03 September 2024 #009
Good morning G&GRs and welcome to Tuesday. And it’s a much happier Tuesday if you’re a Wallabies fan, the Wallabies got it done against Argentina on Sunday morning. You can catch up with Bris’s review of the game here and I’ll summarise the player ratings for the Wallabies as voted by the readers of that review.
There was a great weekend of club rugby with grand finals across the grades in Brisbane and the Shute Shield final in Sydney, on which I’ll provide some commentary and then pass the torch to you in the comments section.
Wallabies Player Ratings
It was a physical game in very wet conditions in Argentina and the Wallabies managed to get a win at the death. Winners are grinners as they say, so let’s get to the player ratings.
Australia player ratings
The player ratings are in from the match review poll on Sunday. Commentary is mine if you like it and agree, Karl’s if you don’t.
- Angus Bell – 7 – A good hit out from Bell, in the scrum and around the park. Had to come on for a second stint due to injury to Kailea, which had some of us nervous about the potential for injury.
- Matt Faessler – 6 – A good game by the hooker in tough conditions. Didn’t shirk the tough work and was solid in the set piece.
- Taniela Tupou – 6 – Was part of a dominant scrum in the first before being replaced.
- Nick Frost – 6 – A physical performance by the big unit, and was very good after giving away an early penalty. Might have nightmares about restarts after spilling a few. His support line on the inside when Noah made the late break was amazing for a big man who had played the whole game.
- Lukhan Salakaia-Loto – 6 – A busy and physical performance from Lukhan, as always, and built into the game after an early dropped ball. Good on the defensive lineout and some massive tackles.
- Rob Valetini – 7 – Another good game by Bobby V. Menacing with the ball in attack with the charge into Cremer to set up the first try a standout.
- Carlo Tizzano – 7 – His most dominant display in gold with three turnovers and no penalties conceded. Tackled everything in blue and white.
- Harry Wilson – 7 – A good game by Wilson as the captain and despite making two errors (a dropped kick off, and a poor choice to take the blind side from a scrum) carried strongly, tackled well, and made a try saver on the line to deny Argentina a try.
- Jake Gordon – 6 – Scored Australia’s first try, and gave good service to the forwards and backs alike. .
- Noah Lolesio – 4 – Differing views about Noah in the comments section. A better overall game than the Springboks in Perth, but for mine, too many of his kicks were poor. None of the restarts seemed contestable, and while he’s trying different tactical kicks, the execution needs to be better. Have to acknowledge that it was very wet, but he was still the one kicking them. A few poor passes as well, albeit in terrible conditions.
- Markia Koroibete – 5 – A lot of effort, but some over reads in defence, and a penalty from a restart gave momentum back to Argentina.
- Hamish Stewart – 6 – A solid debut for the inside centre. Made lots of tackles and distributed well in poor conditions.
- Len Ikitau – 7 – A good game by Ikitau, setting up Wright and Gordon for the first try, and then giving the Wallabies plenty of go forward in the second half.
- Andrew Kellaway – 5 – Hard to actually give Kellaway a rating as the ball really didn’t go his way in attack and no highlights from memory in defence.
- Tom Wright – 6– Good play to put Gordon over for the first try, and his positioning in the backfield was good all night. Some errant kicking added pressure to the Wallabies at times.
- Josh Nasser – 5 – Was solid in his time on the field in wet conditions.
- Isaac Kailea – No Rating – Was only on the field for a short time before going off with for a HIA, which he succumbed to and will head home early.
- Allan Alaalatoa – 6 – A solid hitout for 7As and it is good to have some depth up front.
- Jeremy Williams – 5 – Some nice touches in his time off the bench.
- Langi Gleeson – 5 – Similar to the other bench players, was solid and helped to close out a tight game.
- Tate McDermott – 5 – As always, looked to increase the pace of play, a good read to cover a grubber kick on his own line.
- Ben Donaldson – 5 – Kicked the last conversion from in front, but was only on the field briefly, and not sure if he had any other involvements.
- Max Jorgensen – 5 – Similar to Donaldson, not really enough to generate a rating, dropped a pass from Noah that went behind him, but I’m sure the cover would have caught him anyway.
Hospital Cup Grand Final
Lachlan Grey over at rugby.com.au put up a good review of the Hospital Cup final between Brothers and Wests here. If you get a chance to watch it, it’s very entertaining, plenty of running, some fantastic tries from both sides with the backs from Wests looking dangerous whenever they could get the ball to the back three in space.
Brothers got out to a 21-7 lead with at least some fortune in one of the tries. It looked like Brothers had knocked the ball on before putting it down over the line. The replays looked to confirm the extra hand in there by the Brothers centre, but the ref and TMO didn’t agree and the try stood. There were some other important moments in the game, Mason Gordon had a simple conversion charged down, which meant that Wests went into half time at 21-12 down rather than 21-14 down.
In something that will please a lot of readers, both halfbacks got yellow cards, Werchon from Wests for foul platy, and the Brothers half for a cynical infringement after a nice break by Vunivalu.
The lead changed hands 3 time in second half and James O’Connor had the last say scoring wise to put Brothers ahead 29-27 and that was how it stayed at full time. There was plenty of pace and skill on display even though it was very warm in Brisbane.
Congrats to Brothers for their second successive title, and congratulations to Michael Wood for his season and grand final performance being named best on ground and receiving the Tony Shaw medal.
StoreLocal Premier Women’s Final
In the other first grade game on Sunday, Bond University made it three titles in a row with a 36-12 victory over Easts. Congrats to Bond Uni who did it without three of their Wallaroos star players. Easts were competitive and made Bond work for the victory. Easts scored first, and trailed by 5 at half time before Bond secured the win including a couple of late tries to blow the score out a bit.
Mel Wilks from Bond Uni was awarded the 2024 Cheyenne Campbell Medal for Best on Ground in the grand final victory.
The lower grades
As you can see, Brothers had a very successful season with 4 premierships and 2 other grand final losses.
Shute Shield Grand Final
Easts took on Norths in the Shute Shield final at Leichhardt Oval on the weekend, and just like the Hospital Cup final it was a cracker of a match. Easts were the minor premiers and had plenty of Waratahs and a few other Super Rugby players in the starting lineup.
There was plenty of running and great skill on display, with the first try from Easts right out of the top drawer with terrific skills from Teddy Wilson, Bowen, and Lancaster in particular.
It was an action filled first half, with Easts having the better of it to be up 29-13. The Easts forwards set the platform in the first half with two rolling maul tries, plus some strong defence to deny Norths scoring through their maul attack.
Easts certainly didn’t have it all their way in the second half with Norths getting across the line for the next three tries to put them in front 32-29 after the successful conversion with just under 20 to play.
Darby Lancaster scored a try in the corner that was expertly converted for Easts to lead 36-32. Norths took a penalty to bring it back to 36-35, and were pressing hard for a late try but Easts held on with terrific defence for their first victory since 1969.
Not what rugby is about
There is plenty of chat on social media about a massive brawl at the end of the Colts 1 game in Brisbane. It involved players from both teams, coaching staff, and worst of all, people from the crowd. Regardless of what started it, it should never have escalated that far, and while I wasn’t there to see it, for mine, if there are players and supporters from both teams involved, they should strike the match from the record, and sanction the clubs for it. That’s below the standard that should be accepted anywhere and makes a genuine mockery out of the idea of a family day out.
Scrums
I get that scrums and the contest for dominance/possession/penalties is part of our game, but how many scrums on the weekend in the SAf/NZ and Arg/Aus matches were delayed, or reset, with time counting away the whole time. What’s to be done about it?
That’s a wrap for this week
There will be plenty more to cover though but I’ll leave it for Yowie, Karl, Happyman, and of course Hoss later in the week.
That’s it for me this week, over to you G&GRs.
