Wallabies v Pumas - Saturday 17 September, nib Stadium Perth

[Braveheart81]

Simmons played a full game and Coleman only 60 minutes.
Arnold did very little in his 20 minutes.

I still reckon that Tackling and Ruck Involvements should be taken as a given for Forwards. Hopefully pick & drives will continue to remain part of our game.
It is disappointing that some players with 110-120kg seem reluctant to apply this asset for the benefit of the team.
Involvement here frees up the linking players and Backs to do more ball carries.
If the ABs can be considered a bench mark then their Tight 5 is often more involved in the tough stuff than the Wallabies Tight 5.

The point I was making about Simmons is that numbers wise he had a pretty decent game with enough involvements (given the overall numbers). It doesn't look great next to Coleman because Coleman had a well above average performance and figured in a lot of people's 3-2-1 votes.

Sure Coleman played only 60 minutes but that is also why he appeared so impressive. He did more in less time. It's unlikely that he would have produced 33% more in 80 minutes if he'd stayed on the field though.

If I was Cheika I'd have been happy with Simmons performance and ecstatic about Coleman's performance. I'd probably be thinking that locking combination was favourite to start the next game and figuring how to get more impact from Arnold off the bench.

 

[Train Without a Station]

So we agree with Coleman & Simmons are the Wallabies best lock combo?

For this week.

 

[Scrubber2050]

Kerevi was very solid. Some promising glimpses of his running capabilities

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

Yes and also at least 1 big fuck up (leading to a try)

 

[Joe Blow]

Kerevi is building into the role and he carried the ball very well. He once again made a few basic errors that cost the team. The unnecessary looping cutout pass in the 22 and the kick, which turned out alright but he should not be kicking the ball away when we are hot o attack and have not been able to get our hands on the pill for most of the game. He also came in off his wing to allow the Argie try when our defense had been so strong up until that point.
That being said he carried the ball for the most meters for the second week in a row and his defense was much improved. He will get better and hopefully learn from these mistakes.

 

[Scrubber2050]

Jow,
I agree with most of your comments.

I suppose I become frustrated when I see basic errors (like coming into the inside man) that should have stopped him getting to higher honours until good decision making is a part of his game.

I can always accept certain errors like a dropped ball under pressure, a missed take under the high ball, being bumped off a tackle blah blah. It is rugby after all and there is no such thing as the perfect game or perfect player.

It's just the elementary stuff that is frustrating.

I think his running game is strong, sure a few wayward passes, but it is his decision making under pressure that requires some urgent assistance.

 

[swingpass]

It's just the elementary stuff that is frustrating.

decision making under pressure that requires some urgent assistance.

Australian Rugby (compared to the AB's) right there in a nutshell

 

[notapatrioticboneinme]

The game is much quicker than it looks on tv; on the field that is, yes?

 

[gel]

Jow,
I agree with most of your comments.

I suppose I become frustrated when I see basic errors (like coming into the inside man) that should have stopped him getting to higher honours until good decision making is a part of his game.

I can always accept certain errors like a dropped ball under pressure, a missed take under the high ball, being bumped off a tackle blah blah. It is rugby after all and there is no such thing as the perfect game or perfect player.

It's just the elementary stuff that is frustrating.

I think his running game is strong, sure a few wayward passes, but it is his decision making under pressure that requires some urgent assistance.

I think you are too harsh on the guy.

His provincial coaching has been substandard and he has been playing in an extremely poor team. His instincts are going to be off solely because of that. Consistent exposure to higher quality coaching and playing in a quality team will fix it - not some magic bullet or rev up.

Being the best player in a crap team leads to instincts of *not* trusting team mates and trying to do everything on your own (or at the very least making poor choices wrt other team mates).

He tends to play more like a 12 than a 13 I reckon - it's his instinctive game and sometimes trying to force something else just doesn't work. If he gets consistent time there, he will develop into a Nonu type player (maybe not the same quality - but certainly a similar style).

His kick down field in that match worked out well because it was actually the right thing to do and he executed it well. (*not that you were saying anything about that - just responding to a more general gist from several posters actually).

 

[Viking]

The thing with Kerevi that is promising is that fact he seems to be improving each game. I like that a lot about him. He has a lot to learn but he seems to be doing that each test.

Compared to say, DHP, who has been up and down.

 

[Heavyd]

Did anyone see TV ratings for Saturdays game?

 

[Twoilms]

Is Naivalu actually good enough to replace DHP? Not seen much of him.

 

[fatprop]

Kerevi is building into the role and he carried the ball very well. He once again made a few basic errors that cost the team. The unnecessary looping cutout pass in the 22 and the kick, which turned out alright but he should not be kicking the ball away when we are hot o attack and have not been able to get our hands on the pill for most of the game. He also came in off his wing to allow the Argie try when our defense had been so strong up until that point.
That being said he carried the ball for the most meters for the second week in a row and his defense was much improved. He will get better and hopefully learn from these mistakes.

His decision making in defence is the issue, one on one, he makes his tackles.

Anything more complicated and he struggles

 

[Brumby Runner]

Just needs to learn and practise the defensive structures if that's the case FP.

 

[Strewthcobber]

Did anyone see TV ratings for Saturdays game?

check the TV ratings thread here
http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/community/threads/rugby-tv-ratings-2016.16395/page-19

 

[RebelYell]

Is Naivalu actually good enough to replace DHP? Not seen much of him.

He's not the finished article yet, but he is more than adequate. I'd say he will be introduced via the bench as opposed to replacing DHP, whose last two games have been good.

Alternative would be to send Hodge to 12, Foley to the bench and #SuperSefa starts on the left wing.

He has the ability to break a game apart with his speed and strength but he will also make some poor defensive reads at times and is still quite raw.

 

[Scrubber2050]

He's not the finished article yet, but he is more than adequate. I'd say he will be introduced via the bench as opposed to replacing DHP, whose last two games have been good.

Alternative would be to send Hodge to 12, Foley to the bench and #SuperSefa starts on the left wing.

He has the ability to break a game apart with his speed and strength but he will also make some poor defensive reads at times and is still quite raw.

Can't imagine Chek moving Foley again

Foley will be there until one of 3 things happen:
(a) Foley retires; or
(b) Chek retires; or
(c) Cooper retires

 

[fatprop]

Joe Kafe can be very astute analyst, but in this case, I don't think he knows what the fuck he's talking about.

Just about every time he chastises Quade for attacking too laterally, within a very minutes Quade has sent somebody into a game from an inside pass.

Quade knows exactly what he's doing. He's dangerous when he varies his attack. Quade drifting on some phases causes the defence to drift. What does that leave?

Holes on the inside.

Quade gets all the credit he deserves for the good passes he throws and the gaps he puts players into. Little things like this, setting up the defenders to exploit in a scheming manner is what he does not get enough credit for as a player.

Or when he plays straight,squares his shoulders and has runners in motion he gets it right

And when he runs across field trying to through miracle balls (or worse horrendously bad kicks) he doesn't

 

[Train Without a Station]

Except for the first try of the game when he drifted outside the defenders and we were left with space on the wing.

Seems pretty common sense to me. Get a defender to go on the outside and he'll leave a hole on the inside. Get a defender to fix and he'll leave a whole on the outside.

If we were drifting too much we would have cramped runners into touch, but that only happened once and Cooper was in the centers and didn't touch the ball.

 

[RedsHappy]

I think you are too harsh on the guy.

His provincial coaching has been substandard and he has been playing in an extremely poor team. His instincts are going to be off solely because of that. Consistent exposure to higher quality coaching and playing in a quality team will fix it - not some magic bullet or rev up.

Being the best player in a crap team leads to instincts of *not* trusting team mates and trying to do everything on your own (or at the very least making poor choices wrt other team mates).

He tends to play more like a 12 than a 13 I reckon - it's his instinctive game and sometimes trying to force something else just doesn't work. If he gets consistent time there, he will develop into a Nonu type player (maybe not the same quality - but certainly a similar style).

His kick down field in that match worked out well because it was actually the right thing to do and he executed it well. (*not that you were saying anything about that - just responding to a more general gist from several posters actually).

Such a valid point with much applicability.

The greatest single recent example of which was how many otherwise sound Reds' players badly deteriorated under R Graham and how many flourished (in terms of personal player confidence and skill development) under both Link at the Reds and Cheika at the Tahs.

One of the many reasons that NZ presents so many good candidates to be ABs is the broad and deep calibre of both skills and general coaching within and lower down the NZ rugby system.

One day, one fine day, the penny will drop for our RUs that radically improving the calibre of system-wide coaching is vastly more important than increasing just the base quantity of rugby played.

 

[dru]

Finally got to watch this test. Interesting experience being "forearmed" by the views here on G&GR. My thoughts veer from the general flavour a bit however.

1. Genia had a fabulous, fabulous game. But with the possession stats, there is no way he is my MOTM.
2. Top two players for me are the forwards who saw the game through - Hooper and Simmo (surprise!)
3. ForceFan, love your work bloke, really do. But your ruck stats do not give an holistic view of how a player went. Simmo was pushing hard in everything tight (so was Coleman, and for his 60 min Coleman was better) but his input is not at all adequately covered by the ruck stats.
4. Hooper, just wow. Anyone who advocates dropping him isnt looking hard enough, and no he's not simply swanning it on the wing.
5. Cooper, bollocks card. The big things he gives me is his read of the game and his chat. "Hey Hooper, get on my hip, and grab someone else in closer as dummy. There's a chance brewing here". Try. Just dont get that from anyone else wearing gold.
6. Ref, just not as bad as fans made out. Couple of shit calls, and I really object to this crap around the scrum. If I was Moore I would have tested that shit with repeated scrum calls at least once in the game. "Listen ref, we want an f'ing scrum".
7. The two players people are dissing, Foley and Folau. Honest, expectations are not giving them a chance. Not their best games, not time to toss them either.
8. Phipps. Why the down on this bloke? He is being a fabulous servant. If Genia sticks to his Provencale dreaming, I'm completely cool with Nick.
9. I love Slippers mobility. Really do. But this thing about our starting front row not being as good as 16, 17, 18 isnt fair. Look at it again and think about how the game was playing, how the scrum was being stuffed by the ref, and think it through. I love BOTH our front rows.
10. McMahon, why is anyone even discussing who should start with the back row with Pocock out? McMahon is in. Move on, nothing to see here.
11. Mumm, the hatred is OTT.

I reckon there is plenty to work with and this team can go far.