RWC: Pool C - Wallabies v Fiji - Monday 18 Sep 2am AEST

[stillmissit]

I feel he was fairly consistent with his application of the laws. I didn’t agree with how he reffed the break down, I felt almost every time they were clearly hands on the floor then onto the ball.

I felt thought that the Fijian’s responded to this and played to the whistle where the Wallabies were unable to adjust.

Yeah the lack of scrum penalties early when there loose head kept going to ground did my head in

Hard to adjust if you ain't there!

 

[John S]

I am not anti this ref as I thought he was just OK. My issue was a couple of times in the first half where their prop had gone down and he reset the scrum.

Yeah, the first two scrums their prop put his knee down, and it was either reset or penalty Fiji

 

[Tex]

Anyway only casuals would've gone into that game thinking we were a shoe-in over Fiji. They've scalped England at home and pushed France right to the edge, could've snatched the victory over Wales and put together a really astute and strong performance against us.

Had their lineout not crumbled in the last 30 mins they could've hurt us even more. Great team to watch.

 

[Bullrush]

 

[Rebel man]

I’d take the 23 side over the 19 side

 

[HogansHeros]

I don't know how Kelleway isn't getting game time. As an AB fan, he's a guy who worries you a bit because he seems to have a way of just scoring tries. Is he still injured?

Nope, just cant kick at the posts.

 

[2 + 2]

Fuck that was a tough penalty though. Valetini bolted out of there and was nowhere near the ruck when Fraser was over the ball. There were numerous times when the Fijians would just touch the ball with their players lying everywhere and get awarded the penalty.

There were also a number of instances where the Fijian player had is hands on the ground past the ball before raking his hands back onto the ball an being awarded a penalty. An absolutely horrid performance at the breakdown by the referee. He wouldn't give us the chance to play the ball yet when we appeared to be on the ball there was no reward.

 

[2 + 2]

In case you can’t be bothered looking:

View attachment 17520
View attachment 17521
Botia stayed down and ended up leaving the field.

worthy of a yellow, however the no arms tackle by the Fijian 15 on Marika was a red all day of the week and twice on a sunday

 

[Equalizer]

Wallabies aren't world class in any facet of the game. They are chasing coaching trends a decade out of date. Eddie is a promo puppet chasing his next paycheck and Rugby Australia is a shit show with zero ideas on this 2nd tier sport. This team has zero relevance and fails to capture the Australian sporting public's heart. ....sorry calling these guys a TEAM would require a re-write of the definition. As the saying goes...."play stupid games....win stupid prizes". As usual Rufby Australia and the Wallabies enter a World Cup in disorganised fashion, no settled team, coaching changes, no form and think they can wing it. The rest of the Rugby world says you're wrong.

 

[2 + 2]

I am aghast to attack players like Carter Gordon as it's not his decision to select himself. I believe his career is probably over based on his treatment. However it brings me to my point i absolutely HATE this ridiculous academy system that the super franchises have. I believe this is why we fail. Good kids are missing out on the ERC & Gen Blue programs primarily because they dont attend the right school. I watch alot of rugby and there would be better #10's playing 2nd grade club rugby than Carter Gordon. This kid has been through the ridiculous pathways and it is almost as if he needs to be selected to justify the stupid bloody programs. They are not developing elite players they are making kids of 14/15/16 think they are superstars and completely overlooking others. Agree or disagree?

 

[Pfitzy]

He's not wrong. The Administration has sat by and - like more than a few punters - rested on the laurels of What Worked Before.

NFI.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Hard to argue with anything Matt said there. He did rightly point out that the current administration recognise the problems, but it's going to take some time to fix them.

We are in big trouble in this tournament and there's no hiding from that.

 

[Tomthumb]

He's right, we are a tier 2 nation, a lost cause. I cant really see the path back

NZ hitched their wagon to ours, good luck with that

 

[Pfitzy]

i absolutely HATE this ridiculous academy system that the super franchises have. I believe this is why we fail. Good kids are missing out on the ERC & Gen Blue programs primarily because they dont attend the right school.

The force multiplier on this is the schools comps are poor.

Additionally, the same schools comps are crushing junior club rugby in many areas of Sydney, cutting off talent just as it is reaching development.

 

[dbcooper]

McClennan is an A grade moron. Hopefully Rugby Australia will be forced to confront reality by bankruptcy soon.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

I am aghast to attack players like Carter Gordon as it's not his decision to select himself. I believe his career is probably over based on his treatment. However it brings me to my point i absolutely HATE this ridiculous academy system that the super franchises have. I believe this is why we fail. Good kids are missing out on the ERC & Gen Blue programs primarily because they dont attend the right school. I watch alot of rugby and there would be better #10's playing 2nd grade club rugby than Carter Gordon. This kid has been through the ridiculous pathways and it is almost as if he needs to be selected to justify the stupid bloody programs. They are not developing elite players they are making kids of 14/15/16 think they are superstars and completely overlooking others. Agree or disagree?

I don't think his career is over. He's good enough, he just needs more time to develop.

 

[Pfitzy]

He did rightly point out that the current administration recognise the problems, but it's going to take some time to fix them.

I'm sure many people were telling RA for years that what they had wasn't working. What is important is if they do anything about it.

We masked this in the "But the ABs are so awesome we can't beat them" and pretended everything was alright.

 

[Tomthumb]

McClennan is an A grade moron. Hopefully Rugby Australia will be forced to confront reality by bankruptcy soon.

That's a weird thing to hope for

 

[dru]

It would have been 14 on 14 if the ref picked up the Wallaby indiscretion.

The Wallabies also benefitted from being over the ball. They just weren’t there enough to get the calls. Foketi got one almost immediately after getting on. And he was right about the calls. Fijian players were very accurate and had hands on the ball, lifting it and showing him a picture of Wallabies not releasing. The Wallabies paid the price for not having the same accuracy.

Lomani got called for not retreating from a kick as soon as he got on and it was very costly because Fiji were in a great attacking position from that kick.

Fiji were too good and wanted it more. The ref had nothing to do with it.

I don't think the Fijians were accurate over the ball in the ruck, nor do I think the ref "was right about the calls". Which is different to being consistent and that is primarily what we are after. Many of the pinged (for Fiji) turnovers had hands in front of the ball on the ground, no clear release and no allowing the tackled player to place the ball. Contact time on the ball could not be measured in seconds, weirdly different to the usual rugby game at this RWC. There were times where the ruck had formed which was ignored and once even where a formed ruck was thereby determined to be sealing off, in dubious reffing. It was officiating completely at odds with what we have been seeing over recent years. And it definitely had an impact.

The scrum officiating was pants, but while I think on the whole it would have favoured Aus, especially in the first half, over all we would also have lost a few.

That said - the officiating was completely consistent to both teams, the Wallabies failed to adapt and yes that playing the ball on the ground (Arnold) was clearly wrong and lead directly to a try. So the officiating had an impact, but an impact that the Wallabies could have, and should have, negated by being more switched on, more professional (in terms of what you can get away with and what you can't).

We're also not being real by complaining about cards - if we are relying on the opposition going men down, it's not much of a game plan.

Fiji were easily the better team, outfoxed the Wallabies, and were accurate in interpreting what the ref would allow. The win was deserved - more, the better team won.

Well done Fiji. Wallabies with work to do now.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

I'm sure many people were telling Rugby Australia for years that what they had wasn't working. What is important is if they do anything about it.

We masked this in the "But the ABs are so awesome we can't beat them" and pretended everything was alright.

I'm going to hold my anger at McLennan and co. because they've not been in the job that long. I agree with the rest of it though.