Wallabies v. Wales - 1 Dec

[BarneySF]

Fair to say that England showed the benefit of having a power running/passing 12? Let's get Fotu to 12.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Fair to say that England showed the benefit of having a power running/passing 12? Let's get Fotu to 12.

Why not: seems to fit with Dingo's plan to play everyone out of position

 

[BarneySF]

Was thinking more of his Frenchy experience.

 

[Rob]

One bloke who I reckon played his best game for the Wallabies is Mike Harris. Well, not a GAME as such but for 20 minutes he looked like a test standard centre, which is the first time you could really call him a 'test standard' anything. Took the ball to the line, passed well, set up the final try. Just did the basics, but did them well.

Agree barbarian. He did the little things well. Straighten, draw the man and pass. He made AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper)'s attempt earlier in the game look very uncoordinated.

Watched this game in total frustration. I am over Berrick - he was awful. As was Phibbs.

Great final try. Well done KB (Kurtley Beale) to come from a long way off in support to take the final pass.

 

[Braveheart81]

What a win at the death! Great to snatch the game for Sharpey. If only we'd played with a bit more enterprise for more than just the last couple of minutes.

I thought Wales were much better than they've been lately and our players did well to get the win. Our attack wasn't good and our kicking game was poor but there was a huge amount of heart, particularly in the final minutes. That was a pretty tough, physical game and I thought our forwards did pretty well.

I thought TPN was excellent in the first half. I'm only half surprised he's down the bottom of the player rankings because everyone favours Moore. TPN got the lineout right, our scrum was solid in the first half and his involvement was strong. Getting a good half of football out of both hookers was great.

Robbo had a huge first half. Was very involved and secured two turnover penalties. He is getting back to the form that made him one of the best props in the world.

 

[barbarian]

I thought TPN was excellent in the first half. I'm only half surprised he's down the bottom of the player rankings because everyone favours Moore. TPN got the lineout right, our scrum was solid in the first half and his involvement was strong. Getting a good half of football out of both hookers was great.

It's the classic Wallaby hooker fan blindness. Moore can never do a thing wrong, TPN can never do a thing right. Both had decent enough games- lineout and scrum were strong, both made good contributions around the park. But TPN is 15th, Moore is 4th. Go figure.
.

 

[barbarian]

Have watched the try again a few times, and I reckon the bloke who deserves the biggest wrap is Beale. When Dennis makes his break he is miles back, running alongside Phillips, Priestland and Williams. Arguably he had played the hardest game of the four, and Williams had only been on the ground for five minutes. But he sees the chance, puts on the burners and leaves them for dead- first to get the pass, then score the try.

Testament to his fitness work after the first Bledisloe- in the end it won us an important game.
.

 

[Braveheart81]

Barnes has copped a fair bit of criticism and I agree that his kicking game was really poor.

I think his positional play at fullback and ability to take kicks on the full is very good and his defence has been superb.

I thought there were a few times where Barnes pulled off excellent tackles as the last line of defence. There was one in particular during the first half where he forced the ballrunner to stay on the touch line and pulled off an excellent covering tackle to take him into touch.

 

[Dave Beat]

Barnes has copped a fair bit of criticism and I agree that his kicking game was really poor.

I think his positional play at fullback and ability to take kicks on the full is very good and his defence has been superb.

I thought there were a few times where Barnes pulled off excellent tackles as the last line of defence. There was one in particular during the first half where he forced the ballrunner to stay on the touch line and pulled off an excellent covering tackle to take him into touch.

Well dont kick,
and I agree with your other points

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Have watched the try again a few times, and I reckon the bloke who deserves the biggest wrap is Beale. When Dennis makes his break he is miles back, running alongside Phillips, Priestland and Williams. Arguably he had played the hardest game of the four, and Williams had only been on the ground for five minutes. But he sees the chance, puts on the burners and leaves them for dead- first to get the pass, then score the try.

Testament to his fitness work after the first Bledisloe- in the end it won us an important game.
.

Yep and he did what all good five-eights should be doing -- backing up and running in support . Ran a great line and Dennis had the presence mind to run straight, draw the tackle and give the offload at the right moment. It was great footy.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Barnes has copped a fair bit of criticism and I agree that his kicking game was really poor.

I think his positional play at fullback and ability to take kicks on the full is very good and his defence has been superb.

I thought there were a few times where Barnes pulled off excellent tackles as the last line of defence. There was one in particular during the first half where he forced the ballrunner to stay on the touch line and pulled off an excellent covering tackle to take him into touch.

His positional play and defence and fullback are excellent, I agree totally with that. Kicking was ordinary though.

 

[Braveheart81]

All our kickers failed to adjust to the condition of the pitch.

So many of our kicks would have been great on a hard and fast surface where the ball bounces and low kicks run a long way.

Unfortunately pretty much every kick went nowhere once it bounced. It was a game for either kicking out on the full or having to land the ball a couple of feet out from the touchline if you wanted it to go out.

 

[scaraby]

Diving for Cuthbert mid first half as he broke down the sideline. Higginbotham was playing well up till then too.

shouldnt have had to dive...he jogged at him and showed him the sideline. The guy almost laughed before he took off...have to disagree on Higgers...

 

[scaraby]

Interesting that despite all the invective posts about the Wobs performance that 10 of the 16 players named in the Players Rankings v Wales have positive ledgers. Can't understand how Drew Mitchell has a negative ledger?

Mitchell was very good..i thought he was best back by a long way

 

[Braveheart81]

shouldnt have had to dive.he jogged at him and showed him the sideline. The guy almost laughed before he took off.have to disagree on Higgers.

I don't think Higgers did too much before he got injured. Dennis had an excellent game and was obviously crucial in the match winning try.

I thought Dennis had his best test yet against England and then did very well again against Wales. Higgers has looked short of a run since coming back from suspension. Dennis is hopefully finally showing that he can transfer his Super Rugby form to test level.

 

[thierry dusautoir]

I dont think quade will not be seen again under this regime and i don't think they will fire deans untill they have a new CEO...which is hopefully soon.

 

[scaraby]

With the rushing defence (I won't say offside) that Wales played then they had to kick sometimes but not when you have players on the outside of the rush unmarked though.
When you kick deep ball MUST hit the ground..if you are kicking behind opposition winger for your winger to charge then not out please. If you are chipping short .. kick in space,kick the bottom tip of theball forward so it spins back to you and away from fullback.....these comments came from my 11 year old who regularly does it in his games..and the backyard.......

 

[JJJ]

I watched the NZ vs Eng match first and am now watching Aus vs Wales. The main difference I'm seeing in how NZ/Eng played is that they get a lot more distance in the tackle, either by leg drive or from supporting players binding and driving them on. And not just their forwards. Our guys flop straight for the ground in the tackle, which keeps us behind the gain-line.

 

[qwerty51]

That's because they'd get held up if they didn't.

 

[JJJ]

That's because they'd get held up if they didn't.

Didn't stop the Poms or ABs from doing it.