The Wallabies Thread

[Strewthcobber]

If I was Hooper I'd sure as hell be taking a bit of time, discuss the options with my senior players, and get the right descision.

Hooper would be loving having Poey and Genia out there in those situations

What exactly is there to criticize?

 

[Rock Lobster]

We'll agree to disagree there. I could cop going for the try if there was 30min to go or the penalty was near the sideline but with a tick over 10min left and the penalty is bang in front you get your nose in front every time IMO.

 

[Tomikin]

I saw the point in your first post, but you've gone a step too far here.

Hooper had an animated discussion with Genia, then made the call. I can't really fault him there, especially since the call turned out to be correct.

The lengths some people will go to to be negative about the game/players, hey.
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Hooper was probably sucking in the big ones while he tried to have a chat.. the guys improved his captaincy since 2014 and the take over.. His pretty good 99.9 percent the time..for a stinking Tah..His no Ben Mowen but he was pretty outstanding and was a bit surprising. But Hooper will get another good amount of years as el chapoton

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[Rock Lobster]

Without wanting to labour on it, the scrum penalty is around 1 hour 24 min into the link.

Hooper actually puts the ball on the ground and thinks about a quick tap before Pocock looks to put a hand in front of him to stop him and then Genia takes control of the situation.

 

[Braveheart81]

Looking at the replay it's clear that a discussion is had and Hooper floats the idea of having another scrum. Pocock doesn't seem to say much and Genia definitely says that they should go for goal and Hooper ends up agreeing with him.

Suggesting Hooper is upset or was overruled or similar is inventing something that no one can possibly know.

Getting the ball to the spot of the penalty is what should be done every time because it keeps all your options open.

I agree that the right option was to kick the points and take the lead. Likewise the right option a few minutes later when up by 2 was to try and ice the game with a try.

I don't really get the criticism of him discussing it with the other senior players. Pretty clearly Hooper didn't make a rash decision.

 

[swingpass]

i'm agreeing with rock lobster on this one. at the time when i was watching on TV and again with the replay, it seemed that Hooper had to be talked out of doing whatever his first choice was- scrum, line out, quick tap, by Genia who was very animated and very adamant. personally, i was screaming "take the points !" it certainly looked more than just a "discussion" amongst the senior players.
ps i believe Hooper's captaincy has greatly improved, as one would expect

 

[Rock Lobster]

No doubt a discussion was had but that was only because of the intervention of Pocock and Genia. Certainly didn't look like Hooper instigated it by pulling those two aside and saying what do you reckon we do here boys.

Look of course none of us where out there and we're only guessing but I'm tipping if Genia and Pocock were not out there Hooper would not have taken the shot at goal(he does have form with this) and it may well have paid off for him but we'll never know.

 

[Brumby Runner]

I thought Simmons was dominant when he came on last weekend. He ran the ball, made multiple big driving tackles behind the ad line, steadied the lineout and helped anchor an improving scrum. Cant really ask more than that?

Steadied the lineout? By my count there were only three lineouts after he came on, two with a Wallaby throw-in and one for the Irish. The first of the Wallaby throw-ins came at 63.35 and Simmons lifted Pocock to effect a clean win. The Irish lineout occurred at 75.12 and resulted in an Irish win. The second of the Wallabies' lineouts occurred at 77.10 and went to Timu (I think) towards the back. The ball was knocked on by the Irish. Can't see that Rob could be said to have made any real difference in those set pieces at all.

He did have a few more hit ups than usual, but mostly he was taken to ground on or behind the gain line, but did make about 4m gain (total) on two hitups.

He made a dominant tackle on Furlong, which ultimately was negated by Coleman's tackle on the player without the ball that saw play eventually return to that spot for the Irish penalty. He had at least two bad tackle misses and fell off a couple more. Incidentally, he had an unintentional, but significant, role in the Hooper tip tackle. Both Simmons and Hooper were involved in the tackle, and as Rob was regaining his feet, he unintentionally stood up from under Hooper's legs which had the effect of pushing Hooper's legs beyond the horizontal.

Can you really assure me that with that sequence of involvements, Rob "was dominant when he came on last weekend". Really?

 

[Brumby Runner]

Really? I don't think it was an easy decision by any means. As I said, there would be a big temptation to pack another scrum and see if they could force a penalty try. You could make a case that it was the time to grab the game by the scruff of the neck.

I certainly don't think the decision was a clear as you present it.
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Scruff of the neck stuff should only be tried when you're in front on the scoreboard Barb. It was a no-brainer to go for the points and ultimately the right decision, however it was made.

 

[Jimmy_Crouch]

Without wanting to labour on it, the scrum penalty is around 1 hour 24 min into the link.

Hooper actually puts the ball on the ground and thinks about a quick tap before Pocock looks to put a hand in front of him to stop him and then Genia takes control of the situation.

I did this my whole career and Hooper does it for the tahs all the time. It doesn't mean you are going to take the tap but it means you are ready when the right opportunity presents itself.

 

[Tomikin]

I did this my whole career and Hooper does it for the tahs all the time. It doesn't mean you are going to take the tap but it means you are ready when the right opportunity presents itself.

Pity you work at a day care?

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[fatprop]

I did this my whole career and Hooper does it for the tahs all the time. It doesn't mean you are going to take the tap but it means you are ready when the right opportunity presents itself.

Exactly, Aaron Smith does this at pretty well every penalty, he doesn't tap & go at every penalty. But he ensures the team has the option

 

[Up the Guts]

Exactly, Aaron Smith does this at pretty well every penalty, he doesn't tap & go at every penalty. But he ensures the team has the option

And we actually used a tap move later on in the lead up to the try. Does anyone know what we were trying to do, looked like we tried to setup a driving maul? Interesting play nonetheless that resulted in a try.

 

[Rock Lobster]

Often wondered why the ol "tap one" option isn't used much as opposed to taking a scrum, which, even when you have dominance, can be a lottery in terms of which way a penalty might go. If your plan is to just bang away with a pick and go why take the risk of losing the pill through a dodgy scrum penalty. One of your props only has to lose his footing and you can be penalised.

 

[barbarian]

Often wondered why the ol "tap one" option isn't used much as opposed to taking a scrum.

I agree totally, and said this at the time. Plenty can go wrong at set piece, so I'm surprised more teams don't do this.
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[The Honey Badger]

I agree totally, and said this at the time. Plenty can go wrong at set piece, so I'm surprised more teams don't do this.
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The scrum does provide plenty of options.

If you are going forward then a pushover try if the first option.

Or the possibility of a penalty try, if the opposing side collapse or infringe.

If your scrum is dominant this would be the best chance of scoring.

If the opposition scrum holds then you should still have clean ball for the backs without a defensive line full of forwards.

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[fatprop]

I agree totally, and said this at the time. Plenty can go wrong at set piece, so I'm surprised more teams don't do this.
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The up side is that 8 units are taken out of play, so a decent backline gets some space

 

[barbarian]

Of course, and I wasn't arguing it is something you should do every time. Just that I'm surprised you see it so rarely.

It allows you to avoid potential scrum calamity, and get straight into your attacking patterns. I'd still take the scrum on most occasions, but throwing in a tap every now and again is a smart option.
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[zer0]

Bring back the wall plays.

 

[Braveheart81]

I was surprised we didn't opt for a scrum. After dicking their scrum not long earlier and having a solid platform all night I would have thought we'd have been primed for a first phase play to try and score.

Our backline is full of threats and with good execution should be very hard to stop at that range.