Starters
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1. James Slipper
Lived up to his name and slipped in the first scrum. Penalised twice in scrums, the first occasion was the 2nd scrum of the match. 52mins played but a poor 5/10 in the tackling department. 4[/one_third][one_third last=”no”]
2. Stephen Moore
A solid outing for Moore, did very little wrong in his 62mins completing 9/9 tackles, set the platform for his hooking partner. 6[/one_third][one_third last=”yes”]
3. Sekope Kepu
A quiet game from Kepu, but he did okay in his 52mins, not many errors and 6/7 tackles. 5[/one_third][one_third last=”no”]
4. Kane Douglas
“Daredevil” was on the whole game and made a faultless 15/15 tackles, including two turnovers won. That’s excellent. 8[/one_third][one_third last=”no”]
5. Rob Simmons
Scored an intercept try in the 2nd minute to get the wallabies on the scoreboard. Forced a penalty with his counter-rucking early and some good hit ups, 9/11 tackles in 66mins. 7 [/one_third][one_third last=”yes”]
6. Scott Fardy
Everywhere, 16/17 Tackles in only his 65mins (came off and back on for blood before being subbed). Also featured a good clearing kick early, counter-rucking, a few steals and the best maul defence I’ve seen in the world cup (Pocock tickles the man with the ball, who in turn presents it behind his head for Fardy to take and for the tickling to stop). 9[/one_third][one_third last=”no”]
7. Michael Hooper
11/13 tackles most of them big ones with great line-speed and power, 3 tackle busts and a turnover won. His timing seemed to improve during his 80 min effort too. 8 [/one_third][one_third last=”no”]
8. David Pocock
4 missed tackles (14/18) was the only thing stopping another G&GR 10. Broke his nose 8 minutes into the game and still came up with a steal off the first ruck of an Argentinean attacking set-piece in the 18th minute of the game, ended up with 3 more steals for the game, while constantly pressuring the opposition ball. Not substituted as there is no substitute. 9 – G&GR MOTM[/one_third][one_third last=”yes”]
9. Will Genia
Calm and accurate from the ruck base. Looks to be building on his form. A couple of snipes kept the defence guessing and a decent kicking game, he’s lucky the out on the full box-kick ended up as an Argie yellow. 3/3 tackles (including a try saver), 66mins. The diffused bomb under immense pressure was the added sparkle. 7[/one_third][one_third last=”no”]
10. Bernard Foley
His left to right ball to put Ashley-Cooper in for his first made me question which Bernie I was watching. Solid all game too, 8/9 tackles including a couple of try-savers. A couple of gettable kicks or the droppy would have probably secured him an 8. 7[/one_third][one_third last=”no”]
11. Drew Mitchell
That run late in the 2nd half was a 10… but like Slipper, fell off 5 for 6/11 tackles. Still though: 80mins, 10 tackles-bust from 6 positive runs, including the stunner. 7[/one_third][one_third last=”yes”]
12. Matt Giteau
Only played 46mins and was subbed after being tackled into touch. 1 Great pass to put Ashley-Cooper in for his 2nd, 1/1 tackle. 5[/one_third][one_third last=”no”]
13. Tevita Kuridrani
One of his more quiet games but still solid as our kick off catcher and returner, 10/12 tackles. Sliced through early but couldn’t link up with anyone and pushed a pass. He wasn’t tiring and was still heavily involved late in the game. 6 [/one_third][one_third last=”no”]
14. Adam Ashley-Cooper
He got a World-Cup semi-final hat-trick, played the full 80 and was 7/10 in the tackling department. On the improvements for next week, he turned the ball over twice early in the 1st and once again early in 2nd. 8 [/one_third][one_third last=”yes”]
15. Israel Folau
Very quiet in his 64mins. Dropped a high ball and he wont be happy with his short kicking game. Only made 1/1 tackle, but it was an important one. Only had one Folau like involvement early, other than that he looked like he was playing on a dodgy ankle. 4 [/one_third]
Finishers
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16. Tatafu Polota-Nau
23mins, steadied the scrum, punched some holes through the middle. 4/6 Tackles. 6[/one_third][one_third last=”no”]
17. Toby Smith
29mins, adapted in the scrums, made a couple of good runs. 4/4 tackles, the rookie stepped up. 6[/one_third][one_third last=”yes”]
18. Greg Holmes
Also played 29mins. Steadied the scrum. 8/9 Tackles. 6[/one_third] [one_third last=”no”]
19. Dean Mumm
Played the last 15mins well after coming on for Simmons, 4/5 tackles. 5[/one_third][one_third last=”no”]
20. Ben McCalman
Got a couple of stints on for Fardy (16mins total). Solid all the way, won a tricky line-out with his first involvement, ran well, 3/3 tackles. 6[/one_third][one_third last=”yes”]
21. Nick Phipps
Sped up the game as he does so well running at the tired defence. Made an error but put it behind him to come up with a nice pass to put Mitchell away. 2/3 Tackles, 15mins. 5[/one_third] [one_third last=”no”]
22. Matt Toomua
Hooper-like defence with his 6/7 tackles in his 17mins on for Folau. Slowed down the Argentinean attack and got us back on the front foot when we needed it most. 6[/one_third][one_third last=”no”]
23. Kurtley Beale
Always looked threatening but just couldn’t gel with the rest of the back line this game and that resulted in two handling errors. Almost played the whole 2nd half for Giteau, 5/6tackles. 5[/one_third][one_third last=”yes”]
[/one_third]
THE PATENTED G&GR RATINGS GUIDE:
10 – A legendary performance to go down in the history books
9 – Outstanding performance: Man of the match shoo-in
8 – Excellent all-round game
7 – Good game with a few sparkles
6 – Solid performance
5 – Average – ho hum
4 – Below par
3 – Had a bad game
2 – Tell your story walking pal
1 – A complete joke
Wallabies player ratings vs Argentina
