Bledisloe #1 New Zealand vs Australia, August 7 2021

[KiwiM]

Classy from Hooper & Wobs/ RA:

Since Rennie and Foster have taken over it seems both teams get on a lot better.

 

[Ignoto]

Since Rennie and Foster have taken over it seems both teams get on a lot better.

Foster just needs to drop Dane Coles and Shannon Frizzel (although I'd say Aaron, but he's more of a pest than anything).

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Since Rennie and Foster have taken over it seems both teams get on a lot better.

Most likely a Mooloo bromance thing.......

 

[Derpus]

I must admit, I gave myself a bit of a growling this morning, I was a bit disappointed with ABs last night, and that's unfair to Wallabies. ABs won test by 8 points, to a Wallaby team that is not as bad as some make out. Think DP hit nail on prverbial head with how game went, but in reality ABs never really looked like losing to a fairly ok Wallaby team. Of course I can be disappointed we keep taking foot off gas when test tied up, and I don't think we used wind in first half, but it was a test win.

Yeah look, when one teams fans are pissed off that they didnt win by 30 its time to start finding new opponents.

 

[TSR]

That would require selecting a Ned Hanigan or Dean Mumm type player as was done in the past. That will bring out the haters or maybe they have just watched too much league to appreciate the difference to rugby. Hitting the line and big tackling can get you rated as a league player. You need to bring more to Union. We a need a 6 or 8 that can bring more with lineout capability. Swinton, Valenti and Wilson are all cut from a similar cloth.

Swinton is a good lineout operator.

I think Valetini is going okay IMO - but if Swinton was available for this test suspect he would have started at 6 and I think he is likely to next game with Valetini back on the bench.

I don’t think Nasirani is any better than Wilson at the lineout.

 

[barbarian]

Our lineout was shocking for the first ten minutes, but did we lose one after that? Coming off the back of a great performance in the French series, I don't really think it's a problem that needs to be fixed.

 

[TSR]

That 10 minutes hurt us though.

Having said that, it wasn’t specifically Valetini’s fault. I am happy with how he is going and won’t be disappointed if he is picked again next test.

Even leaving the lineout aside I thought Swinton was really good against the French and, if he wasn’t injured, would probably have held his spot.

 

[KOB1987]

The wind had a lot to do with at least a couple of those lineouts.

 

[Brumby Runner]

Our lineout was shocking for the first ten minutes, but did we lose one after that? Coming off the back of a great performance in the French series, I don't really think it's a problem that needs to be fixed.

This is from memory Barb, but wasn't the first lineout a penalty to us for Swain being interfered with in the air? The second one I also thought Swain was handled in the air but no penalty ensued. Most of the lineouts with our throw seemed to have black jerseys mixed well and truly through the gold ones once they were in the air.

I do like to see the defending side compete for the ball but in my view the ABs were deliberately, and illegally, interfering with Wallaby jumpers at times.

 

[Brumby Runner]

A quick summary of how I saw the corresponding bits and pieces perform.

The front row battle went decisively to the Wallabies.

The second row was marginally a win for the ABs, but considering we were up against reputably the best locking duo around, that was an excellent performance. Incidentally, I am less than impressed really with Sam Whitelock. Apart from excellent lineout skills and good captaincy, he doesn't seem to offer much around the ground to me. Don't think I've ever seen him make more than 1 metre with ball in hand, and mostly less than that.

Backrows, I reckon were about even.

ABs halves combination is almost certainly the best going around. Again, the Wallabies pretty much held their own against the best. Aaron Smith had the quietest game I think I've ever seen from him while Mo'unga hardly got his backline through the Wallabies defence at all, and only his intercept try set him apart.

Mid field I think was about even, but if Paisami can correct his ball retention problems and learn to use his outside players then the Wallabies could look forward to some rewards through the centre pairings.

NZ back three probably shaded the Wallabies but not by much.

Wallabies bench outplayed their counterparts comprehensively.

I reckon the Wallabies can look forward to improving more next week with the return of Koroibete and Naisarani and possibly the injection of an experienced head in Nic White.

 

[TSR]

Nice report BR. Agree with most of it.

A couple of observations from my part -

- Aaron Smith may not have been at his best but he had a couple of really important involvements in the period when the lead blew out. And, mostly, they just came down doing his core role really, really well.
- I was impressed with Ikitau’s boot. I think he only kicked twice, but they were both good kicks. In the whole scheme it didn’t mean much, but having a couple of kicking options can only be a good thing and, from memory, he was otherwise solid
- our young guys still have some way to go, but they are improving and I personally like what I am seeing - even if I have no enthusiasm for spirited losses. But I am hoping they will turn the corner, I hope it’ll happen soon
- along those lines I think the coaching group are moving them in the right direction. I thought we went backwards in a couple of areas last night but, on the whole, I think we are evolving the right way
- personally I hope they stay the course with maintaining a strong preference to local players. I feel we are building depth and that the players we have coming through look the best we have had for 10 yrs. I don’t personally feel it is in our long or short term interest to parachute any more than maybe 1-2 key players in. To be honest I read half the names that get proposed as OS based options and I scratch my head about what I missed when they were here
- there have been a number of comments about the backrow players, including some from me. I think they’ve all had their moments. Personally I am happy to get behind whoever the selectors go with next game

Whatever the result of the next game I am confident I’ll still have all of the above opinions

 

[Pfitzy]

I actually quite like cats

 

[Pfitzy]

But speaking of actual results - Wright was more impressive in the game we won against the All Blacks...

 

[Tomikin]

Liams a helluva player

 

[dru]

Just caught up with the game.

People are being generous to Petaia “did nothing wrong”. Thought his positioning and read in D was poor. He did nothing right either.

Banks has 15, those who don’t like it will have to get used to it.

Awesome game Kelaway.

Not sure about our loose forward combo, before and after the bench.

Strange game, slow start lasted 30 min. The game was quite watchable all the same.

ALSO Nothing wrong with those Kiwi refs bar one odd scrum call.

 

[KiwiM]

Foster just needs to drop Dane Coles and Shannon Frizzel (although I'd say Aaron, but he's more of a pest than anything).

Frizell I agree with. Coles nope - a player that you hate if in the opposition but you like if on your own team - ABs missed him a lot on the weekend as he is still the best hooker in the country.

 

[barbarian]

Nice report BR. Agree with most of it.
- I was impressed with Ikitau’s boot. I think he only kicked twice, but they were both good kicks. In the whole scheme it didn’t mean much, but having a couple of kicking options can only be a good thing and, from memory, he was otherwise solid

I was impressed with Ikitau in general. Defends well, runs hard. Hasn't had much space to work with in either of his tests but I can't recall him making any errors. He's a keeper.

 

[eastman]

I was impressed with Ikitau in general. Defends well, runs hard. Hasn't had much space to work with in either of his tests but I can't recall him making any errors. He's a keeper.

I really think his long-term position in the team is more assured than Paisami's.

 

[swingpass]

I really think his long-term position in the team is more assured than Paisami's.

i love Paisami and in time i think he will develop into a great 12, i am not so sure about his rugby smarts and at times over exuberance at this stage. i'd quite like to see a To'omua and Ikitau pairing at some stage, older head between Lolesio and Ikitau.

 

[barbarian]

I really think his long-term position in the team is more assured than Paisami's.

I think that's a big call after just two starts. If Samu Kerevi comes online tomorrow, I dare say they'd shift Paisami to 13 instead of keeping Ikitau in the side.