Wallabies v France, Brisbane, Sat 17th July, 8pm

[RebelYell]

I attended a Rugby breakfast this morning that Stephen Moore and Ben Mowen spoke at.

Interesting takeaway from Mowen was that the breakdown is officiating so differently in France and AU, at a Club level, in regards to touching the ground ahead of turniver attempt.

 

[TSR]

Me either.
i checked the time stamp of my post.
9 hours after our lunch had started.
so much for dry July……

Haha - that’s gold. Hope it was a good day

 

[Drew]

In my wild erratic fancies I see men in Gold running up the back of a "slow to move away" French player.
That would stop them loitering at the feet of our half back.

Agreed. Gordon was hurdling loitering players all game and our clean outs don’t need any more impediments.

 

[PhilClinton]

This. Tupou looked better as a starter and a finisher than Ala'alatoa which is not slight on Ala'alatoa at all who is a quality player. The aim has to be to have Tupou playing more minutes, rather than fewer in the future and that means transitioning to a starter. Not a bad conundrum to have at THP.

Australian sport has been through this before - Warne v MacGill!

Now I just hope Tupou doesn't sneak any of his mums special lollies

 

[Tomikin]

Australian sport has been through this before - Warne v MacGill!

Now I just hope Tupou doesn't sneak any of his mums special lollies

You think he needs to slim down for the camera's ..

 

[Up the Guts]

Australian sport has been through this before - Warne v MacGill!

Now I just hope Tupou doesn't sneak any of his mums special lollies

AAA better watch out for kidnappers.

 

[Derpus]

AAA better watch out for kidnappers.

 

[John S]

Yeah some easy to milk penalty opportunities there i woulda thought. I think Gordon missed a trick with that a bit, someone like Smith would've been screaming bloody murder and flinging balls into the heads of French defenders left and right.

Gordon probably would have been derided by many on here for more "wild passes" if he did. And given how Doleman was reffing, penalised to boot for *insert gallic shrug*

 

[Brumby Runner]

A team full of units who have never played together = one out running, no defensive cohesion and a million errors

I don't like this FP but I agree. Touring sides generally get better as they play more together and develop combinations and understanding of less familiar players. I will be barracking for the Wallabies but expecting a 10 - 15 win for the French.

 

[tragic]

Not sure why the pessimism. We outscored the French two tries to one. They hardly looked like scoring but took all their penalties and kept the scoreboard ticking over. We won almost every statistic despite being outplayed at the breakdown and once again left too many points on the park.
Improve our discipline and with a bit more scrutiny on the breakdown I think we’ll get this one.

 

[Rugbynutter39]

I attended a Rugby breakfast this morning that Stephen Moore and Ben Mowen spoke at.

Interesting takeaway from Mowen was that the breakdown is officiating so differently in France and AU, at a Club level, in regards to touching the ground ahead of turniver attempt.

I would like to understand that more as French had more speed to breakdown and securing possession so wonder what you or mower outlined contributing to that

 

[Dan54]

I been reading on Roar, where Tate McDemott (and Rennie) have siad there is a problem with his core skills, mainly passing. Surely by the time he playing test rugby you would imagine core skills should be good, tate supposedly says he been working on his passing for last year, but still not working? Something is perhaps not right if he can'r get it?

 

[TSR]

I been reading on Roar, where Tate McDemott (and Rennie) have siad there is a problem with his core skills, mainly passing. Surely by the time he playing test rugby you would imagine core skills should be good, tate supposedly says he been working on his passing for last year, but still not working? Something is perhaps not right if he can'r get it?

I guess it’s relative Dan. For the average player and even Super rugby, McDermotts passing is generally fine. Last year in Super AU and again in Super TT McDermott outplayed most and held his own against the balance, except possibly Smith (although he didn’t actually go head to head with Smith as Thomas started). His passing game was generally good enough and his running and defence compensated - although I feel the Reds could have benefitted at times from him having a better kicking game they were good enough to win without it.

He is getting picked because, despite the weakness, he is still the best option available overall. Kinda like when we kept picking Campo even though his tackling was sub par, but his upside more than made up for it.

But at test level where the 1%s count even more everything is magnified. So we start talking about things like McDermott’s left to right passing.

Taking last year as an example, IMO Tate was outstanding in Super Rugby to the point I barely noticed his pass being a bit weak in that side and when other posters noted it I thought they were being very picky. It was really only when it came out that Thorn had told him to use his rotation period to work on it that I started to notice.

It does seem a bit odd it isn’t something he can’t nail within 6 months of focused effort, but I guess somethings like muscle memory and technique flaws can take a while to correct. Likewise his box kicking. I do like the fact though that it has been identified early and they are seeking to address it. One of the most damning facts on our development over the last 10 yrs is that too many guys with deficiencies in their core skills showed no sign of improving them over the course of their career.

 

[Serge]

I would like to understand that more as French had more speed to breakdown and securing possession so wonder what you or mower outlined contributing to that

I suspect that the key is the last phrase in regards to touching the ground ahead of turniver attempt'. If you look at the breakdown you will see the French regularly have at least one hand and sometimes two on the ground before or during securing of the ball. It is very obvious in the last turnover that gave the penalty to the French to be able to then kick the ball out and win the game. Doleman just failed to referee it. In Super Rugby the referees have usually been very hard on not allowing hands to touch the ground. What the French are doing allows them to get more secure over the ball and harder to clean out as a result.

 

[Joe King]

How much will it benefit the Wallabies to simply get quick ball though?

The real area that will make a difference for us is always the same: being able to off-load well when we get quick ball and in broken play. This has always been a strength of NZ teams.

This means being able to draw and pass for the ball carrier, and players supporting the ball carrier well. Even slow moving forwards make a huge difference when they know how to do this amongst themselves.

Too often we have a player make a break and they don't know what to do next, or passing too early (easy to defend) or too late (risky, drop balls).

Anyway, perhaps it's something that will just click into gear at some stage. Hopefully today.

 

[Up the Guts]

I suspect that the key is the last phrase in regards to touching the ground ahead of turniver attempt'. If you look at the breakdown you will see the French regularly have at least one hand and sometimes two on the ground before or during securing of the ball. It is very obvious in the last turnover that gave the penalty to the French to be able to then kick the ball out and win the game. Doleman just failed to referee it. In Super Rugby the referees have usually been very hard on not allowing hands to touch the ground. What the French are doing allows them to get more secure over the ball and harder to clean out as a result.

Yep there’s that and also in Super you were never allowed to make a turnover with another player in the ruck. That has not been policed at all.

 

[wamberal]

Very strong westerly winds tonight. We can expect the Froggies to kick the cover off the ball, and we can expect us to make lots of handling errors.

 

[emuarse]

Very strong westerly winds tonight. We can expect the Froggies to kick the cover off the ball, and we can expect us to make lots of handling errors.

Speaking as a Brisbane born & bred rugby fan, I can say that the winter westerlies nearly always abate around sunset time. But it does make for colder weather, which is desirable for rugby anyway

 

[mst]

Very strong westerly winds tonight. We can expect the Froggies to kick the cover off the ball, and we can expect us to make lots of handling errors.

Ha! Might actually work for us. Based on the wild and whacky kicking in the pervious games, add wind to the speculator kicks and we might have the French dizzy and drooping pill.

 

[Joe Blow]

If we can get a bit more space at the breakdown it augers well for Paisami and Ikitau. If they have a bit more space they could reek havoc