The Wallabies were meant to prove they’re back. But instead they have gone backwards
Three weeks ago, Australia arrived in Europe self-assured and quietly confident of taking a few prized scalps.And why not? They had come within a single refereeing call at the breakdown of claiming a British & Irish Lions series win.They had hammered the world champion Springboks in Johannesburg.They had shown great chutzpah to beat Argentina after the hooter and they still carried the glow of last November’s win over England.This was a side developing shape and steel, a side capable of the sublime, a side beginning to coax long-dormant fans back to the code while tempting home several stars who had crossed to rugby league.
This tour was supposed to confirm, unequivocally, that the Wallabies were back.Instead, they’ve gone backwards after a sorry performance against Ireland in Dublin where they received a 46–19 shellacking that still managed to flatter them on the scoreboard.This result also confirms their status as a B-tier rugby team.No matter what happens against France in Paris next week, they will leave Europe ranked outside the top six on World Rugby’s charts, consigning them to the second pot when the 2027 World Cup draw takes place next month.The implications are stark: if the Wallabies want to reach the latter stages of their own tournament on home soil, they will have to knock over one of the giants, a task that, on current evidence, feels well beyond them.
Too often in Dublin they looked like a side searching for someone else to take control: to claim the high ball, to marshal the defensive line, to calm a frantic moment, to dictate where the next five minutes should be played,Ireland didn’t overwhelm them physically or tactically,They simply leaned on the most obvious pressure points – contestable kicks, structured phase play, tempo changes – and trusted that the Wallabies would crack first,And they did,Australia coughed up possession from their own lineout on six occasions – four times inside Ireland’s 22.
Their ineptitude under the high ball has only worsened after similar struggles against England and Italy over the past fortnight.They’re playing like a team that has run out of energy, which is deeply concerning given they should be entering a new chapter as they gear up for that home World Cup in less than two years.What on earth are they going to do between now and then?First things first: they need to back someone, anyone, at fly-half.James O’Connor is a supremely gifted athlete.He looks the part too.
His socks are down around his ankles, his angular jaw barks instructions to teammates as his sinewy arms wave about,But he is not the metronome this team requires,His inability to marshal the backline into something resembling a cohesive structure was telling,Not that this is O’Connor’s fault,In an ideal world, the 35-year-old who made his Test debut 17 years ago would have been watching this match like the rest of us.
But Tane Edmed is far from the finished product, and Carter Gordon, while rediscovering his groove in the code, is sidelined with a neck injury,What Schmidt would give for a player like South Africa’s Handré Pollard or England’s George Ford, two fly-halves who have copped their share of criticism for lacking razzle-dazzle, yet provide the one quality Australia are crying out for: control,Australia already have plenty of excitement and instinct and broken-field brilliance,What they’re missing is a first receiver who dictates the tempo of a Test match, who can put his studs on the ball and slow things down, who can take the sting out of the contest rather than add to the chaos,Under Schmidt, Australian rugby is steadier, but still too dependent on the sting.
For Schmidt, this is a version of José Mourinho’s undersized blanket problem: tug the defence into shape and the attack loses fluidity; focus on structure and the spark disappears; lean on spark and the control evaporates,Every time Australia cover one area, another is left exposed,Sign up to Australia SportGet a daily roundup of the latest sports news, features and comment from our Australian sports deskafter newsletter promotionThe cruel irony is that this team’s ceiling remains genuinely high,But the floor keeps dropping out from beneath them,They don’t need to reinvent themselves, they need reliability, leadership and a spine that doesn’t buckle under pressure.
The tour was supposed to be a statement of intent.Instead, it has served as a sobering reminder of how far behind the leading nations Australia still sit.Schmidt will speak of learnings and combinations and growth – and some of that will be true – but he knows better than anyone that this team requires more than incremental improvement.It needs identity, clarity and, crucially, a fly-half who can turn talent into Test-match shape.In the end it’s the clarity that will hurt most.
Australia are not on the cusp of something; they are adrift from it.The raw materials are there, but the polish, the precision, the ruthlessness that defines the very best sides remains absent.
AI slop tops Billboard and Spotify charts as synthetic music spreads
Three songs generated by artificial intelligence topped music charts this week, reaching the highest spots on Spotify and Billboard charts.Walk My Walk and Livin’ on Borrowed Time by the outfit Breaking Rust topped Spotify’s “Viral 50” songs in the US, which documents the “most viral tracks right now” on a daily basis, according to the streaming service. A Dutch song, We Say No, No, No to an Asylum Center, an anti-migrant anthem by JW “Broken Veteran” that protests against the creation of new asylum centers, took the top position in Spotify’s global version of the viral chart around the same time. Breaking Rust also appeared in the top five on the global chart.“You can kick rocks if you don’t like how I talk,” reads a lyric from Walk My Walk, a seeming double entendre challenging those opposed to AI-generated music
UK firms can win a significant chunk of the AI chip market | John Browne
The UK is in a uniquely promising position, far too little understood, to play a lucrative role in the coming era of artificial intelligence – but only if it also grabs the opportunity to start making millions of computer chips.AI requires vast numbers of chips and we could supply up to 5% of world demand if we get our national act together.Our legacy in chip design is world-class, starting with the first general-purpose electronic computer, the first electronic memory and the first parallel computer. Today we have Cambridge-based Arm, a quiet titan designing more than 90% of the chips powering phones and tablets globally.With such a pedigree, it is not idle daydreaming for British companies to win a significant chunk of the AI chip market; 5% is a conservative, achievable ambition
EU investigates Google over ‘demotion’ of commercial content from news media
The EU has opened an investigation into Google Search over concerns the US tech company has been “demoting” commercial content from news media sites.The bloc’s executive arm announced the move after monitoring found that certain content created with advertisers and sponsors was being given such a low priority by Google that it was in effect no longer visible in search results.European Commission officials said this potentially unfair “loss of visibility and of revenue” to media owners could be a result of an anti-spam policy Google operates.Under the rules of the Digital Market Act (DMA), which governs competition in the tech sectors, Google must apply “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory conditions of access to publishers’ websites on Google Search”.Commission officials said the investigation was not into the overall indexing of newspapers or their reporting on Google Search, just into commercial content provided by third parties
Anthropic announces $50bn plan for datacenter construction in US
Artificial intelligence company Anthropic announced a $50bn investment in computing infrastructure on Wednesday that will include new datacenters in Texas and New York.“We’re getting closer to AI that can accelerate scientific discovery and help solve complex problems in ways that weren’t possible before,” Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, said in a press release.Building the massive information warehouses takes an average of two years in the US and requires copious amounts of energy to fuel the facilities. The company, maker of the AI chatbot Claude, popular with businesses adopting AI, said in a statement that the “scale of this investment is necessary to meet the growing demand for Claude from hundreds of thousands of businesses while keeping our research at the frontier”. Anthropic said its projects will create about 800 permanent jobs and 2,400 construction jobs
Waymo announces that its robotaxis will drive freeways for the first time
Alphabet’s Waymo said on Wednesday that it would begin offering robotaxi rides that use freeways across San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix, a first for the Google subsidiary as it steps up expansion amid global and domestic competition in the self-driving industry.Freeway rides will initially be available to early-access users, Waymo said. “When a freeway route is meaningfully faster, they can be matched with a freeway trip, providing quicker, smoother, and more efficient rides,” it said.Waymo, which already operates in parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, is also extending operations to San Jose, including Mineta San Jose international airport, the second airport in its service area after Phoenix Sky Harbor.The move comes as Tesla expands its robotaxi service with safety monitors and drivers, and Zoox – backed by Amazon – offers free robotaxi rides on and around the Las Vegas Strip
A tax roadmap for electric cars | Letters
Rachel Reeves’s proposal to introduce a pay-per-mile tax levy on electric vehicles is idiotic, especially suggesting that hybrid vehicles will have a reduced rate and still pay the usual road tax (Rachel Reeves considering pay-per-mile tax for electric vehicles in budget, 6 November). Furthermore, requiring drivers to predict their yearly mileage in advance and then pay or reclaim the difference for actual mileage depending on whether they have underestimated or overestimated it is too cumbersome. If the DVLA is to oversee the collection/repayment system, it will undoubtedly need to recruit more staff or outsource the arrangement, with all the attendant pitfalls that would entail.The fairest way for the taxation of all motorists is to abolish the road tax and introduce a road toll system, as used on the Dartford crossing and the M6 toll road. Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) would need to be an essential feature
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