Australia v Italy, Suncorp Stadium, 24th June 2017 @ 3:00pm

[Twoilms]

Beale will waltz into that shambles of a backline. The only question is: where?

12, with Hunt on the bench in place of Hodge.

Dunno why we mess around with anyone other than Naivalu on the right wing.

I'd force Coleman to learn to call because we can't carry a lightweight second rower (any of Mumm, Simmons, Carter).

Timani should be in at 6 with Hanigan off the bench. People say he wasn't in form but he barely played due to injury and suspension and when he did it was in one of the worst teams to ever play Super Rugby. Plus Super and Rugby form don't always correlate (see the tenured AB's).

Reinstate Kepu and Sio, give Latu a shot.

 

[Ignoto]

This didn't happen though. I thought we won the territory game against Scotland comfortably.

I'm not quite sure that's the best statistics to illustrate if this is the case. After all, the game could have been largely played between the Scots 40-50m (when they'd be less likely to kick long) and territory would count in our favour right?

I think it's telling that if Izzy has/had such a great clearing boot that he would have been called for when Foley was sent off. However, they went down the route of Genia clearing it who was closer to the scrum/easier to be charged down. If Genia was required to pass straight to Izzy to clear, Higgers could have blocked and given a split second more to the kicker.

 

[Braveheart81]

I think it's telling that if Izzy has/had such a great clearing boot that he would have been called for when Foley was sent off. However, they went down the route of Genia clearing it who was closer to the scrum/easier to be charged down. If Genia was required to pass straight to Izzy to clear, Higgers could have blocked and given a split second more to the kicker.

Sure, if Izzy was a good option they could have set up for him to be the go to kicker on that play.

The obvious options were to have DHP and Hunt positioned on different sides to both act as clearing kick options. People rate both of those players as having good kicking boots.

For whatever reason, they went with an option play of Higginbotham clearing to Genia which was obviously a disaster. I don't think it's reasonable to say that Genia took the clearing kick because Folau isn't a good kicker. There were no shortage of other options available.

I do think there's a chance Folau will get shifted to the wing to find space for Beale but I wouldn't be doing it for DHP who is down on form and could lose his spot soon.

 

[Ruggo]

It would be bonkers to replace Hunt at 12 with Beale. Hunt can actually defend as well as being handy in attack.

Folau on the wing for DHP isn't a bad idea. I would be happy to see Hodge go to 15. That big boot then becomes an asset.

For Italy I would like to see Cooper start. He showed some signs of form when he came on and Hunt at 12 I think is a good foil for him and I would love to see that dynamic.

Latu needs game time. Simple fact is he is the future and the game time is essential in this context.

Tui should be in the 23 with decent game time. He shows promise so let's get him exposed to test rugby.

Powell should get significant game time for the same reason as Tui plus Genia needs a kick up the arse selection wise.

I was critical of Hannagen's squad selection but he has played well and also shows promise.

 

[Italophile]

O'Shea has left Parisse, Ghiraldini, Favaro and Cittadini at home, the best half of his pack. O'Shea calls it a development tour. The only quality player, if he starts, is Michele Campagnaro at 13. Strong, quick enough, great step. Dangerous if he sees any ball.

 

[KOB1987]

O'Shea has left Parisse, Ghiraldini, Favaro and Cittadini at home, the best half of his pack. O'Shea calls it a development tour. The only quality player, if he starts, is Michele Campagnaro at 13. Strong, quick enough, great step. Dangerous if he sees any ball.

Wallabies by 3

 

[Italophile]

Wallabies by 333

Fixed your typo.

 

[TOCC]

Did that cause us any problems? I thought he was one of our best players.

I reckon DHP is the most likely to lose his spot in the starting XV when Beale returns. He looks down on form, his kicking is only average and he hasn't been good under the high ball.

Folau's inability to kick has been an issue for a long time, and more broadly, the lack of kicking options in the team has been an issue for a long time as well.. The last decent kicking game that an Australian player has put in was Foley in the 2015 RWC, since then its been a skillset which has regressed across Australian rugby.

Folau is a winger playing fullback, DHP is out of form at the moment, but IMO is a better suited fullback then Folau and so is Hunt.

 

[A mutterer]

i want to see chieka prove that he is not turning into the gatland of the southern hemisphere.

 

[cyclopath]

i want to see chieka prove that he is not turning into the gatland of the southern hemisphere.

A coach could only dream of such tenure!

 

[redstragic]

Jesus christ that's Reds levels of shitness and embarrasment

Oh contraire, we now get less than 11k to Reds fixtures. Take the Wobs a year or two of this to drop that low......maybe.

Just on the Genia and box kicking thing. It was a real weapon for him in 2011, been less so more and more since then. I can't understand why fight so hard to get the pill just to kick the fucking thing away.

The Scott's showed that a team is more than the sum of its parts, hope we take a leaf out of their book for this weekend.

Sent from my SM-J710GN using Tapatalk

 

[ACT Crusader]

It's a tough one with Folau, his kicking game isn't on par with some of the good/best fullbacks going around. However he is the best user of the space in the Wallabies by some distance. He links well with his wingers and has a good offload game. The arial stuff can be done as a winger as well as at fullback these days.

I guess the coaching staff see more upside with him being able Ron exploit the space rather than shoehorn someone else in there's that is not as good but might be a better kicker.

 

[GaffaCHinO]

I find it funny how we as fans hold different players to different standards. The way you have been talking about DHP would tell me that he had been a passenger the last 2 games, so I went and had a look at the stat's. Now I know stat's don't always tell the whole story but they also don't lie.

Im just comparing him to the back 3 players in the match day 15.

In week one against Fiji Folau was way and above our best based on stated he made 129m beat 5 defenders 3 clean breaks and 4 offloads with 1 try and only made 1 tackle.

Speight ran 39m beat 1 defender 3 clean breaks and 1 offload scored 2 tries and made 5/7 tackles.

DHP ran 61m 1 defender beaten 2 clean breaks 1 offload he didn't score a tried but did have the last pass for Speights first and also made 5/7 tackles.

In the second match DHP and Folau's stat's are virtually identical minus the 2 tries to Folau with DHP making 5 tackles to Folau's 1. Nebulies stat's were well below both that of DHP and Folau.

From these stat's DHP is doing more than enough he has just been at the end of a dysfunctional back line.

If as some have suggested they are willing to move Folau to wing to accommodate Beale why not just move Folau now and put DHP in his natural position. What's the worse that can happen we have a guy at the back who can kick?

 

[Joe Blow]

DHP had another good game. Has he ever had a bad one?
He makes ground every time he is given the pill, especially so when in traffic. He reads the game very well and more often than not puts himself in the right place at the right time and very rarely makes a mistake.
I would not have a problem with him at 15. I'm sure he is one of the first picked every game along with Folau.
I wish we would use his kicking ability a bit more.

 

[Slim 293]

Yeah, judging DHP on the amount of run metres he made in open space doesn't really tell the whole story........... such as the numerous errors, kicking away possession etc.

 

[Joe Blow]

The whole backline seem to want to kick away the pill!!!! Yes, I forgot about that.
Aside from that he is very reliable and invariably makes the right decision.
Even the kick for Folaus "try". It really did not need to be made. DHP was unmarked in the middle of the field with nothing but an open try line in front of him. He would have run it in in a similar manner to Folaus first under or near the posts.
We can assume we will probably win this week but the manner of the way we play will be important and the squad for the RC will also tell us a lot about where we are.

 

[fatprop]

The whole backline seem to want to kick away the pill!!!! Yes, I forgot about that.
Aside from that he is very reliable and invariably makes the right decision.
Even the kick for Folaus "try". It really did not need to be made. DHP was unmarked in the middle of the field with nothing but an open try line in front of him. He would have run it in in a similar manner to Folaus first under or near the posts.
We can assume we will probably win this week but the manner of the way we play will be important and the squad for the RC will also tell us a lot about where we are.

I am sure part of the game plan was to set them back on their heals with a few kicks behind. but the balance wasn't right, they were rushing well and the kick worked; so we over did it and pretty ineffectively.

 

[dru]

^^I don't think Hunt is a long term proposition. He is solid but there's no edge to his game - at the moment solid is good.
Beale at 15 lets me move Folau to the wing so thats a deal.

I dont agree with your assessment that Hunt has no edge, but I'll not be surprised with KB (Kurtley Beale) starting at 12. I'd then expect Quade, Hunt and Hodge to be fighting for the utility back bench slot.

Thought Hunt might get the nod where solid defense is prefered from the kick off.

To the guys suggesting that Foley and Quade should be swapped against Italy, No. Foley had a bad game (under a defense undefused by the forwards) its not enough to drop him. It was great seeing Quade performing, keep it coming. But we should not (yet) drop the only form 10 in Aus right now.

 

[upthereds#!]

This is the last chance Cheika has to give players a run before he needs his A team against the All Blacks whom we play twice before we play SA or ARG.

I wouldn't be surprised to see quite a few changes and a couple more debuts. Not all about being dropped. Some earned, some not, some out of necessity, some just to give guys a run. Cheika seems to be a fan of handing out new caps like candy.

1. Sio 2. Moore /TPN 3.Kepu
4. Coleman 5. Arnold
6. Timani 8. Higs 7. Hoops
9. Genia 10. Quade 11. Koroibete 12. Hunt 13. TK 14. DHP 15. Folau

16. Latu 17. Smith 18. Ala'alatoa 19. Tui 20. Dempsey 21. Gordon 22. Foley 23. Naivalu

 

[Twoilms]

Hunt really hasn't shown anything in attack besides reasonably strong direct running. See comments above about becoming the Southern Hemispheres latest edition of Gatland's Wales.

That being said i could live with Beale linking in at fullback and keeping hunt at 12 purely for defensive purposes. Pretty sure Beale was second playmaker from the back for Wasps with reasonable success. Izzy to the wing. I can't see Cheik doing this though.

Hunt almost plays like another loose forward the way he hits rucks which is quite nice.