Argentina v Australia II @ 5.10am 14/08

[eastman]

I’ll comment on the performance later but at least it was an entertaining and open game of rugby- plenty of running and tries scored.

Any neutral (or Argentinian) should have enjoyed it.

 

[Adam84]

Glad i didn‘t wake at 4:45 to watch that performance

 

[Lightblue]

Chasing the game or not, too much positive play was wasted by attempting miracle passes on the back of the play. And yes, we didn’t seem to be able to capitalize on our time in their 22. Too lateral? Are we too one dimensional with the Korobite, Tupou, Bobby V are our main carriers tactic? It just seems telegraphed time, if the opposition can shut them down, it goes a long way to shutting us down. And on that note, Bobby V was great today, I think he should get a buzz cut so the opposition don’t recognize him as quickly.

JOC (James O'Connor) hardly dominated …As you say Drew, we were too predictable… Petaia another ho hum game… still yet to be convinced by him at this level…our coaching strategy was ordinary but full credit to Argentina..

 

[Adam84]

I just don’t rate Tom wright at test level full stop.
He’s had chances like Tom banks (tho wright worse). Time to move on.
Not seeing much in attack at the moment in general. Pretty much poor across the park.
Some terrible calls by ref too

Wright isn’t a test fullback and it’s not his fault as he hasn’t played there much, his general positioning and option taking from the back was extremely poor today, consistently caught out of position, average under the highball and indecisive on kick returns.

The search for the Wallaby fullback continues, you cant play Wright again’t the Boks or AB’s

 

[John S]

Sooo frustrating to watch this one

 

[dru]

Stats are kind if interesting. https://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/playerstats?gameId=595485&league=244293

Possession roughly equal, though the Pumas with the advantage in the second half. Territory overwhelming to Australia! Pumas had to do a lot more tackling and both teams tackle success was pretty rough (86% and 88%). Wallabies with basically 50% more distance gained running. Set piece doesn't look so bad in the generic stats (I'll bet the analysts may have more to say about the quality of it though).

JOC (James O'Connor) got away more passes than we have seen from FH recently, and appears in the the top tacklers (Lonergan 13, Koroibete 12, Swain 11, O'Conner 10). Penalty count mostly spread through the whole team with plenty of players with one each. Tupou at 3 - scrum I guess.

In short, I don't think the stats at this level of analysis really show the game.

Valetini easy Wallaby of the match for me, Koroibete up there. Overall our defense stood up statistically but not in reality, and then we had no oomph with the territory advantage which in reality worked for Pumas whatever the stats say.

Huge game for Argentina.

 

[Adam84]

not very good
JOC (James O'Connor) (James O'Connor) probably played his last test?
Wright not very good.
Too many missed tackles by forwards.
Bad discipline. Arnold anonymous (again)

I thought Arnold was injured; on a few occasions because he was slow to get up after a ruck or collision and just kind of stood there whilst the rest of the players were running to get into position. Either that or unfit. When he got the ball he was decent in contact thought.

 

[Wilson]

I thought Arnold was injured; on a few occasions because he was slow to get up after a ruck or collision and just kind of stood there whilst the rest of the players were running to get into position. Either that or unfit. When he got the ball he was decent in contact thought.

Definitely looks like it was the wrong game to throw him in, but I guess they didn't know Fainga'a would be out until after they had named him.

 

[eastman]

I think Swain needs a rest- he wasn’t effective disrupting mauls and was nearly Rob Simmons-esque with the ball.

 

[Adam84]

Is that the Wallabies biggest ever loss to Argentina?

 

[Wilson]

Is that the Wallabies biggest ever loss to Argentina?

It must be, it was Argentina's biggest ever win against a tier 1 nation

 

[Adam84]

I think Swain needs a rest- he wasn’t effective disrupting mauls and was nearly Rob Simmons-esque with the ball.

Yeah he was carrying too high this game, which is good sometimes to look for an offload, but carrying into heavy traffic he needs to put his head down to get across the gain line. Valetini carries high also, but he is strong enough in contact to do that.

 

[Lightblue]

Is that the Wallabies biggest ever loss to Argentina?

Yep.

 

[RugbyReg]

Is that the Wallabies biggest ever loss to Argentina?

Yep. Previous highest score against us was the 34 points they scored against us in Salta, 2018 (a game they lost).

But their previous biggest winning margin was all the way back in 1983 in Brisbane when they won by 15 points.

 

[Rugby Head]

I thought Arnold was injured; on a few occasions because he was slow to get up after a ruck or collision and just kind of stood there whilst the rest of the players were running to get into position. Either that or unfit. When he got the ball he was decent in contact thought.

Just unfit

 

[dru]

Glad i didn‘t wake at 4:45 to watch that performance

Trying to take a logical look at when you did start watching - 6:00am ish? Against a kick off at something just after 5:00am. One hour earlier?
No doubt jumping over the half time spoiler means you get to watch AB v Bok without foreknowledge, which is a good thing.

 

[KOB1987]

I thought Arnold was injured; on a few occasions because he was slow to get up after a ruck or collision and just kind of stood there whilst the rest of the players were running to get into position. Either that or unfit. When he got the ball he was decent in contact thought.

I just watched the replay in full and have now flicked through the match thread and completely forgot Arnold was playing until I read this post which was put up 11 minutes ago.

Aside from that I have nothing to say about the game except that was atrocious, I’ll give some leeway due to the run of injuries, but without naming them there were several players out there today who should clearly not be in the team, with varying levels of experience.

The bright note was that we’ve gone two consecutive games without a card, I do think that discipline is a focal point for Rennie, and with that comes a bit of short term pain as players have their bad habits trained out of them.

 

[RugbyReg]

I

The bright note was that we’ve gone two consecutive games without a card, I do think that discipline is a focal point for Rennie, and with that comes a bit of short term pain as players have their bad habits trained out of them.

McReight was carded today.

 

[Lightblue]

Rennie needs to watch tapes of Ireland. That’s how you play rugby! Mix it up. Put the defence into two minds. We are too bloody predictable.

 

[Marce]

I thought Arnold was injured; on a few occasions because he was slow to get up after a ruck or collision and just kind of stood there whilst the rest of the players were running to get into position. Either that or unfit. When he got the ball he was decent in contact thought.

Too many daiquiris in Croatia. It's Rennie's fault to pick him after holidays