Wallabies scrumhalf Will Genia faces the hardest questions this week, but the entire playing group needs to find the answers immediately.
Genia had one of his worst games in recent memory, with two errors that led directly to Scotland’s opening tries, one an errant pass that led to Tatafu Polota-Nau throwing an intercept and the other a charge down that put Finn Russell over.
“I was responsible for 14 points there with a poor pass and a charge down which was quite big in terms of the result of the game,” - Will Genia.
“So, I take responsibility for that and it's obviously disappointing.
The Wallabies will likely be ranked lower than Scotland when the World Rugby calculations are finalised overnight, but the way things stand, Genia said it wasn’t good enough to lose.
Australia has just one more Test to play, against Italy, before August’s opening Bledisloe.
“We lost fair and square at the end of the day but being where we are ranked, we want to be beating teams that are below us and challenging those that are above us.
“I don't think that's disrespectful to say, I think that's just the truth.
He couldn’t though put his finger on why the Wallabies lacked "urgency" when Scotland had it in spades, showing an intent that Genia admitted should be automatic of any Test player.
“I think when you play for your country, you always have a point to prove. As soon as you put that jersey on, you want to go out there, you want to play well,” he said when asked whether Scotland might have had extra motivation against the Wallabies.
“You know who you're representing and you have a point to prove that you want to play well.”
“I don’t know [why we lacked urgency].
“I think individually we all have to go back and ask ourselves that question ,'Why aren't we starting games well, why aren’t we urgent from the get go?” and if we can find answers to that by being honest with ourselves, we'll come up with a solution.
Michael Cheika’s solution to improving the team’s attitude was to simply "keep at it", and though it might be harder than practising passing until it sticks, Genia said they had to find a solution fast.
“It is (harder) but if you want to get better, you have to ask yourself those questions and that's every individual within the group - guys who perform, guys who didn't perform as well as they'd like,” he said.
“That's more an important thing for us moving forward as opposed to the technical things because the technical things are quite easy to fix.
“It's the mindset that you have to continue to work and ask yourself those questions.”
Genia said the hesitation the Wallabies showed was no sign of fragile mental state from Super Rugby flowing into Tests.
“I really don’t feel like it's ever something within the background lingering or anything like that,” he said.
“There's been no talk of Super Rugby results or no lingering emotions.
“At the end of the day, we're here as the Wallabies and we just didn't perform tonight.” - Will Genia
The Wallabies flew to Brisbane on Sunday ahead of their third June Test, against Italy.
The Wallabies take on Italy on Saturday, kicking off at 3pm AEST LIVE on FOX SPORTS and via RUGBY.com.au RADIO. Buy tickets here.
