IRB U/20 Tournament and Oz Squad
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dobduff11
Trevor Allan (34)
Just watched the two semi's back to back:
Having not seen Australia play yet this tournament I was quite excited to see how they would go
Positives: Hooper was quality and showed why he deserved to start at 7.
Colby was also prominent and I thought he had a decent game.
Alo-Emile and Silva were both pretty decent, and thought Morahan had a pretty fair game at fullback he had a nice involvement for the first try I think.
Not so positives:
I don't really like bagging people that aren't full time professionals but I thought Volavola had a bit of a shocker. Passing was poor at times especially that one for Anscombe's try. And his goal kicking length was apalling, he makes Halangahu look like Francois Steyn.
Also meaks/meakes at 12 was quite limited. Every time he got the ball he ran straight into a tackle and got sat down. Strange type of 12 considering the players they've had in the past.
Sitauti should go looking for work more like Piatau did for NZ. Your most damaging runner never got the ball.
NZ: pack was decent, although their 7 was comprehensively outplayed. Whitelock looked handy as did Anscombe.
Having seen Beauden Barrett and Lima Sopoaga play quite a few times I expected them to get the ball a bit more. Lima's footwork is sensational and I would have preferred to have seen him wrapping round rather than Piatau and the right winger. Having said that both wingers were impressive.
England haven't played to their potential yet and they have picked an odd squad for this tournie. I played against most of these boys a couple of years back and a couple of them are a bit lucky to be there, especially the 9's.
Daly,13, has done his shoulder and I think he is out for the final so that leaves Guy Armitage big guy but lacks a bit of pace (can also be stepped by cheeky 10's in sevens matches
) and Jonny Joseph who is a player I really rate. Both play for London Irish who I just happen to support.
Watch out for Ben Ransom at fullback, George Ford (who is in my year) at 10, Mako Vunipola loosehead and Alex Gray the captain and No 8.
Having not seen Australia play yet this tournament I was quite excited to see how they would go
Positives: Hooper was quality and showed why he deserved to start at 7.
Colby was also prominent and I thought he had a decent game.
Alo-Emile and Silva were both pretty decent, and thought Morahan had a pretty fair game at fullback he had a nice involvement for the first try I think.
Not so positives:
I don't really like bagging people that aren't full time professionals but I thought Volavola had a bit of a shocker. Passing was poor at times especially that one for Anscombe's try. And his goal kicking length was apalling, he makes Halangahu look like Francois Steyn.
Also meaks/meakes at 12 was quite limited. Every time he got the ball he ran straight into a tackle and got sat down. Strange type of 12 considering the players they've had in the past.
Sitauti should go looking for work more like Piatau did for NZ. Your most damaging runner never got the ball.
NZ: pack was decent, although their 7 was comprehensively outplayed. Whitelock looked handy as did Anscombe.
Having seen Beauden Barrett and Lima Sopoaga play quite a few times I expected them to get the ball a bit more. Lima's footwork is sensational and I would have preferred to have seen him wrapping round rather than Piatau and the right winger. Having said that both wingers were impressive.
England haven't played to their potential yet and they have picked an odd squad for this tournie. I played against most of these boys a couple of years back and a couple of them are a bit lucky to be there, especially the 9's.
Daly,13, has done his shoulder and I think he is out for the final so that leaves Guy Armitage big guy but lacks a bit of pace (can also be stepped by cheeky 10's in sevens matches
) and Jonny Joseph who is a player I really rate. Both play for London Irish who I just happen to support.Watch out for Ben Ransom at fullback, George Ford (who is in my year) at 10, Mako Vunipola loosehead and Alex Gray the captain and No 8.
My mini review and player ratings http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/score-player-ratings-aus-vs-nz-irb-u20-semi-final/
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Just finished watching the replay (recorded, wasn't getting up at 4.00am!) - well done NZ again! They were a few levels above our boys. Agree that Michael Hooper was our best by a mile (as he was in the France game) - the rest well!!! When we consider this was supposedly the "top" of our 2 year cycle i.e 9 back from last year ,so many with Super experience (little of it warrented on ability most because of injury and players from Academies getting pushed up when not ready) etc etc this was a very disapponting outcome. Look forward to New Zealand v England as they appear to have been the two best teams by a long way.
tigerland12
John Thornett (49)
How bad did Ed Quirks injury look? I couldn't watch the game
dobduff11
Trevor Allan (34)
Did his wrist I think but couldn't judge the extent of it. He didn't support it with his jersey though so I guess thats promising.
Torn Hammy
Johnnie Wallace (23)
I thought the defence of both teams was outstanding. The size of the players at this age now, and the intensity of the hits, must impact on the length of their future rugby careers.
The NZ attack won them the game. They were dangerous right across the park and continually asked questions of our sliding defence, which was excellent I thought. Their half and 10 changed the point of attack continuously, sucking us in and then spreading us wide, making full use of their good clean ball with the abundant attacking skills of all their players.
Our attack started well. We had all the ball and our forwards dominated their opponents, setting the platform for the winger Nasiganiyavi's try. A great piece of rugby. Shortly after we struggled to get the ball past our inside centre which meant our forwards had to do the majority of the attacking. Bad move and we never really looked like scoring again.
The two main problems we had were firstly, while the forwards defended well, a few went missing in attack, and secondly, the play continually broke down at one player outside Volvola. Against NZ you can't have tight forwards who aren't keen to run with the ball. Volavola had a shocker because the coaching staff didn't address the problems of the French game. He has a slow long pass and in both the French and NZ game the 12 was getting ball a metre from the defence and got smashed. They dropped Apo rather than telling Volavola to stop his stupid feints and getting the backline closer together. Apart from the try the backs had no space at all.
Good rugby though and great future talent.
The NZ attack won them the game. They were dangerous right across the park and continually asked questions of our sliding defence, which was excellent I thought. Their half and 10 changed the point of attack continuously, sucking us in and then spreading us wide, making full use of their good clean ball with the abundant attacking skills of all their players.
Our attack started well. We had all the ball and our forwards dominated their opponents, setting the platform for the winger Nasiganiyavi's try. A great piece of rugby. Shortly after we struggled to get the ball past our inside centre which meant our forwards had to do the majority of the attacking. Bad move and we never really looked like scoring again.
The two main problems we had were firstly, while the forwards defended well, a few went missing in attack, and secondly, the play continually broke down at one player outside Volvola. Against NZ you can't have tight forwards who aren't keen to run with the ball. Volavola had a shocker because the coaching staff didn't address the problems of the French game. He has a slow long pass and in both the French and NZ game the 12 was getting ball a metre from the defence and got smashed. They dropped Apo rather than telling Volavola to stop his stupid feints and getting the backline closer together. Apart from the try the backs had no space at all.
Good rugby though and great future talent.
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Hammy - "great future talent' - for the Kiwi's most likely not so sure about us. Outside of Hooper (stand out) Junior Finger (excellent semi) and probably Quirk the jury would be out on the rest. Don't be too hard on Volavola, the limitations we saw in the French and New Zealand games (passing behind a player or passing to no one, transferring pressure by holding onto the ball too long) have been evident since he was in the under 16's it was just that at this level they were magnified and with consequences. What hurts more is that a Kiwi colleague reminded me that the score in the last 2 under 20 games NZ v Aust is now 99 to 24!! Is their system really that much better than ours?
Slim 293
Stirling Mortlock (74)
It's pretty clear to see that even at a junior level that Australians are not as well trained at the breakdown, and particularly when compared to their Kiwi counterparts...
The NZ forwards worked as a pack, and counter rucked at every opportunity... and as they dominated the breakdown it allowed them to get away with a lot more as the ref was letting a lot go...
The NZ forwards worked as a pack, and counter rucked at every opportunity... and as they dominated the breakdown it allowed them to get away with a lot more as the ref was letting a lot go...
Lee Grant
John Eales (66)
I was a bit depressed after their tepid display against France, even whilst giving France credit for a top performance. Our big guys up front didn't play big.
They were a lot better today in the contests and didn't let the Kiwis bully them. Some of the scrums were dominant and some folks will see, maybe for the first time, why we have been drooling over tight-head PAE for a couple of years now based on his schools exploits and glimpses elsewhere. His side of the scrum went forward a few times and at least held when it had to.
LHP Sio scrummaged well too most of the time and Siliva's throwing was much better. Luke Jones had the best game I have seen him play since school. Our big guys got tired in the 2nd half with the effort they had to put in and the Kiwis were fitter anyway. You could see it in the rucks. But it was a much better effort than against France, or the Kiwis last year.
In the backrow Colby and Hooper played well but they played the price a bit for not having an angry bigger bopper at 6. It wasn't so bad when the excellent, hard-nosed 8. Quirk was on the park but when he went off you could see the change.
The backs were poor, as though they were at their first training run, though I thought that, for a change, scrummie Bredenhann looked sharp and was snappy getting rid of the pill. For a moment I had to think who the 9 was.
Commentator Willie Lose kept rabbiting on about how deep Volavola stood and how he needed to be flatter so his outsides would be flatter to the tackle line when they got the pill. Anyone who has seen him play for the Junior Tahs, Southern Districts or even in the previous game, would have known this already.
To be fair Ambrosini wasn't available, but I was surprised that Nuci didn't start Saifoloi who I rate as a better flyhalf than Ben anyway. Or given that he was still starting, why didn't Nuci give him instructions to play flatter - and why oh why did they keep dishing out the ball when they had been doing it the whole game and not do a few intelligent kicks as the French and NZ did?
But even when the backs got the ball they dished some poor passes at the man. No wonder the backs didn't want to run onto the ball: they were likely to get it even further behind them. And the bunny hops when they caught it ....
It is not all doom and gloom. A few of the Blacks were intrinsically better players than the Aussies and always will be, but many of them are just better coached, not just recently, but for their whole lives. Many of our players will catch up if they are good enough to progress, and get sorted out by their Grade and Academy coaches.
Or so we fondly hope.
PS Dobbie
Volavola, like Bredehann, is not a professional player. Both are in the Tahs amateur academy. Bredenhann will likely be in 3rd Grade at Sydney Uni when the Super players come back to the club..
Meakes replaced the injured Faulkner but he was not great shakes anyway. 12 is not only a problem in our senior pro ranks, but also in our junior ranks, and Oz Schools hasn't had a star 12 since Ben Tapuai in 2007 either.
But I digress.
They were a lot better today in the contests and didn't let the Kiwis bully them. Some of the scrums were dominant and some folks will see, maybe for the first time, why we have been drooling over tight-head PAE for a couple of years now based on his schools exploits and glimpses elsewhere. His side of the scrum went forward a few times and at least held when it had to.
LHP Sio scrummaged well too most of the time and Siliva's throwing was much better. Luke Jones had the best game I have seen him play since school. Our big guys got tired in the 2nd half with the effort they had to put in and the Kiwis were fitter anyway. You could see it in the rucks. But it was a much better effort than against France, or the Kiwis last year.
In the backrow Colby and Hooper played well but they played the price a bit for not having an angry bigger bopper at 6. It wasn't so bad when the excellent, hard-nosed 8. Quirk was on the park but when he went off you could see the change.
The backs were poor, as though they were at their first training run, though I thought that, for a change, scrummie Bredenhann looked sharp and was snappy getting rid of the pill. For a moment I had to think who the 9 was.
Commentator Willie Lose kept rabbiting on about how deep Volavola stood and how he needed to be flatter so his outsides would be flatter to the tackle line when they got the pill. Anyone who has seen him play for the Junior Tahs, Southern Districts or even in the previous game, would have known this already.
To be fair Ambrosini wasn't available, but I was surprised that Nuci didn't start Saifoloi who I rate as a better flyhalf than Ben anyway. Or given that he was still starting, why didn't Nuci give him instructions to play flatter - and why oh why did they keep dishing out the ball when they had been doing it the whole game and not do a few intelligent kicks as the French and NZ did?
But even when the backs got the ball they dished some poor passes at the man. No wonder the backs didn't want to run onto the ball: they were likely to get it even further behind them. And the bunny hops when they caught it ....
It is not all doom and gloom. A few of the Blacks were intrinsically better players than the Aussies and always will be, but many of them are just better coached, not just recently, but for their whole lives. Many of our players will catch up if they are good enough to progress, and get sorted out by their Grade and Academy coaches.
Or so we fondly hope.
PS Dobbie
Volavola, like Bredehann, is not a professional player. Both are in the Tahs amateur academy. Bredenhann will likely be in 3rd Grade at Sydney Uni when the Super players come back to the club..
Meakes replaced the injured Faulkner but he was not great shakes anyway. 12 is not only a problem in our senior pro ranks, but also in our junior ranks, and Oz Schools hasn't had a star 12 since Ben Tapuai in 2007 either.
But I digress.
Brumbies Guy
John Solomon (38)
Robbie Coleman from the 2008 team is one for the future.
Yeah but he played 10 at school and my old brain was trawling through the 12s.
LG
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Lee, doesn't Meakes play for Norths in 1st grade or am i mistaken?
You're right - I saw Norths against Uni in a night game at Uni and I mixed the team he played for in my my brain.
LG
Slim 293
Stirling Mortlock (74)
IRB Junior Player of the Year nominee for last year to boot...
wamberal
Phil Kearns (64)
Brumbies Guy
John Solomon (38)
Nucifora for a podcast re JWC?
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