RWC - Wallabies v Italy - 11th September 2011

[Braveheart81]

I agree with your comments too. Great to see TPN back and he was fine. He's definitely locked down that 16 jersey now and the Wallabies need him there.

Burgess was great which was particularly encouraging considering how little rugby he has played lately. We will definitely need his contribution at key points of the RWC if we are to win.

The kicking games were great aside from KB (Kurtley Beale)'s chips and grubbers. Deans needs to tell him to put it away.

I was surprised Samo played a full game. Considering we have a six day turnaround, I thought he'd be put in cotton wool earlier. I guess giving Pocock a rest was worthwhile too. He probably deserves it.

Also, I think this is the first time we've won three tests in a row with Deans as coach. Great to see things are continuing to move in the right direction.

 

[proton]

Great start had to watch a delayed coverage some of us work for a living.

Pluses: forwards scrummaging, Italy are no slugs i thought in places they put a solid effort in. JOC (James O'Connor) back. Straight running against the grain to nullify the drift D. Attacking the breakdown man thats body on the line stuff and they put it out there.
Minuses. High ball AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) turnovers and penalties
Good start didnt see 35000 yellow shirts but.

 

[Sluggy]

I think that breaking up the static McCabe Fainga'a midfield sorts that out. I don't think we'll see Ant for a while.

Will be interesting to see if Deans picks Antfinger even on the bench for the next one. It would be good to see Mitchell or Barnes there and they cover more positions. He could use the late part of the Ireland game to test out a Barnes/AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) centre pairing.

On the other hand he might just stick with the winning XXII for Ireland.

 

[proton]

Robbies pretty much gotta get the other in the team blooded sooner rather than later but Ireland contest for 80 even when they are out of the running. The back line is still the best in the world attacking midfield and attacking with width then back to the original point of attack to catch the slower defenders off the ground seems to be working its so fast the opposition is not keeping up. The forwards have a good platform but it would be good to see a few changes if it dont upset the momentum of the team. The forwards at the mo are doing the hard yards and they look good doing it. Any forward pack dont mind doing it when they look up and the backs are over the line Horwill playing like a demon as Capt too.

 

[proton]

Hope not sure he touched the ball once I saw in the first half that he dropped and ran in QC (Quade Cooper) but he made a great tackle and recovered the ball in the one movement and thats whats hes there for. Defence....I think he knows that first half wasnt his finest but all had a first up WC game next off the bench he'll be a wake up call.

Fair to say that Fainga'a has lost his spot...

 

[Reddy!]

Watched a delayed coverage of the game at a local rugby club house here in Sweden - it was good fun, there was me and one other Aussie from Melbourne. I was pretty surprised at how well all the Swedes know the Australian players, particularly those from the QLD Reds (I guess if your Swedish and into rugby, you're nuts about it). Samo and O'Connor were definitely crowd favourites.

The game was as I expected: tough first half where Australia would run away with it in the second. The scrum gets a pass mark from me, Ioane was immense in the backline.

 

[BRIX]

Boo Cyclo for not allowing last drinks on livechat

Come on then, share your pearls I deprived the world from hearing.

Cyclo mate, by the time I managed to read your post the booze had already worn off and I'd lost my carpenters belt. He he

 

[fatprop]

Fainga'a suffered from the Aus 13 disease, they get little ball

JOC (James O'Connor) will be back on the wing next week, AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) at 13, Mitchell or Horne on the bench

 

[Richo]

Fainga'a suffered from the Aus 13 disease, they get little ball

JOC (James O'Connor) will be back on the wing next week, AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) at 13, Mitchell or Horne on the bench

Or Barnes.

The awesome thing about the McCabe-Finger pairing is that they are terrifying in defense. But while Digby and AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) are good with ball in hand, neither is going to do much distributing which means all the playmaking comes down to Genia, Cooper, Beale. It seemed like things really stepped up a notch in attack with JOC (James O'Connor) -- an extra threat with and off the ball. Although some of that probably has to do with the Italians tiring, he really did seem to create a lot more doubt in the defense.

I thought Samo and Pocock were both awesome. With Pocock (and Warburton and Broussouw in the later game) we saw that claims of the death of the fetcher were greatly exaggerated. There were less clean turnovers than we might have seen last year, but all three players won repeated penalties and slowed down ball very well. Of course, that's three of the four best 7s going around -- will teams without great ones be disadvantaged? It's possibly that world class 7s will be worhth their weight in gold later in the tournament.

Overall, I thought our performance was good. I'm much happier with the second half surge than the second half wilt. It shows a capacity to stick with a game, grind it in to submission and then take over and force it into preferred mode of play. Well done, boys.

 

[fatprop]

I can't see a lot of tinkering for next week

 

[Slim 293]

I can't see a lot of tinkering for next week

The only change to the XV will be JOC (James O'Connor) coming back onto the wing.

It'll be interesting to see who wears 22.

 

[Slim 293]

I forgot to post my prediction that the Wallabies would score approx 30 points against Italy, as their previous results were:

32 - 14
34 - 12
31 - 8
30 - 20
25 - 18
69 - 21
34 - 3
40 - 18

 

[Jumpers]

The performance by the Wannabes was reasonable and an improvement on their last outing. The forwards were dominated by the Italians earlier but managed to sneak back in get get their fair share of possion. Horville and Elliason had exceptional games and managed to get valuable ball for their back to run with. Pocock gave away too many penalties and there was some in-discipline, talking back to the ref that cost the Wannabes yards. Genia, Mr. Cooper and then James O'Connor were able to setup some lucky tries(3),But did you see the stiff arm tackle by Mr. Cooper-was missed by the ref and the forward pass which led to a try, then the late, late tackle by Ashly-Cooper? These tactics were illegal and should be penalised! Overall the Wannabes played above themselves nothing too flash just cruising along!

 

[Braveheart81]

Did you even watch the game or do you just write the same rubbish whatever happens?

Lucky tries? Stiff arm tackles? Late tackles? Horville and Elliason? Huh?

 

[No4918]

Would have liked to see Finger get more ball and maybe a shot at 12 before giving him the flick but with Barnes, Mitchell and Horne all waiting that was maybe his last chance, certainly in the XV. Shame as the backline defence looks so much better with him at 13 than AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper). Horne should fix this though. It's still going to be a tough call to drop the guys that have done so well for us this year in the place of Barnes and the others. Who'd have thought we could win the 3N's with a second choice centre pairing and minus Mitchell on the wing.

I'd like to see this backline for the finals

9. Genia
10. Cooper
11. Ioane
12. McCabe
13. Horne
14. OConnor
15. Beale

20. Burgess
21. Barnes
22. Mitchell

Combinations are now working and to bring Barnes and Mitchell back into the XV this late could be asking for trouble.
McCalman and Higgers look to be playing off for the flanker bench spot.

 

[Slim 293]

I think it's unfair to label our centres as 'second choice pairing'.

McCabe is first choice, and there's really no 'first choice' outside centre right now.

 

[Ignoto]

The Rock had a really strong game. He's certainly closing in on his best. I think having him play 65+ and then bringing Higgers on at the end is working well. I don't think there is much contention in the selection anymore. Rocky is definitely the starting 6 and his return to form is great for the Wallabies.

I'm not too sure Rocky had a strong game. He had an ok game, but nothing above average. There was plenty of times he did great work but didn't look to draw and pass to the support that was with him.

The biggest problem will be what happens when we need to go down a 4;3 bench split.

Will Higgers still be there instead of Ben? And what do you do with Palu?

Rocky should be aiming to be out there for 80 minutes! Radiculous is our 60 minute impact player where we should be looking for Higgers or Palu to take him off.

 

[Slim 293]

McCalman has been good off the bench the past two matches so he cements his spot on the bench.

Higgers would go if Deans reverts to 4:3.

 

[Ignoto]

I'd like to see this backline for the finals

9. Genia
10. Cooper
11. Ioane
12. McCabe
13. Horne
14. OConnor
15. Beale

Combinations are now working and to bring Barnes and Mitchell back into the XV this late could be asking for trouble.

I don't see how your happy to throw Horne into the mix who hasn't played that well in Gold and more importantly, he hasn't played in Gold in what, 18 months if not longer?

Mitchell and Barnes are seperate cases, they've both played a lot of Super rugby and International rugby, so I can understand the case for them to be included, but Horne coming into the starting team would have a huge affect on the teams combinations.

 

[barbarian]

I feel a bit sorry for Ant Fainga'a because he didn't have a bad game at all. He did two poor things (dropped ball with no pressure and conceded penalty for obstruction), but made some big hits (one resulting in a turnover) and did one good crash ball that I can remember.

He didn't have a great match but it was far from the shocker that some are making out.