tigerland12
John Thornett (49)
I still Vickerman is a decent distance from Horwill, Sharpe and Simmons at the moment, that being said, he should be our 4th lock ( after Timani's poor performance).
Wallabies Ratings Post Samoa 2011
- Thread starter Gnostic
- Start date
- Status
bring back rucking
Fred Wood (13)
He did exactly what we want and need, Someone to hit rucks hard and bring an aggressive edge to the breakdown... He had one sloppy line out, granted, but he was far and away the most dominant wallaby forward in the department that we were so poor at today.
farva
Vay Wilson (31)
I thought McCalman did quite well. He was one of the only forwards who could hold his head high. Id give him a 6.
Higgenbum was a bit too much of a seagull for me. He looked good in that he set up a try by running down the wing and doing a great kick and gather. But why is a loose forward doing that?
He needs to make tackles as a loose forward and he didnt.
But that was too much of a rant for a player that wasnt one of the worst.
I felt that Davies, Timani, Hodgson, Phipps, Sharpe, Alexander (why the hell did he steep popping up in the scrum?) and Giteau all did a lot to not get selected again.
Im hoping that Deans ran them off the paddock during the week and thats why they looked flat.
Higgenbum was a bit too much of a seagull for me. He looked good in that he set up a try by running down the wing and doing a great kick and gather. But why is a loose forward doing that?
He needs to make tackles as a loose forward and he didnt.
But that was too much of a rant for a player that wasnt one of the worst.
I felt that Davies, Timani, Hodgson, Phipps, Sharpe, Alexander (why the hell did he steep popping up in the scrum?) and Giteau all did a lot to not get selected again.
Im hoping that Deans ran them off the paddock during the week and thats why they looked flat.
Ash
Michael Lynagh (62)
My theory was that it was to get a good look at Timani over the 80 and protect an important player from injury. Perhaps Sharpe has a niggle or two we don't know about. Perhaps he wasn't 100% certain Timani had blown his chance, and wanted confirmation. We can be sure that the sub was not performance based.
Anyway, I am actually fairly sanguine about the loss. Our team of half second stringers was beaten by a team who played better, with more determination. The Wallabies were flat, but they still started as if they had the feeling that they would score easily against Samoa. When they didn't they went into shock and didn't have much of an idea. This isn't the first time under the Deans tenure that we have struggled and looked flat in the first game of the season.
F
Fredfreduels
Guest
I disagree:
Pat McCabe - Brumbies best back 2010, 2011, Australian Rookie of the year 2010
Nick Phipps - Rebels' Player of the Year 2011, Australian Rookie of the year 2011
Sorry about Timani as I haven't seen alot of Waratahs games this year, however I understand that he has shown some promise.
G
gladiator
Guest
it's a team effort , and they all lost the game , i give everyone a rating of 3 . if everyone played okay , ( that's a rating of 5 ) , they would have won .
T
TheNextBigThing
Guest
My thoughts exactly, better elucidated than I could have myself.
Although I didn't think Gits was as bad as everyone said, he improved dramatically once he started getting decent ball from Genia. And Sharpie wasn't that bad, just not strong enough in contact.
vidiot
John Solomon (38)
Higgers did not seagull as badly as people are making out, or perhaps as badly as we have seen before. I've just watched the last 20 again to document what he does. Could he have done more? Sure. But the pack was pretty disjointed/disorganized and he at least bobs up well as a runner for Genia and with RObinson.
There wasn't much tackling to be done at this stage, the wallabies had a heap of ball and when Samoa got it they kicked (high or grubber) and got pretty good results with their swarming defense.
59:57 comes on (Samoan lineout)
60:09 Tries to pilfer after Robinsons tackle. Goes close. Tight. Tick.
60:36 Cleans out after McCabe goes to ground with the ball. Tick.
61:42 Cleans out tacklers after Davies takes a high ball. Tick.
62:03 Cleans out after a McCabe dart. Tick
63:00 First forward to Davies after he is ankle tapped and swamped a couple of yards out from the line. Not especially effective, but they didn't score. Tick.
passage of kicks and short line-outs and wallaby "attack" down the short side that goes no where and doesn't involve Higginbotham.
70:15 Hitup off short ball from Genia one of the ruck on the right side of the field. A little tall, but makes ground and recycles (Vickerman helps). Tick
(Ioane makes more ground off this ruck back in the middle of the field. Genia turns the attack back towards the right side of the field)
70:35 takes the pass behind him from Gits and chips, regathers and passes to Gits who scores. Seagulling? Bullshit. He crawled out of the ruck and stood up in the line.
73:30 Takes a short ball from Robinson and makes a little ground. Tick.
74:00 Another hit-up on a short blind one off the ruck from Genia. Tick.
74:09 Gets up and takes two steps back to get the ball from Genia again on a short blind. Kicks ahead and earns a line-out on the samoan line. He's the only chaser. Again, he's not seagulling. He was tight 9 seconds earlier and he honestly did nothing more than stand up, and get in a useful position for Genia.
75:18 Acts as halfback from a ruck as Genia is still at the bottom of the previous.
75:22 Cleans out the next ruck. Okay. Not as brutal as Vickerman.
From here the game become quite unstructured and he gets caught up in a couple of rucks but nothing much comes off for the wallabies and until the final minute rundown Samoa kicks deep and chases.
tigerland12
John Thornett (49)
Even when Higgers does seagull, he generally does something good?
He really doesn't get the praise he deserves a lot of the time.
Edit: No bias involved in this post
He really doesn't get the praise he deserves a lot of the time.
Edit: No bias involved in this post
W
waves
Guest
Anyone else see Ben Alexander dropped against SA moving Sekope Kepu to Tight and starting with Pek Cowan ? Also thoughts on Saia Fainga'a starting ?
tigerland12
John Thornett (49)
Moore is one of our most consistant players, an one of the best hookers in the world, so no about Saia starting.
Qwerty, yeh I think he could prove to be a valuable bench player, has that explosiveness about him.
Groucho
Greg Davis (50)
T
TheNextBigThing
Guest
You left a bit out.
Anyone else notice Rocky's positioning in the last few minutes of the match when Samoa turned the ball over and some grunt in the forwards was needed to salvage something? He was sitting back in fullback/right wing defensive position on the around his own 22. Poor attitude from the man meant to be Australian Captain. I know he was probably buggered from his first full game back in a while but he could have at least made an effort to get involved at the break-down, shown some leadership. Instead it was Genia urging the forwards on with some tough effort from Vicks, Beau, Timani.
Rocky didn't even begin to walk into the where the rest of the team was for at least a full whole minute after the whistle. Pathetic effort.
Kepu - 6
Moore - 6
Alexander - 3
Sharpe - 6
Timani - 5
Elsom - 3
Hodgson - 3
McCalman - 54
Phipps - 3
Giteau - 5
Ioane - 6
McCabe - 5
AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) - 3
Davies - 2
Gerrard - 4
Beale - 7
Genia - 7
Higgenbotham - 7
Robinson - 3
Vickerman - 6
I thought Vicks was ok coming off the bench. Dont think he looked close to being able to last the 80 but was very tight around the ruck and showed alot more promise of continual improvement then a lot of the other forwards. Genia and Beale had an immediate impact when they came on. Suddenly the ball coming to Gits was a lot cleaner and faster, and he looked like he was under a lot less pressure than Phipps. Sharpe had a solid game until he went off. Hodgson looked like he had heart but didn't look like he belonged in the gold jersey. For all his efforts, his impact was minimal. Giteau started off looking good, and there was a backline move in the first half that he was heavily involved with that ran incredibly smoothly and if not for some scrambling samoan defence, may have resulted in a well worked try. I think he's just getting sick of putting in so much effort in losing teams.
Rocky didn't even begin to walk into the where the rest of the team was for at least a full whole minute after the whistle. Pathetic effort.
Kepu - 6
Moore - 6
Alexander - 3
Sharpe - 6
Timani - 5
Elsom - 3
Hodgson - 3
McCalman - 54
Phipps - 3
Giteau - 5
Ioane - 6
McCabe - 5
AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) - 3
Davies - 2
Gerrard - 4
Beale - 7
Genia - 7
Higgenbotham - 7
Robinson - 3
Vickerman - 6
I thought Vicks was ok coming off the bench. Dont think he looked close to being able to last the 80 but was very tight around the ruck and showed alot more promise of continual improvement then a lot of the other forwards. Genia and Beale had an immediate impact when they came on. Suddenly the ball coming to Gits was a lot cleaner and faster, and he looked like he was under a lot less pressure than Phipps. Sharpe had a solid game until he went off. Hodgson looked like he had heart but didn't look like he belonged in the gold jersey. For all his efforts, his impact was minimal. Giteau started off looking good, and there was a backline move in the first half that he was heavily involved with that ran incredibly smoothly and if not for some scrambling samoan defence, may have resulted in a well worked try. I think he's just getting sick of putting in so much effort in losing teams.
tigerland12
John Thornett (49)
People are giving Timani a bit too high ratings imo, he was really ineffective in most things he did. No better then the other two debutants in the starting side.
Slim 293
Stirling Mortlock (74)
He was also wearing his old hands...
- Status