Australia v British & Irish Lions, 3rd Test (Sydney)

[nugget]

Changes for Australia.

I think Deans should be given more time and O'connor persisted with at 10. It'll come right eventually.

In time for the next lions tour

 

[AngrySeahorse]

Congratulations lions, a well deserved win. Dominated us in every aspect of the game.

Great tour, fantastic fans, wonderful games. Rugby the winner. (Hopefully we get a new coach)

Revenge is a dish best served cold.See you in 12 years!

Try 4 years. I'll be enjoying the 2017 demolition of the Lions courtesy of the All Blacks.

 

[Reddy!]

I thought the Lions played a great series and deserved to win - in all 3 games. Fans were great too and I enjoyed having them in my city. Halfpenny is a great player and Wales certainly is a rugby powerhouse I think.

The Wallabies were poor, with some notable strong contributions from certain individuals - eg. Horwill, Mowen, Moore, Genia, Folau etc - you know who I mean.

Some commentators at GAGR were calling this one of the best teams selected in a long time for the Wallabies. I think they are wrong and were proven so tonight. I'm not sure how selecting an out of form and out of position flyhalf, fullback, no.8, lock, prop and has been bench makes for a great team. The Wallabies were at their best in 2010 under Deans.

In some respects I'm relieved, because this should end one chapter in Australian Rugby - an experiment that has gone on for too long and achieved little. There are a lot of individually brilliant players in Australian rugby who can say that they have achieved nothing during their career while under the Deans regime.

I feel sorry for Australian rugby fans who support the Wallabies as well as teams like the Force, Rebels, Waratahs and Brumbies (until recently). At least I had the Reds to cheer and watch in the interim.

 

[Pusser]

G&GR MOTM will be interesting


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[Dai bando]

Not going to trudge through all this thread, would like to thank you for a great lions series, 1/2P won lions player of the series, cant remember who said he was just a robotic kicker, But of course when you dislike all things Welsh then its easy to say, I thought the changes were the difference to the second test, Win the battle up front then release the backs, which we did, the problem the Aussies had was who would they mark stop the Doc playing and others around him are released, mark them and the doc scores, first time the lions had the side that gats wanted and we all saw the difference,

 

[Mr Doug]

Now I know how Julia Gillard feels, (let down by the team)!!

 

[Hal9000]

The Wallabies were comprehensively beaten in all facets. There are so many points that come out of this match but briefly for me a number of points are immediately apparent.
1. JOC (James O'Connor) is not a 10 and hasn't played well there in recent times and his sole good game was a couple of years ago against a very mediocre Welsh side. How did this qualify him for the position against the form 10s in Australian Rugby. Also of note was that it took two or three passes for the ball to reach the 13. The ball was only passed to the wingers once from phase play that I can recall. Basically the Wallaby backs create nothing in this configuration.
2. Beale - he made one individual break and in most other plays managed to crab across field so that he crowded out any outside attacking threats. His kicking from hand as I posted in the blog piece weeks ago is average to poor, and tonight we got the poor side. Again why was he selected over the form 15s in Australia.
3. Alexander at THP. Tonight was a great example of the problems in the Australian scrum with the angles of the second row. The whole set up just wasn't there tonight (and while much will be thrown at Alexander for his performance, which was as he usually does - he just got beat by a good scrummager which is what will happen to him IMO at TH more often than not) as much should be said to the second row who set up with hips high and the angle of their backs down, as Scott Allen's brilliant scrum series showed this just cannot transmit any usable power through.
4. Kicking from hand. For years now, preceding Deans tenure, this has been a woefully executed skill in Australian Rugby. How many kicks have the Wallabies kicked straight to their opponents in this series? Tonight the Wallabies kicked and a Lions player or two were always in position to take it on the full. At no time were they under any pressure. And here is a massive difference in this Wallabies game plan from a conservative plan. Only Mogg kicked for touch. The other kicks were for the 5 metre line or even down the centre of the field from Beale and JOC (James O'Connor).
4. Finally, I have posted for years about the Tahs and more recently about the Wallabies, this risk averse (not conservative) game plan will contain the opposition, even good opposition in many games but when the defence has an off night or the intensity drops a fraction in can become humiliating. The Wallabies weren't humiliated tonight but they were comprehensively beaten, and had nothing to offer except the individual brilliance of the X players and therein is the answer to the questions of points 1 and 2.

I must say that the Lions played some very good Rugby tonight. A strong set piece and effective kicking. Well executed a basic plan with some good skill execution.

Agree 100%. All these are coaching errors. Enough of Deans , time he went. He has had ample time to make his mark and has largely failed. Time for a change.

 

[hazzaj]

I dont understand how people here can seriously think that with only one change to our forward pack, a step up as we were to believe, that we would get our asses handed to us in scrums!

This Ref had it in his mind, that the Lions would be dominate at scrum time, and thus any time Australia had advantage, they were cheating. It has been noted that this Ref will make a decision and run with it the whole night.

How Steve Walsh was not reffing this game is beyond me, he is the best ref in the game and a kiwi by birth. He shows no bias and can handle big games.

 

[Mr Doug]

I can hear it now: "Arise, Sir Warren"!

 

[young gun]

I had high hopes for tonight, sadly we got hammered in the pack and we payed the price. Dingo is done, say hi to jake. Some big changes In Aussie rugby, not only at national but provincial level.

The missing piece being McKenzie to Melbourne. I suspect you have similar information to me, which is from a reasonably reliable source.(would be more confident if Bill Pulver had told me, what what can you do!

- final straw being senior players finally had enough of juvenile behaviour by some team mates and the upper levels agreeing with their views (which are probably the same as ours) and taking action.

I suspect the three amigos are going to have a very different life under Jake - which will actually work in their favour if they do as he tells them.

 

[gel]

I thought we played a bit better than the lions in Brisbane and were a bit unlucky to lose. I thought we played a bit worse than the lions in Melbourne and were a bit lucky to win.

Based on that, I had envisaged a pretty close game.

We were absolutely demolished across most facets of the game tonight.

A great tour by the lions. The crowd they brought with them were fantastic.

 

[Pusser]

I suspect the three amigos are going to have a very different life under Jake - which will actually work in their favour if they do as he tells them.

I doubt it. If he does not let Cooper do exactly what he wants he can only drop him and that will unleash a torrent of vitriol and calls for an Australian Coach ie McKenzie. Not worth it.

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[Sully]

They must really hate McKenzie!

 

[Pusser]

They must really hate McKenzie!

I hope they don't. He has tried a bit of brinkmanship by announcing his departure from the Reds and they might resent that. In any case I hope he or Cheika gets the job. I think Cheika might be the answer to the three amigos and he is a Waratah.


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[Brumby Jack]

Firstly, well done Lions. They showed how to play tonight and put on a real clinic at scrum time.

The pressure they built was just too much for the Wallabies.

I'm not sold on JOC (James O'Connor) at 10. This wasnt the series to 'develop' him in that position when he doesn't even play there for the Rebels.

I can't believe our scrum was as bad as it was tonight. It was under pressure nearly every scrum.

There were some players who tried their hardest but the Lions just too good on the night.

If BOD isn't God anymore then Halfpenny can't be far off.

 

[gel]

Link should surely be the man for the Wallabies. White's not finished at the Brumbies yet, whereas Link obviously felt that he had.

I really hope that all this talk about Link going to the Rebels is not correct. That will end in an absolute disaster for the Reds.

 

[jollyswagman]

I hope they don't. He has tried a bit of brinkmanship by announcing his departure from the Reds and they might resent that. In any case I hope he or Cheika gets the job. I think Cheika might be the answer to the three amigos and he is a Waratah.


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As much as I like Cheika and respect what he trying to do at the Tah's, I think he needs a few more runs on the board. Ewan first and if Cheika does a good job for a few years then he will get his turn. Wouldn't mind Cheika coming in with MacKenzie in an assistant role. They seem to have a very similar approach to the game.

 

[young gun]

I doubt it. If he does not let Cooper do exactly what he wants he can only drop him and that will unleash a torrent of vitriol and calls for an Australian Coach ie McKenzie. Not worth it.

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I understand what you're saying, and agree re: the vitriol, and since you are a Brumbies supporter you may well have a better radar on Jake White - maybe you know people close etc, but somehow I don't think that will phase him - didn't he face "player power" when he first went to the Brumbies and throw it back at them - there's that story about when he first joined and some player wanted to discuss how he thought things were going to be done - Whites response was "you're a player, I'm the coach - you play and I'll coach" end of discussion. - I think he's a tough guy who can handle it - style of play, another story, but it's working for them now.

 

[jollyswagman]

What's more......I love the idea of having an ex-prop coach. Even better that he has won a world cup as a player. He was at the top in the glory days when the Jerseys were still gold in color. Bring back GOLD Jerseys for F sake. The current ones make the boys look like the Socceroos.

 

[Larno]

Sitting in Belfast City airport departures at the moment: they just played the Kele song (Tenderoni) from the 2010 G&GR Wallabies montage across the PA. It's sad that this is the likely endpoint of the Deans experiment when the future seemed so bright for the Wallabies then.