Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water – Haylett-Petty

Dane Haylett-Petty says Australia must not “throw the baby out with the bath water” following two heavy Bledisloe Cup defeats to New Zealand.

The Wallabies were thumped 38-13 in the first Test in Sydney and the domineering All Blacks retained the famous trophy with a 40-12 rout at Eden Park last weekend.

Four consecutive defeats have piled the pressure on Australia head coach Michael Cheika, but full-back Haylett-Petty sees no reason to reach for the panic button.

“It’s easy to throw the baby out with the bath water when you look at the scoreline but we actually did a lot of things right, I think,” he said.

“We just killed on turnovers and there’s not a lot of teams in world rugby that will hurt you like that from your mistakes.”

Haylett-Petty also hit back at claims that Australia are short of fitness as they prepare to host South Africa in their next Rugby Championship clash on September 8.

“I don’t think we’re not fit enough no,” he said. “We’re probably, I don’t know, it’s something we need to go back over the game plan whether we could work smarter not harder. 

“I don’t necessarily think it’s a fitness thing.

“If anything, concentration, we let ourselves down and you see other teams capitalise.”

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