Australia v NZ. Bledisloe Cup Series 2024. Sep 21, Sep 28

[Derpus]

Yeah Italy don't have to fucken play the god damn All Blacks and Springboks twice a year each and then every European country away in a row. Fuck Italy.

 

[Dismal Pillock]

Yeah Italy don't have to fucken play the god damn All Blacks and Springboks twice a year each and then every European country away in a row. Fuck Italy.

Sick to the back teeth of your anti-Italy agenda, young man.

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

 

[Dismal Pillock]

maybe while stupid NZ and stupid SA have their silly little tours, Aus could go on a 2-month tour of Italy.

Would be the trip of a lifetime for the lads.

They could sample the Chateau Giro Spagnolia of Sicily, the proscecco delfino of the east country, the legendary vivre descaccio of Milan.





I admit, I may have just made up some of these food and drink names but let's not quibble over in-depth tour details just yet

 

[cyclopath]

maybe while stupid NZ and stupid SA have their silly little tours, Aus could go on a 2-month tour of Italy.

Would be the trip of a lifetime for the lads.

They could sample the Chateau Giro Spagnolia of Sicily, the proscecco delfino of the east country, the legendary vivre descaccio of Milan.





I admit, I may have just made up some of these food and drink names but let's not quibble over in-depth tour details just yet

Grazie, Pillochio D'Ismale.

 

[John S]

maybe while stupid NZ and stupid SA have their silly little tours, Aus could go on a 2-month tour of Italy.

Would be the trip of a lifetime for the lads.

They could sample the Chateau Giro Spagnolia of Sicily, the proscecco delfino of the east country, the legendary vivre descaccio of Milan.





I admit, I may have just made up some of these food and drink names but let's not quibble over in-depth tour details just yet

Tour Guide: Signore Gunston?

 

[cyclopath]

Tour Guide: Signore Gunston?

Giovanni Gunston in his signature Lancia Ute.

 

[dru]

Yeah World Rugby rankings aren't entirely accurate

The ranking have been eerily effective since RWC. Italy and Australia are ranked exactly where they should be.

 

[rugbyAU]

The ranking have been eerily effective since RWC. Italy and Australia are ranked exactly where they should be.

We should be above Italy

 

[dru]

Have to agree with suggestions here relating to Donaldson and Gordon - surely it is a rotation policy, but I'm befuddled as to why when you look at comparative performances.

Otherwise, the Wallaby selections seem to be pretty much settling down in a predictable manner. With a bit of luck we will see some game development along with the selection consiste4ncy. Looking forward to seeing where BPA is at.

 

[dru]

We should be above Italy

We were when we beat Argentina. Then immediately dropped back with the loss. The rankings are sensible and reasonable.

 

[Dismal Pillock]

Giovanni Gunston in his signature Lancia Ute.

"This way to The Leaning Tower of cuuuuuuuuuuuu.....

 

[fatprop]

I don't understand White's selection, he was really, really slow in his last test

 

[rugbyAU]

We were when we beat Argentina. Then immediately dropped back with the loss. The rankings are sensible and reasonable.

My power rankings would be

1 - RSA
2 - Ireland
3 - NZ
4 - France
5 - England
6 - Argentina
7 - Scotland
8 - Australia
9 - Italy
10 - Wales

 

[Wilson]

I don't understand White's selection, he was really, really slow in his last test

From Schmidt himself:

Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt has recalled Nic White as the Wallabies halfback in a bid to inject some energy against the All Blacks after revealing his team was hard hit by their record loss to Argentina.
...
“Getting back from Santa Fe … that took its toll that game,” said Schmidt.

“There were a few boys who were a little bit ill and a little bit run down and Nic hadn’t played, he was the freshest and we just felt that making an early decision in the week to go with Nic… He has great leadership, all the nines have great leadership, and they’ve all at some stage been skipper of their Super Rugby side, so Nick was a pretty good fit and a good fit with Noah.

“They’re both originally from the Brumbies, they’ve played a fair bit of time together so we just felt that that combination would be a good one to start us off on Saturday.”

https://www.theroar.com.au/2024/09/19/that-took-its-toll-schmidt-reveals-worrying-reason-for-nic-white-recall-after-argentina-devastation/

 

[TSR]

I don’t really understand why people have been so enamoured with Gordon this year. Apart from the first test he’s been much the same player he always has been.

Really his only selling point is that neither McDermott nor White are killing it either. By virtue of that he probably is a bit unlucky, but only a bit.

 

[dru]

My power rankings would be

1 - RSA
2 - Ireland
3 - NZ
4 - France
5 - England
6 - Argentina
7 - Scotland
8 - Australia
9 - Italy
10 - Wales

So Argentina would be #6 if they did not lose to us in test #1. The only other change you've made is Wales ahead of Fiji and they will need a couple of points to do that.

I take "power rankings" to be personal opinion? mate, we definitely should be higher but that is because we definitely should have won more. But we didn't. Shoulda, woulda, coulda - didn't.

FWIW if my understanding of the ranking calcs is close, losing to NZ won't have any impact on our rank.

 

[Hogan]

Tough on Donaldson. The two best periods of Australian attack this year have been the first halves against Georgia and Argentina (Test 2). Both times he was at 10.

Yes agree Alex. The Wallabies attack has looked much improved in those games you mention. The ball seems to get to width when he plays. He’s definitely our best attacking 10. But like all our playmakers, he just needs to be more consistent with his all round game. And to nail that consistency they need to play regular, consistent minutes which at present is hard at the Wallaby level for both Donaldson and Lynagh. The only way to learn and get better is to make mistakes on the field under pressure.

 

[Braveheart81]

I don’t really understand why people have been so enamoured with Gordon this year. Apart from the first test he’s been much the same player he always has been.

Really his only selling point is that neither McDermott nor White are killing it either. By virtue of that he probably is a bit unlucky, but only a bit.

I think he's been better than "the same player he always has been" in that for the Wallabies this has been pretty bad in the past.

This year I think it's been solid to good which is more than we saw from Nic White. McDermott for quite good reasons is being viewed as a bench option at the moment.

From Wilson's post above it seems like Gordon was probably a bit bashed up when they got home so I can see that as a pretty solid reason to go with White for this week.

 

[fatprop]

I don’t really understand why people have been so enamoured with Gordon this year. Apart from the first test he’s been much the same player he always has been.

Really his only selling point is that neither McDermott nor White are killing it either. By virtue of that he probably is a bit unlucky, but only a bit.

I not sure if anyone really is "enamoured", he isn't crap and he has the ability to sniff out a try against the run of play - with a viable kicking game and a good pass

But for the Wobs, the starting 9 will have a marginally better platform to work off and the day we had the best platform, (the first game vs Wales) he looked good.

The hard done guy is McDermott, he gets game time with our mediocre bench as we get run over