Australia: Nic White says Wallabies must ‘step up’ for Dave Rennie

Wallabies scrum-half Nic White feels the team “let down” head coach Dave Rennie and his backroom staff when they lost to Italy in Florence and said they are determined to bounce back against Ireland in Dublin this weekend.

White was not in the matchday squad for the 28-27 loss against the Azzurri, which was their first-ever defeat in the fixture.

Keen to get campaign back on track

The 32-year-old admitted that they needed a rest after a long and arduous season but said it’s important to use their current disappointment as motivation to get their Autumn Nations Series campaign back on track.

“We need to lean it on, it’s about channelling that (disappointment) which we’ve spoken about,” White told Rugby Australia’s official website.

“The boys were properly gutted after the game, it was really flat as you can imagine, really quiet. We don’t want that to hamper performance so we need to channel it the right way.

“The way we can do that is being fully focused on what can help us win this week and put out a good performance. It’s about immersing yourself into your position and getting the role right.

“We need to put out a good performance because anything short of that isn’t going to be good enough.”

Veteran Wallabies fly-half Bernard Foley was also watching from the sidelines and couldn’t hide his disappointment about the loss to Italy.

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“It was extremely disappointing,” Foley added.

“As a squad, we set objectives for this tour and to not live up to that was the biggest disappointment. There’s many areas that we lacked but it was good to see how the guys stayed in the game, when you thought it was done they gave everything to give themselves a chances to win.”

That loss puts more pressure on Rennie and his coaching staff as they prepare to face an in-form Ireland side, who are the number-one-ranked team in the world.

The Wallabies have lost five of their last six Tests of which three were by two points or less.

White referred to Rennie and his coaching staff as ‘world class’ and suggested that players need to perform to that standard, starting with the Ireland Test.

“We don’t have our heads buried in the sand, we understand the pressure that’s come on (Dave),” he said.

“It’s disappointing, we feel as a playing group we’re letting him down that he’s got this pressure because we do absolutely love being coached by Dave. He’s a phenomenal coach and the coaching staff here are world-class.

Plenty of pressure

“We as a playing group aren’t there yet, a lot of the pressure that’s coming their way is a whole lot to do with what we’re putting out on the field and a whole lot of moments we could’ve controlled.

“We need to step up as a group and this week’s a chance to show how much we care for Dave and the coaching staff.”