Australia v Scotland, 3:00pm 17 June Sydney Football Stadium

[eastman]

Although in terms of kicking, there is a better alternative - Reece Hodge who is far better at either place kicking and punt kicking than Foley. There was a time when such skills would ensure a place in the team for someone for obvious reasons. Hodge should have started at 13 on Saturday and taken the kicking responsibilities.

Hodge does have a bigger punt than Foley however he also takes an age to place the ball on boot and is susceptible to charge downs. Better for penalty touch finders? Yes. Better as an exit option and general play kicking? Not so much

 

[MarkJ]

THE BIG DIFFERENCE is that there are any number of AB players pursuing the ball carrier (or kicked ball) like their very lives depended upon getting to it. The Wallabies? "Someone else in the side can do the work, I just did my bit a minute ago"
That for me sums it up. Until the Wallabies change this aspect of their mentality, they are beaten from the moment the starting whistle blows.

I'm not entirely sure it's just a laziness/mentality issue. There was a worrying quote from Cheika when talking about some of the line breaks made - “We didn’t perhaps create those holes the way we’d like to normally so therefore we didn’t have enough support in there behind them.”

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...ity-to-adapt-and-respond-to-unstructured-play

 

[Quick Hands]

Hodge got lost at 13 with the fuck up with DHP which, imo, was the game's turning point.

Possibly as he hadn't trained there?

 

[Quick Hands]

He's not remotely better at place kicking.

Not better than Foley??? You must be joking.

 

[I like to watch]

Hodge got lost at 13 with the fuck up with DHP which, imo, was the game's turning point.

I don't think it was his fault, he had a 3 on 2, and covered 2 of them.
you can't blame the tackler for the winger getting tangled up.

 

[Braveheart81]

Not better than Foley??? You must be joking.

He isn't. His goal kicking stats are poor. He is kicking at 66% in 2017 Super Rugby.

Foley is kicking at 80%.

He has long range but that is it. If he was in the Wallabies starting XV they would give him long range shots but nothing else.

It was the same situation at the Rebels until they dropped Garden-Bachop. He hasn't been their first choice kicker either.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

I don't think it was his fault, he had a 3 on 2, and covered 2 of them.
you can't blame the tackler for the winger getting tangled up.

I can see both sides and my initial reaction was it was because DHP couldn't make up his mind if he was going to come up or not but, on mature (haha) reflection, I think there was no need for Hodge to chase his man across 2 running channels. It shows a lack of faith in the defensive system - which may well be justified I accept. If he shadows once the man moves out of his channel he's available to make the tackle on the inside pass.
Maybe this is all a bit 20/20 hindsight by me.

 

[mark_s]

Thought I would bring the Hooper breakout discussion back here.

The Hooper breakout from the maul happens in the 28th minute. It's straight after the Genia charge down try. From the restart, Finn clears from within his own 22 and finds touch on our 22 (the joys of having kickers who can kick +50m). I can imagine we are worried about exiting our own 22 giving Foley is still off the field and our last exit attempt led to a scot try.

The tv coverage replays Finns kick so I can't clearly see how the Wallabies are set up for the line out. The first shot shows Higgers, Hunt and two others (I presume DHP and Folau) behind and close to the maul.

Later shots show Hunt and Higgers are closest to (but detached from) the maul. Genia is the opposite side of the maul to Hooper and is completely blind to what happens.

 

[mark_s]

The maul goes no where, other than spinning around some. Hooper's breakout takes everyone by surprise. The scots react far more quickly. They have to turn and chase. While Higgers and Hunt are giving up 2-3m to them, they are already on the front foot.

Kuridrani chases also but runs an outside line which I presume is unseen by Hooper. Nabuli does the same but further out. Neither of them really feature at all in the sequence despite being in a reasonable position. Dhp and Folau aren't seen again in the sequence.

I thought the one of Scots detached from the maul to chase, but by luck he had come off the maul a second earlier, but is behind Hooper and only just in front of Higgers. In any event, the scots end up with 9 players swarming onto Hooper, all of whom are closer than the first wallaby support player (Higgers).

One is the scot fullback who makes the tackle. Two are their wingers, who probably had head starts on their AUS counterparts and really only serve to corral Hooper to the fullback.
Two are scot front rows. One of whom came from behind Hooper at the maul and one who came from the blindside of the maul. The other four scots are from their defensive line (last feet) and are a mixture of forward and backs.

Higgers is our best chaser, but even he is too slow to react, too slow running and then completely ineffective in his attempt to clean out the ruck. Easy to pick on him, but the other support players were more ineffective.

 

[mark_s]

Finn does very well for the scots. He is second to get to Hooper (after only the Scotland fullback). Very good effort from him.

Look at this last photo, the scots have a reasonable defensive line set before Higgers even attempts to clean out the ruck.

Scots win this sequence (starting from the Finn clearing kick). Their reactions were quicker and their effort and actions in support were much better than ours.

To a question in the other thread, yes I do think the all blacks (and other teams) would have done better in the same situation and there are examples from Scotland in this same game.

 

[Braveheart81]

To a question in the other thread, yes I do think the all blacks (and other teams) would have done better in the same situation and there are examples from Scotland in this same game.

Yes, because I think the ball carrier would have realised he was hopelessly isolated from any support and kicked ahead.

Hooper was always too far from his support runners for them to have any chance of retaining the ball at the breakdown.

If there was one tackler and one other defender at the breakdown maybe Higgers makes it in time to smash the breakdown and give us more time to secure the ball but our odds weren't that good.

I think it is done and dusted the moment Hooper breaks from the maul. He is already too far away from his support runners and is a faster runner than they are.

 

[Highlander35]

Yes, because I think the ball carrier would have realised he was hopelessly isolated from any support and kicked ahead.

Hooper was always too far from his support runners for them to have any chance of retaining the ball at the breakdown.

If there was one tackler and one other defender at the breakdown maybe Higgers makes it in time to smash the breakdown and give us more time to secure the ball but our odds weren't that good.

I think it is done and dusted the moment Hooper breaks from the maul. He is already too far away from his support runners and is a faster runner than they are.

See: every line break Sean Lamont made circa 2007-2013

 

[mark_s]

BH, I originally thought Hooper should have kicked it too, but the Aus support players were too far away to be any chance of retrieving the kick or even pressuring the Scotland retrievers (there are 5 already back in line with Hooper on the second to last photo, in addition to the two tacklers). If Hooper kicks it he probably needs to find touch otherwise we give the ball back to Scotland with a disjointed defensive line. In the circumstances, kicking was the best option, but even it would have been better with improved support play.

Watching the replay, Higgers had a fair shot at the ruck. In fact after Higgers, Hunt has a go at the ruck and then one of the Aus second rowers (who isn't even in shot yet in the last photo) before Barnes blows a penalty for holding on. We had our chance.

 

[tragic]

There's no thread for it but the Sco v Fiji game is a cracker.
Gives some perspective on our relative performances against both sides..

 

[Highlander35]

We're making the same mistakes you blokes made against us: particularly in not taking the points.

Also missing Finn quite badly. With him and Dunbar missing, that's the best backline and Mark Bennett all out between injury and BILs duty, and it's showing, particularly in the halves.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

[cyclopath]

Where are you watching??