Horwill: We must learn from Irish experience

AUSTRALIA captain James Horwill has targeted their game with the US on Friday as the perfect opportunity to get the Wallabies’ World Cup campaign back on track.

Australia’s ambitions of winning Pool C and avoiding arch rivals South Africa and New Zealand on the other side of the tournament draw were blown apart by Ireland at Eden Park on Saturday in a 15-6 defeat by Declan Kidney’s side.

Lock Horwill, who took over the captaincy from former Leinster star Rocky Elsom just before the World Cup, urged his team to learn from the bitter experience of losing to the Irish. “The focus is now for the USA so we travel to Wellington and we’ve got to get on with the job because it’s not over yet,” Horwill said. “We need to stay tight and focus on improving. We need to learn from experiences like this. We’ve been in situations before where we haven’t put a good account of ourselves and we’ve learnt from it. We can do it, we need to do it and the beauty is we get a short turnaround to do it again.”

Horwill’s head coach Robbie Deans said his young side’s defeat was all part of the learning experience.

“It was certainly a taste of reality but it’s not the taste we’re unfamiliar with,” Deans said. “It’s part of rugby and that potential is there every time you enter a game. Now we’re in a circumstance that was always going to come within the tournament, but it’s just come a little bit earlier. There was no doubt there was an education, particularly for a number of players who are in their first World Cup, and we have to learn more if we are to push on.”

Picture: A dejected Australia captain James Horwill during the post-match media conference. Picture: INPHO