2025 Bledisloe Cup Series

[Red Runner]

So do we lose the UK bound crew (Hooper, Skelton, Tupou, Hooper, JOC (James O'Connor)) for the Japan test?

 

[stillmissit]

Reckon you're falling back on a couple of old favourites here. NZ fans could well say the same thing re the breakdown, with McReight having another good night stealing and slowing their ball. We did get counter rucked a few times but at least one of these occurred following a contestable kick, with NZ flooding the breakdown and overwhelming Daugunu and Lonergan. Both teams had periods where the packs generated momentum but the only area NZ were clearly dominant was our lineout.

As for JAS's tackling, he seemed pretty aggressive/less passive last night and landed some pretty good shots. He did get sat down at one point but I think his reads are improving.

Having read this, I get it, NZ won two in a counter ruck right over the top of us, they also won a fair bit of ball on their own and McRight won 2 against them. We lost 40% of all our possessions and of that 9 or 21% were at the breakdown. Still I guess by your yardstick this is so 'old school'. I state it again, in case you missed it, we lost 21% of ALL our Possessions at the breakdown.....
I guess we got done at the breakdown...I have argued that top teams are running in pods and are very quick to the breakdown, we are slow getting there and putting a T/O at risk. If you can't see it - that's OK.
Re JAS we watched him fairly closely and wondered why he wasn't contesting balls in the air. He did contest one in the last few minutes. Most of his tackles I watched he bounced off. Needs to learn how to tackle like Tamati Williams.

 

[griffins]

Having read this, I get it, NZ won two in a counter ruck right over the top of us, they also won a fair bit of ball on their own and McRight won 2 against them. We lost 40% of all our possessions and of that 9 or 21% were at the breakdown. Still I guess by your yardstick this is so 'old school'. I state it again, in case you missed it, we lost 21% of ALL our Possessions at the breakdown.....
I guess we got done at the breakdown...I have argued that top teams are running in pods and are very quick to the breakdown, we are slow getting there and putting a T/O at risk. If you can't see it - that's OK.

Always happy to defer to you old fella, I have a hard time making heads or tails of all those mucks and rauls

 

[Wilson]

So do we lose the UK bound crew (Hooper, Skelton, Tupou, Hooper, JOC (James O'Connor) (James O'Connor)) for the Japan test?

I believe so, though Hooper and Tupou maybe not depending on when their contracts with RA end. For Tupou at least it should be through to the end of the EOYT.

Ikitau and Bell are the other ones, but given their deals are sabbaticals they should hopefully remain available throughout.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Really disappointing performance from our boys last night. I had a bad feeling yesterday morning when I awoke to the sound of rain hammering down. We don't play well in the wet (two years in a row here in Perth, WTF!) and it made our performance all the sloppier.

I actually thought in the first 20-25 minutes we were right in it and in stages were all over them. There was the now trademark short ball movement to open up space and we were right into them. I thought we were also winning the breakdown as well.

The disallowed try and Skelton's HIA seemed to take the air out of the balloon a fair bit and we lapsed into some poor skill errors. Small lapses turned into points for the All Blacks and we were chasing the game. Some crucial lineout losses or not straight calls killed momentum too, which was very frustrating. It led to us spending an awful lot of time in our own half, especially after half time.

The attack really started to lose some shape too. I don't bag players and won't here, but Gordon and especially Edmed didn't really give us the direction we needed out there. Tane is, with absolutely no disrespect to him, probably not the required level yet.

The defence had some worrying holes in it too. Ultimately I think the scoreline flattered us. We're a better side than we were this time last year, but there is clearly still a lot of work to do.

 

[rugbyAU]

So do we lose the UK bound crew (Hooper, Skelton, Tupou, Hooper, JOC (James O'Connor) (James O'Connor)) for the Japan test?

Yep and Ikitau

 

[SteveWA]

I was there. Ref was fine, not consistent but better than most recently. Biggest issue was the Wallabies were too narrow after the first 20 minutes. Before that they got outside the All Blacks but once the All Blacks countered that (yes, offside) the Wallabies had no Plan B. Edmed tried using the chip kick behind the defenders but no chasers. I’d say the Wallabies were good for 80% of the time, but that’s not good enough at this level. Having said that, I’d be more concerned if I was an All Blacks supporter - they really should have dominated given the yellow cards and soft penalties but they didn’t. But 2 years to the RWC - plenty of time for both teams.

 

[wamberal99]

There are a few prospects in the under 18s!

 

[Pfitzy]

Difficult to say Carter was the guy either. One semi decent but more fun season to watch in a team that came second last.

And then packed up his swag and headed to league. Did RA chase him hard enough? Or did he decide he just wanted to play NRL ahead of representing his country in Rugby?

 

[Strewthcobber]

And then packed up his swag and headed to league. Did RA chase him hard enough? Or did he decide he just wanted to play NRL ahead of representing his country in Rugby?

Or option C?

he felt our sport treated him so badly (Eddie Jones, Rebels, etc), that he decided he'd rather play another sport for less money?

 

[Strewthcobber]

QC (Quade Cooper) has gone full Campo.

My thing with the wallabies game is simple. We have such a talented team now but watching it I’m not sure I’m super clear on the system or shape we are playing? It’s hard to understand. their system is non existent which puts them in bad positions which creates chaos and chaos breeds uncertainty and uncertainty = bad decisions and bad decisions result in turnovers, penalties etc..

Amongst a few other observations on Edmed which have got the headlines, was a pretty strong criticism of the Wallabies system (or lack thereof).

It's hard to disagree with him. Other than helter skelter, incredibly risky offload/passing game out wide, what was the Wallaby system?

Ideally, you could identify something designed to take advantage of the weakness of our opponents, and abilities of our players?

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

Here comes the launch of QCs podcast I predict.

 

[rugbyAU]

Can the mods/admin have a look into this website, it keeps crashing

 

[Tomthumb]

Or option C?

he felt our sport treated him so badly (Eddie Jones, Rebels, etc), that he decided he'd rather play another sport for less money?

I'm sure there are a lot of players that wouldn't view being picked for the Wallabies for an entire year as being treated badly

 

[todd4]

Can the mods/admin have a look into this website, it keeps crashing

TWF.com were have problems with bots and they now use Cloudfare to log in. Takes a little longer but the site doesn't crash.

 

[upthereds#!]

and Bell?

 

[Wilson]

QC (Quade Cooper) (Quade Cooper) has gone full Campo.

In fairness to Quade he has since clarified, and then apologised for the Edmed comments:

So for me is he a good player yeah he’s ok but is he a test match 10? I’m my opinion no. Does that mean he can’t be in time..
...
Just for the news outlets - it wasn’t a brutal swipe at Tane Edmed, I just don’t think he should be playing test match rugby for Australia right now. If he’s the best that we have in the most pivotal position in the game in all of Australia. Tell me one top tier country he could replace their top 2 10s?
...
As for Tane. I would like to apologize. I’ve been in that position, I know how tough it is. I don’t ever want to be one of those ex-players who just sit on the sidelines throwing shade. I’d rather offer perspective and encouragement than add to the noise.

It was a poorly phrased initial post and Quade certainly seems to have realised he needs to be a bit more considered than the average poster, but I don't think you'd find many people who disagree with the idea that Edmed is not really ready for test match rugby yet, particularly not at the top levels of the game like Rugby Championship. Certainly the way in which he was open to clarifying and hearing the criticism of his first post puts him in a whole different world to Campo.

 

[Adam84]

QC (Quade Cooper) (Quade Cooper) has gone full Campo.

Amongst a few other observations on Edmed which have got the headlines, was a pretty strong criticism of the Wallabies system (or lack thereof).

It's hard to disagree with him. Other than helter skelter, incredibly risky offload/passing game out wide, what was the Wallaby system?

Ideally, you could identify something designed to take advantage of the weakness of our opponents, and abilities of our player

His comments about Edmed were pretty brutal, said he shouldn’t be on the test match pitch. Has since apologised for that.