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

[Merrow]

Bit rough on Wilson, made some great carries and big defensive efforts. Dropped a couple too many late in the game which ruined it.

Would be awesome to one day see the wobs put in a full 80min performance. One day...

A couple? He gave them the dropped/ball back 4 times. He’s the forwards version of rocks and diamonds

 

[Shiggins]

Rieko Ioane

At centre his current status reminds me of the later years of Joe Roks that dragged on and on but NZ couldnt let go of him either as his previous searing exploits were burnt into our retinas like so many ghosted phantom limbs.

He seems to have free reign to make as many errors as he likes and never get dropped. If Proctor made even ONE of those errors he'd probably never be sighted again.

do you like rieko at centre ?

 

[Dismal Pillock]

do you like rieko at centre ?

No.

He's keen and sharp on defense and is a pest at slowing down ruckball and his pace bails him out of any misreads...... but on attack he still can't pass for shit. Seemingly off either hand ffs. Plus his handling is weirdly atrocious.

 

[capalaba]

Reiko was a better Winger, but lost pace and was moved to the Centres.

 

[Hogan]

I don’t see the point of selecting a 10 on the bench if Schmidt is not going to use them. That’s two weeks in a row where Lynagh and Donaldson haven’t been used. Better off picking an extra forward. Tonight was the perfect opportunity to give Donaldson some game time with 15 mins to go when the game was gone. We didn’t score a point in the 2nd half and needed to change things up. How are they expected to learn and gain experience sitting on the pine?

And agree with an earlier post as to why Pietsch was replaced for Flook? Made no sense as he was one of our best tonight.

 

[Pfitzy]

So the way of the darkness is brightness which leads to darkness?

Welcome to our subconscious.

We have 5G

 

[John S]

I was thinking we were on for a few minutes, and then the Wallabies Wallabied.

Wasn't surprising to be honest. Soo frustrating to watch all the dumb things we did.

 

[rugbyAU]

I don’t see the point of selecting a 10 on the bench if Schmidt is not going to use them. That’s two weeks in a row where Lynagh and Donaldson haven’t been used. Better off picking an extra forward. Tonight was the perfect opportunity to give Donaldson some game time with 15 mins to go when the game was gone. We didn’t score a point in the 2nd half and needed to change things up. How are they expected to learn and gain experience sitting on the pine?

And agree with an earlier post as to why Pietsch was replaced for Flook? Made no sense as he was one of our best tonight.

I think Donaldson got 6 minutes

but yeah no point carrying a reserve 10 if your either not using them or giving them a few minutes

 

[Slim 293]

Bit rough on Wilson, made some great carries and big defensive efforts. Dropped a couple too many late in the game which ruined it.

Yeah, nah...

He definitely give it his all, and the stats look great on paper, but he's also given away a lot of points the past two weeks.

 

[Mr Pilfer]

The pre-meditated substitutions shit me off as well. Gleeson should have come on for Wilson, not Valetini. Flook should have come on for Kellaway not Pietsch and Donaldson should have got more than 5 minutes.
Plus Tupou never should have stayed out there that long, if they are not confident in AAA playing more than 40 mins then pick someone else.

Having said that I think we might surprise some teams on the Europe trip

 

[The Red Baron]

No.

He's keen and sharp on defense and is a pest at slowing down ruckball and his pace bails him out of any misreads...... but on attack he still can't pass for shit. Seemingly off either hand ffs. Plus his handling is weirdly atrocious.

To me, he always seems like he's out of position, and can't take advantage of linebreaks that are made inside of him. ALB was causing all sorts of issues for the Wallaby midfield, and Ioane was hardly ever nearby to take advantage.

 

[Dan54]

I would just to refuse to ref any game Reece played in

I'm not sure you (or I) would be asked mate!!

 

[Dan54]

As hard done by as Sotutu was, Sititi is nailing his chances. He's been excellent the last two weeks and is really repaying that faith showed in him.

I would keep Sititi at 6, he looks the best 6 ABs have had for a while, but I also think with him at 6 I could understand Sotutu giving balance at 8.

 

[Strewthcobber]

I think Donaldson got 6 minutes

but yeah no point carrying a reserve 10 if your either not using them or giving them a few minutes

Who plays ten (and goal kicks) if Lolesio gets HIA in the second minute?

 

[Ignoto]

Yeah, nah...

He definitely give it his all, and the stats look great on paper, but he's also given away a lot of points the past two weeks.

I think Harry's performance sums up a lot of the players who are playing better than not.

They do a lot of good things, but their execution on critical times let them down.

Wright did a lot of great things last night like that huge line break, but he wasted all that good effort by that dog shit league pass that went forward and out.

We did the same thing after getting good field position after the ABs were on attack only to drop the ball or knock it on.

 

[kiap]

The pre-meditated substitutions shit me off as well. Gleeson should have come on for Wilson, not Valetini. Flook should have come on for Kellaway not Pietsch and Donaldson should have got more than 5 minutes.
Plus Tupou never should have stayed out there that long, if they are not confident in AAA playing more than 40 mins then pick someone else.

Agree with this.

On the EOYT, though, I think winning 2 out of 4 tests would be a surprise.

That's a half a grand slam if we add a positive spin to it.

 

[stillmissit]

Bit rough on Wilson, made some great carries and big defensive efforts. Dropped a couple too many late in the game which ruined it.

Would be awesome to one day see the wobs put in a full 80min performance. One day...

Can we now have a discussion on the general fitness of the team to play for 80mins?

 

[stillmissit]

I think Harry's performance sums up a lot of the players who are playing better than not.

They do a lot of good things, but their execution on critical times let them down.

Wright did a lot of great things last night like that huge line break, but he wasted all that good effort by that dog shit league pass that went forward and out.

We did the same thing after getting good field position after the ABs were on attack only to drop the ball or knock it on.

Mistakes generally come from pressure and in the first half when we had the AB's under pressure and the mistake level by Harry and most of the team was low, in the 2nd half when we weren't competing the mistakes were high.

 

[Strewthcobber]

Can we now have a discussion on the general fitness of the team to play for 80mins?

Saw a good comment by a coach somewhere....our players are as fit as anyone in World Rugby, we just have to work harder collectively to stay in the game because we simply aren't as good, so we are more fatigued at 65min than our quality opposition is.

Unfortunately running more laps at training doesn't fix this issue

 

[molman]

Well that was an odd game (had to watch of replay today as had commitments yesterday). Oddly I actually felt like there were some elements where we seem to be moving forward as a team. It's still some of the individual moments which we're not finishing that is sinking us.

I also think some people in here are overly critical of some players and seem to lack the ability to look holistically, getting stuck on moments. There were aspects of many players and collective plays that lead to the outcome.

Overall, I thought Gordon, Valetini, McReight, Wright, Pietsch, Frost, Ikitau, Gleeson all generally had good games. I thought Bell was pretty effective, and after all his foot issues/injuries its good to see him running around, making good impact. Williams likewise I felt is improving and it was great to see those restarts being cleanly taken.

I thought Tupou was Tupou where he looses some moments, trys to make up for it is a reckless way which looses another moment. He obviously didn't seem 100%, so I give him the benefit of the doubt with how that might have been impacting him. Whatever knee injury he incured I hope it comes good, because it's been sad not to see the best out of a player with so some much natural gift.

I also thought Lolesio had an ok game. I know people want more, but in the context of the team I feel he was reasonably solid. He sloted his kicks, his service was good in getting the ball out to the wide channels which allowed some solid gain, especially in that first half.

For whatever reason, Paisami I'm not entirely convinced on. He just doesn't seem to have the same capacity to unlock space or punch the line enough for me (he looks light). In comparison to say a Anton Lienert-Brown who I felt made a big impact for the AB's, Paisami just felt a tad ineffective in this game. And that's not a critisim of his effort, just his effectiveness in the context of this team.

For better or worst, at the moment we're lacking some genuine game breakers like the Clarkes and Jordon's. We need to be finishing all our opportunites and have a few balls bounce our way to be winning atm. We're still a pass or two off where we need to be. We also need to have some more smarts about us when channel 1 isn't giving us pay. We're just still too predictable in too many aspects of our play and we're not better at the basics such that we can be playing a simple game.

On the positive, yes there were some lapses like Jordans run, but overall I felt like our defense and ruck work is improving a little. It wont be close to what the coaches want, but game to game we are to my eyes looking a bit better in some of the nuts and bolts of the game. Even just the general confidence and connection in this game compared to the first game of the campagn show the progress being made.