Wallabies v USA Eagles, 5th September, Soldier Field, Chicago

[barbarian]

Genia in the second half improved matters markedly, with his inclination to snipe from the ruck or scrum base taking some defensive pressure off the players outside him. Even so, the ball rarely made its way to the 13 or wingers until the last 20 minutes. Even the commentators noted that Horne got his first touch in attack at the 53 minute mark.

This was simply unacceptable from our 9, 10 and 12 combination that started the game.

I'm sorry but I don't buy this.

The reason the ball never went wide was the USA line speed in defence. They were flying up. It would be irresponsible to shovel the ball wide in the face of this tactic.

What we should have done was try and punch it up in the narrower channels, and move the ball wider once we had momentum. The problem was we kept making errors such that we could never achieve the quick ball we needed.

It was always going to be a patience game, and despite losing our cool for 20 minutes it all went pretty well.
.

 

[Ignoto]

Sooooo, why didn't we have the Peyper audio on the Fox feed? Watching the game just felt, odd without hearing what the Ref was calling/saying. At one stage towards the end, the Touchie called Peyper over for an indiscretion and then had a chat to a yank about who knows what.

Like their Rugby players, the Yank camera operators need to spend more time capturing Rugby games, they seemed to lag behind on tracking the ball.

 

[saulih]

The team spent a bunch of time at the end of the match doing autographs. I had made up a sign to celebrate Slippers skipper debut and he and a few of the boys signed it. Was fun. Tomane particularly did the round for a long time.
Edit: the sign was also an attempt to christen James with a Cinderella nickname, Cindy for short. Probably won't stick, but hey fun trying.

 

[qwerty51]

Teams are definitely going to employ a fast rush defence against us at the World Cup.

 

[BarneySF]

He could do the 7s loophole at some point in the future, but the likelihood of that is somewhere between 0 and 0.5%

I think that's where the 18 months thing was coming from?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Merrow]

For those of you berating Tomane, sure he missed a tackle, but I'm pretty sure that was actually on Hornes wing, not his. He also chased down a certain try to the US. Bag him all you like, but at least the guy was involved. If you picked up mistakes, it was because he was involved in a lot of play. Didn't have a standout game until the last 20, but who of the backs did? Horne was virtually non-existent.

 

[cyclopath]

Horne usually does not defend on the wing under Cheika. I'd have to watch again but I suspect Horne had been defending elsewhere. In fact the defence patterns don't often follow orthodox positions at all. The 3 Wallabies involved in letting that try in seemed at 6s and 7s reacting to the USA breakout. It was a cover defence failing. I'm sure Grey would be none too pleased.

 

[Jagman]

I think that's where the 18 months thing was coming from?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You can't just wait 18 months and join any sevens tournament though. It has to be an Olympic event (qualifier). So he'd have wait till 2019.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Dan54]

Sooooo, why didn't we have the Peyper audio on the Fox feed? Watching the game just felt, odd without hearing what the Ref was calling/saying. At one stage towards the end, the Touchie called Peyper over for an indiscretion and then had a chat to a yank about who knows what.

Like their Rugby players, the Yank camera operators need to spend more time capturing Rugby games, they seemed to lag behind on tracking the ball.

Because the commentary was coming from a studio in Aus ,not at the game probably

 

[kiap]

Nah. Don't think Peyper was on the NBC audio either.

 

[BDA]

Thought Peyper was pretty good, if perhaps a bit lenient on the Yanks. He let them get away with a bit. They were creeping up offside for most of the game. I think part of it was Peyper trying to let the game flow a bit for the crowd.

 

[Slim 293]

I'm sorry but I don't buy this.

The reason the ball never went wide was the USA line speed in defence. They were flying up. It would be irresponsible to shovel the ball wide in the face of this tactic.

What we should have done was try and punch it up in the narrower channels, and move the ball wider once we had momentum. The problem was we kept making errors such that we could never achieve the quick ball we needed.

It was always going to be a patience game, and despite losing our cool for 20 minutes it all went pretty well.
.

We definitely needed to have runners coming back on the inside and maybe one or two more kicks behind the defense.........

We actually seemed to gain more metres when we had some of the forwards punching up the middle.......

What we were particularly guilty of in the first half was too many long loopy passes to guys who 'd get smashed straight away and we'd turnover the ball.

 

[liquor box]

Sanchez you are so boring. I wanted another try!

Me too, but imagine how badly he would be crucified for not ending it if an injury occurred

 

[saulih]

Have not read through the match thread yet, and will only see the replay later. From the field my impression was

- the Wobs seemed to deny them the ball for good chunks of the game
- when they ( the U.S.) did get the ball and spread it wide they found space to move or in the case of Ngwenya - made the space. He was dangerous
- the Eagles did a great job of rushing up to defend. Notably Palamo (who incidentally has a fantastic first name "Thretton"). There were at least two tackles he made that were just sweet to behold, the one on Gits was pretty.
- despite the rush defense the Wobs in my mind were up to it. Against tougher opponents this version of the Wallaby team wouldn't fair as well though
- the U.S. wayts not ready for the onslaught for the first 15 or so. But then seemed to get into the game more than at the start. Like it was predicted pregame the last 20 mins they were beat up. Their number 10? began cramping up midway in the second half
- the Yankee try unfolded right in front of where I was sitting, I would rate it the try of the match.
- being a Yank in the making I will take some interest in how the Eagles go in the WC. I hope that this time around they can pull out an upset or two that might help to bolster rugby here stateside
- the atmosphere at the game was fun. While the couple that sat in front of me was using a website to explain different parts of the game, most of the crowd seemed to be diehards. This was not a novice crowd- they knew their rugby and were passionate with their support. 23000 got pretty loud when they made that break that Tomane? reigned in
- there were quite a few Aussies in the crowd (maybe 1 in 20)

Anyway fun to see the Wallabies on US soil and in a World Cup year. I look forward to seeing the first string team on deck and how they match up in this pool of death.

 

[BDA]

Sanchez you are so boring. I wanted another try!

I blame Quade. That stupid, nothing kick from quade after siren with the Wallabies on attack, really sums up the Wallabies problem in that area.

The Wallabies did a number of box kicks when they were on attack in the opposition half. Seems stupid to me, but it would be excusable if they were executed well. Save for 1, every box kick hurt us.

 

[teach]

Capitalise the proper noun, old chap.

Luckily I teach Science so don't have to worry about the finer points.

 

[saulih]

Say what you will about the leadup (offsides), but that was a very good try and some ordinary defence from the Wallabies - the Wallabies even had an extra man. Nguenya (spelling) sold it to Tomane.

14 - 10 to the Wallabies, 34 gone.

Ngwenya is world class

 

[saulih]

About 27C in Chicago and humidity about 70%. They got flogged in the heat at South Bend too.

It was hot and humid tonight. Uncomfortably so.

 

[KOB1987]

I blame Quade. That stupid, nothing kick from quade after siren with the Wallabies on attack, really sums up the Wallabies problem in that area.

The Wallabies did a number of box kicks when they were on attack in the opposition half. Seems stupid to me, but it would be excusable if they were executed well. Save for 1, every box kick hurt us.

Yes that was a WTF moment..


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[nugget]

The Wallabies did a number of box kicks when they were on attack in the opposition half. Seems stupid to me, but it would be excusable if they were executed well. Save for 1, every box kick hurt us.

What's the percentage of box kick which don't hurt us? 0.0001%???

Hate box kicks.