Forcefield
Ken Catchpole (46)
I thought our forwards individually were very good but I remember how they were outplayed by Ireland (in the pool game) in team attributes—not just set pieces, but in a lot of aspects of play where forwards had to act together.
The Irish weren't bigger or tougher or individually-better, just more pack-oriented. The many little cuts they gave weakened the Aussie performance and they beat us with a modest team.
I didn't question the coaching of the Oz team because it was obvious that the Ireland lads had a history of playing tight rugby and what they did was of second nature to them.
Our style of open rugby owes much to our harder grounds and benign weather, but we have to get those tight-play attributes into our young forwards earlier.
The Irish tighthead would have barely made triple figures in weight. I thought we got rorted on a few scrum calls. Pretty sure that a couple of times he was driven off the ground and our loosehead got pinged for angling in. The Irish locks were very good value.
Definitely our biggest issue was the lack of combinations and match fitness. There were a couple of times in the first half where the Irish outside backs ran riot. We were in it right up until then end though. Just like against New Zealand.
Regarding Ross Haylett-Petty- I reckon he should play 6. He's played in the backrow a bit for the Force 'A'. He'd be good there. With our first game being against Argentina, we need a bruiser in the backrow.