Australian rugby legend Michael Lynagh has launched a scathing attack on the Wallabies in the wake of their 54-34 thumping at the hands of New Zealand, saying their basic skills are "non-existent".
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It comes as Wallabies coach Michael Cheika conceded Australia's defence was simply not up to scratch but said he was "100 per cent" behind defence coach Nathan Grey.
The Wallabies put out arguably their worst ever half of football to trail 40-6 at half-time and 54-6 after just 48 minutes of play in the Bledisloe Cup opener.
In total, Australia missed 48 tackles and made too many basic errors, something that did not sit well with Lynagh, a former Wallabies captain.
"I can't overestimate how angry I am at seeing an Australian team have skills that are non-existent," said Lynagh on Sky Sports. "Passing and catching and making tackles and trusting the bloke beside you are pretty basic even at schoolboy level. Australia has had a month to work together to try and create stuff and do things and they come up with that in the first 40? Very, very disappointing."
Cheika conceded Australia's defence was not at the standard of an international team.
"It was pretty plain to see that our defence wasn't good enough at all," Cheika said. "With adherence to the way we want to defend, plus also the tackling in itself, it's got to be better. It's not the level you can be at [at] all in any game, let alone a game against them.
"It's not attitude, it's just maybe that little bit of doubt creeps in.
"There's no one-two step process for that type of stuff, that comes down to a deep belief between players. You have to acknowledge what you did wrong first of all and then say, 'OK, we've got to fix those things and go and do it'. This group of players here, they've got a very strong connection."
Grey, who is in charge of the defence portfolio, has been under pressure this year at the Waratahs after they recorded their worst year on record from a defensive viewpoint.
From four Tests this year, the Wallabies have conceded 132 points – an average of 33 per game.
Asked whether Grey had his support, Cheika replied: "100 per cent".
Lynagh also took a swipe at Wallabies captain Michael Hooper and Nick Phipps in the wash-up.
"The thing that lingers with me is the first half, how poor that was," Lynagh said. "Michael Hooper there seemed pretty content with the second half and that we scored a few tries. We still lost by 20 points at the end of the day and at half-time we were 40 points down.
"That's an international halfback Nick Phipps; passing one ball to his right and it goes above a bloke's head. It was just so poor.
"The simple skills of passing and tackling were non-existent in the first half and that's very worrying."
Cheika said he didn't expect there to be major changes ahead of Australia's next assignment in Dunedin on Saturday but rather a change in attitude.
"The change has to be more about believing in ourselves to make the hits when we need to," Cheika said. "You still feel just as bad but I know we'll improve and we've got to do some quick improving around for the next game. We want to keep the series alive.
"We had the right preparation no doubt and obviously not playing a lot of footy that leaves you out a little bit missing the [Super Rugby] games. That's as good as we could have had it. It comes down to bringing that into the game."
Hooper added: "As Michael said, our defence just wasn't up to scratch and there was a bit of an unravelling there for a bit. We were able to get back in it with some really good fight."
The story first appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald
