TRC Round 1: South Africa v Australia, Sunday 21 July 1:05am AEST

[Benaud]

Gee we'd give our left nut to have Pocock out there in the 7 jersey right now.

 

[cyclopath]

Hooper mate what are smoking jesus.

Its test rugby you have to play the percentages.

He asked the other senior players - they wanted it. God knows why? Easy fucking points. Grrr.

 

[Slim 293]

Terrible penalty. In no way were any of them on their feet.

Yeah, there were at least 2 penalties against the Saffas following that Wobs scrum, so not sure how a holding on call came about?

The obvious one was the green player sealing off.........

 

[Up the Guts]

Who doesnt take the 3 there, seriously?

I’m not sure, I thought they were lucky to come away with it given they looked to have knocked on at the back of the scrum and were off their feet completely at the breakdown.

 

[drewprint]

A bit of a rocky start but we came into that half nicely. Bombed a couple of tries but if we get a bit more clinical I’m optimistic we can run over them.

 

[Slim 293]

Lineout solid, scrum ok. Attack is very hot and cold, not a fan of our forwards quick passing but we've found ways through their line. Cut out the simple mistakes and we can win this.

Kepu having a rough time so far, which is concerning as I expected him to be more solid than Tupou.........

 

[Tomikin]

Its definitely winnable, we have butchered 2 tries. will be exciting to get some more ball i think we are looking like we will score when ever we get the pill.

I think we should have gone lineout not scrum, but attacking scrum there was well worth the shot. Not a bad call.

 

[Up the Guts]

When was the last time we had lineout dominance against South Africa?

 

[Derpus]

So two botched tries and a botched penalty and still only 4 points behind.

Actually score a point or two on offer and we might win.

 

[BDA]

To be honest, the only weakness in our team that seems clear after that first half was our captaincy. Absolute stupidity not to take the 3 points on offer. FFS. Hooper is boardline incompetent as our decision maker

 

[Bobby Sands]

We are the better team, but execution letting us down as always.

Need to nail these chances & become a winning side again.

 

[Benaud]

LSL (Lukhan Salakaia-Loto) surprisingly prominent in the lineout.

 

[Benaud]

To be honest, the only weakness in our team that seems clear after that first half was our captaincy. Absolute stupidity not to take the 3 points on offer. FFS. Hooper is boardline incompetent as our decision maker

No doubt. You'd have to think Pocock is a lock as captain and 7 when he's fit.

 

[Shaker]

Kepu having a rough time so far, which is concerning as I expected him to be more solid than Tupou...

Yeah, you definitely dont bring Tupou on to shore up the scrum. Still confident Sio/Fainga'a/Alaatoa is the starting front row in Japan.

 

[Slim 293]

Despite Kepu having some scrummaging issues, can’t really fault any of the individuals selected so far........

There do seem to be some dumb tactics, and the forwards might need a rocket up them in defence.

 

[Tomikin]

Kepu having a rough time so far, which is concerning as I expected him to be more solid than Tupou...

Always going to be tough when you lose 2 of your top front rowers week of the game. But we are going alright. I'm hoping we run over them, first scorer will probably decided the game.

 

[Tomikin]

Great Half Wallabies, bring it home !! God I love the start of test season, and how good is it not to be playing the darkness first up. .

 

[cyclopath]

No doubt. You'd have to think Pocock is a lock as captain and 7 when he's fit.

I doubt he will be fit, and sadly I think he will not play much, if any, Test rugby this year.
And he has never been a lock as captain.

 

[Up the Guts]

I doubt he will be fit, and sadly I think he will not play much, if any, Test rugby this year.
And he has never been a lock as captain.

Easy to conflate being a nice guy with captaincy.

 

[Benaud]

There are a lot of promising signs here though. When Sio and AAA come back in for Kepu and HJH (Harry Johnson-Holmes), Pocock comes back in somewhere, Koroibete comes back in for Hodge and Lilo comes back in for To'omua, the side starts to look quite decent based on what we're seeing here without them.