2012 Rugby Championship Game 1 Australia vs New Zealand - 18 August

[vidiot]

Can't be arsed trawling through the previous 50 pages, but the one observation I will make is that we really missed Palu last night. I am a noted Palu fan, but his workrate at the breakdown and impact with ball in hand were noticeably absent.
.

The player they miss in that regard is Horwill. He carries that pack forward, gives them a presence at the breakdown and gets them rolling forward with short passes in tight, esp with Moore.

 

[Slim 293]

Robbie claims - 'Berrick did pretty well tonight, he kicked well. But you have to look at how the group came together.'

Hmmm.. What the hell? I hope no one is seriously thinking Cooper will be in the 22 this week.

I would have to assume he's talking about his goal kicking?

Because his general play kicking was terrible.........

 

[cyclopath]

The player they miss in that regard is Horwill. He carries that pack forward and gets them rolling forward with short passes in tight, esp with Moore.

He also fires them up a bit. I have seldom noticed such a silent and overtly passive-looking mob in 1-8 for Aus as last night. Where's the fucking aggro?

 

[waratahjesus]

He also fires them up a bit. I have seldom noticed such a silent and overtly passive-looking mob in 1-8 for Aus as last night. Where's the fucking aggro?

Agree, Pocock is a bit emo in his captaincy. Wen Richie was giving him face massages at every ruck he kept silently walking away, he should have put him on his arse and the fear of god into the ret of the team.

Sharpe seems to have taken a step back to allow Pocock to develop as a captain as well, he used to fire up a lot more, we need it from him.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

My thoughts on Rolland is that if everyone reffed like that rugby would be much better for it.

there's something about this idea that interests me. I think he's pretty crap technically but I also think you may be onto something in that ignoring the technicalities is good for the game: is that what it is?


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[Inside Shoulder]

I am not the biggest fan but we really missed Palu tonight. He does the hard yards up the middle and contests the ball very well in the tight, cleaning out all the while. There was a distinct lack of cohesion with our forwards. Sharpie had a good test and the rest were OK in parts. Kepu and Robbo were ineffectual in the tight. Horwill is proving hard to replace.
We can do a lot better, must do better if we are to come out of this championship with any kind of reasonable result.

not a fan of Palu at all but we have too many loose forwards and not enought tight ones: higgers, sharpie and timani can never be picked in the same test team.


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[twenty seven]

Does anyone see an issue with Genia's slow clearance from behind a ruck? He seems to wait forever, allowing the AB defensive line to regroup, have a quick cup of tea, and then stifle any attack?

Thats because he is having to have a cup of tea and bikkies waiting for players to get ready....they did not seem to gel at all out there. Maybe it's because they are having trouble with the selections themselves!!

 

[Inside Shoulder]

It was Meh, it wasn't as crap as people want to make out, just Meh.
Yeah the all blacks bombed a couple but so did the wallabies.

That said, I don't really think anyone in the wallabies team played badly enough to say thy were useless. Beale had a very off night by his standards, but that's the exception of the last couple of years so no point changing. For mine any changes have to be made to make the team stronger, lots of agenda based suggestions here like usual, but do we really have people that are gonna change the problem areas, not just changes for change sake.

I didn't see any bombed tries for the Wobblies: any clues?
Beale was awful and it is tempting to teat it as an aberration but, this is the first time have seen him for a while and I think he has put on all the puddin he lost. This view was borne out by the fact that his dancing around trying to imitate Dagg fooled no one and he was run down while running across field by Dan Carter towards th end of the game.
AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) should be moved to outside centre and Horne sent to Forshaw so he can work on beating a man on the outside - and a few other things.
Start with Simmons and build the back 5 of the pack around that. Timani and Higgers cannot start in the same team so Dennis stays although he did nothing much last night. Higgers line out work was exceptional without me having seen his stats.
Genia has terminal (I think) wallaby half backitis - this disease takes a long time to kill its host and tends to adversely impact on the rest of the team for up to a decade.


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[naza]

He also fires them up a bit. I have seldom noticed such a silent and overtly passive-looking mob in 1-8 for Aus as last night. Where's the fucking aggro?

Those blokes knew they were beaten in the first minute. Most looked like they'd rather be anywhere else. I'm still amazed the ABs didn't smash us by 40.

As for Rolland, he's an ironic ref. Pedantic about everything except the breakdown.

 

[Ruggo]

Oh dear, Barnes was Barnes.

Cooper for Barnes
Douglas for Tamani
Moore for TPN

 

[Loki74]

I didn't see any bombed tries for the Wobblies: any clues?
Beale was awful and it is tempting to teat it as an aberration but, this is the first time have seen him for a while and I think he has put on all the puddin he lost. This view was borne out by the fact that his dancing around trying to imitate Dagg fooled no one and he was run down while running across field by Dan Carter towards th end of the game.
AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) should be moved to outside centre and Horne sent to Forshaw so he can work on beating a man on the outside - and a few other things.
Start with Simmons and build the back 5 of the pack around that. Timani and Higgers cannot start in the same team so Dennis stays although he did nothing much last night. Higgers line out work was exceptional without me having seen his stats.
Genia has terminal (I think) wallaby half backitis - this disease takes a long time to kill its host and tends to adversely impact on the rest of the team for up to a decade.


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Beale was very ordinary in the last Wales game too. Can't see why he is a must pick, when clearly in bad form, but Cooper who had some decent games for the Reds, can't even get on the bench.

 

[Loki74]

Of course, the stupidest thing is that Cooper clearly had mental issues at the cup in NZ. But instead of easing him back in in front of his home crowd off the bench, he may (although I would not put any money on it) get pitched back in to save the day at Eden park. Not sure he as the maturity not to overplay with that sort of pressure, ala Beale, who amongst other things has far too much pressure from selections to be our x factor- although Ioane can handle it, so not sure why he can't.

 

[thierry dusautoir]

First scrum of the game the Australian scrum one a penalty against the amazing darkness pack. It thought for a second we might just match them. But then balance was restored to the world pretty quickly after that........a few key changes need to be made

 

[wamberal]

We played like we were blinded by the bright lights, or something.


Deans has no real choice, he has to eat humble pie and bring Cooper back. Fainga'a is not a Test class centre. Barnes to 12. Also Barnes really has to learn to kick out of hand, especially for the line from a penalty. At this level he should be getting at least 40 metres, not 20.

 

[Joe Blow]

It is not as though we are the only team to rely on X-factor.
NZ have Dagg, Carter and SBW. Some would argue Nonu, Gear, Smith X 2 have it as well.
It's more often referred to as having multiple threats. We normally have 4-5 in our backline and it has often got us home in games where our pack struggles to gain parity and we operate on less than 50% possession.
It has been that way for the majority of our rugby playing history.
Nothing has changed.

 

[Jiggles]

I Just re-watched the game to try and get a better perspective without the frustration that comes with watching things crumble live. my key observations are:

• The tight 5 were really, really shithouse. Probably the worst performance I have seen from an Australian tight 5 In the last 10 years, and there have been a few. They rarely got to rucks or set up for the next phase promptly, or with agression. Robinson, TPN and Kepu were puffed after 20 minutes. Timani had his body high all wrong, and at one stage got turned over by Smith. A halfback for christs sake.

• The all round shitness of the tight 5 put a lot of pressure on our backrow who tried to do way too much. Higgers, Dennis and Pocock in particular, were playing under 10s style rugby of just following from ruck to ruck with out actually thinking of were the play was going. They had no confidence in the tight 5 performing their core role of securing tight and fast ruck ball.

• Ball was slow for Genia because Barnes couldn't organise his runners and get realignment happening fast enough. If thats not the job of the flyhalf, then I am a purple fury space monkey. This man could not organise a root in a brothel, a piss up in a brewery, a "insert anything else in here." Granted the forwards had as much urgency as a bunch of school boys being hurried along to Tuesday mass, but jesus christ a delay at the base of the ruck for 10 seconds should not happen.

• I guess basic rugby skills training was optional in the last 3 weeks of Camp Wallaby.

The All Blacks were shit. Very shit. They were right for picking off, and if we had gone in with the correct team, or at least a forward pack that was committed and fit, we would be 1 up in the Bedisloe, with home court advantage. Thats the most frustrating thing about this, we just gave the All Blacks a leg up with an opposed training run. I don't expect changes in the tight 5, even though they should happen. We will probably see a shuffling in the backs and thats about it. Cooper will be thrown into the deep end at Eden Park.

Goodbye Bledisloe for 2012. Take your mate Robbie Deans with you.

 

[biggsy]

And take the ARU board of selectors as well...

 

[redstragic]

[*]The tight 5 were really, really shithouse.

Goodbye Bledisloe for 2012. Take your mate Robbie Deans with you.

Maybe this should in the positivity thread but it is handbags at ten paces over there . After playing like that men of pride come out ready to smash the next week, come on Wallabies show us some pride at Eden park.

 

[biggsy]

I Just re-watched the game to try and get a better perspective without the frustration that comes with watching things crumble live. my key observations are:

Cooper will be thrown into the deep end at Eden Park.

Goodbye Bledisloe for 2012. Take your mate Robbie Deans with you.

I watched the Reply as well, even more Fucked.... Shit Front row did what the have dome all season. And your so right about Barnes, the way he played was perfect for NRL...

Be the Same team picked for next... Delusional ARU and Robbies deans love there Tah players.

 

[Braveheart81]

Our forwards didn't muscle up at all. We miss Palu and Horwill immensely. There was just no physical prowess from our players whatsoever. The backrow in particular was disappointing. Higginbotham clearly had a shocking game and Dennis was pretty anonymous. Pocock tried but really struggled to assert himself to his usual extent.

I thought the locks were alright. Sharpe was probably our best player and I thought Timani did ok. He didn't do anything special but so many of the other forwards were poor that you'd probably say that he'll keep his spot for next week. Simmons didn't have any impact when he came on either.

Robinson was poor and is nowhere near being one of the premier LHPs that he once was. I'd bring Slipper into the starting team next week.

Polota-Nau was decent and got the lineout right so he can probably retain the starting spot. Moore didn't do anything great when he came on to demand that he starts.

Genia got better in the second half but had a really poor first half. The tap from a penalty inside our own 22 early in the game was particularly stupid. His passing was poor and he was so slow to clear the ball. The reality is that Genia is one of our key players. If he doesn't have a good game we really don't stand a chance of beating the All Blacks.

Barnes was decent but I think moving Barnes to 12 and playing Cooper at 10 next week is important. We need two people from 10-13 who can kick.

Horne was solid without doing anything great and had a better game than Fainga'a. He should retain the 13 jersey.

AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) made a couple of really poor defensive reads, particularly in the first try. He should have never left his man to tackle the player Fainga'a had covered.

Beale clearly had a shocker. Probably his worst test.

Ioane was good.

The problem is we were just outclassed across the park by the All Blacks. Key players were our worst. It really didn't come down to any of the contentious selections at all. It was the players who everyone would have selected who were our worst.