Wallabies v Wales

[Reddy!]

Well played but against a poor opposition.

Good to see our kicking improve and Giteau play well. Funny how the two tries that he set up came when he was playing outside of Cooper. If that doesn't tell Robbie and him something, then they are never going to get it.

I think had Barnes been fit for the whole tour, you would have seen Giteau with no.12 on his back. But once Barnes went down and was sent home, Giteau was obviously the only man for the job at flyhalf with question marks still over Quades ability to control a game. That of course has changed a bit over the course of the tour and will continue to do so in next years Super 14.

 

[Ash]

I think that the Scotland result was an outlier result, bit of an aberration. I think Deans will be safe. If you take away the Scotland result, then the NH tour was very good. The only game the Wallabies did not dominate is the Tokyo one, where they let yet another first half lead slip away.

Now that I come to think of it, this post is more deserving to be in LG's thread.

Regarding the game, the injuries to the two Welsh wingers and then hooker in the first half just compounded the Welsh team's inability to trouble the Australian pack. Very dominate display again - Williams has definately done well with the ruck work around the ground.

Cooper's an interesting one. His kicking game was inches off being good, with some slightly over cooked kicks. His tackling is erratic, with some lovely boot laces covering tackles, some nice shoulder tackles around the hips, and then falling off a few that he shouldn't. I think the most disappointing thing is Cooper tends kicks too much. He's a young, confident kid, so it'd be nice to see him run a bit more on the counter and look for his outside man. Apart from that, he looks best when throwing long passes to Gits at 12.

 

[Brumby Jack]

Last nights game was great in terms that there seemed to be more composure at certain times of the game, compared to last week. Robbie must have also let off some firecrackers underneath the forwards to get them to pull their fingers out as they played great.

From the opening kick off I thought 'here we go again' as Giteau kicks out on the full, but his 50m penalty from the resulting scrum gave me some confidence that he would play better than last week.

The scrum was outstanding and listening to the Welsh Commentators on One HD, they commented that if we keep the same players until the World Cup we could do quite well and have come along way from being the laughing stock of the scrum world.

I'm still not sold on Quade Cooper as a defender as he always tries to steal the ball away in the first contact instead of trying to bring the player down, we have Pocock and Smith to do the burgling at the breakdown so that should be left to the experts, but his distribution in attack is getting better.

All in all, a great ending to a somewhat disappointing tour but we did only concede 2 tries on the whole tour (NZ game excluded) whilst scoring at least once in all the games.

 

[TheRiddler]

As is customary in these review discussions, I think the performance of the ref should be looked at as to how if influenced the game.

I think young Wayne did an great job and would offer the opinion (dons flak jacket and camouflage for ensuing barrage of abuse) that he is probably the best international ref in the world at the moment.

Appears to be clear and concise in his communications, doesnt get overly flustered or caught up in the emotion of the game, is prepared to let the game flow as much as possible until it needs blowing up and, above all, realises it is about the game not about him (yeah, I know, a couple of kiwis may disagree)

Certain countrymen of Ooom Paarl and Blue could perhaps learn a thing or two - not that I am inferring for a moment that Kaplan, Joubert or Lawrence cant let the game flow or that they have to be the centre of attention..... :fishing

 

[Epi]

I think young Wayne did an great job and would offer the opinion (dons flak jacket and camouflage for ensuing barrage of abuse) that he is probably the best international ref in the world at the moment.

Appears to be clear and concise in his communications, doesnt get overly flustered or caught up in the emotion of the game, is prepared to let the game flow as much as possible until it needs blowing up and, above all, realises it is about the game not about him (yeah, I know, a couple of kiwis may disagree)

Certain countrymen of Ooom Paarl and Blue could perhaps learn a thing or two - not that I am inferring for a moment that Kaplan, Joubert or Lawrence cant let the game flow or that they have to be the centre of attention..... :fishing

Plus he doesn't referee with that nausea-inducing arrogance of the those three. There's just no need for that shit.

 

[Blue]

Some Blueservations:

1. Robinson well underway to becoming the greatest Wallaby prop ever.
2. Anyone see the width the backline got when Git was at 2nd receiver?
3. Wayne Barnes is a tosser.
4. The second most pleasing thing in international rugby is to see the Whingey Whiney Welsh lose.

That is all.

 

[Sully]

As is customary in these review discussions, I think the performance of the ref should be looked at as to how if influenced the game.

I think young Wayne did an great job and would offer the opinion (dons flak jacket and camouflage for ensuing barrage of abuse) that he is probably the best international ref in the world at the moment.

Appears to be clear and concise in his communications, doesnt get overly flustered or caught up in the emotion of the game, is prepared to let the game flow as much as possible until it needs blowing up and, above all, realises it is about the game not about him (yeah, I know, a couple of kiwis may disagree)

Certain countrymen of Ooom Paarl and Blue could perhaps learn a thing or two - not that I am inferring for a moment that Kaplan, Joubert or Lawrence cant let the game flow or that they have to be the centre of attention..... :fishing

I thought he lat Ben Alexander get away with a lot especially that under the neck bind he did about half way through the first half

 

[naza]

I was underwhelmed by Wales. They lacked intensity, fell off a million tackles and their work at the breakdown was pathetic.

Our backs still contrive to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They couldn't tackle us but we spent the majority of the 2nd half with pointless kicking instead of running it down their throats. That Genia fields so many high kicks is admirable but demonstrates what a stupid side this is.

I'm puzzled why referee Barnes allowed Wales to constantly go off their feet and seal off ruck ball. We pilfered well but I'd still like to see more players focusing on cleaning out & driving over the ball instead of going for the solo pilfer.

 

[JJJ]

The feel-good factor of this win combined with the Springbok's poor tour should keep me going over the off season. I'm especially enjoying the welsh reaction to the loss, which could be characterized in many places with words such as "shrill", "flabbergasted", "dismayed", "disbelieving" and "betrayed". Similar to how we reacted to the Scotland loss, basically. Warms my twisted heart.

Here's an example, though more moderate than many: http://www.scumv.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=35785&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&sid=4449ba59f7f774de38452b1396906bd7

 

[fatprop]

Did anyone notice the differences in Pocock's and Smith's turnovers.


Pocock's were all effort and workrate, Smith's were much more about experience and knowing the short cuts.

 

[Cutter]

I didn't notice that fp, but perhaps Gagger will show us...

 

[Scotty]

Did anyone notice the differences in Pocock's and Smith's turnovers.


Pocock's were all effort and workrate, Smith's were much more about experience and knowing the short cuts.

I reckon some of Smiths were illegal too. Both had fantastic games though.

 

[rugbywhisperer]

While I seriously applaud the effort by the Wallabies yesterday, in particularly from Gits, is anyone else concerned that the man can play so shite all year long and suddenly pull one out of the bag.
Secondly, his good performance have been against teams of 'lesser' ability and I silll have a huge concern with his abilities against the better teams - NZ, SA etc.

 

[fatprop]

I didn't notice that fp, but perhaps Gagger will show us...

Pocock's were on the ball tackles with him attacking to ball, like Brussouw

One of Smiths Turnovers instead of attacking the ball immediately, he let the tackled played lay an egg and just picked the ball up from between the tackled players legs.

 

[Ash]

I tend to think that Gits seems to also be better in games where he spends more time at second receiver, like the Welsh game.

As someone above noted (Blue?), when Giteau at second receiver was taking a long ball from Cooper at first receiver their was more width, dynamicism and purpose to the backline play. Buzzwords much?

 

[JJJ]

Pocock's were on the ball tackles with him attacking to ball, like Brussouw

One of Smiths Turnovers instead of attacking the ball immediately, he let the tackled played lay an egg and just picked the ball up from between the tackled players legs.

I also saw one where (from memory) Smith hovered over the tackled player but held off and waited for him to try a quick offload, and then intercepted it.

Seems that Pocock's main strategy is to go for the penalty for holding on by being impossible to dislodge, whereas Smith uses a lot of little tricks to actually win the ball.

 

[James Buchanan]

I also saw one where (from memory) Smith hovered over the tackled player but held off and waited for him to try a quick offload, and then intercepted it.

I am pretty sure that one was more fortune than intention.

 

[Pfitzy]

I also saw one where (from memory) Smith hovered over the tackled player but held off and waited for him to try a quick offload, and then intercepted it.

That lazy long-haired git #8 was tackled a few metres out. Smith got to his feet and just waited for the inevitable pop pass. Really shit cleaning out and support by the Welsh. Pocock looked like the Smith of a few years ago - covering tackle, swing around with momentum back up onto your feet and attack the ball. He got penalised for it earlier in the year, but the Welsh were too shit to stop him.

There was one standout for Wales: that kid Warburton who came on at blindside. He looks to be about the find of the year anywhere in the whole NH, but from memory he came through their junior ranks and was the captain for their U20 side against the Kiwi U20s in the final two years ago.

I really don't know what's happened to this Welsh side in the last couple of years. Even against the ABs they played with a bit of pace and determination, as well as slick hands. Yesterday they had less clues than the Ripper murders and looked like they were thinking about either the 6N or their cushy club contracts oop north.

That said, we did wreck their shit with abandon and thoroughly deserved to win, but I'm with naza: when you're so fucking dominant up front, stop kicking it. The kicking game was good, don't get me wrong, but shee-it we could have really embarrassed them and looked like a murder of crows doing it as we picked the eyes from their bloodied corpses.

 

[cyclopath]

That said, we did wreck their shit with abandon and thoroughly deserved to win, but I'm with naza: when you're so fucking dominant up front, stop kicking it. The kicking game was good, don't get me wrong, but shee-it we could have really embarrassed them and looked like a murder of crows doing it as we picked the eyes from their bloodied corpses.

Aye, it's a problem when the craptitude is so ingrained, they don't know when to stop. I mean whatever happened to "playing what is in front of you", the Mantra of the Robbai Lama? When what is in front of you is a line of dunny doors flapping in the breeze, take advantage!

 

[Gagger]

I didn't notice that fp, but perhaps Gagger will show us...

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