RWC: Australia v Fiji - 23 September 16:45, Millenium Stadium(24 September 1:45 AEST)

[Braveheart81]

Kuridrani I thought was fair and harshly binned.

I don't think it was a harsh yellow card at all. He didn't go close to releasing the tackled player and with Fiji on attack and the Wallabies having received a warning for breakdown penalties that was always going to be a yellow card.

It was pretty silly from Kuridrani.

 

[Sword of Justice]

There was a tight head? I don't remember one.

Phipps did some things well but also made some errors which put us under pressure (mostly trying to catch a ball over his head and knocking it into touch). Phipps made some strong tackles.

Surely the rest of your comments support what I said about the reserves not making a big impact.

Yes they do, but my point is that we shouldn't have expected anything from them considering the context of our next game and what happened in this game. Re the scrum it may have just been a dominant push I just woke up again and cannot remember.

 

[Lorenzo]

I mean no dispresct to Fiji but I am a little disappointed that after 80 minutes of rugby our backline was not able to score a single try against a tier 2 nation. Aside from Folau, there was zero penetration and even he was fairly quiet.

I have not yet watched the match, but the backline has been lacking in the execution of basic skills (put the ball in front of the man when passing, draw the defender then pass) for some time. Folau just papers over the cracks.

 

[Lorenzo]

In all likelihood the bonus point won't come into play except in a couple of scenarios

The first is most unlikely but not impossible if we win all our matches without picking up any bonus points we finish with 16 points. If England pick up 3 bonus point wins, and a 2 point loss to Australia then they would finish with 17 points and top the pool. Correct?

The second scenario is more likely in that we draw with England after collecting BP wins over Wales and Uruguay but not Fiji...England top the pool.

Huh? What if we beat England but lose to Wales? Or if we beat Wales but lose to England, but Wales beats England.

If each of the top 3 lose a match, the BP will become relevant.

 

[cyclopath]

I don't think it was a harsh yellow card at all. He didn't go close to releasing the tackled player and with Fiji on attack and the Wallabies having received a warning for breakdown penalties that was always going to be a yellow card.

It was pretty silly from Kuridrani.

Yeah, the YC was fair - TK never released tackled player. Jackson's call on the ruck before the Fijian try was another matter - ball on Wallabies side then miraculously found its way out in a pair of Fijian hands. No way was it legal.
The breakdown under Jackson is an unholy mess at times. Fiji had players swinging around the sides all night disrupting ball / boots getting in the way of the 9 for Aus - I think he was allowing players to come through any portal they like rather than a boring old gate. He let players seal off frequently, then randomly pinged us later on. He was all over the shop. We probably benefitted with some turnovers gained, but we lost ball a few times in critical places. I cannot imagine other refs having the same approach.

 

[jollyswagman]

I have not yet watched the match, but the backline has been lacking in the execution of basic skills (put the ball in front of the man when passing, draw the defender then pass) for some time. Folau just papers over the cracks.

I read (or heard) an interesting yet somewhat disturbing quote from TK recently. He said something to the effect of when he running with ball-in-hand and contact is made, his first though is to keep driving until he can no longer go forward. This may be all well in good some of the time but for f**ks sake I would like to see the guy pass the bloody ball from time to time. He bombed one try very early in the first half when all he needed to do was to draw and pass and two-dads was in the corner. I am all for a big strong 13 but the position demands that he be able to feed men outside him. I don't want to be the asshole who starts things down the wrong path but we need someone in the backline to add some spark......someone who gets the ball more often than Folau.

 

[RugbyReg]

I think that basically says he doesn't go for many off-loads once in contact. It doesn't mean he doesn't pass at all as we have seen numerous times. He potentially blew one last night, but I'm happy with a 13 in particular that bends the line.

Incidentally, if anyone has missed it, the RWC site has a great set of stats for each game.

http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/match/14186#latest

 

[jollyswagman]

Huh? What if we beat England but lose to Wales? Or if we beat Wales but lose to England, but Wales beats England.

If each of the top 3 lose a match, the BP will become relevant.

No if Australia win all four matches without any bonus point then they end up with 16 points.
If England beat Wales, Uruguay & Fiji with bonus point wins but lose to AUS but pick up 2 bonus points in the loss (1 for loss less than seven point and another for scoring 4 tries then they will end with 17 points.

We are not specifically discussing getting out of the pool here as I am assuming that where we finish is important. The bonus point is big deal in terms of whether we finish 1 or 2. Sure, to win whole darn thing then bonus points don't mean crap, but the teams that we have to beat to do it may be very different.

 

[KOB1987]

I have a feeling we had a plan to play to a formula which is to be adhered to for the whole campaign - take the points on offer, get a lead and defend it. It just wasn't perfectly executed. If get complacent and start to throw the ball around inevitably you make a mistake and give points away. Against Fiji in a stand alone test you would normally go out with a specific game plan, but I have a feeling they were getting used to the script.

 

[jollyswagman]

I think that basically says he doesn't go for many off-loads once in contact. It doesn't mean he doesn't pass at all as we have seen numerous times. He potentially blew one last night, but I'm happy with a 13 in particular that bends the line.

Incidentally, if anyone has missed it, the RWC site has a great set of stats for each game.

http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/match/14186#latest

Thanks for the link Reg. Interesting to see the general lack of offloads by Aus....a bit bloody sad to be frank. That said, was getting the impression that they were just trying to keep the game plan fairly simple, direct and error free for the most part.

 

[gold heart]

Agree with most comments posted so no need to rehash about the game.

However having watched Fiji against the poms and now us there is no doubt that Fiji played much better against us than they did against the pims boys. They were stage fright at Twickers and there was a lack of fluidity about their play that we are used to seeing. Their set piece was strong in both games and against us they managed to combine a very strong set piece with a bit of their cavalier attitude. I thought we were ok but not great, more credit is due to Fiji for playing bloody good rugby and disrupting us.

Unfortunate that we did not get the bonus point...but heck we were not good enough to do so.

 

[cornetto]

I reckon Cheik's is not thinking about the bonus point as he doesn't want the team to be thinking about having to need it. He wants them to expect to win each game rather than have an attitude that they can afford to drop on e and still get out of the pool stages

Also as much as Ive hated coopers play over the years I just cant see us winning this with Foley running the show. He either just shovelled it along or got hammered when he took on the line.

 

[BDA]

The thing that i found really strange, i counted zero pick and drives from the wallabies. They need to be able to keep i tight if they want to create space for our backs.

The backs were getting over the advantage line but they were having to go through the opposition as there was very little space created

 

[fatprop]

To'omua and Beale should have both been injected into the game earlier.

I think the replacements may all have come on earlier if the next game wasn't so close

 

[aeneas]

With regards to the back line play i'd suggest that the Wobbly management crew will be keeping a fair amount in the bag in anticipation of matches to come.

 

[I like to watch]

I've lost the love for Foley,I just don't think he offers enough.
Not fucking up is not enough.
He was outplayed by a guy in a losing team,who couldn't make the bench for the Tahs in past two years,
To'omua should have gone on with 20 to go,not 2,how else can he play his way in to the side?

 

[Pfitzy]

https://www.rugbyworldcup.com/tournament-rules

So yes, its possible that we could miss out for not putting a winning BP on Fiji. However, if we win against the Poms I'd struggle to believe, with that lineup, they're capable of putting 4 tries past our defence. If we end up on equal points, but win all our pool games, then we're first by default.

Wales not putting more on Uruguay could also bite them badly - all four other teams in the pool should be looking at BP versus the South Americans, so for/against will also play a role.

Looking at the early form, it'll come down to us beating England IMHO. Fail to do that, and we're ripe for the picking against the Boyos the next week.

 

[Pfitzy]

I've lost the love for Foley,I just don't think he offers enough.
Not fucking up is not enough.
He was outplayed by a guy in a losing team,who couldn't make the bench for the Tahs in past two years,
To'omua should have gone on with 20 to go,not 2,how else can he play his way in to the side?

Cheika had already said he was playing two lineups in the opening two games. From that he'll likely have a good idea of what is happening in the conditions.

Not sure how you think Volavola outplayed Foley - besides 1 try he's hamstrung that Fijian backline in both games they've played so far.

 

[Omar Comin']

The best thing about this performance was our defence. If it had been 10% worse Fiji would have been right in that.

I guess the biggest difference was the rolling maul. We stopped theirs, they couldn't stop ours. It was a pretty even match in every other facet of play. So the mauling world cup continues. I'm happy to benefit from it in this tournament but I think World Rugby should do something to reduce its effectiveness going forward. I think you should be able to take it down as long as it's not by the legs.

 

[jollyswagman]

I've lost the love for Foley,I just don't think he offers enough.
Not fucking up is not enough.
He was outplayed by a guy in a losing team,who couldn't make the bench for the Tahs in past two years,
To'omua should have gone on with 20 to go,not 2,how else can he play his way in to the side?

As much as many on hear will not like to hear it, we are not going to win this thing without QC (Quade Cooper) playing at 10 and playing well. The only chance we have is if he is out there and is playing at the top of his game for each of the knock-out matches. If QC (Quade Cooper) doesn't play well we don't win the thing. If he does then we have a good chance provided everyone else plays well too. Call it living or dying by the sword of QC (Quade Cooper), but Foley playing conservatively ok is not going to be enough. I would put George Ford alongside Foley in the same regard and don't think England are going to be able to win the RWC with him at the helm.