The beleaguered coach has declined to apportion blame for the latest debacle

The beleaguered coach has declined to apportion blame for the latest debacle. “We needed a change of tactics late in the game and it didn’t happen,” he said.Smith is contracted by the Australian Rugby Union until the end of the Wallabies’ tour of Argentina and Britain this autumn, but speculation is mounting that he will be axed when the ARU board meets on Monday week.The ARU chief executive, John O’Neill, said before the Pretoria international that he could see no reason why Smith would not see out the remainder of the year, but he did not offer guarantees.”As far as I am aware that meeting is just to review the season rather than to decide on a new coach,” Smith added.David Wilson, standing in as captain for the injured John Eales, defended Smith “I hope he stays on as coach,” he said. Australia’s worst international defeat has all but done for their coach, Greg Smith. The humiliating defeat in Johannesburg on Saturday means the Wallabies finished last in the Tri-Nations series, carried off convincingly a second time by New Zealand. Smith, who went into the international under continuing fire following Australia’s third defeat to the All Blacks this year, will have given more ammunition for those pushing for Australian Capital Territory’s Rod MacQueen to be installed as the next national team coach.
Although Smith has coached the Wallabies to wins over France, England and South Africa – in the home Tri-Nations match – it is the Bledisloe Cup clean sweep and the ignominious 39-point thrashing this weekend which have accentuated Smith’s plight.Smith also oversaw Australia’s previous heaviest defeat, 43-6 by New Zealand in Wellington last year. Harlequins: Tries Carling, O’Leary; Conversions Lacroix 2; Penalties Lacroix 4.Northampton: I Hunter (H Thorneycroft, 60); C Moir, R MacNaughton, M Allen, N Beal; G Townsend, M Dawson; M Hynes (C Allen, 41), A Clarke (C Johnson, 60), M Stewart, M Bayfield, J Phillips, S Tatupu, B Pountney, T Rodber, capt (G Seely, 63)Harlequins: J Williams; D O’Leary, J Ngauamo, W Carling (S Power, 5), R Liley; T Lacroix, H Harries; A Ozdemir (M Cuttitta, 63), K Wood (Captain), J Leonard, G Llewellyn, L Gross, G Allison (R Jenkins, 41), L Cabannes, B Davison.Referee: C White (Cheltenham).. But for Saints it was one of those maddeningly if-only days.Northampton: Tries Phillips, Dawson, Tatupu; Conversion Dawson; Penalties Townsend 2.

Power’s first act was to cut down Craig Moir when a Northampton try looked certain, but this was one of several first-half opportunities that went begging.”It was very disappointing to score three tries to their two and lose,” McGeechan said. “We made too many unforced errors and gave Quins too many points, while missing too many we should have scored.”If only Dawson and Townsend had matched Lacroix’s accuracy with the boot, Northampton would have won. A quiet Devonian, Keast, having led Natal to a Currie Cup triumph, has returned to England, taking over as director of rugby at The Stoop, following the controversial dismissal of Dick Best.He correctly identified the line-out and midfield as areas where Northampton might be vulnerable, but with two rookie centres of his own who had never played together, the game looked to have slipped away from Quins when tries by Matt Dawson and Shem Tatupu hauled the home side back into contention at 26-23, with six minutes remaining.But even the perspicacious Keast could not have forecast Saints’ ability to self-destruct, and when Dawson relieved Gregor Towsend of the kicking duties, after the Scot had failed with five shots at goal, the Lions’ scrum-half fired two kickable penalties wide.Carling was injured in the act of scoring Quins’ opening try, which brought Stuart Power into the centre to partner the Tongan Johnny Ngauamo. PAUL STEPHENS

Northampton 23 Harlequins 26
Ian McGeechan found himself upstaged by his Lions’ coaching assistant, Andy Keast, as Northampton squandered chance after chance and allowed Harlequins to escape with two Allied Dunbar Premiership points they never thought would be theirs once Will Carling limped off with a calf-muscle injury.Keast is a graduate of the same school of thoroughness as McGeechan and played an important part in the Lions’ victories in South Africa.

Newcastle: Tries Tuigamala, Legg; Conversions Stimpson 2; Penalties Stimpson 2.Bath: M Perry; M Wood, P de Glanville (capt), J Pritchard, B Roche; M Catt, C Harrison; K Yates (D Hilton, 61), G French (M Regan, h-t), V Ubogu, M Haag (B Cusack, 61), N Redman, R Webster (N Thomas, 30), E Peters, R Earnshaw.Newcastle: T Stimpson; J Naylor, V Tuigamala, A Tait, T Underwood (S Legg, 26); R Andrew, G Armstrong; N Popplewell, R Nesdale, P Van-Zandvliet, G Archer, G Weir, P Lam, D Ryan (capt), R Arnold.Referee: S Lander (Liverpool).. Nathan Thomas will not be alone in feeling guilty.Bath: Try Perry; Conversion Catt; Penalties Catt 2. “It’s all about getting the discipline right and we didn’t manage it,” groaned Andy Robinson, Bath’s head coach. Having pulled themselves back from the brink, the West Countrymen fouled up two consecutive throws in the final minute and gave Newcastle a positional platform from which they presented Stuart Legg, a wing replacement for the injured Tony Underwood, a free ride in for the wrap-up score. He’s right there already” – although his cucumber-cool confidence in any one of six positions gives him options galore.Sadly for Bath, Perry’s talents do not extend to the line-out. Catt cut the deficit with the simplest of penalties, and when the bewilderingly versatile Matthew Perry, – shunted from centre to full-back when Callard pulled out shortly before the kick- off – picked an oblique angle off the side of a ruck and left the Newcastle defence more flat-footed than Charlie Chaplin in snow shoes to score at the posts, the contest was even once more.As Clive Woodward, the Bath coach, said afterwards, Perry is an “absolutely outstanding talent, one of the few Englishmen under the age of 21 who possesses genuine international class.” Woodward believes the youngster’s real strengths lay in midfield – “He’ll push Jerry and he’ll push Phil de Glanville.