Wallabies v Georgia 20 July - Allianz Stadium 3.45PM

[TSR]

I thought Blyth was very underwhelming. I think he will struggle to hold his place assuming there is an injection of OS players for RC.

I think Blyth is doing his job. Making his tackles, making lots of clean-outs and strong in the set peice.

I think lock is the hardest spot for those in the side line to select. Won’t be surprised if Blyth is pushed out, but won’t be surprised if they persist with him either.

Certainly Frost put his hand up yesterday- but he also missed 4 tackles. We just don’t see all the detail that the coaches want from their locks.

 

[rugboy]

Watching this try again, the lack of effort by Lancaster and Wright getting back to the ball annoys me, hope JS rips into them in the review of this one.

https://www.reddit.com/r/rugbyunion/s/trxwz0IdtL

I'd suggest Ikatau as culpable, given he is the most downfield at the time of the kick (slightly ahead of Lancaster) with a considerable start over Wright and the Georgians and he is the first to give up the chase.

To be fair, I don't imagine Schmidt will be too happy about any of this passage from the time the WB secured the lineout; it won't be pleasant watching for the forwards, either.

 

[rugboy]

I think Blyth is doing his job. Making his tackles, making lots of clean-outs and strong in the set peice.

I think lock is the hardest spot for those in the side line to select. Won’t be surprised if Blyth is pushed out, but won’t be surprised if they persist with him either.

Certainly Frost put his hand up yesterday- but he also missed 4 tackles. We just don’t see all the detail that the coaches want from their locks.

Agree, Frost was immense in all facets. I don't disagree either that locks can be harder to judge, and his role may be different, although conceding a team-high quarter of the WB penalties (3 of 12) when we need discipline particularly when the quality of the opposition improves, I wouldn't imagine would be well received.

He also missed a couple of tackles, and while it may not be his main role, he had just 1 carry for 1m. Compare that to Frost's 17 carries as well as those from Bobby (14), Wilson (14) and McReight (13), and his contribution wasn't a positive one in comparison.

 

[Wilson]

Biggest thing for me in this game was probably the gulf between our best and worst performances on the field, it's the widest it's been all season.

I thought McReight and Frost were fantastic, while Valetini, Wilson, Kailea, McDermott and Ala'alatoa put in great shifts. On the flipside the Daugunu, Lancaster and Wright were poor as a unit along with individual errors, both 10s had error riddled performances and Blyth and Pollard let us down at the breakdown around accuracy and discipline.

Everyone else put in something solid to good for mine, and it doesn't take correcting too many of those errors to turn that into a dominant performance, so it's not all doom and gloom. There was some talk from Schmidt they may have worked them a bit hard this week with a bit of a break coming up, potentially that didn't help.

 

[Ignoto]

Biggest thing for me in this game was probably the gulf between our best and worst performances on the field, it's the widest it's been all season.

If we took out those two unbelievable tries the Georgians scored, would we be saying this is a horrible result?

What I'm trying to say is, was it our worst game because of the score line or did we have a few players, particularly the backs who all had a pretty average day out.

 

[Strewthcobber]

21,000 per Doran - less than half full

Official crowd was 26,139

 

[KiwiM]

Terrific watch for a neutral. How good is afternoon footy.

Some thoughts

- Impressive crowd for a 2nd test in Sydney in 14 days against a Tier 1.5
- Georgia's catch pass and spacing in their backs is excellent.
- Georgian right wing is world class
- Flook is a better 13 than Ikitau now.
- Lancaster will have learnt a lot - needs to keep plugging away - still raw as a prospect.
- Wallaby back row terrific
- Donaldson struggled to take his chance - badly outplayed by his opposite.
- Wallabies best bet is to have Noah start and bring Lynagh along slowly this year.
- Frost gives Schmidt something to think about
- Kailea has come a long way from last month.

 

[TSR]

I think it is worth noting too it is the third test in to a new coaching regime and we made 10 changes to the side. Plus we played 20 minutes with 14. Before the game people were making comparison to the losses v Italy, Samoa & Scotland.

It was by no means a performance for the ages but Schmidt was always very clear how he was using the game.

Personally I enjoyed the game and I thought there were plenty of positives out of it.