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

[Relance]

Could it have anything to do with the fact that England are the only hosts, and as such are the only ones that should enjoy home advantage ? I don't know, clutching at straws here, really.

 

[Gnostic]

The same old debate raging about Foley v Cooper v To'omua getting the attack going.

Just to throw a Molotov in the church level of sacrilege, I would suggest that Larkham is not that good a backline coach. The Brumbies haven't run a consistently decent backline for a long time and with the White plan it hasn't changed all that much. Kick and chase and defend is not a decent backline attack.

I look at the old style Brumbies type backline play the Japanese have been playing, with in depth support runners, switches, accurate passing......

Last night the Wallabies played one short inside switch which was very well telegraphed.

I hope it changes, but I've got to say I haven't seen any signs of anything more than Kurindrani bash it up, give it to Izzy or have AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper)/Horne bash it up. It was a problem at the Tahs as well this year with the support running no where near the standard it was in 2014.

If you even part way accept the premise of the argument then the debate about who starts at 10 is pretty redundant.

 

[drewprint]

Tomkin I can see you're a fool, I wont waste anymore of my time trying to explain to ignorance,
If you are so certain Australia can beat Wales why did they cry and want to play us in twickers, if your that good you could have beaten us anywhere shirely.

Sure. And when NZ hosts another World Cup and Australia meets Wales, we'll figure out a way to play the match at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.

 

[Joe Blow]

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.

This. I would say the plan was to play a very conservative set piece and field position game to win comfortably against Fiji but not show too much to England and Wales. There was a lot of kicking that was obviously part of this game plan.

 

[Mr Doug]

The tone and content of many posts on this thread give me reason to believe that 'sleep deprivation' has reared it's ugly head! We must remember that most of us are "rooting" for the same team.
Our daughter was in the Stadium at Cardiff this morning. Two non-match obsevations she made were: 1. It is very noisy with the roof closed, and 2.
Just about all the Brits who were there, were barraking for Fiji, including (sadly for her, given that they know she is a Wallabies tragic), her English boyfriend's Father and Brother! Unfortunately, she will be back home in Canada when the Wallabies give England a touch-up!!

 

[Dai bando]

Mr Doug, some wise words, I was in Cardiff, but not at the match talked with many Australians most seemed level headed and were happy with the win,

 

[Dai bando]

They also thought that they would have to play better to beat England, I don't think so. England have their problems, not least their pack is not a pack of old where they win the forwards battle, they now struggle up front, their scrum and line-out is not what it was, but they do have a fairly decent back line, which will score tries against you if you take them too lightly.

 

[boyo]

I thought that it was bad form by the England supporters to sing their bloody chariot song there.

 

[Gnostic]

I thought that it was bad form by the England supporters to sing their bloody chariot song there.

Why? I love hearing the crowd singing. The atmosphere is brilliant. I have very few things I want to do before my card gets punched off, but home matches at Cardiff Arms Park, Lansdowne Road and Twickenham are on the list. Might just happen next year - a Gaggerite EOYT might have to happen if I can convince the boys? Some serious points will have to be earned between now and then.

 

[cyclopath]

Why? I love hearing the crowd singing. The atmosphere is brilliant. I have very few things I want to do before my card gets punched off, but home matches at Cardiff Arms Park, Lansdowne Road and Twickenham are on the list. Might just happen next year - a Gaggerite EOYT might have to happen if I can convince the boys? Some serious points will have to be earned between now and then.

Need a separate plane for the Snow Leopard!

 

[Pfitzy]

I thought that it was bad form by the England supporters to sing their bloody chariot song there.

Pommy bandwagon supporters who were pissed as newts, saw white shirts, and went for it.


As for the England/Wallaby scrum battle: beware hubris. One bad opinion from a French ref and we are goneski - Marler and Vunipola packed sideways against us last time and weren't picked up for it.

 

[Brumby Runner]

I think DB was correct in identifying the unfairness in the current draw.
It's impossible to find a solution apart from only playing in weekends,which is not practical.
So someone has to be at a disadvantage,that's just the way it is.
Maybe if they scheduled the bottom ranked team in each pool to only play mid week, it might ease some of the issues?

Maybe they need to structure the RWC around pools with an even number of teams in each.

 

[boyo]

Need a separate plane for the Snow Leopard!

And one for Babou

 

[Groucho]

Yeah I have. Thanks for asking

What was wrong with our front row?

 

[Ash]

Moore and Douglas were the two forwards that stood out to me as really struggling.

Moore looked almost afraid of hard contact for a while in that game, which is bizarre. Not sure what was going on there. And as mentioned,

Douglas looked to be trying to put in effort, but his accuracy was woeful. I saw a few poor / lazy cleanouts, and 45 degree runs across field that lacked anything, really. He looks very short of form and I wonder at his inclusion in the top team. It reminded me very much of Vickerman in 2007 coming back from injury into the World Cup - he tried to through himself into the contest, but just had absolutely nothing and went worse the more he tried.

From the backs, we need more from our 9 - 10 - 12. There's little combination there. The other noticeable thing is that there's no link between our forwards and backs - it seems to either be a forward hit up or an often predictable backs ball.

I am not sure that any one or two players is the answer for our attack, but I hope it makes a rapid improvement.

On the bright side, as already mentioned, some individuals put in some good performances and our attacking mauls were generally good.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Not the most impressive performance I've seen though it was reasonably solid. I do worry that we're showing very little in the backs, though i'm hoping that it's Cheika keeping his powder dry. The pigs played well and the defence was exemplary.

On the game experience: it was fantastic. Had many tins at the Queen's Vault beforehand and then into the ground. Really enjoyed the atmosphere inside and had a fantastic view of the action. I'd post some photos but they're all on memory card that I can't upload with the iPad. Looking forward to Twickers and then back to the ME for Ireland v France.

 

[Hawko]

Not the most impressive performance I've seen though it was reasonably solid. I do worry that we're showing very little in the backs, though i'm hoping that it's Cheika keeping his powder dry. The pigs played well and the defence was exemplary.

On the game experience: it was fantastic. Had many tins at the Queen's Vault beforehand and then into the ground. Really enjoyed the atmosphere inside and had a fantastic view of the action. I'd post some photos but they're all on memory card that I can't upload with the iPad. Looking forward to Twickers and then back to the ME for Ireland v France.

Are you just trying to make us all jealous? You're succeeding!

 

[ForceFan]

What an absolutely rucking great time by David Pocock!

It was good to get the 28:13 win behind us. I was more impressed by the Fijiian effort than ours.
We need to show some real improvement across the board to be real contenders.

Remember:
1. Early means 1st or 2nd of player’s team AFTER the ball carrier has been tackled and brought to ground.
2. Impact means active engagement: strong physical contact, changed shape of ruck, clean-out, protecting ball etc. (more than hand on someone’s bum or arriving after the hard work has been done). Yes it’s subjective - but as I collect all data at least it’s consistent.
3. Impact DOES NOT equate to Effectiveness. I’ve concluded that coming up with an effectiveness measure is just too hard in the time that I have available – but open to suggestions.

Comments:

1. These numbers indicate just how well Pocock played. 20 more ruck involvements than Fardy and 27 more than Hooper.
2. ESPN tells me that Hooper had: 19 Tackles/2 missed (90% - very good), 3 Line Out Wins, 5 runs for 13m. Vodacom says 0 Turnovers won.
3. ESPN tells me that Pocock had: 14 Tackles/1 missed (93% - also very good, 7 runs for 21m. Vodacom says 3 TOW.
4. Pocock had 34% of the Forward's def Ruck involvements. Fardy had 19%. Hooper had 8%.
5. How lucky were the Wallabies to have these 3 players as after them the involvement drops right off.
6. I think that Hooper's performance understandably dropped right off after the big hit on him at around 26 minutes. (Highlighted by BOX in table below.
7. The Wallaby Backs has 25% of the team's Total and defensive ruck involvements.
8. Please recall my comments about how much the ABs Front Row get involved in Rucks (almost 40% of the total by Forwards). The Wallaby Front Row had only 27% of the Total Ruck involvements of our Forwards.
9. The Locks had only 22% of Total rucks by Forwards. The ABs Locks usually around 29%.
10. The Wallaby Back Row had a massive 51% of the Total Ruck involvement by Forwards and 66% of the Def Rucks by Forwards.
11. Some Ruck Involvement efforts were below SXV 2015 performances: Simmons averaged 30 per game, Sio av 20, Moore av 24, Skelton av 25, Hooper av 29.
12. Pocock av 44 and Fardy av 29 in SXV - so real close to standard performance
13. Apart from Greg Holmes, the bench players offered little in this match.
14. Douglas put in a commendable ruck performance but did little else around the park. (8 tackles/3 missed, 4 runs for 3m, 2LOW)

Comments:

The rucks per 10 minutes show that Pocock and Fardy were the real standout efforts.

• Pocock increased his ruck involvements by 35% in the 2nd half.
• Fardy increased his by 70%!
• Significant lift in effort for the 10 minutes after the break but then a drop off.

Some Backs, esp Kuridrani and AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper), put in some big rucking efforts.
AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) earned 2 TOW and Kuridrani 1 TOW. How good was Folou's TOW?
Pocock was the only Forward credited with a TOW.


ESPN tells us that:

• Wallabies won 61 of 64 rucks (95%); Fiji 72 from 79 rucks (91%)
• Wallabies made 122 tackles/missed 18 tackles (87%); Fiji 83/15 (85%)
• Wallabies conceded 12 Turnovers; Fiji 15 TOC.
• Wallabies won 18 LO/lost 4 (79%); Fiji 17/2 (90%). I thought it was 4 in a row.
• Wallabies gave only 2 Offloads; Fiji 13
• Wallabies had only 43% of Possession and 39% of Territory in the 2nd half. Pretty unimpressive - especially as so much has been made of the squad's fitness level. Sio cramping at 51 minutes of concern.

There was a real effort to put pressure on the Fijiian ball carriers.
Def Ruck involvement by Forwards were 35% of the Total.
We haven't seen this level since TRC 2014.
At this stage, as my interest is who did the ruck work for the Wallabies (rather than a head-to-head comparison) I don't intend to gather ruck data for the Fijians.

If you want to see the benefit of these numbers - compare them against those for the ABs against the Pumas.

Looking forward to who's in the mix for the game against Uruguay.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Are you just trying to make us all jealous? You're succeeding!

Whatever do you mean?

 

[Hawko]

Lots of criticism on this thread for Douglas and most posters think Simmons went well. I don't think the ruck involvements back this sentiment up at all; in fact I would say from these numbers Simmons was one of our worst, along with all the front row. Cheika, by reputation, demands big efforts from his tight five but on this display and these numbers I don't think so. I am looking forward to the Uruguay game to see if there is any improvement, notwithstanding that the level of opposition will be lower.

That being said, I thought Fiji played very well and a lot of commentary on this thread expected them to be poor and assumed they must have been; ergo we were horrible. Fiji were good; last night they would have given the pommes a real run for their money.