The Wallabies conceded 14 penalties in Edinburgh, their second-highest total under coach Joe Schmidt, only bettered by 15 against South Africa in their first game of the Rugby Championship in July.
Alaalatoa experienced not only the frustration of the team’s disciplinary errors, but also the failure of their defensive system, after the team missed 34 tackles.
“Especially around that first half, it was probably just the quality of our tackle, just finishing off those tackles … our discipline, which are things that we can control,” Alaalatoa said. “So that’s the message for us as leaders, and through the coaches as well, that the momentum we gave them was through things that we can control.”
Like the Wallabies, Ireland have two victories and one defeat in November, winning against Fiji and Argentina and losing to New Zealand. Alaalatoa is aware of the scale of the challenge in Dublin, but is motivated by upsetting the form book.
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“(It’s) very important, Ireland obviously have been number one in the world for a while now, or number one and number two, and they’ve been a quality side for years, so we know how important this is, but I think more so for ourselves as well,” Alaalatoa said.
“To come away three (wins) and one (defeat) will be awesome for our group. So, yeah, the boys are well aware of the challenge ahead, off the back of a short turn around. I’m sure the boys will prepare really well for it.”
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