Australia vs South Africa - Brisbane 7th Sept 2013

[Quick Hands]

What possible reason can there be for this?

No idea. It's been there ever since U/19 variations came in 20 or so years ago. No other country has adopted it.

 

[Richo]

A big lesson about last night is the team dynamic. When you have somebody like Bizmark, you can field the big back row. The lesson is more about the role being performed rather than the number on the jersey.

Etzebeth is really agile for a big bloke. In that sense he reminds me of James Horwill. Although he didn't make the Bokke, De Jarger also has the same attributes.

Yep. The thing is, the big Bokke are brutes who do the tight work beyond anything else. Getting the advantage of mobility is a great bonus.

 

[Quick Hands]

That's a bit of fallacy, perpetuated often by SA fans as well.

Etzebeth, Beast, Bismarck, Strauss and Kruger are very mobile tight forwards. Even in the loose-trio things are not as bad as people claim. We might lack a Hooper-paced loosie, but Vermeulen and Louw get around brilliantly (better to run to right place on the pitch than trying to be everywhere). Alberts might be a little slower than most international, but gives up nothing to the likes of Fardy, etc.

I think you misunderstood what I meant. Nothing wrong with tight forwards being mobile, as long as they can fulfil their principal role 1st, which to my way of thinking is winning solid scrum and lineout ball off their own feed/throw.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

A lot less than Hooper blocking De Villiers chase in the 16th minute when De Villiers got done for shoving him out of the way.

I don't think you understand the laws.
An armless tackle is not harmless.
Changing your line earns the penalty - tackling without arms earns the card.
Your post actually establishes the point.

 

[Sidbarret]

I don't think you understand the laws.
An armless tackle is not harmless.
Changing your line earns the penalty - tackling without arms earns the card.
Your post actually establishes the point.

Penalty went against the chaser in my example

 

[Tordah]

No.
He moved.

he braced himself for impact. You're not obliged to move out of the way. Even your commentators thought it was barely a penalty. AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) took a soccer like dive. If you'd yellow that I wouldn't want to have you as a ref

 

[TSR]

same players mate, same players

Yeah - fair point. But I can't see any new cattle coming anytime soon, so I'd like them to be getting the best possible support. I'm not in any position of wisdom on this, but from what I've heard Laurie Fisher is considered the best.

 

[Shiggins]

A couple of things. Was he right call made with the first try? There was no evidence. Is isn't that a reason not to award a try? Personably I think he probably scored it but no visual evidence.

The other one was nick cummins tapping the ball back in on the 5 mt line when steyn locked for touch from a penalty. Why was that called in touch?

 

[It is what it is]

I watched last night's game and noticed a couple of sad things.
I lacked emotional engagement in supporting the Wallabies and had zero rushes of adrenaline during the game.
It's perhaps how the team would may felt today and they played.
Come on fella's, give us a reason to get passionate and excited.

 

[tekay]

Ruggo, now we're speaking more civily I can see your point. I've seen what QC (Quade Cooper) can do but I stand by my belief that he is overrated and not Test Level. I'm not saying removing him answers all our woes either but when you have likes of To'omua there I wouldn't be wasting him on the bench. I just don't follow the argument that he should wait in the wings when I think he's a more solid player across all aspects of number 10 play. He's a classic number 10 and he's ready to rock it now, imo.

Agree we're missing Pocock and Higgers, particularly their physicality. Huge Pile should be brought in too.

 

[Tordah]

A couple of things. Was he right call made with the first try? There was no evidence. Is isn't that a reason not to award a try? Personably I think he probably scored it but no visual evidence.

Clancy, who was in prime position, seemed to think he scored, so he asked the 2nd question. Should be done more often IMO

The other one was nick cummins tapping the ball back in on the 5 mt line when steyn locked for touch from a penalty. Why was that called in touch?

it crossed the plane of touch. In this case, it is only not in touch, when a player catches it with both feet in play (or landing with both feet in play while also jumping from the field of play). It is in touch, when knocked back (not caught), after it has crosssed the plane of touch

 

[No4918]

that he "remembers"

they block out the fuck ups

I am also saying that Genia should be dropped, that Shatz wasn't ready and dropped Simmons from the team i named for the Argies game. Can you put the state crap behind you because that is really not an issue for me?

I will admit to thinking Cooper is the best man for the job and watching him cop piles of flak while others go untouched gets old.

 

[lewisr]

tekay hughbert I really think you lot are missing the point. The backs aren't the problem. Quade isn't the problem. To'omua isn't the problem. Since when have the "Quade fan club", you so affectionately labelled, come out on here and said he was the SAVIOUR of the wallabies? For all my 'parochial' bullshit, red tinted glasses and Gorilla like behaviour, I've actually said he was no better or worse than To'omua. I said they both need to have a functioning and competitive forward pack to lay any claim to the 10 jersey at all.

All you have presented so far are a list of stereotypes that surround his play like the fact "he can't defend" when he defended sufficiently well on saturday night, or "he can't take responsibility for mistakes" or "hes just a flashy idiot who should be playing touch". That is the kind of stuff I expect to see on Facebook comments from people who have no clue what half the team are doing on the field.

YOU ARE GOING TO LOOK SHIT BEHIND A SHIT FORWARD PACK. Or at best, you'll look average. And both Cooper and To'omua have looked average so I think they deserve some credit considering what they had to deal with. So how many times does it have to be said? How many times will it take for you to realise that this is not a question of my provincial bias, but rather, how the hell we can improve the efforts of the forwards. Only then will we be able to truely judge whether Quade "has no vision" or To'omua "is our future in the flyhalf jersey".

So, once again, just to be clear, just so you don't get mixed up, We won't know who the best flyhalf is until the forwards step up. At the moment, Quade and To'omua are our best options, and I'm happy with whoever gets the gig at the moment, no one is our saviour at flyhalf as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Ignoto]

Something must be done via Qld Stadiums to deal with the obvious seriously poor playing surface now in place at Suncorp.
Contrast this, for example, with typical NZ stable and solid fields where there's less sun, less heat, and more rain. You can see the positive difference immediately.

The problems Suncorp faces is the complete over-use by mutliple events each week, for months on end. The Broncos played the Cowboys on Thursday night at Suncorp, so the ground staff only had a night to get the field back into some kind of condition. Why the Broncos game couldn't have been shifted to a scheduled league night I'll never know ie Monday Night.

Then you take into consideration any pre-game matches that are played before hand and it really adds up the amount of foot traffic it gets. The reason why NZ fields are so good is due to being single use pitches. The grass is able to recover between games which are either weekly or fortnightly, not twice a week.

Australia does have good fields, just they have to be single use fields - Balleymoore has a great playing surface because the Reds and Roar train on it every now and then.

 

[tigerland12]

Amen lewisr

 

[lewisr]

Just to be pedantic....

It was a Cooper turnover that directly led to one of the Bok tries....

Cooper also turned the ball over twice. Kicked for 157m and had 4 runs for 28m.

Cummins and AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) turned the ball over 3 times each and the other backline members turned it over twice each.

 

[Shiggins]

Clancy, who was in prime position, seemed to think he scored, so he asked the 2nd question. Should be done more often IMO



it crossed the plane of touch. In this case, it is only not in touch, when a player catches it with both feet in play (or landing with both feet in play while also jumping from the field of play). It is in touch, when knocked back (not caught), after it has crosssed the plane of touch

First one fair enough. Last time this happened (the cummins one) I argued black and blue for what u r saying about the plain of touch but was told otherwise.

 

[Shiggins]

Just to be pedantic....

It was a Cooper turnover that directly led to one of the Bok tries....

U mean the one where ?frady? Got tackled without the ball?

 

[ACT Crusader]

I agree with Gnostic's submission that skills are surely lacking and the errors in crucial times was evidence of that. its been mentioned previously but fitness is an issue also. But I think one of the real issues is lack of combinations.

Do the back row even know each others names? Brand new locking combo, and it seems it is a revolving door in the front row. Two players that have played quite a bit together in Pocock and Higgers were missing and at least these two have developed a bit of the innate stuff that comes from time.

Cooper and Lilo? Well other than maybe one or two plays they weren't really in sync with each other. Even when forwards are getting smashed, the backline combinations and trust becomes more paramount. Folau failed to link with JOC (James O'Connor) that you would want from a FB/Wing duo. It all got exposed big time last night against a very hungry Bok side.

The Bok back 5 were very well drilled despite being a little over enthusiastic at times.

Big test matches all round next weekend

 

[It is what it is]

Congratulations must go to the South Africans for the grace they showed in victory.
The captain and coach were terrific and I sensed the victory meant a hell of a lot to them and the whole squad.