YORK, England - Wallaroos coach Jo Yapp has called out her side's ill discipline after their 31-31 draw against the United States on Saturday.
Australia needed a win to secure their place in the Women's Rugby World Cup quarterfinals but were forced to share the points with the U.S. after a game Australia feel slipped away from them.
Leading 14-5 at the break, Australia looked comfortable but conceded twice in 12 minutes to lose their advantage at the start of the second half.
They clawed the lead back but despite the U.S. being ahead for just six minutes in total throughout the game, Australia couldn't finish the job. It has left them with an uphill battle to qualify for the quarterfinals.
"Really mixed emotions, but just a little bit flat and disappointed really," Yapp said.
"We felt we obviously had opportunities to win that game. The discipline in that second half hurt us. We always knew it was going to be tight; it always is. But for the draw, I get it for the neutral, but for us just frustrating right now."
Yapp pointed to the period at the start of the second half as a key turning point. Australia also conceded 13 penalties to their opposition's six, which she said cost them.
"Some of it was the pressure at the breakdown and then our discipline let us down," she said.
"We gave away too many penalties early in that second half which allowed them to go back-to-back and get easy entry into our half.
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"Yeah we're frustrated. We came into this game wanting to win. We've got the draw now and how we move forward and how we take control of that is important for this week."
While Yapp and her players were left visibly dejected after the match, they will have to pick themselves up for a huge clash against England next week. With the U.S. likely to beat Samoa, it could come down to points differential and bonus points should Australia fail to win.
"The girls are very good at reviewing themselves," Yapp said. "We'll review tomorrow evening in preparation for the week.
"We'll definitely pull out the positives and that's important because we did some really good stuff tonight but also there's some stuff we can control better. We'll look at improving that this week."