Congrats to Samoa, they deserved the win. They were more physical to a man, with some aggressive and physical defence, and they disrupted the ball all day. They lived off scraps in the first half, and still looked the more likely team to score. To make it worse, the Wallabies helped by slowing down their own ball, and keeping front foot ball in the forwards and only throwing slow ball to the backs, who then stood too deep and just shovelled it on.
Bit worried about the combinations in the Wallabies. Forwards just didn't have the continuity at the rucks, they would over commit on one, then under commit the next, with a gaggle of forwards waiting for a hit up looking at a disrupted, screwed up ruck. Get in there, guys. Too much ball watching, too much over committing, too much under committing, too much slow ball, too much everyone wanting to run the ball and not do the work. On Samoan ball we just didn't push them hard enough. I hope it's just teething problems, as these guys have been together for barely a week and it's there first game.
Phipps, Gits, McCabe, AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) also didn't work to create space or gaps. The defence of the Samoans was willing and strong and up in their faces often, but the attack from the Wallabies lacked creativity, vision, and structure. Shovelling slow ball to the centres through a 10 and 12 standing way too deep will never work. I also prescribe to the belief that at least one centre has to be a ball player, and neither of ours is. The Reds, for example, have Tapuai and Fainga'a, who may not be the best at setting up their outside man but they do find the right pass more often than not. Tom Carter at the Tahs has improved so much in that regard this year and managed to get the ball across the backline. The Brumbies backline struggled in setting up the outside man and getting good ball across the backline, and we saw the same thing happen with the same Brumbies players. With the same midfield in the 3N and WC we will not score tries.
I hate to say it, but the Reds or Waratahs would've done better than the Wallabies in this game, because they play like a team. I don't know whether it was the game plan or individual efforts at fault, but my guess would be a bit of the former, and loads of the latter.