Wallabies V Boks Loftus Versfeld Pretoria 28/08/2010

[dobduff11]

Bit of a let down in the end after a wonderful start, thought the wallabies would do an All Blacks in 2000

Saia should have been subbed
Leave sharpie on, he's very important with respect to the lineouts
Ben McCalman impressed me as did Hodgson last week, no place for dick brown in this team

11 TURNOVERS 19

Pocock was unbelievable again, he is definetly world class and he must be the best tackler in the world along with dussatoir

Kurtley was very impressive and looks to be getting over the knee injury he got a while back, showed some express pace on his break

 

[Ishmael]

I'm just going to copy and paste a post I made on PR in response to criticism of the Wallabies and Deans:

I hear you but i reckon you have to look at things realistically when assessing the performance of the coach and then team. Since Deans took over he's had to not only rebuild a team that suffered the exodus of several legendary players following the 07 World Cup but this season he's also had to cope with an injury crisis that's resulted in having to start Ma'afu (Ma'afu FFS!) with a rookie S14 bench player backing him up (let's forget Weeks for a moment). Australia's never had great depth and with the players out this year it's a minor miracle they're even competitive IMO.

It's incredibly frustrating that there's been little appreciable progress over the last couple of years, and I reckon there have been several genuine coaching blunders in that time, but there have been significant set backs and when you see players like Pocock, Cooper and Beale acquitting themselves as they did tonight, all 22 or younger, it's very heartening.

Not to mention the fact that whether or not it's good tactics, it's great to see a Wallaby side playing rugby that's genuinely fantastic to watch. How about Cooper spreading the ball in his own in goal to Beale who went for a gallop, passed to O'Connor, took the return pass and was almost away for a try? I'm not saying it's better to play entertaining rugby than winning rugby (I'm a Tahs fan after all) but I do love seeing the Wallabies play scintillating rugby that looks like it could become winning rugby against the best teams in the world.

Having said all that I agree that Deans absolutely should have subbed S. Finger for Moore. The only possible excuse is if Moore got injured in his blood cameo. To be honest I have no idea why Moore wasn't starting.

 

[Joe Blow]

I'm just going to copy and paste a post I made on PR in response to criticism of the Wallabies and Deans:



Having said all that I agree that Deans absolutely should have subbed S. Finger for Moore. The only possible excuse is if Moore got injured in his blood cameo. To be honest I have no idea why Moore wasn't starting.

Moore should have been starting along with Slipper and Simmons.
Brown probably should not have been starting.
JOC (James O'Connor) probably should not have been starting despite his double and Fainga'a should never have been on the bench.
Burgess should have replaced Genia early in the second half as he was crabbing sideways with 2 steps before passing all night.
There can not be any plausible excuse as to why our lineout went to hell when Shape was subbed. I think we lost 3 of our own throws in the Boks 22? This alone could have cost us the match.
Surely the coaching staff must take much of the blame for the lack of direction and cohesion shown by the Wallabies when they just needed to stay composed to bring the game home.
There was a definite lack of on field leadership when Sharpe left the game.....and this is a big worry.
Deans certainly is not 100% responsible but there was always question marks over the 22 selected and now it is pretty obvious that they were not well prepared for this test.

 

[Ishmael]

Moore should have been starting along with Slipper and Simmons.
Brown probably should not have been starting.
JOC (James O'Connor) probably should not have been starting despite his double and Fainga'a should never have been on the bench.
Burgess should have replaced Genia early in the second half as he was crabbing sideways with 2 steps before passing all night.
There can not be any plausible excuse as to why our lineout went to hell when Shape was subbed. I think we lost 3 of our own throws in the Boks 22? This alone could have cost us the match.
Surely the coaching staff must take much of the blame for the lack of direction and cohesion shown by the Wallabies when they just needed to stay composed to bring the game home.
There was a definite lack of on field leadership when Sharpe left the game.....and this is a big worry.
Deans certainly is not 100% responsible but there was always question marks over the 22 selected and now it is pretty obvious that they were not well prepared for this test.

I agree with most of that except the bolded bits. Elements of the Wallabies' game fell apart in the second half - elements that were functioning well previously. The departure of Sharpe I think had a lot to do with it but basically it was mental fragility, which has much more to do with the players than the coach IMO. When a team is used to winning they focus and execute in those crucial moments. When they haven't tasted success in a long while they can go to pieces and that's what happened.

The way the Wallabies played in the first half showed, I think, that they were well prepared for the match and had the ability and game plan to win. They just cracked. S. Finger's lineout throwing was the perfect example.

That composure and self belief can only come through playing together and experiencing success together.

 

[wormwoodathletics]

I cannot see Deans making any changes to the run on team that he gushed over after the CC test excepting of course Cooper and maybe a 4:2 split on the bench (not that the bench matters with Deans)

Hence I predict :-

1. Robinson
2. Fainga'a
3. Maafu
4. Mumm
5. Sharpe
6. Elsom
7. Pocock
8. Brown
9. Genia
10. Cooper
11. Mitchell
12. Giteau
13. AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper)
14. JOC (James O'Connor)
15. Beale

16. Moore
17. Slipper
18. Simmons
19. McCalman
20. Burgess/Higginbum
21. Burgess/Turner
22. Barnes

My feeling is that we will have a 4:2 split with Burgess and Barnes the backs reserves.

Sensible prediction

 

[I like to watch]

memo to Robbie..
coach what is in front of you!
Seems you have a pre defined plan of who & when they come off the bench.
You are without doubt the worst coach in terms of getting the best out of the 22.
Even that idiot Henry uses his bench with much more effect.
If you don't trust those bench players,then don't pick them!

 

[Larno]

As a part-time Wallabies fan that was agony to watch in the 2nd half. Like one of the posters on the match result blog post, I feel that the turning point of the match (and defining moment of the game) was AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) spilling the ball in Hougaard's tackle. After that my heart sank and I knew that there would be no glorious comeback from then on.

For what it's worth, I didn't mind Rolland's policy of blowing players for being off their feet at the breakdown (for however long he did it anyway). Felt like it opened up the game a bit.

 

[Reddy!]

Didn't watch the game but disappointed about this result - happy to see a big score for both teams but. I'll try and catch a replay of the game later on.

I don't want to bash on about Deans but it must be said that another poor 2nd half from the Wallabies and another game where it seems the bench wasn't used much at all.

Good to see KB (Kurtley Beale) and JOC (James O'Connor) playing well. How did Cooper go? And what players do you think are just not up to it at test level?

 

[cyclopath]

Didn't watch the game but disappointed about this result - happy to see a big score for both teams but. I'll try and catch a replay of the game later on.

I don't want to bash on about Deans but it must be said that another poor 2nd half from the Wallabies and another game where it seems the bench wasn't used much at all.

Good to see KB (Kurtley Beale) and JOC (James O'Connor) playing well. How did Cooper go? And what players do you think are just not up to it at test level?

With all due respect, Reddy!, maybe watch the game before posting opinion on it.

 

[DPK]

in·com·pe·tent   [in-kom-pi-tuhnt]
–adjective
1.
not competent; lacking qualification or ability; incapable: an incompetent candidate.
2.
characterized by or showing incompetence: His incompetent acting ruined the play.
3.
The Australian Wallabies performance in the 2010 Tri Nations touranment.

Larno; I agree that looked like a turning point, but I think the major turning point was Mumm spilling a kickoff after being lifted for the catch.

Did anyone else notice that our lineout and forwards went completely haywire after Sharpe left the field?

 

[TheRiddler]

The best thing about that game was my tipping performance.

 

[cyclopath]

Just watched my recording.
Less dire than I thought after reading a few posts.
Good things - taking opportunities when they presented themselves in the first half, sure some luck was involved in their tries at times, but they executed the chances well. Some good stuff from the backs - Mitchell carries very well consistently, Beale was very dangerous, it actually worked with Giteau and Cooper shifting 1st playmaker duties around a bit. Sharpe made solid gain carrying, but jeez we miss TPN / Palu to help him. Set pieces solid in first half, couple of very good scrums too.
In the second half they actually built some phases well, but butchered the opportunities they created. There was not much more that needed to happen to get the win.
Bad - Poor defensive alignment to let Juan Smith in - sure Mitchell missed him 2m out, but no-one was going to stop him then, the mistake was before that. Defense caught out for Steenkamp's try too - they stopped the drive off the lineout, but nobody to cover him breaking off the back.
The turning points - AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) getting done over by Hougaard, good tackle, but poor ball carry by AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper); a bit later they had an overlap but fluffed moving the ball quickly enough, and it died. And the lineout debacle once Sharpe went off.
The baffler - Fainga'a was quite rightly dead on his feet, made no impact in attack and Moore should have been used more. Genia too went a bit off, and Burgess could have been a useful spark. Why no bench use, Robbie?? Not that I'm surprised.
The Wallabies created far more than the Bokke, who pretty much snaffled everything they could, so well played to them.
I dispute that the players were poorly prepared - they did most things right for the first half, they retained possession quite well in the second half even when tiring. They really messed up final execution later.
They need to look at defensive alignment, I think Moore and Slipper need to start, I would start Turner, not JO'C, and they need to do a SHITLOAD of lineout practice.

 

[Blue]

Touch rugby in the first half. Both teams defensive organisation and man on man tackling was piss poor. The Boks somehow decided they are going to turn it around in the second half and seemed to fix the defense. A year out from the World Cup and I think the All Blacks will seriously have to lose on purpose.

We won but I find very little to feel positive about. On the contrary, the game just serves to smooth over many, many cracks.

First the 3-2-1 for SA for me were:
1 Juan Smith - fuck this guy is so good
2 F Hougaard - gettign better and better and he clear's incredibly quick - work needed on kicking game. Love the goose step.
3 Chiliboy

Yes Chiliboy. I thought he was damn good. He came on and immediately pulled off two covering tackles Smit would never have made. The scrum showed no signs of weakening, his lineout throws were perfect and he hit the rucks like a man possessed. Hats off to him. Battleship is still the man but Chili will not let the team down, and this from someone who has complained about him over and over.

F Steyn had a decent enough game but did nothing special. Aplon surely needs to come back in somewhere. Habana needs to get dropped and go and play Currie Cup to regain some sort of game. He can't even catch anymore.

Once again the lack of a fetcher backfired, although not as bad as in Brisbane. When will these guys ever learn?

Not only does Smit look unfit but the Boks props are all completely out of shape. CJ vd Linde is a giant fat arsed pussy. Has he ever NOT gone down in a test? What more must the Beast do (he looks in great shape for the Sharks btw)

John Smit will lead SA to the World Cup but I hope he swallows his pride, admits he is out of shape and goes into a reconditioning program.

The other "negative" from the game is that Spies looked reasonably good at times. He still goes missing in tight games though but this game will solidify his position which is not a good thing as far as I am concerned.

I'd love to see the selectors be a bit more inventive and try a few things for Bloemfontein.

1. Beast - Steenkamp looks farked
2. Send Smit to the fat farm and start with Chili and stick The Battleship on bench
3. Jannie - donlt know who else?
4. Flip - solid as
5. Vic - although he should rest now. Rossouw has called the lineout before.
6. F Louw (a FETCHER!)
7. Juan
8. Schalk (ffs try it Snor)
9. Hougaard - (awesome tackle on AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) who looked home and dry)
10. Steyn - let him continue to improve - he is finding some confidence again
11. Aplon - drop Habs - too painful to watch
12. JdV - but bring de Jongh on
13. Fourie
14. JP
15. Kirchner - Steyn can drop to bench

Selectors won't have the nuts though and they will play the same team.

As for Wobs there are three positions that really, really hurt in my opinion:
8. Brown just doesn't cut it. Yes he sort of does everything but he never makes an impact.
4. Seriously need grunt here
3. Ma'afu's scrummaging has improved out of sight but he is a liability everywhere else

I think the Wallaby effort can increase markedly with Palu, Ben A. and Horwill / Vickerman in the mix. Slipper at 3 is worth a go surely?

Beale is settling nicely though.

(PS don't be surprised to see F Hougaard start on the wing in the World Cup when F du Preez comes back.)

 

[en_force_er]

The Wallabies were creating opportunities all game, late in the 2nd half they constantly looked like scoring. They weren't having a kick/scrum-a-thon or anything.

Through this I think it's logical to say that subbing was not the issue.

 

[DPK]

You make some very good points Blue, and I'd have to say I agree on Chilliboy. Did nothing to let down the supporters.

On the other hand, I really disagree re. F Steyn. BJ said during the live call "Is he playing drunk?"; it looked like it at times. Probably shouldn't have been thrown in the deep end so soon.

Moore has got to be starting, S Fainga'a looks like one step forward two steps back most of the time (effort doesn't always equal results).

I dunno about you guys, but this is one of the most disssapointing performances for me. Nothing to do with the previous games this year or the Loftus hoodoo; simply because the game was there for the taking, we were two metres out from the line several times in the second half and we choked. Big time.

 

[fatprop]

The overall game went as I expected, we struggle to make offensive tackles, the Boks just kept coming around and making yards.

Our attempts to hide from the tackle contest continue, we need someone (or two or three) that can make the advantage line consistently apart from Sharpe.

Sharpe demonstrated why he is so important to this side, he was the only unit to consistently get over the advantage line and win his lineouts.

Beale showed what a great attacking mind set he has, great decision making, difficult to tackle and stays in play after passing.

 

[cyclopath]

The overall game went as I expected, we struggle to make offensive tackles, the Boks just kept coming around and making yards.

Our attempts to hide from the tackle contest continue, we need someone (or two or three) that can make the advantage line consistently apart from Sharpe.

Sharpe demonstrated why he is so important to this side, he was the only unit to consistently get over the advantage line and win his lineouts.

Beale showed what a great attacking mind set he has, great decision making, difficult to tackle and stays in play after passing.

And I just cannot see anyone to put in there apart from TPN and Palu, and Horwill when all are fit. If...

 

[farva]

So what do we go for next week then?

Fatcat
Moore
Slipper
Simmons
Sharpe
Elsom
Pocock
McCalman

Genia
Cooper
Mitchell
Giteau
AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper)
Turner
Beale

Fa'ainga
Ma'afu
Mumm
Brown
Burgess
Fa'ainga
JOC (James O'Connor)

 

[fatprop]

And I just cannot see anyone to put in there apart from TPN and Palu, and Horwill when all are fit. If...

That is what I have been saying all year, we lack the cattle to compete with the top sides, we end up using units in the pigs because of there workrate, not because they do that little bit extra. (the big tackle and big run)

 

[DPK]

That is what I have been saying all year, we lack the cattle to compete with the top sides, we end up using units in the pigs because of there workrate, not because they do that little bit extra. (the big tackle and big run)

Well, who are some potential enforcer type forwards? Adam Byrnes? Will Caldwell (most definitely too inconsistent through injury/sickness)?