Rugby: Wallaby great Michael Lynagh savages Wallabies after big loss to All Blacks

Wallaby captain Michael Hooper scraps for the ball in the Sydney test - his comments have been blasted by Aussie rugby great Michael Lynagh. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Wallaby great Michael Lynagh has savaged the Australian side and captain Michael Hooper, after they were smashed by the All Blacks in Sydney.

A second-half revival did nothing to calm down Lynagh, who was furious after the 54-34 defeat.

The World Cup-winning pivot told Sky Sports: "I can't overestimate how angry I am at seeing an Australian team have skills that are non-existent.

"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. The thing that lingers with me is the first half, how poor that was.

"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."

Lynagh, a world points recordholder and member of a Grand Slam Wallaby team, was particularly scathing about replacement halfback Nick Phipps.

"That's an international halfback Nick Phipps - passing one ball to his right and it goes above a bloke's head," he said.

"It was just so poor. The simple skills of passing and tackling were non-existent in the first half, and that's very worrying."

Australia missed about 50 tackles and coach Michael Cheika has admitted the defence was sub-standard, but is backing defensive coach Nathan Grey.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported Hooper as saying: "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."

Meanwhile, Ian Payten of The Daily Telegraph was just one of many reporters throughout Australian media to have ripped into the Wallabies' performance last night, labelling their defence as "atrocious".

"For as much spirit was shown in the last half-hour, the Wallabies defence oscillated between atrocious and missing in the first 50 minutes, and any hope of victory was gone well before the belated comeback," he wrote.

The Sydney Morning Herald's Tom Decent agreed with Payten's sentiments.

"The Wallabies missed a staggering 40 percent (37 from 94) of all tackles in the first half and there will be immense pressure on defence coach Nathan Grey, given what the Waratahs dished up this year too," he wrote.

"By the end of 80 minutes, Australia had missed 48 tackles, which is just not good enough at international level.

"In last year's bloodbath against New Zealand in Sydney, the full-time margin was 34 points. On Saturday, the All Blacks led by that buffer at half-time.

"Cheika may have boasted the Wallabies were fit and raring to go, but they sure as anything didn't do enough work on their defensive structures in an abysmal effort."