Analysis: Wallabies’ poor loss to Italy puts doubt over coach Dave Rennie as Rugby World Cup looms

Australia was off the mark at the breakdown and disjointed with ball in hand. Throw in 16 penalties and the least-disciplined team in world rugby was always going to be up against it.

It’s the first time Australia has ever lost to Italy, and drops Rennie’s win-loss record this year to 4-12.

There were plenty of examples of the perils of Rennie’s rotation policy.

Jake Gordon – in for Nic White at halfback – was sin-binned in the first half, and had an otherwise forgettable game before being replaced by Tate McDermott.

The lineout was a source of weakness too, with Folau Fainga’a and Lachie Lonergan both wayward at times.

Despite the total lack of cohesion, Rennie said the mass personnel changes weren’t the issue.

“I mean, it’s not much more changes than we made the week before,” he said.

“There were a couple of extra bodies that we would have played today had they not been injured from the French game.

“We picked squads a long way out. We looked at how we’re going to give ourselves the best chance to win all five games on tour.

“We had a good enough side out on the paddock to win.”

Beyond that, Rennie’s substitutions should come under the microscope.

Last week, he took off experienced flyhalf Bernard Foley just as an old head was needed. Missing his composure, the side failed to safely exit from deep within its own half, gave France the ball in dangerous territory and conceded a match-winning try 30 seconds later.

In Florence, Noah Lolesio made way for debutant Ben Donaldson with five minutes remaining. When Caydern Neville scored on the left, the result fell on the shoulders of the 22-year-old rookie who’d barely had time to break a sweat.

Rennie must take some responsibility for the series of events that lead to the game’s thrilling conclusion.

“It’s tough, you know. He’s hurting. We’ve definitely got an arm around him,” Rennie said of Donaldson’s missed conversion.

“You can always look at the last few seconds of the game but there’s a lot of things that we got wrong earlier on that put a dent in that situation and you’re trying to steal a game.

“We feel for him but it’s not the reason we lost today.”

Will Skelton was a rare highlight for Australia and, ironically, one of the few selection changes Rennie got right.

The 30-year-old made his presence known in the opening three minutes with some typically physical work at the breakdown to earn Australia a penalty, before dragging three Italian defenders into a tackle moments later.

Twelve minutes in, Skelton waded through an Italian maul after a lineout, latched on to the ball-carrier and won a turnover.

He certainly wasn’t mistake-free in his 58 minutes on the park but as the game wore on, Skelton continued running hard, threw a beautiful offload and was generally head and shoulders – literally and figuratively – above most of his teammates.

A week after his bruising reintroduction to Test football off the bench against France, Skelton’s Wallabies comeback – with one game remaining against Ireland next week – can be seen as a coming of age.

After heading to Europe in 2016 – first with Saracens, then La Rochelle – Skelton has played just 23 times for Australia.

Instead of being a household name and an Australian forward pack stalwart, he’s never truly found his place in the side.

With a World Cup in France less than a year away, these few weeks could change that.

Skelton’s return was a positive, but his good form just proved how wrong many of the other selection decisions were.

The overwhelming feeling was that Australia wasn’t taking Italy as seriously as it should. But the current Italy squad, under former All Black Kieran Crowley, are no longer easy-beats.

The side’s phenomenal late win over Wales in March proved that, as did the Wallabies upset.

Rennie could barely comprehend what went wrong; beyond basically everything.

“We didn’t play well enough to win,” he said.

“Turned over the pill too much. Too many penalties. We gave them a little bit of a head start; 17-3, they get a lot of hope and enthusiasm and it brought the crowd into the game.

“We needed to start well and we didn’t.”

It’s easy to see everything that went wrong but the solutions aren’t as clear, especially without an established match day squad.

With 10 months until the World Cup, is Rennie the right man to lead Australia to France?