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The Wallabies have been heavily criticised by coach John Connolly and sections of the Australian rugby media despite recording their first win on foreign soil this year, 25-18 over Italy in Rome yesterday.
Connolly said his team's performance was their worst effort since he took charge at the start of this year while Australia's newspapers described the side's display as woeful.
"We slipped back mentally and that's a problem," Connolly told reporters in Rome.
"Our selection of when and what to do was poor. Our kicking, which has been really good this year, at times really fell off the planet. Sometimes we need a kick in the pants to produce good stuff."
Connolly's frank assessment of the Wallabies' scrappy effort was endorsed by the country's media.
"The Wallabies have in recent years produced many miserable efforts, but they don't come much more bewildering than at Stadio Flaminio on Saturday night," wrote the Sydney Morning Herald's chief rugby writer Greg Growden.
"Australia got away with it, but it wasn't convincing. For most of the game the Wallabies played abominable, aimless football."
The Daily Telegraph's Peter Jenkins said that with less than 10 months to go before next year's World Cup in France, time was running out for the Australians to get their game together.
"The Wallabies are walking a nine-test tightrope to next year's World Cup," Jenkins wrote.
"They continue to struggle in the scrum, are failing to fire in Europe and the backline on which they will pin their hopes is far from settled after the Roman debacle.
"When John Connolly was installed this year there were 20 games to arrest a malaise that saw Australia lose eight of their last nine tests under Eddie Jones.
"Eleven matches into that countdown, and the World Cup 10 months away, there remains mountainous terrain to cover."
- REUTERS
