Wallabies v Lions - 3rd Test, Accor Stadium, Saturday 2 August

[Major Tom]

Don’t forget BOK. He is woeful. I thought the Georgian ref was pretty good.

 

[John S]

It was that dire I'd have taken Jaco Peyper

 

[Pfitzy]

I would guess it's more to the point that Stevie Wonder could do a better job as a TMO than Marius Jonker

Very superstitious....

 

[Ignoto]

unsure if this is serious but fairly obvious why he couldn't take part....

Yeah I am fully aware on the why - just completely crap that both Berry and Gus who are arguably in the top 5 of Refs going around can't Ref an Australian game.

 

[Italophile]

I suspect they're trying to deepen the available pool of international refs. Luke Pearce currently head and shoulders above.

 

[Th0mo]

This series was a bit like the ashes when all the best umpires were from England or Australia and we got the leftovers. What's happened to the SA refs? And still not sure how BOK got ranked over Williams.

 

[Major Tom]

Williams, BOK and Doleman just seem to let the breakdown turn into an absolute farce! Much prefer how Gus, Berry and the Georgian bloke officiate the ruck.

 

[Dctarget]

One (of many) things I enjoyed about this game was that for once we always had the momentum with us. It felt like if the game had an extra 20 minutes, our winning margin would’ve grown. Unlike the Melbourne test where we packed up with 30 to go.

the whole series feels like that too, rare to always be improving and put into good performances in a row.

 

[Major Tom]

Another 20mins of the first test and I think we'd go close to winning that. Unfortunately, we left our run too late or just weren't prepped to hit the game running.

 

[Dctarget]

Nice little refresher of the game from Squidge.

In particular focus on Skelton's impressive and less flashy work in rucks and lineouts. Glad he's here for the RC.

Also nice feature on Sua'ali'i and Jorgensen's surprisingly good defence.

 

[Yoda]

I don’t know about Lolesio’s future in gold

Who else is there?

 

[noscrumnolife]

Also nice feature on Sua'ali'i and Jorgensen's surprisingly good defence.

Something people won’t appreciate about JAS - because they either didn’t watch him play League, or sole memory is the Walsh tackle - his defensive potential is sky high. He is obscenely physical and has the ability to replicate and exceed players like Ringrose and Kriel (the best going atm imo) do where they clamp down on the edge of any promising attack from 13.

I watched the kid poleaxe Kikau at age 18, that’s an ability that you don’t leave on the wing. Does he make mistakes? Yes. He’s also still a baby at test level. And at union profesionally in general

for me it’s one of the main reasons to persevere with the JAS Ikitau combo. The defensive potential, especially in a better system, is best in the world in my opinion. However it takes reps together. Worked like a charm in the wet, will only get better.

 

[Braveheart81]

I think it's already our best combination because I'd much prefer Pietsch or Potter on the wing than I would having Paisami at 12.

I'm also not convinced that Paisami and Ikitau would currently be any better than Ikitau and Sua'ali'i if you just looked at the centres in isolation.

 

[rugbyAU]

We've tried Paisami many times - he isn't test quality at 12, on the weekend the Ikitau/JAS combination looked a bit better

 

[Upthemaroon!]

Exactly, Paisami is too small for test level. Tried many times but just doesn't cut it. Would rather see Dre and (in a few years) Goldsborough come in from the Reds.

 

[Strewthcobber]

JAS is younger than Lynagh. It's kind of insane how good he is already, even if his lack of experience gets shown up on occasions

 

[Backintheolddays]

If the weekends backline (ex 9 where we have depth) stays together for a couple of seasons with some form of competitiveness in the forwards they’ll be world class.

 

[Backintheolddays]

Can we get Len to the Tahs to work on the combo ?

 

[Slim 293]

No.

 

[RebelYell]

I'd be more focused on trying to convince Bernie to play him at 12 - but with LK coming in, he may favour Paisami & Ikitau midfield anyway