang myself. South Africa just played out of their skin. The first five minutes everything was going well but after that it just felt like we were running backwards all the time. It was probably one of those games where you want to wake up and just think this is a bad dream."

If the nightmare wasn't bad enough, Tahu also had to swallow the Boks' celebrations.

"South Africans sure know how to rub it in and I think that's what made it feel worse," he said. "The crowd and listening to them after the game, you can hear people cheering and carrying on and it makes you angry, it makes you really angry, it makes you want to play them again next week or tomorrow and try and see if you can square things up."

Baggage

Australia arrived in Johannesburg confident they were in with a chance of ending their awful run on the high veldt after a breakthrough win in Durban and with the Springboks seemingly in disarray under eccentric new coach Peter de Villiers.

Tahu might have arrived at Ellis Park without any "baggage", but there's no doubt he will have left with some.

"It's really hard to get into the stadium, the traffic, the crowd," he said. "It takes you about half an hour, 40 minutes squeezing through the traffic and then you're getting into the stadium and there's a rowdy crowd. But it was a good experience."

Tahu's ability to read the play at inside-centre was always going to be a key factor in Australia's performance and the Boks had no hesitation in aiming plenty of traffic at the Wallabies midfield.

"I felt comfortable. I felt my defence is probably one of my strengths but there's probably just a few little technical things," he said. "I missed one tackle there, which cost us a try - personally that was probably the down point of my game, but I thought I was doing everything right."

Wallabies captain Stirling Mortlock remained upbeat despite the loss, saying his team can "easily fix" the problems that were on display on Saturday.

Players were still hurting

"A lot of what we can control, our shape in attack, our set piece, our defensive shape can be fixed quite easily, I guess that's a semi-positive thing," Mortlock said at Sydney Airport yesterday.

Coach Robbie Deans admitted his players were still hurting from the loss, but Mortlock suggested they might yet gain from the pain.

"If you were in the changing room you would have heard a pin drop, that hurt," Mortlock said. "The guys hopefully will use that. We have so much to play for next week. I think everyone will be absolutely mentally where they need to be, in the right place."

Deans said he would not look beyond his current squad, although he didn't rule out changes to his starting side for the All Blacks clash.

The Wallabies will definitely still be without second-rower Dan Vickerman, while Barnes was unlikely to recover from his injury. In one positive piece of fitness news, Deans said prop Benn Robinson had been cleared of a broken hand and should be OK to play on Saturday next week.

- Rugby Heaven