Argentina v Australia II @ 5.10am 14/08

[Dctarget]

My bet is he will be on the first plane to Europe or japan the day after the RWC finishes. Seems to be motivated by $$$$ more than anything else.

Can you point to one thing that suggests that? He's signed with the reds as a kid and will do 8 seasons with them before potentially leaving. The guy could've made bank from day 1 yet has been loyal as for 8 years. What a stupid thing to say.

 

[Rugby Head]

Ikitau has been a god send, good to see someone has locked down the 13 jersey for the RWC.

 

[LeCheese]

My bet is he will be on the first plane to Europe or japan the day after the RWC finishes. Seems to be motivated by $$$$ more than anything else.

You’d turn down a $1m+ job offer then, yeah?

Limited life on his playing career, very family-oriented (both immediate and extended), and has achieved a significant amount over 5+ seasons with the reds and wallabies. If he wants to set himself and his family up, then good on him.

 

[Pfitzy]

I thought he was fine. Good work rate. Think his throws were mostly accurate.

A couple of throws he looked rushed - like the coordination wasn't quite there with the starting pack.

 

[Braveheart81]

The overwhelming issue to me was just critical errors moreso than specific players or losing collisions.

We gifted a try in the opening minutes due to a stupid play by Petaia.

We conceded a couple more due to indecision and mistakes fielding kicks.

We blew two or three clear try scoring opportunities either through bad luck/bad call (Slipper clean out penalty), McReight picking and going when there was a try for the taking by clearing the ball, Petaia getting turned over grounding the ball.

The two late tries really blew the score out but realistically the game should have been much closer.

The most concerning thing is the frequency with which we concede stupid tries from cataclysmic errors and botch easy try scoring opportunities.

 

[fatprop]

Yep one or two big flash youtube type runs a game doesn't justify the time and money spent on him so far IMHO.

His early rewards has been for those runs, we have a habit for rewarding non complete players with incredible non core skill and then lamenting what they don't do the non core skills well - but he is a beast when he does his work

Pure speculation, but has there been any scuttlebutt out of the Reds camp re the Thorn\Tupou issues?

From a distance Thorn seems a coach who wants units to get the basics under control before they consider the fancy stuff

 

[eastman]

stop recruiting in the school yard to start with.

Let them grow into their bodies and skillset at clubland before thinking professional contracts. If they want to go to mungo ball then let them. The ones with passion for the game will stay and develop into better rugby players with some hardened competition.

This isn’t how things work anymore.

 

[Brumby Runner]

Needs to put his head down and his bum up and get on with the hard stuff. Stop seagulling for a while.

Needs to stop seagulling, sure, but also needs to learn to scrum legally.

 

[DELETE ACCOUNT]

Can you point to one thing that suggests that? He's signed with the reds as a kid and will do 8 seasons with them before potentially leaving. The guy could've made bank from day 1 yet has been loyal as for 8 years. What a stupid thing to say.

look at what his body language and attitude is around the reds.
Has been in negotiations for his next contract with reds and RA for a while, must be some sort of discussion topics for not to be locked and loaded by now.
Plenty of banter about other Super rugby operations willing to chat with him.
Has also been quoted as saying " the forced injury layoff was good to get away from reds program for a bit"
Did his rehab / treatment with RA crew not the Reds.
Not specifically to TT but there is plenty of signs of disharmony at Ballymore.

All little indicators that all is not well or he is open to other options and is not a bolted on Reds/Wallaby.

 

[DELETE ACCOUNT]

You’d turn down a $1m+ job offer then, yeah?

Limited life on his playing career, very family-oriented (both immediate and extended), and has achieved a significant amount over 5+ seasons with the reds and wallabies. If he wants to set himself and his family up, then good on him.

I would chase the bucks too.

I said it because there was comments about his play.

 

[DELETE ACCOUNT]

This isn’t how things work anymore.

well we will keep getting the same results we have for the past 5-8 years then.

If we are unwilling or unable to make changes then we must become accepting of the outcomes.

 

[dru]

I find McReight so hit and miss. Gives away too many penalties at the moment. Definitely has a bright future. If he plays more like his second half in the first test he'll be pushing Hooper. At the moment, Hooper is daylights ahead.

Viking, correct me if I am reading the recent history incorrectly, but McReight had a clean sheet and one penalty in his two games against Argentina. In the three games against England, Hooper was responsible for 4 penalties with no clean sheets.

Is that right?

It is pretty usual for the role of the 7 to be in the eye of the whistle blower I would think.

 

[dru]

His early rewards has been for those runs, we have a habit for rewarding non complete players with incredible non core skill and then lamenting what they don't do the non core skills well - but he is a beast when he does his work

Pure speculation, but has there been any scuttlebutt out of the Reds camp re the Thorn\Tupou issues?

From a distance Thorn seems a coach who wants units to get the basics under control before they consider the fancy stuff

There has been plenty of speculation, but as far as I can tell in terms of real information Thorn holds a completely clean sheet. Where there is smoke etc, but so far nothing real is out in the open.

 

[Tomthumb]

well we will keep getting the same results we have for the past 5-8 years then.

If we are unwilling or unable to make changes then we must become accepting of the outcomes.

Exactly

 

[Viking]

Viking, correct me if I am reading the recent history incorrectly, but McReight had a clean sheet and one penalty in his two games against Argentina. In the three games against England, Hooper was responsible for 4 penalties with no clean sheets.

Is that right?

It is pretty usual for the role of the 7 to be in the eye of the whistle blower I would think.

I thought McReight had a lot in the Aust A games and in super rugby. Yeah Hooper clearly hasn't had a great year but he is usually so consistent.

Penalties aside, McReight is far from the finished product. Still makes silly decisions (like that pick and go close to the line) and often and is playing like a player with less then a year international experience... which is not a bad thing given that is exactly what he is.

 

[Tomikin]

stop recruiting in the school yard to start with.

Let them grow into their bodies and skillset at clubland before thinking professional contracts. If they want to go to mungo ball then let them. The ones with passion for the game will stay and develop into better rugby players with some hardened competition.

Oh you mean let them go play league, because they sure as shit aren't going to stop signing them young... should we not have signed Beale, JOC (James O'Connor), Tupou, AAA, Quade, Loeislo, Pastioa, Carter, Donaldson, Tate, Gits... The list goes on, they all would have been signed in league

 

[Tomikin]

Tupou came back from injury and just had his first child, his got a bit going on, and his not up to full nick yet, that's all. I think we see it most year's that its a better combination when AAA starts and Tupou comes off the bench.

 

[Tomthumb]

I thought McReight had a lot in the Aust A games and in super rugby. Yeah Hooper clearly hasn't had a great year but he is usually so consistent.

Penalties aside, McReight is far from the finished product. Still makes silly decisions (like that pick and go close to the line) and often and is playing like a player with less then a year international experience... which is not a bad thing given that is exactly what he is.

Which is why McReight should have got more chances over the last two years instead of just running Hooper into the ground

 

[Slim 293]

Which is why McReight should have got more chances over the last two years instead of just running Hooper into the ground

Where were these opportunities? The Wales test aside, the final test on an EOYT when McReight wasn’t on tour…

The Wobs have only played tier one test nations the past couple of years with mixed results, and COVID didn’t help with a reduced number of games…

 

[mst]

Tom Wright saved his worst game of the year for that one... I hope.

I thought Foketi looked alright at 12, and Ikitau was almost, almost faultless.

They looked ok in parts, but almost like a team that's gone through an almost starting team worth of changes...

The pundit's will over look that the guy that that's been thrown in to a postilion he has played very little is only as bad as the others that have been cut after having a lot more opportunities and time. The lack of support for him provided in the game was telling. Even Puma's were essentially running two full backs to mitigate the kicking.

It wasn't hard to tell that they had looked at the simple but effective Springbok game plan and adapted many elements of it. The Wallabies were simply hesitant and very flatfooted in attack and disjointed in combination with a mix of fearful and passive in defence. Puma's were almost always in motion on to the ball; they were coming around the corner phase after phase in pods. They also ran straight at the line with the intent to break through unlike the Wallabies that were too busy doing silly skippy side steps etc trying to be elusive.

JOC (James O'Connor) provided little at 10 and all the changes compounded that. Even Arnold provided very little. Wilson need time to settle as he give us more in attack. Topou needs to stop being his own wort enemy. We were dumb, out planned (go look at the Saffa V Kiwi stats from game one and the kicks - Cheika and Co. simply adapted the SA game plan from week 1 to attack an inexperienced 15 and a team that generally kicks aimlessly from the back) and the errors are unacceptable. We also desperately need a decent game plan.

My other pet hate is our 9 and 10 being too precious at times to defend.

Cooper and Lolesio are the best two options. Foley is probably next best but for him to work the reality is we need to find a 12, change the way we use the 12/13 combination, find a 15 or give Wright time. We also need to get the forwards running more and do a little bit more than hit ups from a static start - may be throw at least one pass to try a little deception and speed up. We are also simply soooooo sloooowww.