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

[stillmissit]

Fiji look really fit and disciplined and have totally bought into their team (I must have heard at least 3 times through the on Refs mic a Fijian apologising for a penalty).

After England and the Wales game last week I am not sure what we were hoping for? They weren't going to get gassed by the 50th minute.

I did suggest that we adopt a similar training approach to Fiji who were filmed going up and down sand dunes, many here attacked the idea. I guess they are still convinced that our fitness is superb and it was other factors. When trying to solve problems start with the simple stuff!

 

[stillmissit]

Well… That’s what league.. does, every local club has a senior nrl side development squad attached to a local club… then from about 15 years of age those players are chosen.. you become a junior broncos or junior dragons .. that give a lot of kids the believe of making it to the pros … it’s a CLEAR pathway

in rugby the pathway is a cluster fuck …

also it’s kind of disrespectful to say club rugby players “aren’t very good” …. It’s not true … the fact is the opportunities arent very good !

Over the years of reffing, I have seen plenty of good players who have never been approached to trial out for the Tahs. The only thing I saw plenty of was Randwick and Syd Uni approaching decent players and making offers.

 

[liquor box]

I read with interest on Linkdin that Joe Roff presented the jerseys to the team before our Fiji game. He also said that the team agreed that the Wallabies with a Fijian background would be more than welcome to sing both the Fijian and Australian anthems. I might be reading too much into this but i believe that our players with the Fijian heritage would have found it very hard to play against their heritage. Would they have been 100% Wallaby focused on this game. I liken it to the league players who play for the Blues but want to represent Samoa - they never seem to perform for NSW like they do for their club. Are we too reliant on players from the Island nations? As i said i may be completely off the mark but just found it interesting.

They are pros and should give their all for whoever pays their wage.

 

[eastman]

The RWC brings all sorts of "supporters" out from the wood work - and a loss even more so.

Big losses always seems to bring out the lunatics around here.

 

[stillmissit]

Talking realistically.. Is it even possible to fire a coach so quickly ? I mean Jones could argue he hasn’t been in top position long enough for this to be truly to be a reflection of vision …

not my personal take …just talking corporate jargon …

Dont think we need to worry about it he will be gone after the RWC as per his interview. Why would he stay?

 

[Tomthumb]

I don't think Eddie leaving is going to be this magic elixir

Unless we can hire Ian Foster, his clueless coaching style might mesh well with our clueless playing style

 

[John S]

I don't think Eddie leaving is going to be this magic elixir

Unless we can hire Ian Foster, his clueless coaching style might mesh well with our clueless playing style

That would definitely mess with our Kiwi brethren

 

[Dan54]

I did suggest that we adopt a similar training approach to Fiji who were filmed going up and down sand dunes, many here attacked the idea. I guess they are still convinced that our fitness is superb and it was other factors. When trying to solve problems start with the simple stuff!

Have the Wallabies actually got a fitness problem? From what I saw it was Fiji that ran out of gas.

 

[Joe Blow]

He has got it wrong but his ego will not let him admit it. Right now he needs to be letting go of a few injured players and bringing in some key additions.
Wales look organised and well structured in attack and defence, something like we would have looked last year. We lost our shit and bottled it.
Winning against Wales will be an even bigger upset.

 

[stillmissit]

Have the Wallabies actually got a fitness problem? From what I saw it was Fiji that ran out of gas.

Jesus Dan - did we watch a different game? They were fast to the end competed and won most breakdowns, Scrummaged well and chased kicks and supported runners better than we did. We were not fit enough and combine that with our stupid drift defence v their rush defence - we just allowed them to run and run and so they did....

 

[stillmissit]

He has got it wrong but his ego will not let him admit it. Right now he needs to be letting go of a few injured players and bringing in some key additions.
Wales look organised and well structured in attack and defence, something like we would have looked last year. We lost our shit and bottled it.
Winning against Wales will be an even bigger upset.

Not convinced we will lose it Joe. I admit I have no idea how the hell they are going to win if they played like last Saturday - it must be confidence in the absence of any facts!

 

[Linerunner2023]

They look fit yet between them they would have played 120 minutes in the WC

Yes that’s not a fitness issue though it unlucky with injuries and injuries over training
Not that they can’t get around the park and worse then any other team or we can’t play for 80 min

 

[Pfitzy]

I read with interest on Linkdin that Joe Roff presented the jerseys to the team before our Fiji game. He also said that the team agreed that the Wallabies with a Fijian background would be more than welcome to sing both the Fijian and Australian anthems. I might be reading too much into this

You are.

2 + 2 = -3

 

[Rebel man]

Yes that’s not a fitness issue though it unlucky with injuries and injuries over training
Not that they can’t get around the park and worse then any other team or we can’t play for 80 min

There is no such thing as bad luck with injuries outside of freak contact injuries.

 

[noscrumnolife]

Have avoided much discussion of this game and not keen to revisit it too much. Still think we can/should beat Wales, their form over the last year has been absolute gash and I am unconvinced they have reversed that. But so has ours so who knows.

But from my recollection of the game, it was far more of a 'players' loss than a coaches one. I know people really don't like Eddie, but I don't think you can lump it on a coach when players get physically dominated and give away stupid penalties. Were there some tactical things I would like to see differently? Yes, of course. But far out, you have to be willing to get into the contest in the first place to allow tactics to work and the players did not seem up for it. Perhaps that was just the nature of Fiji being in a do-or-die situation and the Wobs not being, I certainly hope so.

Have no idea why Arnold is one of our overseas picks, haven't seen him contribute anything across all the games he has played. Hopefully Frost and Phillip start v Wales.

 

[eastman]

Jesus Dan - did we watch a different game? They were fast to the end competed and won most breakdowns, Scrummaged well and chased kicks and supported runners better than we did. We were not fit enough and combine that with our stupid drift defence v their rush defence - we just allowed them to run and run and so they did....

Fiji started stronger and with a lot more enthusiasm, but they were just hanging on at the end as their set piece started to fall apart.
That suggests that fitness was definitely not the difference between the teams (or that Fiji are a ‘fitter‘ team).

 

[stillmissit]

Fiji started stronger and with a lot more enthusiasm, but they were just hanging on at the end as their set piece started to fall apart.
That suggests that fitness was definitely not the difference between the teams (or that Fiji are a ‘fitter‘ team).

I saw that very differently. If they were hanging, on as you claim, how come we made no impact on them in the last 20 mins, no turnovers, no scrum penalties, no major breaks with support? Please explain exactly what we were doing as they were just hanging on? We never looked like scoring in that 20 and their defence in their own 22 was vastly superior to ours.

 

[Tomthumb]

I saw that very differently. If they were hanging, on as you claim, how come we made no impact on them in the last 20 mins, no turnovers, no scrum penalties, no major breaks with support? Please explain exactly what we were doing as they were just hanging on? We never looked like scoring in that 20 and their defence in their own 22 was vastly superior to ours.

Because to be fair Fiji were intentionally slowing the game down at every break in play

And we did score in the last 20, and if the blatant shoulder charge on Koroibete was given, we may have scored again

 

[stillmissit]

Because to be fair Fiji were intentionally slowing the game down at every break in play

And we did score in the last 20, and if the blatant shoulder charge on Koroibete was given, we may have scored again

TT, I've just rewatched the last 20 again and those of you claiming the Fijians were out on their feet are lying. They would have scored off a great run at 78 mins and only a miracle save by Koro saved us looking like we deserved. In the first 5 mins of the 60 mins they won 3--4 turnover penalties because we were too slow to get there, so were they out on their feet?
Foketi made our 2nd TO? of the match around 72 mins. We did what we always do when we have a bad game, we started to play in the last 15 mins - apart from the madness of the kick-fest at 75mins the likes of which I hope we never see again.
We were neither up for the game, nor fit enough and the tactics were basic at best.

 

[stillmissit]

Nic Bishop's view of the game in summary:

"If you cannot win the gain-line on the carry, it means that you are losing the collisions. If your opponents are trundling forwards at scrum-time and in the maul, it means you are going backwards. If you cannot remove threats to your ball-carrier after the tackle is made, it means you cannot play any constructive rugby. Australia lost all the pure power contests that the game has to offer against Fiji, and that was all she wrote."

By the end Australia were losing one in every nine rucks that they set, and you cannot make a living on attack under that kind of statistical cloud.