Mixed emotions for Haylett-Petty

The emergence of Dane Haylett-Petty has been one of the highlights in a disappointing year for Australia with the Western Force star almost certainly cementing his spot on the right wing.

The South African-born 27-year-old has started all but one of the spring tour matches and was an ever-present during most of the Rugby Championship campaign.

Despite his break-out year, Haylett-Petty said he was bitterly disappointed at missing out on finishing the year on a high after the Wallabies slumped to a 37-21 loss to England at Twickenham with the wideman sent to the sin-bin for a high tackle on Mike Brown late on.

“Obviously it’s a bit disappointing, we were still chasing the game,” Haylett-Petty said.

“I felt like it was probably a penalty, it’s a bit rough … I was definitely disappointed.

“There’s no love lost between the two teams, I think there’s definitely a bit behind that but all credit to them they did really well today.”

Haylett-Petty scored tries against England and Argentina earlier in the year before crossing in the tour opener against Wales in Cardiff and was on hand at Twickenham to set up Sefa Naivalu’s first-half score with a glorious cut-out pass.

However, like the rest of his team, he was unable to make much of an impression in the second half as England maintained their unbeaten record under Eddie Jones.

“It’s obviously frustrating and disappointing, I think probably sums up the year,” he said.

“A lot of good stuff and just I suppose not good enough under pressure in parts of the game.

“I think a couple of mistakes that they pounced on when the momentum was in our favour and so we really let them back in the game after we started so well.

“In the second half, they came out and put us under pressure and that’s where we were a bit disappointing.

“They kept coming down and walking away with points and we weren’t good enough under pressure.”

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