3rd Place Play Off - Wallabies v Wales.

[Athilnaur]

Setting aside the abysmal refereeing, the fact key players were missing or injured on both sides, and that this was an also ran game;

- higgers played well
- Barnes played well but kicked too often (in fairness so have others but this is to a fault for him)
- The wallabies got away with daylight robbery that they didn't vs all blacks in terms of unchallenged ball.

In short we won, phew, but so what. The Welsh were missing a critical player, if not two, and we didn't field a quarter of our team. My biggest beef was with the ref, who shouldn't be allowed to ref a RWC game again. A serious cock up in 07 repeated in 11. This is supposed to be the centrepiece of the sport and he makes a fundamental cock up. Again. He needs a bullet.

Bright side Ma'afu. Who barely got a mention for it. Pathetic commentating.

 

[light]

Got some answers tonight for the future.

1. Higginbotham should now be the 1st choice no6.
2. Barnes needs to be in the starting team
3. Slipper is a loose head prop not a THP
4. Mcalman to be persevered with (but needs to alter his running height) until a new no8 is found
5. Alexander to be scrapheaped permanently
6. A back up no9 needs to be found
7. Horne at no13
8.No more muppets from the NH to ref a WC final of any description again

1. You are right, but as Barbarian says he is not too far ahead of Rocky.
2. Once again, at 12 not 10. We will have a chance to work on this during the EOYT, I imagine he will be at 10 though.
4. I'd rather we try Dennis or Schatz
5. I was quite surprised with him in our group games, he can hold his own when he wants too. And we don't have too many other options
6. Swanepoel or Phipps, either way one needs to get a lot of time on EOYT. Bredenhann will hopefully continue developing over in RSA and will come back better.
7. Much better option than AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper), at least he knows how to pass. Also looks constantly angry and makes penetrating runs. Looks good in defence but we will need a better 12 for him to function properly.
8. Barnes was hopeless tonight. AMEN.

 

[Chunderstruck]

Was just wondering about the forward pass leading up to the Shane Williams try, could the ref have gone upstairs to check? How far back in the play before the try can he have something looked at?

 

[Tangawizi]

Hmmm.... Uk telegraph doesn't think the Cooper stories been done to death yet.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ru...buse-directed-at-Australias-Quade-Cooper.html

 

[Big Ask]

His touch judge was literally 5 feet away, to be fair to Barnes he has to assume he could see if it was forward from there.

 

[tigerland12]

Hmmm.... Uk telegraph doesn't think the Cooper stories been done to death yet.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ru...buse-directed-at-Australias-Quade-Cooper.html

And they wonder why we hate them so much?

 

[Chunderstruck]

A bit off topic but one things this match confirmed to me is there's a big gap between number 1 and number 2 in the world but not between about 2 and 6.

In the WBs defense though I think the difference can appear bigger when one team gets the upper hand. NZ put us off our game completely by applying insane pressure, and then we were trying to force the issue.

Obviously NZ were the better team for being able to dictate play, but if the WBs had managed to disrupt the their gameplan somehow (that's the hard part) then they might not seem utterly out of our reach.

 

[light]

I thought the guy who gathered the ball from the kick was offside in the first place, long before the pass. That was appalling refereeing, especially from the touchies who not only missed the forward pass but then the player lying out of the field before the second try.

 

[Slim 293]

Got some answers tonight for the future.

1. Higginbotham should now be the 1st choice no6.
2. Barnes needs to be in the starting team
3. Slipper is a loose head prop not a THP
4. Mcalman to be persevered with (but needs to alter his running height) until a new no8 is found
5. Alexander to be scrapheaped permanently
6. A back up no9 needs to be found
7. Horne at no13
8.No more muppets from the NH to ref a WC final of any description again

This is just an over reaction after once match for various reasons...

 

[light]

This is just an over reaction after once match for various reasons...

Let me guess, because Alexander plays for the brumbies, McCabe should be our future 12 not Barnes, Elsom is still our best 6 and Higgenbotham is hopeless?

 

[Slim 293]

Let me guess, because Alexander plays for the brumbies, McCabe should be our future 12 not Barnes, Elsom is still our best 6 and Higgenbotham is hopeless?

Actually, no... not where I was going at all....

But thanks for being a troll...

 

[Slim 293]

Barnes has long being considered one of the top refs in the world...

Silly to suggest that he and other NH refs are not good enough after one bad performance...

Alexander has been our best prop this year... That's not saying a lot but to suggest he should be scrapped altogether is dumb...

Slipper is still a better TH... Let's not forget that he still had some scrummaging issues on the LH side....

The blindside flanker spot is up for grabs next year with no real clear standouts as yet...

We won the match but there were still the same old issues there... Wasn't a perfect performance by far...

 

[Ruggo]

Interesting game. Some very criticised players really stood up tonight. I also thought Simmons was bloody good when he came on. Barnes is still over rated. He played ok but some of his decision making was unimpressive. His first two touches were part of a solid counter attack and both ended with silly grubbers and he did a fine job of wasting Digby when he clearly should have distributed instead of kicking the ball away. When he did run the ball he did look really sharpe and more like the 2007 Barnes model that really had a bright future. Shit happens but AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) give yourself an uppercut for bombing that try. Ant did a fantastic job at setting that up for you. Slipper was also imense today. The bloke is one hell of a talent.

Congratulations Sharpie on the 100 and the balls you showed running out that injury. Really inspirational stuff.

Bad luck Quade. You were looking the goods until the injury. The timing sucked in the extreme as you dealt with enough crap this cup and for your cup to end this way is just a cruel twist of fate. Booing an injured player from the field is a dog act and it has inspired me to wish France all the best on Sunday.

Cheers for ending the cup in good fashion boys.

 

[the plastic paddy]

Was just wondering about the forward pass leading up to the Shane Williams try, could the ref have gone upstairs to check? How far back in the play before the try can he have something looked at?

Not allowed to. Strange but true I am afraid.

 

[the plastic paddy]

Setting aside the abysmal refereeing, the fact key players were missing or injured on both sides, and that this was an also ran game;

- higgers played well
- Barnes played well but kicked too often (in fairness so have others but this is to a fault for him)
- The wallabies got away with daylight robbery that they didn't vs all blacks in terms of unchallenged ball.

In short we won, phew, but so what. The Welsh were missing a critical player, if not two, and we didn't field a quarter of our team. My biggest beef was with the ref, who shouldn't be allowed to ref a RWC game again. A serious cock up in 07 repeated in 11. This is supposed to be the centrepiece of the sport and he makes a fundamental cock up. Again. He needs a bullet.

Bright side Ma'afu. Who barely got a mention for it. Pathetic commentating.

Think Monsieur Poite, the AR on that side is the man who missed the forward pass and he missed the poisoned dwarves feet in touch before the second try. Think they should bring in a 4th official whose only job is to watch for forward passes myself but the refereeing did not affect the result so who cares. And would remind the people saying NH refs are shite, Lawrence who seems to be hated by everyone( but not me) is from NZ.

 

[chiraag]

So why did sharpie get taken off so early? Sure he got bit of an injury in the first half, but he was playing on and obviously said he was OK to play on at half time. He was one of the best players on the park in the first half and it would have been more than fitting to let him play out the full game, plus he offers so much more than Simmons. I really do not understand what Robbie has against the guy and why he thinks Simmons is so good.

I honestly hope that is not the last game he plays for the wallabies, as I still rate him as the best lock in Australia - which I think has been shown by the limited time he has received in the wallabies this year and in the Super 15 season. I'm sure he will continue this form next year as well as it still looks like he has a fair bit of rugby left in him and has only been getting better in recent years. For mine Vickerman / Sharpe is best lock combination we have, but unfortunately Horwill was given the captaincy and had to be in the team.

Congratulations on the 100 games Sharpie! You have been an awesome servant to the Wallabies and your commitment and pride in the jersey should be an example to current and future players

 

[darkhorse]

I dont see why you cant play BB at 12 and QC (Quade Cooper) at 10 - they are such different players and in the long run if some of BB's control and a tiny bit of his conservatism rub off then QC (Quade Cooper) may acquire the judgment his game currently lacks: I thought they looked more convincing in that area with the combo - but we'll be lucky if they're both available for the first test in 2012.

There are many ways of including them in the team. A lot of people had concerns about changing the structure of our backline/attack and my suggestion of a 10/15 pairing was to address that. A 10/12 pairing would work fine as well, but in all honesty it really comes down to a 1st receiver 2nd receiver system and it doesn't matter whether the 2nd rec is at 12 or 15.

 

[Schadenfreude]

Am I jaded, or did AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) butcher that try because he was holding the ball high so he could do a swan dive?

Been watching the replay - I can't understand half of the refereeing decisions - the best/worst was the "engage - you went to early" call. I didn't realise it was "crouch touch pause engage pause".

The confusing thing is the referee and his assistants were perfectly placed to make those calls they should have got them right.

 

[badabing59]

Hmmm.... Uk telegraph doesn't think the Cooper stories been done to death yet.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ru...buse-directed-at-Australias-Quade-Cooper.html

Lets be honest-Mark Reason has been particularly vitriolic about anything Southern Hemisphere related. Stephen Jones illegitimate offspring perhaps?

 

[Inside Shoulder]

So why did sharpie get taken off so early? Sure he got bit of an injury in the first half, but he was playing on and obviously said he was OK to play on at half time. He was one of the best players on the park in the first half and it would have been more than fitting to let him play out the full game, plus he offers so much more than Simmons. I really do not understand what Robbie has against the guy and why he thinks Simmons is so good.

I honestly hope that is not the last game he plays for the wallabies, as I still rate him as the best lock in Australia - which I think has been shown by the limited time he has received in the wallabies this year and in the Super 15 season. I'm sure he will continue this form next year as well as it still looks like he has a fair bit of rugby left in him and has only been getting better in recent years. For mine Vickerman / Sharpe is best lock combination we have, but unfortunately Horwill was given the captaincy and had to be in the team.

Congratulations on the 100 games Sharpie! You have been an awesome servant to the Wallabies and your commitment and pride in the jersey should be an example to current and future players

He limped off and i dont think he would have bunged that on to cover a tactical sub. He did make a difference: his problem until this season (IMO) was that he played too wide but he was obviously given that message and he changed his game in a split second. He went from running wide with the ball to hitting the rucks and mauls from s15 to test in 1 season: that is a credit to his attitude and ability.