Australia v South Africa - Perth - 6 September 2014

[Colin Windon]

Phipps was better than 'okay'. It was a wet night against the world No 2 side and he added energy and urgency to the Wobs attack. No charged down box kicks and he bobs up in support and defence due to his big motor. Definite room for improvement with some passes not right on the button but again it was wet and he was passing wide and flat to runner's in the collision zone in many cases.

With Phipps, White and a returning Genia we have 3 high quality 9's which is a good position to be in with a big program ahead.

 

[flat_eric]

Fuck. People think because Beale walked on at the end and passed the ball, he's the saviour.

He ran just as sideways as he did in the other two games, the difference being against tired opposition as a fresh player, its easier to look good and have half a second to execute more than you do at 10.

I think a far bigger factor was the presence of the reserve tight forwards. Things got real quick from that point, and allowed Beale to inject himself, because our ruck started to get clean.

I just went back and checked my stats - Simmons had two lineouts stolen on his watch, and gave away 3 penalties -2 of which were fucking stupid, and 1 of which denied us a shot at a try.

OK QLDers: line up and tell me I'm biased.

Simmons isn't up to it, no doubt about it.

 

[vidiot]

Simmons was rubbish. Carter invisible. Horwill looks good to start.

 

[KOB1987]

So, as usual, he went missing and did nothing?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

you are asking about Fardy right?

 

[Penguin]

Just having a look at the stats, as usual the standout is Cliffy Palu. I thought he was quiet, but in 60 minutes he made 13 tackles with no misses. Easily tops the count. Fardy played the full 80 and only made 4.

Hooper next best with 10, then Kuridrani and Foley with 7 each.
.

Palu is great in defence & around the ruck, it's his ball carrying that bothers me, for such a big bloke he hardly ever gets over the advantage line, makes a break or offloads in the tackle. Higgenbottom is miles ahead in this regard.

 

[Penguin]

When I watch the replay my 'player in focus' this time is going to be Matt To'omua..opinions are very divided here.

My read on his performance as it stands is that he did some good things but didn't necessarily have a net positive impact on the game..I can think of at least 2 kicks that didn't go to plan on top of last game's non-touch finder (from memory one was an in play kick that went dead and the other was a kick off that went out on the full)..but no one has mentioned these so I may be wrong

Will report back..


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

That's because Foley was the culprit in those cases, no?

 

[Merrow]

So the question is should Speight be rushed into the starting side. Moving AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) to 13 and K to the bench?

I don't think so. Kuridrani did more in 13 last night as AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) has in the 2 tests previous. I think Speight will be on the bench to start off with.

 

[Tomikin]

He still got the attack moving forward for the first time in a few games. There were plenty of pass and catch errors on the night from players on both sides. I was a short distance from the ground and the conditions were both inconsistent and quite tough for attacking rugby.

Yeah and playing the saffa ain't playing the All Blacks.. Both need to do more.

 

[Train Without a Station]

Anybody who says Phipps wasn't a huge improvement is kidding themselves. Most passes worked great because he put them in front of the man.

Also kids, don't let reality get in the way of your Simmons hate. I wasn't very impressed with him but 2 of his penalties were the types that the all blacks would try when the pressure is on, like when he got pinged for coming in from the side - mind you he never actually did - he was got cleaned out before he could actually coming in but clearly was attempting to come in and swing his ass around.

As for the line out hate, anybody who blames Simmons and says Hanson had a good game is kidding themselves. One of the throws we lost barely made it as high as the groin of the jumper.

Skelton was average last Sunday, Horwill has to come in for one but I bet my bottom dollar it won't be the bloke who made more tackles, like mowing down piennaar on the break.

Fuck me contest some line outs though guys. It's like the plan was to just be ready the mauls. They need to be better at anticipating and reacting.

 

[KOB1987]

So I go to watch the replay on fox 3 as advertised and women's fucking doubles is on instead.....


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

So I'm pretty dusty this morning and am having some difficulty remembering, but we fucking burgled that game last night, right? In all seriousness, I can't believe we got away with that. Great first 5-10 and again at the end, but bloody hell we made life hard for ourselves at times. There was a period in the second half (when we with the breeze I might add) that I didn't think we were ever going to get out of our half.

Who says we don't get the rub of the green sometimes.

 

[Pfitzy]

Also kids, don't let reality get in the way of your Simmons hate.

The irony is delicious. Here's the same quote again for your benefit:

Also TWAS, don't let reality get in the way of your Simmons love.

I wasn't very impressed with him but 2 of his penalties were the types that the all blacks would try when the pressure is on,

ABs wouldn't have him for starters, because he's not physical enough.

Let's just look at the lineout: he calls lineouts to himself continually, despite Victor Matfield standing just in front of him. Result was a ball picked off right in front of his face - a throw that Hanson put right on the mark.

Simmons meant to be this freaking genius at lineouts - that is what keeps him in the team apparently - so when that is no longer working, he's no longer in the team.

But you know what? Forget the lineout. His work around the park for a supposed pack leader is that of a rank, stupid boy who was bigger than everyone else in GPS First XV tier and thinks he'll just get away with it.

How many fucking times is he going to grab someone in the air at lineout time? Because right now he's averaging one per game at that alone.

Our discipline across the board is terrible, but when one of the guys with nearly 50 caps is leading the way, what the fuck do you expect?

 

[KOB1987]

TWAS both locks were poor whatever way you look at it..one of them will be replaced in the starting lineup by horwill and whichever one escapes link's machete will need to lift their game immensely


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Ulrich]

Phipps was definitely not bad today. There were bad moments for both teams and this made us look what we are, a step below the best, but despite some passes going awry Phipps did well in my books.

I paid particular attention to the 9s in this game.

Palu is great in defence & around the ruck, it's his ball carrying that bothers me, for such a big bloke he hardly ever gets over the advantage line, makes a break or offloads in the tackle. Higgenbottom is miles ahead in this regard.

Given the stats mentioned and also how I felt about his selection during the week I'm very surprised here.

Firstly I have seen Palu demolish our defensive line in the Deans era and I had wondered if this could be a return to glory for him. Now I'm surprised however by the amount of tackles he made as I didn't notice much of him in the game.

Guess I didn't focus enough.

I think Palu is your Spies. Physically scary individuals who fail to assert the dominance you'd expect from someone in that mould.

 

[barbarian]

Just watched the replay, I have to correct some of my earlier statements.

We played pretty well considering the weather and opposition (Saffers came to play, and fronted up physically). Forwards were all industrious and effective, backs were also pretty good.

Our big weakness is our kicking game. We couldn't get out of our own half for 20 minutes in the second half, mainly due to shit kicking. Then we decided to try chips and short kicks, but fucked them up as well.

Simmons was OK, not abysmal. He had some nice touches, but the penalties were stupid- look at me now, Rob: DONT. TOUCH. THE. MAN. IN. THE. AIR. It's fucking simple mate, but I reckon you've given away this penalty 40 times in your test career.

Carter wasn't bad either. We just need more with ball in hand. Horwill didn't show a huge amount in his time on field, not sure it was enough to dislodge the starters.

Higgers did enough to dislodge Fardy for next week. Good impact with ball in hand and around the park, more than Fardy provided.
.

 

[Highlander35]

2-8 didn't exactly cover themselves with Glory last night. To single out one, (even a numbskull like Simmons) is unfair.

 

[KOB1987]

That's because Foley was the culprit in those cases, no?

He could have been I'm not sure..so when fox decides to fucking air the replay I will make both of them the players in focus..ie foley & To'omua


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[barbarian]

I was also harsh on To'omua. He was OK. A couple of really nice grubbers, and did enough with ball in hand, probably got the better of JdV.

 

[Ulrich]

2-8 didn't exactly cover themselves with Glory last night. To single out one, (even a numbskull like Simmons) is unfair.

Still, if you compare this game to the corresponding fixture a year ago and taking into account the opposition pack is virtually the same one that ran out on that occasion the Wallaby pack performed so much better. Worlds apart in the scrums and in the loose.

Not world champion material just yet but definitely a visible improvement 12 months later. The scoreboard seems to suggest so too.

Maybe it's just me but despite Heyneke's naysayers I still very much believe in his philosophy. I also think for the first time in a while I actually like an Australian coach. NZ also have a great coach, Argentina are on the up since Hourcade took over and even England have an astute man at the helm.

It's nice to complain about players and mistakes rather than coaches for a change. PDV and Deans didn't exactly inspire confidence in either set of supporters.

 

[maxdacat]

He always will make more mistakes, the reason being is Phipps's speed to get the ball clear of the ruck.

Sometimes the passes are wayward, but we aren't waiting around for him to get to the ruck and then waiting for him to clear the ruck.

Yeah i think there was only once after a good bust upfield where he was a bit slow, which may have led to us not scoring.

Also thought our accuracy in defence was crucial. Last week we got into all sorts of bother by being caught out behind the ball runner. This game we seemed to nail them more often than not and stopped their momentum.

I also think some of our bigger forwards need to take a look at the work Slipper does as first receiver, but again that was less of an issue this week.