Italy vs Wallabies, EOYT 2010

[Rothschild]

I have no answer to FC's scrum performances.
While his injury could with a long bow affect his across the park performances, his scrummaging is a mere shadow of its former self.
he just ain't handling the technique at all and Slipper so far on the EOYT and thru the 3n's was not only the up and comer, he has improved tremendously with each test. Even last night he learned enough to be able to counter castro, not convincingly but enough to say 'it's not going to be one way'.

 

[TOCC]

Simmons wasn't exceptional, but he was still quite good, I thought he was effective at the breakdown and another stat indicated he was pretty high on the tackle count as well.

I think he has earned selection again for the game against France

 

[Groucho]

I have no answer to FC's scrum performances.
While his injury could with a long bow affect his across the park performances, his scrummaging is a mere shadow of its former self.
he just ain't handling the technique at all and Slipper so far on the EOYT and thru the 3n's was not only the up and comer, he has improved tremendously with each test. Even last night he learned enough to be able to counter castro, not convincingly but enough to say 'it's not going to be one way'.

His injury has every potential to affect his scrummaging. He had a broken arm, which meant no upper body and strength conditioning work whilst he was recovering.

 

[Scarfman]

Can't believe I'm getting no love for my Cooper image.

Tough crowd.

 

[Hawko]

I have no answer to FC's scrum performances.
While his injury could with a long bow affect his across the park performances, his scrummaging is a mere shadow of its former self.
he just ain't handling the technique at all and Slipper so far on the EOYT and thru the 3n's was not only the up and comer, he has improved tremendously with each test. Even last night he learned enough to be able to counter castro, not convincingly but enough to say 'it's not going to be one way'.

There's something wrong but the coaches on tour can't seem to fix it. Our best hope is that he spends plenty of time under Foley before the S15 and plenty of time in the gym re-establishing his core strength (sorry Bruce, that's the best way I could find to express what I can see).

 

[vidiot]

Mission Accomplished?

Affirmative. I anticipate a 'dominant tackle' in Quade's stats! The messiah (he's just a very naughty boy) has overcome his last weakness, and the halo is well deserved.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

After watching a replay today, I reckon we actually went OK. The pack got plenty of go forward in open play, especially in the first 20. We butchered a couple scoring opportunities, but largely I thought we were (as is often the case) dragged down to the level of the opposition. This is going to sound very harsh against the Italians, and I apologise in advance, but they showed absolutely no inclination to try and win that game last night. They were extremely negative, killing the ball at every opportunity (hence the rash of penalties in the second half), went down injured before nearly every scrum (giving their pack a chance to recover) and Castro bored in absolutely blatantly (he was pushing at 45 degrees in nearly every scrum). Gamesmanship would be putting it charitably.

But enough about that, because it sounds negative.

We had difficulties in the scrums, due to the better ringcraft of the Italians (good on them if they can get away with it). Slipper and Co. will have learned from that I hope. In the loose I thought we were fine. The lineouts were OK, though TPN still has some throwing problems. The defence was good and the ball retention mostly pretty alright (apart from pushing a few too many passes). The Italians never really looked like scoring, apart from that very dubious try from the scrum (I reckon there were at least two knock ons). We had too much possession and field position for them to be ever in the game as a contest.

It was far from a vintage performance, but the boys did what they needed to win and in the end were fairly comfortable. France will be much tougher, basically because they'll be trying to be positive as well. I expect a fair bit of scoring and we'll need to maintain our discipline at all times, otherwise we could be kicked off the park.

 

[DPK]

Simmons wasn't exceptional, but he was still quite good, I thought he was effective at the breakdown and another stat indicated he was pretty high on the tackle count as well.

I think he has earned selection again for the game against France

I'd take a long while to consider it. The French pack is pretty beastly.

 

[Rothschild]

Slipper has a broken nose AND, was voted by the players as players player for the game.

 

[TOCC]

I'd take a long while to consider it. The French pack is pretty beastly.

Yes... But who are the alternatives.... 'continually fail to step up' Dean Mumm or the Mark 'massive arms, no heart' Chisolm

 

[chief]

Yes... But who are the alternatives.... 'continually fail to step up' Dean Mumm or the Mark 'massive arms, no heart' Chisolm

Van Humprhries oh wait....

I think I would rather Mumm. Mumm is a player who doesn't do things all that special, but his stats show a fantastic work rate. In the 3 Nations I was critical of his X-Factor, but his work rate was hard to go past.

 

[QuadeCooperFan]

I'd like to keep Barnes on for the next game simply for his kicking. IDGAF if the rest of his game was poor, he scored 22 points, points which if had not been scored we would've lost.

So all you Barnes haters best be shutting it lest you feel the wrath of Berrick's incredibly accurate boot up your ass.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Can't believe I'm getting no love for my Cooper image.

Tough crowd.

Methinks you may be trying too hard to recover from the disappointment of being judged only the second funniest poster in the G&GR annual awards.:lmao:
Personlly I thought it a good follow on from previous posts.:thumb

The Gaggerland Minister of Graphics and Undersecretary for Logos is Rugby Future, and I await his adjudication on your efforts.

 

[RugbyFuture]

good idea, could've been executed much better...

6/10 from me margaret

 

[Scarfman]

I was pleased that I found an image where he sort of looks like W.

Anyway, back to the game.

 

[nathan]

Just thought I'd post some thoughts from being there.

First up, that field was fuck off tiny. I'm surprised any players were able to find space...because there was none. The 22 looked like it was about 15 metres with the 40 looking like it was 22 metres out.

The italians are hilarious, and were great fun to be around in comparison to twicks last weekend. They went crazy when TPN hit the field, he was clearly the crowd favourite. Every time TPN ran they'd all be in awe. Also for some reason they seem to want to hold onto the ball when it's kicked into the stands..with several fights with security guards eventuating.

I thought Slips had a good game and learnt some lessons. He came off with a broken nose that was pissing out blood...and came back on to replace fat cat. The italians played a pretty dirty game, with the 13 have a good go at burgo into the fence. He should've been carded, it was dangerous. The ref and assistants had no fucking idea. Waiting 10 minutes for a ruling on whether the ball had gone over the posts (the whole crowd saw it...how come the assistants were so blind?) and the numerous audio issues they were having..not to mention just about everything else. I barely saw an italian release or roll away from a tackle...and to add to it all...they slowed the game constantly by their constant injuries.

All in all..boring game made more fun by the crowd. The Australians started to give Barnes flack, penalty after penalty. Just saying...it was warranted.

Oh and Noodles will be pretty proud he's now been replaced by McCabe for the shortest Wallaby career ever. Poor guy, the trainers wanted him on with 10 to go but only got 30 seconds.

 

[MrMouse]

1) Deans was just resting Fat Cat to keep him fresh for France but had to use him for the blood replacement.
2) Deans was pulling an already dropped FC for failing in the scrums and put the better performed Slipper back on.

Thoughts?

I wondered the same. It was definitely the most minor of bloodbins, and no doubt they got him back on asap but don't know whether it had anything to do with Benn. By that stage it was a bit of a lottery as to whom from the Wobs he would penalise and at least one of the penalties was from the far side - not sure whether they were legit. But all things considered, I still reckon it's 2. We'll know for sure come Thursday I reckon.

 

[Bruce Ross]

There's something wrong but the coaches on tour can't seem to fix it. Our best hope is that [Robinson] spends plenty of time under Foley before the S15 and plenty of time in the gym re-establishing his core strength (sorry Bruce, that's the best way I could find to express what I can see).

Hawko, I'm starting to hear some good reports from Driver Avenue. It appears that Foley is influencing the gym training of the 'Tahs players with regard to doing some solid strength training along with Shirvington directing the speed work.

If what I hear is true and they persist with it they could be a real force in the Super 15. There are certainly enough good cattle to work with.

 

[Gagger]

What a difference having a kicker makes. That game had SHITFEST written all over it and had it not been for Barnes' kicking we would have been back to Murrayfield last year.

Like Baa-baa, I actually liked that we kicked the pens and closed out the game. In the Gregan era we would have been going for tries the whole time and coming away with fuck all. This showed we were serious about getting the win.

 

[Slim 293]

Just thought I'd post some thoughts from being there.

First up, that field was fuck off tiny. I'm surprised any players were able to find space...because there was none. The 22 looked like it was about 15 metres with the 40 looking like it was 22 metres out.

The italians are hilarious, and were great fun to be around in comparison to twicks last weekend. They went crazy when TPN hit the field, he was clearly the crowd favourite. Every time TPN ran they'd all be in awe. Also for some reason they seem to want to hold onto the ball when it's kicked into the stands..with several fights with security guards eventuating.

I thought Slips had a good game and learnt some lessons. He came off with a broken nose that was pissing out blood...and came back on to replace fat cat. The italians played a pretty dirty game, with the 13 have a good go at burgo into the fence. He should've been carded, it was dangerous. The ref and assistants had no fucking idea. Waiting 10 minutes for a ruling on whether the ball had gone over the posts (the whole crowd saw it...how come the assistants were so blind?) and the numerous audio issues they were having..not to mention just about everything else. I barely saw an italian release or roll away from a tackle...and to add to it all...they slowed the game constantly by their constant injuries.

All in all..boring game made more fun by the crowd. The Australians started to give Barnes flack, penalty after penalty. Just saying...it was warranted.

Oh and Noodles will be pretty proud he's now been replaced by McCabe for the shortest Wallaby career ever. Poor guy, the trainers wanted him on with 10 to go but only got 30 seconds.

Unfortunately that nickname and the comparison doesn't fit because Kimlin came off the bench against Italy in the first test last year, and then started at blindside flanker for the Wallabies the next match...