23-07-2025
Wallabies player fires back after Aussie greats address captain's contentious act
Wallabies winger Harry Potter says it's 'ridiculous' for Sir Clive Woodward to suggest Australia has a losing mentality because of a contentious incident at the end of the first Test defeat to the British and Irish Lions. Harry Wilson's decision to kick the ball out and bring an end to the 27-19 defeat in Brisbane sparked debate around the rugby world, but a couple of Wallabies greats have defended the actions of the under-fire Aussie skipper.
The Wallabies trailed by an assailable eight points and were camped near their own tryline with no time left on the clock, when Wilson put the ball into touch to end the opening Test. Woodward - England's former World Cup-winning coach - tore into the Australian captain afterwards and argued that the Wallabies should have pushed for a consolation try and used the situation as practice for the rest of the series.
"What summed up the game for me was with the clock in the red and with the Lions winning 27-19, the Australian captain Harry Wilson kicked the ball out to end the game," Woodward wrote. "Talk about a losing mentality. For me, it is the last play of the game so why not have a mentality to try and score as this could be the situation in seven days' time, only closer?"
But Wallabies greats Matt Burke and former captain Michael Hooper both jumped to Wilson's defence and said they were shocked by the backlash. "Don't let them get a driving maul or whatever and try and just rub salt into the wound. 34-19 at the end sounds incredibly bad," Burke said on Stan Sports' Between Two Posts.
"Get the ball, kick it out, start again, walk off and say 'you didn't breach our line at the end there.' We won that second half in tough circumstances after coming back... as a captain, that's what I'd have done every day of the week. Turn it up."
Hooper added: "I'm surprised by the comments (from Woodward). Clive is a great coach, what more could be done? I think that's a good, mature decision from Harry. We'll turn up next week and try and win the next two. I think Clive should be thinking, 'why didn't the Lions put the foot on the throat for the second half'?"
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And Wallabies winger Potter also defended his skipper after hitting back at Woodward's explosive swipe. "It's pretty ridiculous to suggest that the 23 people who played on the weekend have a mentality of losing," Potter said at the MCG, ahead of Saturday night's second Test.
"We went out there to win the game, and we didn't win the game. But it was our intention very much and you could tell from every player in the team we wanted to win that game." The Wallabies were dominated by the Lions in the first Test and trailed 24-5 after 42 minutes. A pair of late tries for Australia ultimately added some respectability to the scoreboard but Potter says the Wallabies are desperate to put up an improved showing in Melbourne.
"It felt like we didn't put our best foot forward, particularly in the first 50 or 60 minutes," he said. "There were a lot of lessons to take out of that one. They're an incredibly strong team and we know that we've got to come out better and start the game stronger.
"But I suppose there were some positive signs towards the end of the game. If we can string enough things together then we'll go a lot better than what we did." The Wallabies will be hoping to emulate the feat of the legendary 2001 squad led by John Eales, that recovered from 1-0 down to claim a famous 2-1 series win against the Lions.
with AAP
