Scotland v Australia, Murrayfield, 5am 24 Nov 2013

[Scotty]

I really don't know what we should do with 9, 12, 13 and 14 next week. AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) will be there somewhere...

You must be the only one confused about who to play at 9.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Shitty defending in broken play, No set piece coherence, Attacking way too deep.

There was no way we were going to win when all that was going on. I'm not happy with a number of decisions made, especially in the pack, considering you were well understrength.

But, you did it. Well done.

Scott Johnson is a major believer in flat alignment so the depth tonight is out of character with his views and unsustainable, I reckon.

 

[Paradox]

I actually thought that was a bloody good win given the circumstances (worst pitch ever and it was wet, muddy and slippery). I thought Cooper was immense and our forwards pretty good. Folau is superman.

Our newer generation of backs (some of them very green) are really good at the offload. Folau, CFS and Tomane and great at getting the ball away and not dying with it. Cooper has always had the knack.

 

[No4918]

Harris was a good call at 12 for this one though given Lilo did not touch the ball at 13 i don't think it will be repeated.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

If Sean Maitland is QC (Quade Cooper)'s cousin, and has qualified for SCO on the basis of a Scottish Grandparent, could QC (Quade Cooper) have ended up in SCO as well?

 

[Bardon]

Do those in the United Kingdom Northern Hemipshere (reading kiap in France v Bokke thread) really look forward to a 1/4 of the game spent on setting and re-setting scrums? Fix up your grounds.

We've seen probably the 3 worst surfaces in the NH in action during this series of games. The pitch in the Stade de France has been terrible for a long time. The Millenium stadium has problem with the grass there due to the design of the stadium. At Murrayfield they have a problem with turf parasites and they've been spraying it with garlic.

Not sure if the French are going to sort their pitch out in the near future with talk of a new rugby stadium on the horizon. The Scots will probably have to relay their pitch at some point, but whether they'll be able to do that before the 6Ns I'm not sure. The artificial pitch at the Arms Park is seen as a precursor to the same stuff being installed in the Millenium Stadium.

I thought Twickenham went pretty well and so did Landsdowne (especially considering there was an international soccer game there last Friday too.)

I think the long term might see more and more artificial or hybrid pitches up here.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Forsyth-Barr is the yardstick

 

[Bardon]

On the game itself I thought Australia did well. You took your chances very well and defended well at key points during the game. Although Scotland were technically still in it they never looked like scoring a try and Lilo's poor performance from the tee kept them in touch.

Scotland were very tentative in attack and maybe if they'd backed themselves they might have been more dangerous. But that's a mental block a lot of NH backs have when playing the SH teams.

I think where Link is going with the team is a lot clearing now than it was at the start of the month. After the England defeat I said I thought you'd win the rest of your games and now you've just got Wales to go. With the mental edge you have over them and the confidence that's built up I think you'll do it. Importantly you didn't blow Scotland away so there shouldn't be any complacency and with some returning players who'll be fired up you should have enough to deal with Wales.

 

[gel]

I found that to be a pretty frustrating game to watch actually. The ruck area was messier than the ground conditions which probably didn't help much.

That Argentinian assistant referee needs a lot more experience before being unleashed on the international scene.

Well done Wobblies for grinding out the win in difficult circumstances.

Well done Scotland for making it a tough one.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Forsyth-Barr is the yardstick

Isn't the roof in Dunedin of a glass/perspex/plexiglass type that lets the sun in to engourage photosynthesis, unlike the roof at many other venues that are of a metal type, and when closed the surface is in darkness?

 

[Blue]

Good god Scotland is shit.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Isn't the roof in Dunedin of a glass/perspex/plexiglass type that lets the sun in to engourage photosynthesis, unlike the roof at many other venues that are of a metal type, and when closed the surface is in darkness?

Not sure.
Is there ever much sun in Dunedin?
The surface though, as I understand it, is 1/10th synthetic.: every 10th blade of grass is plastic. I think.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

^^^^ The oracle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forsyth_Barr_Stadium says that the roof is transparent and the grass partly artificial.

 

[Dan54]

If Sean Maitland is QC (Quade Cooper)'s cousin, and has qualified for SCO on the basis of a Scottish Grandparent, could QC (Quade Cooper) have ended up in SCO as well?

Well HJ, as we all have 4 grandparents and only one has to be Scot, coupled with the fact that cousins generally have only 2 grandparents in common, there is only a 50/50 chance Boy almost confused myself then.
Thought Wallabies went ok, defence was as expected with mixed up backline they had, it can be a touch hard to get everyone off same page with a lot of changes.
Shame about the field, though probably more to do with a lot of rain than bad pitch like a few stadiums we seen lately.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

can be a touch hard to get everyone off same page with a lot of changes.

We manage it with no changes

 

[TOCC]

Not sure.
Is there ever much sun in Dunedin?
The surface though, as I understand it, is 1/10th synthetic.: every 10th blade of grass is plastic. I think.

The grass itself is 100% natural, but it's root system is intertwined with synthetic fibre.

 

[TOCC]

I didn't think the game itself was much chop to watch, but it did appear to be one of those character building games..

 

[redstragic]

I enjoyed the game. It played out as well as could be expected on that surface. The boys will have sore legs tomorrow from running on that.

Scotland have got the talent to play a lot better. Hopefully Johnson gets the backs running straighter and gets them kicking smarter. The forwards are a good unit. The bloke who played 5 is an inspiration.

I thought our best feature tonight was the tactical kicking. Hope Cooper brings that to the Reds in 2014?

Sent from my GT-P5100 using Tapatalk

 

[Penguin]

The grass itself is 100% natural, but it's root system is intertwined with synthetic fibre.

I think Lang Park has a similar set up?

 

[BDA]

a few thoughts on the game.
- not a great performance, but not too bad. I thought the defense was generally good; well organised and we continued to come up and tackle the scots behind the gainline.
- We were too slow to react to the Refs wishes at the breakdown. A better team would have punished us in the first half. In fact probably our biggest problem was too many players lying around lazily at the ruck and not rushing back into the defensive line.
- some stupid penalties from some serial offenders (Kepu and Simmons).
- bit hard to gage the scrum, as there wasn't much actual scrummaging but the lineout was great. Probably the best aspect of your play.
- the backline looked like a patch-work backline. Luckily the class of the more experienced players (Cooper and Folau) got the job done. Tomane looked ok and CFS looked green and needs another Super season to continue his development.
- I cant say White impressed me when he came on.
- Timani made some good impact off the bench. A Steal and a few bone crunching tackles. he's definitely a better bench option than a starter

In terms of our best performers. Cooper, Folau, Moore, Hooper, Horwill (nice to see a return to form). Fardy and Mowen were also good.

For next week we need AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) and Cummins back in the run on side.