Wallabies v All Blacks, Game I

[waratahjesus]

brown didnt go well at 6, we really need a specialist there.
he danced alot, as dida few others, if you get the ball in trafic, it would be nice if someone taught them to put there head down and go striaght instead of prancing like quade until someone pushes them backward!

 

[Scotty]

Cyclo,

We outdid them at the breakdown in the first half. They were better in the second, but were also allowed to get away with murder.

 

[RugbyReg]

In those conditions you really need a dominant performance from your 9 and 10. We didn't.

Oh and the ref sucked dogs ball.

 

[cyclopath]

brown didnt go well at 6, we really need a specialist there.
he danced alot, as dida few others, if you get the ball in trafic, it would be nice if someone taught them to put there head down and go striaght instead of prancing like quade until someone pushes them backward!

Agreed. He runs too high and gets smashed backwards.
Let's face it, it's Elsom, then daylight for Aus.
Scotty, you're right about the first half, but it's an 80 minute game, and we were poor in the 2nd half, sorry to say.

 

[Scotty]

I thought Brown was good, and it seemed our performance at the ruck went down when Pocock came on (strangely).

Cyclo, agree it is an 80 minute game, but when you come out overall even in the rucks, it isn't necessarily the reason you loose. Add to that when you do seem to have the ball in an attacking position and the ref lets the defenders rush in from the side it makes it very difficult. And the contrast that against getting penalised for not rolling away, when you in fact are, and it is almost impossible.

We would all agree that it is the most critical area of the game. So when 90% of referring decisions seem to go against you in that area how on earth are you meant to win unless the other team is completely inept?

 

[cyclopath]

Fair enough, Scotty.
Brown is not bad, I just don't like his running with the ball. A 6 needs to be better carrying it.
I was as bemused as many at some of the reffing, but I think we had enough chances to take that game, and executed them poorly. At least 1 if not 2 gimme tries.
Blaming the ref is all very well, but despite Joubert, we really should have won it.
The ABs will always play the breakdowns the same. Refs let them do it. We must adapt, and counter it better.

 

[Scarfman]

Joubert let the ABs dive all over the ball all night. Very frustrating, esp when Moore got penalised for not rolling away when he was rolling away and was nowhere near the ball.

But I think the ABs picked the right back row for the occasion and we probably got it a bit wrong.

The Wallabies were equal in the scrum, dominant in the lineout, and had a better organised back line.

Our kicks were OK but our chasing and catching were very much inferior. If one thing lost us the game it was kick and chase.

 

[formeropenside]

Joubert let the ABs dive all over the ball all night. Very frustrating, esp when Moore got penalised for not rolling away when he was rolling away and was nowhere near the ball.

But I think the ABs picked the right back row for the occasion and we probably got it a bit wrong.

The Wallabies were equal in the scrum, dominant in the lineout, and had a better organised back line.

Our kicks were OK but our chasing and catching were very much inferior. If one thing lost us the game it was kick and chase.

We got hammered in scrum penalties, and generally got pushed around on our ball, and never seriously troubled the AB's on thier ball. Thats not equal.

 

[Burkey_The_Dog]

Oh and the ref sucked dogs ball.

Hey!... Well yeah he kinda did. Glad I'm not the only one that thought the reffing was terrible.

All Wallabies in the first 20, but we always seem to struggle playing from behind. Plenty of the team played well but a few thoughts include Richard Brown jogging on the spot instead of hitting the line, JOC (James O'Connor)'s nerves and if ever Drew Mitchell was waiting for a sign that he's not a fullback, tonight was it.

 

[Epi]

*Reffing was terrible on the verge of cheating. Agree with WJ - Baxter should call Chris Murphy and start legal proceedings. But it shouldn't have mattered.

*There's a lot to like about Burgo but his passing is not and has never been good enough. Time to put the books back on the shelf, grab a tyre, rope and a ball and practice! Until then, Sanchez for mine..
:edit: And WTF is he doing kicking when he clearly can't! It seems to be a tactic - if that's the case, Deans should pick a scrummy who can..

*Backline was pretty average with little penetration when the chips were down. Morty looked old and there was of course no Tuqiri to throw the ball to - and I'm sorry, but he's one player who makes the advantage line when the chips are down. Wallabies missed that go-forward.

*AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) was a highlight. Never rated the earl but he's starting to grow on me. A couple of those takes under pressure were superb, as was that run which set up the first try.

Dissapointed more than anything. That was the most mediocre AB team I can remember and we should have had them on toast. To be honest it didn't really seem that we wanted it... :

 

[rsea]

Negatives:
Burgess - Had an off game with passing and the boot
Brown - Proved he's not an international 8 or 6 yet
Palu - Not surprisingly he wasn't ready and lacked impact but this should turn around by SA
Kicking - Awful from everyone. It was France all over again but worse.
Breakdown - How are we going to match the Saffers if we won't play to the whistle? Its one thing knowing the rules but playing the breakdown is all about meeting the refs expectation. If the ABs are diving in from all angles then you need to meet them head on

Positives:
Genia looked sharp when he came on. It'd be a real pity to put Burgess on the bench but I think he's shown he's not to standard despite 1.5 seasons in gold.
Everyone was equally vocal about the ref which means something might be done before he fucks another good contest

 

[Scorz]

Just back from the game.

My forwards prediction came good in the second half, but f*ck me if Wobbie's catching practice had held up for your lot it would have been a different story!

If you want an indication of how strong the wind was, Gits shot that never made it in the 2nd half will do nicely. I'm not ready to don the famous Hat of Shit, but some kudos to Donald for starting to be a test 10 in the 2nd, and doing a fair impersonation in the first.

I'm stoked with the win and proud of the comeback victory to close out a tight one, but we have serious issues with a lack of intentional penetration from our midfield. Wayne Smiff needs to pull finger with his use of Nonu again.

 

[barbarian]

Even with a poor reffing performance (summed up by the scrum for Palu's incorrect tap- for fuck sake we are playing Bledisloe Cup here, not under 10s), we should have won that game easily. What killed us-

- Stupid Penalties- in a game that was always going to be close, we just gave away too many silly penalties at crucial times. Sharpe for hands in the ruck in about the 45th, Smith a couple for deliberate knock-downs (you have played 100 tests, you should know the fucking rules), Robbo for throwing the ball away, Burgess for obstruction, Moore for offside, and they are just the ones I can remember.

- Lack of penetration in midfield- our game plan seemed to be spreading it wide at every oportunity, but when we were forced to take midfield hit-ups we could not make the advantage line. Mortlock played poorly, and guys like Sharpe and Palu were very quiet with ball in hand. This led to turnover ball more often than not.

- Burgess- Its been said, he had an absolute mare. Kick out on the full lead to the try, bad pass for Giteau's chargedown, obstruction penalty, etc. etc. Get Genia in there, he looked good, and should have been on way earlier.

- Kicking- Very poor, especially with the wind at our back. We should have been thumping it into the corner at every opportunity, but didn't. This was one aspect were the ABs thoroughly outclassed us- their up-and-unders worked a treat.

Was a scrappy game I thought, we miss the ELVs. Full-arm penalties means a bad ref is made all the worse.

 

[Lee Grant]

Welcome aboard rsea,

Those are some astute comments and I'm giving myself a pat on the back because I concur with a lot of them; so I won't reiterate what you said.

The big thing that disappointed me was not that we lost by 6 points in NZ against the Blacks; a lot of good teams have down that.

What disapponted me, excuses and criticism of the ref aside - we didn't play well in those things that we had control over - our kicking game, taking the high ball or even competing for it, getting kicks charged down, not charging down enough of theirs, indiscipline, handling mistakes in key moments and above all else, not having the pack mentality of the Black's forwards to get to the ruck, or counter ruck first, with numbers and the expectation to win the ball.

Burgess had a shocker, though he was by no means the only one, and it's a pity that Genia has not been available to play before tonight otherwise I would give the Queenslander a start.

 

[Epi]

- Stupid Penalties- in a game that was always going to be close, we just gave away too many silly penalties at crucial times. Sharpe for hands in the ruck in about the 45th,

That Sharpe penalty was probably the most stupid penalty I've ever seen. They didn't show a replay but it's burnt into whats left of my brain. He seemed to be lying on his belly making eye contact with the ref and then grabbed the ball with a look on his face which said 'that's OK isn't it ref?'. Now the rules confuse me and most people - it's rugby, they are meant to - but when has it ever been OK to grab the ball when you are lying on your gut in the middle of a ruck?? And in kicking distance of the posts - it was an absolute shocker and summed up the night for me.

 

[Newb]

pretty shattered after that. i thought there was a chance to steal that one. to win at eden park is a big ask for anyone, but to not do it now makes you wonder if the wallabies ever will.

conditions probably suited the AB's more, but you play with what there is.

ref had some curious calls to say the least. didn't think the fuse was as bad as made out to be by joubert. he did end up hinged a few times but maybe from the myth taking it down, as he seemed to a few times. i'll give big al a pass for this game.

fat cat had some good runs and did the dirty stuff well. that add on for flinging the ball was harsh in my mind. did it more out of frustration than an attempt to slow the game.

moore was very good. scrummed well, lineouts on target, good around the park. can't ask for much more from him.

sharpe and horwill had good games i thought. again, lineout control superb and horwill especially looked to want to get stuck in when he wasn't off for leprosy of the nose. a couple very mobile plays from him with the ball and on D, good takes on kickoffs.

brown did about what i expected of him. looks too confused when he runs, too many minds. just bust it up like palu, roll to protect the ball, and call it good. that's it.

smith had a pretty good 100th match. a few turns and pilfers. but he needs to learn that there will be NO offloading within 10 meters of the line. deans needs to make that a team rule. he once again did it to blokes that are rushing in to ruck, not receive a pop up. always gets spilled. at least he didn't grubber.... :yay

palu alright for first match back. had a couple good hits, a good run or two (maybe more). not quite there but i'm satisfied if he brings even more next match.

burgo, burgo, burgo. he'll want to burn those match tapes. i think i can attribute nearly every major wallaby mistake to him. loopy passes, gits charge down, kicked out on the full.... you name it, he did it. genia much more sharp when he came on. might have been jitters for burgo, i don't know. also not sure if genia can play a whole game like that yet.

can't blame gits for the goal kicking. hit the ones he should have i suppose, and into the wind was tough. where was the running for the line though? hardly saw him have a dart all night. tactical kicking still off as well.

thought barnes did a better job of organizing the backline. when he went off not much happened. good in defense.

mitchell did some stupid stuff but also covered kicks alright so mixed bag for me. turner was good when given the chance.

AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) was great in the air when he got there. not sure why some high balls were let to drop though... good runs from the back too. pretty good game from him.

 

[Newb]

i think more than any one player losing the game (i'm looking at you luke burgess) the system couldn't overcome the AB's. or maybe the system would have but wasn't much execution especially at the end of the game.

ref wasn't great but not going to put it on him. lots of diving into rucks which should have been controlled better but i don't think he wanted to give a penalty each time for it. scrum calls iffy. but there were some forward passes by the wobs that were missed. the AB's don't understand the concept of offsides though. all over the place.

where was the kicking for the corners in the first half? especially with their lineout so bad. pin them back and keep them there. and the defense was pretty good at holding all night, with the exception of a couple dumb ruck penalties. but hardly broke. and burgo should not be the one kicking when you have gits, barnes, and AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper). make him stop.

seemed when the wobs got it into the AB half or even close they could move the ball in phases. especially first half, so close to scoring.... but too many handling errors. didn't need to do anything flash. they were making enough gains to just keep trucking it up and recycle. AB's stormed the rucks more in 2nd half which helped put a stop to that. needed to counter just has hard, something we still lack.

AB's just more clinical in the 2nd half to pull away. i thought that when we had the wind to our backs had to have a greater margin going into the half. didn't seem enough and the AB's would play for penalties. and that happened.

deans nearly pulled a PdV too with leaving burgo on sooooo long and pulling barnes. if anything, put JO'C on for mitchell or something. have him either on the wing or move AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) to wing. barnes wasn't having a stormer but things looked better with him in.


overall too many could have beens and what ifs... thought we had that one, i really did. :angryfire:

 

[PaarlBok]

Sound like a lot of whining losing lot to blame the ref after losing. You lot should blame Barnes and Donald Duck. Barnes spoiled a flippen simple change for not unlocking Mortlock for a easy try. That should have knock back the All Blacks permanent. For some reason I thought those 2 players would play a role in the outcome. Wont get a second change to beat the All Blacks at home.

 

[PaarlBok]

We lost that game due to three main reasons:

1. A completely inept and somewhat biased (see scrums) referee
2. Loosing the ball in attack too many times
3. Luke Burgess

Appalling refereeing killed us.

You're a little harsh on Burgess. He and Drew Mitchell were erratic, I thought Burgess saved us a number of times so he had a mixed bag. I thought 12 was a problem for us too. Barnes' insistence on long cut out passes was a gift to the All Blacks' defence.

We tried to play too wide, not wise given the conditions. In general we weren't smart. Why take the short option on a kick re-start on your own 22 with the rain and wind howling down and not having been out of your half in 20 minutes ?

Your 12 cost you the test. The normal ref , maybe a cricket umpire will satisfied you. :lmao:

 

[jason]

Infuriating.

Despite tipping the All Blacks on oztips, I really thought we could win this one. Without wanting to bring up that semanticist debate on the word "re-building" again, last year we were rebuilding and this year, although not the finished product, we should be a lot further along than we actually are.

We've clearly got the cattle this year. Our tight five was better than theirs, our midfield is miles ahead, and our back three and loosies at least have parity. While Burgess' mistakes compounded the shortcomings of not committing enough men to the breakdown, our biggest weakness is that we just don't have the "big match" mentality yet. Players went missing (Dick Brown), were overawed (JOC (James O'Connor)), lost their head (Sharpie with that stupid fucking penalty and Barnes for botching that try) and didn't harden the fuck up at the breakdown. Despite the talk of "confidence", "belief", "empowerment" and all those other Dingoisms, we're clearly still not ready for the big games.