Ireland v Wallabies - Sunday 1 Dec, 2:10 AEDT

[Overtime]

He had all of super rugby season and has been in camp with the Wallabies for 4 months to push his claims. At no stage on the field has he stood up and shown there is a material difference between him and the other options.

The mere fact that they are giving Edmed an opportunity off the bench should tell you that Donaldson clearly isn’t doing enough with the chances he’s getting.

I don’t want to sink the boot into the bloke but I don’t really understand this narrative he has to be given a shot. Why? What has he actually done to earn it? Other than Lolesio apparently not being up to it.

Who knows - maybe this will be the making of him and he’ll go away and work on being a better player.

Reasons I think Donaldson deserves a shot. He has a far bigger kick than Noah, he is able to spark the backline more than Noah putting people through gaps, he has deceptive pace and can make a break (take the line on) better than Noah, my opinion he is a better defender than Noah. About the only thing Noah has over Donaldson is he is probably a slightly better goal kicker, though Donaldson has improved in this area significantly. Noah plays with a better side at super rugby level, yet Donaldson played well all super rugby season with a not so great team. Yes the coaches obviously disagree with me but in all games except Wales I believe Noah was outplayed by the other fly halves. The Wallabies were lucky to beat England and the fly half for England was outstanding. He controlled the game superbly and kept England in it. Is Donaldson the long term answer probably not but in my opinion, now that Carter has gone to the NRL he is the best we have unless the coaches have a Larkham moment and turn a fullback/winger into a fly half. That takes courage and it may not be the long-term answer as well. It also means that the Super Rugby coaches have to buy into it testing a fullback/winger into a fly half which is unlikely. However, until we have a better fly half and a world class lock, we may be a good team but not a great team. This is my opinion.

 

[Super Hooper]

he showed nothing in the games he played this year. he isn't how he was 3 years ago
dangunu was one of our best players at the start of the year

And Daugunu hasn't played in a long time. You are comparing 60 tests against 7 tests... Marika is still my firdt option

 

[HogansHeros]

Good game. Such a shame it was someone spoiled by some questionable ref calls...
I love how physical the Wallabies are looking at the moment, winning a lot of the collisions. We looked tight defensively, however JAS has a lot to work on this super season, baptism of fire for the young fella this tour.

Mcreight is world class, as is Valetini!

Good to see the fellas stepping up. Not the worst way to end the tour.

 

[Oracle83]

Fraser McReight is our best player

And Noah has to go - 2 Ireland tries from not finding the line on kicks - we just can’t keep sticking with this guy

 

[TSR]

Good game against a very good side, but still very disappointing to lose.

Hats off to Laurie Fisher - our defensive system today was pretty much on point, except for the second Ireland try where we needed 2-3 more guys to fold.

Also I felt like we were noticeably more physical in defence and putting a lot of pressure on Ireland and causing a lot of errors. It’s the first time for a long time that I’ve felt we had an Australian pack standing up physically against a top level opponent.

Line out good, scrums probably a pass although definitely not dominate. Kick offs patchy.

Still need to improve our break down work. Our biggest issue was lack of clean ball and balls spitting out of rucks and becoming either turnovers or just rubbish ball under pressure. That and just a couple of little mistakes under pressure. We had some good ensemble play in the first half but were living on scraps in the second half.

Backrow outstanding again and I thought the locks were very good too, along with BPA. I thought a lot of the backs were 7 out of 10 - defended very well, didn’t do much wrong, but just couldn’t unlock the Irish when it counted.

Congrats to Edmed for his debut - such a shame it was so short lived.

 

[KOB1987]

The ref made some calls in our favour as well, but none were as significant as the penalty he gave against Valetini after deeming he did nothing wrong in the lead up to the first try, the blatant knock on into Wright leading up to the second one, and letting them off the head butt to Valetini.

Anyways, one that got away but the important thing is we are on the right trajectory. JAS will benefit from the Super rugby season and I sense that whoever the form 10 is in that time will be rewarded with the jersey for the Lions series.

 

[John S]

So close,yet so far. Well done to the boys. The team last year would have shipped a cricket score

 

[John S]

The ref made some calls in our favour as well, but none were as significant as the penalty he gave against Valetini after deeming he did nothing wrong in the lead up to the first try, the blatant knock on into Wright leading up to the second one, and letting them off the head butt to Valetini.

Anyways, one that got away but the important thing is we are on the right trajectory. JAS will benefit from the Super rugby season and I sense that whoever the form 10 is in that time will be rewarded with the jersey for the Lions series.

Yeah the ref was puss. But he didn't overly favour the Irish. We got away with quite a few late tackles

 

[Tomthumb]

Noah’s poor kicking game was literally the difference between the teams in the end. His clearance kicks were either way too short or not out and his kicks from penalties barely went 5 metres. Compared to Ireland’s kid at 10 that made every penalty a virtual 5 metre lineout and cleared pressure so easily

We can’t win with such a poor kicking game from our 10. It was the exact fear that I had earlier this week

 

[dru]

Lolesio was solid and showed why you might stick with him given his competitors for #10. There is not a lot in any of them but they'll have to take it from Lolo now. That doesn't mean that our kicks, particularly exits don't need a t least another 10m. In fact all our kicks to touch are not at international level.

Ref completely dictated how this game was played, tried to let it flow (the ref, not the TMO) which led to schamozzle at the break down. When the WBs caught up to how to play the breakdown the ref was trying to retrospectively get some control.

I think Tupou has a fabulous turn around in form, even if the scrums were not tight enough and he let in an error or two, but a great stint. McReight, Valetini and Wilson has to be our best back row. They run really nicely . Frost and Williams with that back three, imo beats any version that contains Skelton. Our D generally excellent, working against huge advantage to the Irish in both possession and territory. It's not the game-plan I would implement but we look pretty good, I think.

The slow rucks frustrated both Gordon and Tate. Ikitau - JAS combo had magic against England, but man it needs smoother operation than we saw today. I've been surprised at the ongoing selection of Kellaway at #14 but wow, was he active today. Wright playing well too.

The Wallabies have definitely improved under Schmidt, but we seem to me a long way off the full article. Just happy that we have re-captured some respect since the EJ (Eddie Jones) RWC debacle.

 

[stillmissit]

Hats off to Laurie Fisher - our defensive system today was pretty much on point

Keep your hat on, the defensive system was exactly the same, the difference was the determination the guys showed. The breakdown work was Eddie 101 -mostly put in 1 occasionally 2 to clean out/secure and the rest watch from the D. As you stated the backrow was very good, hard to choose between V or McR as our MOTM. No ball, No territory but a great fight by our guys.
Odd refereeing based on what we have seen in the other games. Similar approach to BD as the guy last week. How the hell are the players supposed to play when the inconsistencies are this great?

 

[stillmissit]

Prenderghast at 21 was very good for a player who was too young and too inexperienced to be allowed to play international rugby.
????????

 

[Brumby Runner]

Absolute bullshit. The Irish were fucking around with the ball and not releasing players at every breakdown. Guaranteed that last ruck was no different. Reffing was atrocious and let them win that

Exactly. For all the other things let go by the ref, the game was won by Ireland not releasing the tackled player all game long.

 

[stillmissit]

Exactly. For all the other things let go by the ref, the game was won by Ireland not releasing the tackled player all game long.

Yet we never adjusted. We released them immediately and they got fastball. Stupid stuff, play to the ref, he was an outlier in the ref world but we should have been smarter than that.

Bet we never looked at any of his games, the Irish did from the approach they took.

 

[LeCheese]

A tough scoreline to wake up to - what could’ve been…

What massive steps this team have taken, however. Imagine telling someone after the World Cup that we’d be losing to Ireland by 3 after a couple of tough calls.

 

[HogansHeros]

I thought for all Lolesios flaws he defended pretty hard for the most part.

Also agree was good to see Tupou step up and find a bit of form around the paddock again, hopefully can shore up that scrum.

 

[Brumby Runner]

Noah's touch kicking is unacceptable. He can kick the ball a mile (see his penalty kick from near halfway easily clear the crossbar). It is his accuracy, or his ambition, that has to improve. He needs to be willing to try to put the kick another 10 -20m further down field.

I agree with the post above (BDA I think) who suggested the Super Rugby coaches might try a fullback in the 10 spot to see if there is another Larkham out there. I think the first No 10 to lose his spot would be at the Brumbies.

All in all, I consider the EOYT to be a definite step in the right direction. The Wallabies can now be said to be competitive at the top level again. Ans with players like Bell, McReight, Valetini and Ikitau all being considered at or near world class, and others like Frost, Wilson, and Tom Wright improving all the time, I think we can look forward to a much better test team representing us in the next few years.

 

[JRugby2]

anyway - Wobs by 30

Farrrk, close

 

[TSR]

Keep your hat on, the defensive system was exactly the same, the difference was the determination the guys showed.

Sure - but then that just means that the problem was never with the system it was with the players execution. And, given the change of coaching, the turnover of players and Fisher’s reputation that seems likely enough.

 

[TSR]

Noah's touch kicking is unacceptable. He can kick the ball a mile (see his penalty kick from near halfway easily clear the crossbar). It is his accuracy, or his ambition, that has to improve. He needs to be willing to try to put the kick another 10 -20m further down field.

It was interesting to see a number of his kicks for line on penalties sail well into the crowd. Not sure why he wasn’t trying to go for a bit more distance at least.