Well, that was rough. Or so the scoreline says, but for the first time in a while I didn’t feel frustrated at full-time of a Wallabies match.
Is there work to do? Of course there is. Plenty of it, in fact. But there were reasons for hope.
| # | NAME | RATING | COMMENT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Slipper | 6 | Worked hard but tired late. Very mobile in the opening 20. Needed to protect Moore in the scrums. |
| 2 | Stephen Moore | 6 | Mr Reliable and got around the park well. Needs to relearn how to hook for the ball at scrum time. |
| 3 | Ben Alexander | 6 | Like his front row compatriots, Benny A got through a mountain of work, including a big hit or two, in the opening 20-25 minutes. Quitened down, but one of his better Wallaby performances in recent memory. |
| 4 | Rob Simmons | 6 | Simmo's most mature and effective game in gold. Set piece execution was excellent, and he did the grunt stuff. Penalties were again costly but he could be forgiven - Joubert's interpretation seemed to vary, with Simmo twice the victim. |
| 5 | James Horwill | 5 | Like the rest of the tight 5, Kev worked well and effectively, though was far from his fearsome best. |
| 6 | Hugh McMeniman | 5 | Not enough madness, Madness. Needs to be at the breakdown earlier and more often. Quiet. |
| 7 | Michael Hooper | 7 | Hooper was excellent. Stole All Black ball twice in the opening 10 minutes, and remained a pest for the rest of the night. Covered a heap of ground in defence. |
| 8 | Ben Mowen | 5 | Uncharacteristically quiet. Needed to do a lot more to counter the vaunted Kiwi back row. |
| 9 | Will Genia | 4 | The Blecks did well to slow Wallaby ruck ball, but our speed wasn't helped by Genia's tardy service. Too often he'd wait for the ball to be on a platter before touching it, often then taking two strides with ball in hand before sending it. Lost his cool late in the game. Finished a good try, but let off the hook by Israel Dagg's strange check of his own step in cover defence. Also, and curiously, did not defend behind the ruck all night. Clearly a ploy, but a seemingly costly one. |
| 10 | Matt Toomua | 5 | Link promised that we'd see Toomua's full suitcase of tricks, but we didn't even get a carry-on allowance's worth. Defence was okay when tested (and tested it was), but was vastly limited and one-dimensional in attack. Needs to offer more. |
| 11 | James O'Connor | 4 | Two elementary defensive lapses underlined O'Connor's night at the office, but there was more to his game. Though usually strong in contact, I disagree with Hugh's positive assessment of his attack, almost every carry featured the ball tucked under his wing with seemingly no propensity or opportunity to offload, allowing the defence an easy read and tackle. Didn't create space or make many metres. Was better when he went looking for work off Lilo and, later, Quade. |
| 12 | Christian Lealiifano | 7 | A great night off the tee complemented an otherwise strong performance. The charge-down try being the only blemish on his night, Lilo looked a veteran in Wallaby gold. His passing game gave the Wallabies width and seemed the only means by which the NZ rush defence might ever be bested. His defence was excellent and unsung, and his support play good. It wasn't especially showmanlike, but Lilo's effective display earns him the GAGR Man of the Match. |
| 13 | Adam Ashley-Cooper | 5 | AAC started well when the Wallabies had front-foot ball in the opening 25 minutes of the match, frequently taking on the line and creating space for men around him. As our ball slowed, and the kiwi defence strangled, AAC seemingly fell out of the game. |
| 14 | Israel Folau | 4 | Much has already been written of Folau's no-show. Seemingly neither sought, nor found, the ball when it became apparent that it'd rarely come his way as a matter of course. Needs to work. |
| 15 | Jesse Mogg | 5 | Injected himself into the line well and helped to offer variation in lieu of Toomua's shuffling service. Made a few little errors on the big stage, but I don't feel it was as bad as others have suggested. |
| 16 | Saia Fainga'a | 5 | Typically threw himself around in the time he had. No huge effect either way. |
| 17 | Scott Sio | 5 | Unremarkable in his time, but didn't do anything wrong. |
| 18 | Sekope Kepu | 5 | Threw his weight around to limited effect. |
| 19 | Scott Fardy | 6 | Good in the tight stuff and worked hard. |
| 20 | Liam Gill | 7 | Many punters got what they wished for and got to see Gill and Hooper going tandem for 25 minutes. Gill was excellent. Earned a steal and milked a penalty in his first three minutes on the field, and soon cleaned up a mess at the back of a Wallaby scrum. Made metres with ball in hand - seems to possess a ridiculously low centre of gravity. A great showing off the bench. |
| 21 | Nic White | 6 | His fast service was a breath of fresh air. A more than able back-up if Genia can't bounce back. |
| 22 | Quade Cooper | 7 | Quade showed glimmers of his old mojo, throwing both multi-man cutouts and short inside balls with equal aplomb. Certainly our better flyhalf on the night. |
| 23 | Tevita Kuridrani | 5 | Bent the line a couple of times in attack, but was sloppy in his positional play. A poor place led to Smith's third try. |
What do you think?
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
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