Wallabies v France, 7.00am AEDT Sunday Morning

[dru]

and Nonggor needs to get into beast mode...he's too passive.

Well this makes a long ramble less than pointless.

 

[Major Tom]

Struggle to understand a bench 7 now. Fraser is an 80min player and if he got hurt it’s just shit out of luck.

Gleeson, Kemeny, Samu, Brial, Bryant should be contending to occupy that spot with an ability to shift in there if required.

If Fraser missed a game to injury then Tizzano comes in to start.

I think that’s why I hope Lemoto comes on. A ball carrying loose forward who can jackal would help us immensely. The way England uses Pollock is the way to go.
All those players you mentioned are probably a better way to go but don’t really get on the ball. Will be interesting to see how Bryant goes next year, see him as a bigger bodied 7.

 

[Major Tom]

The fuck? You time your jump for when you think you have the best opportunity to compete the ball, not when WR (World Rugby) (World Rugby) regulations determine it. Whether that timing is right or not is another matter. The official reason given to JAS when he rightly queried it was that he wasn’t as high as the French player. It was a match turning decision that should not have even raised a query, he jumped for the ball and lost the compete…..end of.

It was weird, considering I thought there was a similar incident in the back half of the ABs/ Wales game.
TBH the “realistic chance” aspect has been horseshit for 5+ years. Biggest factor is did you have eyes for the ball the whole time.

 

[Major Tom]

While that’s admirable of him, I’m not sure him playing through injury actually helped the team. He hasn’t been playing well, we haven’t been winning and we could have used those test to continue to get experience into Nonggorr etc.

Hindsight is 20/20.
We smash Schmidt for not picking our best players but then we criticise him for playing injured players.
For the record I would like us to play Zane more. He’s not the finished product, yet, but he’s scrummaged against some of the best in the world and held his own.
Will be interesting as the Brumbs definitely wanted him to get surgery rather than go on tour.

 

[Joe Blow]

It was a predictable end to a very long year for the squad. The effort was there but not the class or discipline required to go the full 80 mins.
Time to let Kiss get his hands on the team to give him plenty of time to shape what he wants before the RWC.
Hats off to Schmidt. He has been very good for the most part and the bloke we needed after Eddie’s trainswreck.