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.

 

[TSR]

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.

Pretty sure he only conceded 2 penalties and 1 of those he got trapped at the back. But conceding penalties is a problem he has had so he needs to keep working.

Likewise I think his tackle success has generally been pretty good. But given the narrow definition of his role then he needs to be very good. But even in this I find irony. Most people are raving about Frost who missed 4 from 13. Blyth missed 2 from 8.

In any case, one of the Wallabies biggest problems over the last few years has been lack of attention to attacking breakdown. I’d suggest that 1 metre from 1 run is pretty comparable to his average for the Reds. From the stats you quoted it’s quite clear we don’t need him to be a ball runner (remembering Tupou didn’t play either). Ala'alatoa, Pollard & Kailea all had good ball running stats too. Blyth hasn’t been picked for his ball running - he’s been picked because we need a strong scrummager who will secure quick attack ball.

Don’t get me wrong - I’d love to have a Retallick or an Etzebeth who covers all bases. We just don’t have that at the moment.

 

[Strewthcobber]

Speaking of scrums, between the 4th minute and 81st minute of yesterday's game, there were two scrums. One each.

4 scrums in total over the game.

The Georgian props of years past would be in despair at the state of the modern game.

 

[KOB1987]

Speaking of scrums, between the 4th minute and 81st minute of yesterday's game, there were two scrums. One each.

4 scrums in total over the game.

The Georgian props of years past would be in despair at the sate of the modern game.

I said to my son at what must have been the 3rd scrum (the one we got the penalty), ‘there haven’t been many scrums, actually I can’t remember when the last one was’. The 4th one was meant to be the last play presumably, give it to Noah to kick out, but we got a free kick off it.

The Georgians opted for a tap close to the line a few times when they could have chosen a scrum, probably a good endorsement of our pack. Otherwise, was it because Doleman was continually playing advantage so whenever there was an error it resulted in a penalty? Edit: just for comparison I compared with the NZ v Fiji game, there were 16 penalties in that match v 25 in ours, the count was even in both games.

 

[Strewthcobber]

The Georgians opted for a tap close to the line a few times when they could have chosen a scrum, probably a good endorsement of our pack. Otherwise, was it because Doleman was continually playing advantage so whenever there was an error it resulted in a penalty?

Probably just a mixture of luck (can't play advantage if you recover a knock-on), the law makers trying to avoid them, both teams choosing other restarts, and modern strategists avoiding random scrum penalties.

 

[rugbyAU]

- Flook is a better 13 than Ikitau now.

Disagree

 

[griffins]

Disagree

Him putting Lancaster away down the left side in the 2nd half was world class. Liked that he went looking for work early as well.

 

[griffins]

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.

Actually agree with all of that bar Ikitau (as above). I doubted Frost and he had a good game. Fell off a couple of tackles early but very effective carrying. The improvement in the whole pack's ability to tip at the line with square shoulders was noticeable. This benefitted Frost and Wilson, with Wilson's soft hands making him very good at both throwing and receiving those passes.

 

[Derpus]

Explain to me how a debutante winger can put in such a zero effort defensive play to concede that Georgian length of the field try? I get its somewhat in character for Tom Wright but surely on debut you are putting in 110% into every single facet of your game...

 

[Strewthcobber]

Explain to me how a debutante winger can put in such a zero effort defensive play to concede that Georgian length of the field try? I get its somewhat in character for Tom Wright but surely on debut you are putting in 110% into every single facet of your game...

The simplest explanation is Lancaster didn't know he needed to put 110% in, and was completely surprised when the Georgian appeared on front of him.

Likewise Wright - he wasn't sprinting at full pace because that would put him out of position, running well past the breakdown when Lancaster collected and was then tackled (I suspect Wright also attempted a blocking line).

It wasn't a lack of effort, it was a lack of awareness (edit - from a 21 year old playing his 10th game of pro rugby.)

 

[Shiggins]

Thought him deathstaring him as he brought his knee up was the prosecution's killer evidence tbh

I agree and understand but this ain't basketball. You cant fun at full speed and jump like that. To get the Hight and turn the body to protect your face the knee will raise.

It is what it is. Charge down a kick without staying stiff as a board and it's a risk red card. We are not going to change the laws. Let's just hope it's consistent.

What I thought was ridiculous was Dalton's version of use it. 2 seconds ? Every other ref allows 5-7 seconds at least once use it is called. Thats so inconsistent. It should be a standard set by world rugby. Not use it, 2, give me the ball

 

[Shiggins]

Yeah - I thought Tate was excellent. Surprised there is any criticism of him after the game.

Tate was good and his game will suite some games over Gordan but Gordan as much as I am very surprised to say is our half back. Never rated him but he has played well.

 

[Shiggins]

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.

Frost is such a good footy player. Wouldn't mind seeing the stats but it felt like Williams has been getting more post contact meters. Which is vital against packs like sa and abz