Wallabies v Fiji, 3pm Sat 10th June, AAMI Park, Melbourne

[Froggy]

I enjoyed the game, both sides really playing rugby.
Wallabies defence a real worry, Darkness would have put 50 on them today. The Fijian offloads tore us apart, and no-one is better at offloads than the AB's. Grey just isn't up to this.
Good to see Folau back to form, showed why he is one of the most dangerous attacking backs in the world. Btw, under the current rules the yellow card was totally justified.

 

[liquor box]

34 missed tackles. looks like Nathan Grey is the defence coach ay

Same thing last season, luckily it will be an easy fix

The whole game I was thinking how much a decent team would put on us, I think we can score 20-30 points against the majority of teams but if NZ can score 50 against us then it means nothing.

 

[barbarian]

Wallabies defence a real worry, Darkness would have put 50 on them today. The Fijian offloads tore us apart, and no-one is better at offloads than the AB's. Grey just isn't up to this.
.

Match analysis on the forum is never complete until this line is uttered. Doesn't matter who we play, or how we play them, it will always be rolled out. It's a meaningless hypothetical, and especially meaningless for the first match of the season with six days prep.

And Fiji didn't 'tear us apart' in any facet at all. An easy victory was never really in doubt.
.

 

[TSR]

Another one for the refs. Just before ht Higgers and Hanigan tackled a Fijian and held him up for a maul. The ref then calls "tackled, release" WTF?

The player being tackled got his knee to the ground. Once he does that he is deemed to be tackled and the defenders must release him to give him the chance to play the ball.

 

[Froggy]

Well Barbarian, you were watching a different match to me. I saw a second tier rugby nation, many of whose top players weren't released from their European clubs, after the first 20 minutes make massive inroads through the defence of supposedly the number 3 nation. This was very reminiscent of the Tahs this year, spectacular attack but porous defence. As I said, I enjoyed game but the defence is inadequate. I like optimism, but only when tempered by a dose of realism.

Of course it's hypothetical, as is any discussion of a match yet to be played, that's what we do on forums like this. Meaningless? I don't think so. We have to play the AB's twice later this year, throughout my rugby career/interest, which extends back to the late 60's, the AB's have been the traditional foe. Any discussion of test rugby has some relationship to our performance against them, and to me that's pretty meaningful!

 

[wamberal]

I don't agree with boycotting Tests because you're pissed off with the ARU - ultimately it hurts rugby in general, I don't think the players deserve to "lose" support, and the rugby bureaucrats will probably not suffer in the least because of it, but it's a glib one-liner to dismiss the feelings of fans who see their team potentially lining up for the chop. In my opinion.

So what should I do, in your learned opinion? I am not dismissing his feelings, I am commenting on them.


Should I have written a longer post? I would have thought the original post and my short response to it speaks volumes.

 

[cyclopath]

So what should I do, in your learned opinion? I am not dismissing his feelings, I am commenting on them.


Should I have written a longer post? I would have thought the original post and my short response to it speaks volumes.

Labelling them as precious sounds fairly pejorative, I would think. Maybe outlining why you disagree would be more constructive? And you don't need to add "learned", which is really not constructive.

 

[Joe Blow]

A decent hitout for the team.

HHH - Hanigan, Hooper, Higgers. More motor, low grunt.

For mine, Cheika won't get away with that against the top sides.

Yes, back row lacked balance although Hanigan went OK, especially for a debut. He was a little timid in contact at times.
Sio to start at LH, Arnold in place of Carter and Timani in place of Hanigan to stiffen up the pack a little. Carter on bench with Hardwick.

Centre pairing went well, as did Folau and DHP. Both showed excellent pace.
Maybe one of the Rebels wingers gets a run to add some more pace?

All in all a pretty good showing although Cheika will be disappointed at letting in those tries. Hunt a bit of a revelation.

 

[KOB1987]

Who are the European based players who weren't released? Everyone's talking about them but no-one has mentioned a name yet. Nakawara is Fiji's best player, he plays in France and he was there.

I concede that our missed tackle count was unacceptable, but apart from that the performance wasn't too bad for a first hit out. No-one ever flogs Fiji, they always put in a bold performance. The Poms beat them 58-15 at Twickenham in November but beyond that you have to go back to 2012 to find the last international team to put more than 40 points on them.

Relax. It wasn't our best XV either, some experiments were applied, some paid off, some didn't.

 

[KOB1987]

Much more confident about next week now.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Is that based on your most recent 29-0 victory over Italy or the 61-21 defeat by the Poms the game before that? Or have you been watching their training session? Just curious.

Like Fiji your lot always put in a bold performance against us, now that we've blown the cobwebs out though I expect us to win comfortably.

 

[barbarian]

Does anyone have tackle/missed stats they can post?

 

[TSR]

Good first up effort from Hunt. His desperation in defence was noticeable. Looked like a greyhound chasing the bunny (luckily he weighs more than a greyhound these days).

I thought it was a pretty good game from the Wallabies for a first test. I understand the angst from many on here - but it ticked a lot of boxes. Only time will tell whether we've moved on from last years annus horribilis - missed tackles certainly remain a concern - but there were some promising efforts out there.

 

[Brumby Runner]

According to rugby.com.au Hooper has made 66 tackles and missed 15 in the 2017 internationals. I could be wrong, but wasn't yesterday's game the first international this year? Both stats look to be very inflated for one game only. And very light on if they're meant to cover Super Rugby games against other countries. However, I did notice he missed probably 5 or 6 in yesterday's game.

 

[Strewthcobber]

ESPN stats has
Tackles
higgers - 15
Hooper - 13
Hunt - 12
Carter - 9
Kurindrani - 9

Missed tackles
AAA - 5
Hooper - 3
Genia - 3
Half the team - 2

Sent from my D5833 using Tapatalk

 

[barbarian]

Backs up my impression of the game in real time - Higgers got through a mountain of work in defence. Great to see.

Allan A is a worry though. 50% missed tackle ratio is horrible.
.

 

[KOB1987]

ESPN stats has
Tackles
higgers - 15
Hooper - 13
Hunt - 12
Carter - 9
Kurindrani - 9

Missed tackles
AAA - 5
Hooper - 3
Genia - 3
Half the team - 2

Sent from my D5833 using Tapatalk

Well not really. According to the stats I have the only players to miss 2 tackles including subs were Speight (5/7), Hunt (12/14), Arnold (4/6) and Smith (4/6).

Also I have Coleman topping the count with 16/17.

Those with 100% tackle success were:
Robertson
TPN
DHP
Folau
Kepu
Hardwick
Powell
Cooper
Hodge

 

[Highlander35]

Is that based on your most recent 29-0 victory over Italy or the 61-21 defeat by the Poms the game before that? Or have you been watching their training session? Just curious.

Like Fiji your lot always put in a bold performance against us, now that we've blown the cobwebs out though I expect us to win comfortably.

I'm not saying easy win or even win, and I never was, with a much smaller player pool, we are missing​ 9 members of our best 23, we have a new coach, we're traveling from a game in Singapore. I was worried about you blokes overrunning us.

Basically, what I am saying is, your fundamentals are poor. Average all round handling and passing, particularly in any phase that involved forwards in a backline play, scrum broke even at best against a visibly lighter tight 5 (except for maybe that hooker), poor on your own lineout, and failed to have pillars in place both before and after half time.

That's what I like. We are capable of producing our own quality Rugby, but without the strike power that Seymour-Jones-Maitland-Hogg can provide, being able to capatalise on mistakes and set pieces is vital, and, unlike a supremely drilled England, you'll provide plenty of those opportunities, and I expect something in the range of a 10 point loss to a 7 point win, whereas before yesterday (Watching Wallabies v Fiji at the ground and at home afterwards, as well as Italy v Scotland on the tele) I was thinking 21 point loss to 1-3 point win if we played really really well.

 

[drewprint]

Maybe we should consider forfeiting. It sounds like Scotland are gonna destroy us.

 

[KOB1987]

Good post Highlander. The only issue you've identified there that would concern me about next week is the scrum. However I suspect that will be fixed with a run on front row of Sio, TPN or Moore, and Kepu. Everything else you've mentioned was just the usual first test rustiness.

 

[ForceFan]

ESPN stats has
Tackles
higgers - 15
Hooper - 13
Hunt - 12
Carter - 9
Kurindrani - 9

Missed tackles
AAA - 5
Hooper - 3
Genia - 3
Half the team - 2

Sent from my D5833 using Tapatalk

SC
Appears that there's a problem with ESPN stats at the moment as they have Coleman with 0 tackles (amongst a lot of other issues).