Wallabies v Wales, 6 July

[nathan]

Some pretty harsh commentary through this thread!

Was pleasantly surprised by Gordon tonight, thought his box kicks were good. Passing pretty accurate. Speed to breakdown good.

Noah had an ok night. Little rusty from the tee and made a couple of poor decisions. He’ll be better for the run and hopefully retains the starting role. Not much to say about Lynah other than his conversion was solid. Constantly swapping people out makes no sense.

Shape of attack was too flat and the ball didn’t make it past Pisami much. Hopefully that’s adjusted next week and we see a bit more width but you get the sense the game plan was very much taking it through the middle.

Bobby V, Kaihlea immense in D on that last 10 minutes. Scrum was good. Wright put in a good shift and huge on defensive line out.

Great to see Tommy translate that super form into the try and the end with a smile on his face.

Looking forward to next week. Hopefully we stick with selections a little.

 

[drewprint]

First game under a new regime, lots of new players, very few players really shone so I find it bizarre some are taking a shot at Paisami specifically. Not Marce, who is a well established idiot, but others I’m surprised by. Like other players such as Lolesio, Gordon, Wright etc, I think Paisami was solid, and the name of the game with this new team is building time and structure together. I’m not going to go into detail on each player, but top line I was pretty happy with each of the debutants which is exciting. Particularly Kailea. Valetini the MOM for me.

 

[nathan]

He’s only in there for his goal kicking!

He’s there for more than that champ.

 

[Brumby Runner]

He was decent. Plenty of good stuff. That cross kick option sucked balls though. Just not what was needed at the time.

Had it been under penalty advantage, it would have been the correct option. But as it was, it should never have been attempted. Ball through the hands was the go there although saying that it would have died with Hunter the way he was playing. We do need another 12, and personally I don't think that is Kerevi at least for this group of tests.

 

[Pokinacha]

Wonder if Schmidt asked Hoops if he fancied coming out of retirement for a crack at the ABs

 

[Wallabies]

No one by the looks of it has mentioned the pure aggression by Isaac Kailea. I thought he looked promising. Like a future Alan A.

 

[cyclopath]

Yeah that sucked but like everyone tonight was decent and will get better with the connection he forms with others.

Most players were good enough, to beat a Welsh team that while not good has been together much longer then ours.

Yeah, I'd start him again, and he would be even better with Henry next to him, I reckon.

 

[Brumby Runner]

Why? Has he ever played there? Would like to see Hamish Stewart given a crack there.

Would most likely be a better option than Paisami but I'm still not sold on him at Super level let alone in a test match.

 

[Wallabies]

Had it been under penalty advantage, it would have been the correct option. But as it was, it should never have been attempted.

Stuff like this can easily be tidied up around training. Just a few poor decisions tonight but the main components, scrums, defence and ball carrying were all very good. The more training sessions they get the better and more structured their attack will look.

 

[cyclopath]

No one by the looks of it has mentioned the pure aggression by Isaac Kailea. I thought he looked promising. Like a future Alan A.

Solid if scrappy win.
Valetini, McReight, TT, especially good up front, finishers pretty good in the forwards too. Kailua (? spelling) has some mongrel, Cale plays above his apparent weight.
Gordon pretty solid, Wright came good, Kellaway solid. McDermott looked a bit funky but short stint so hard to know. Lynagh looked OK. Not sold on Paisami.
Rushed thoughts.

I did, I just spelled his name incorrectly!

 

[Adam84]

lol blaming Hunter for Noah taking that kick is grasping, Tom Wright was actually the standing outside him on the right side where the overlap was when he took that kick, with Kellaway on the wing, Hunter was on the left side.

 

[molman]

Had it been under penalty advantage, it would have been the correct option. But as it was, it should never have been attempted. Ball through the hands was the go there although saying that it would have died with Hunter the way he was playing. We do need another 12, and personally I don't think that is Kerevi at least for this group of tests.

As I said above. Odd game. Feel like Noah has been better at taking that right options this year, but that was a moment of low rugby IQ. We've often looked like a team who would benefit from a little more patience and focus at times.

 

[cyclopath]

Had it been under penalty advantage, it would have been the correct option. But as it was, it should never have been attempted. Ball through the hands was the go there although saying that it would have died with Hunter the way he was playing. We do need another 12, and personally I don't think that is Kerevi at least for this group of tests.

Sure, I agree, but it wasn't, so it sucked balls!

 

[Brumby Runner]

No one by the looks of it has mentioned the pure aggression by Isaac Kailea. I thought he looked promising. Like a future Alan A.

He had a wonderful debut particularly with his physical defence. But I think he will more be a worthy backup to Bell or Slipper rather than be another Allan A.

 

[Adam84]

I thought Noah was pretty decent. Missing that kick in front was a black mark and that kick in Wales red zone was a low IQ play, and fan/s blaming Hunter(despite not been on that side of the field) is even more stupid. However that aside i thought he was serviceable and good to see his confidence wasn’t shook when those things happened, that’s what we need out of a test 5/8.

 

[rugbyAU]

Paisami best domestic option but need Kerevi back

 

[LeCheese]

Re: Paisami, the Welsh line speed was shutting down the play before it really even got to him (particularly in the first half) and Noah seemed hesitant to play deeper - he often had little choice but to take it into contact.

 

[cyclopath]

Unless it turns out that there are injuries, I think the same team next week maybe apart from the 12.

 

[Adam84]

I haven’t seen any of Kerevi’s performance in the recent Japanese season since they cut it from Stan, and his last test performances during the RWC were pretty average. I really like Kerevi; but when was the last time anyone has actually seen him play to this standard people keep talking him up to? Has he been crushing it in Japan this year?

I really do wonder if this is a case of ‘distance makes the heart grow fonder’ rather then based on form?

 

[molman]

As I said above, I thought the Gordon/Noah axis was good overall. I'd like to see it again next week. Agree that you could see him trying to reset himself after missing the kick in front.

I think I must have missed something with the Hunter comment?