Wallabies vs England, Sydney, 3rd Test, 25 June @ 8:00pm

[Twoilms]

Drop Moore as captain (not necessarily as a player), because if the ref is yelling at you, telling you that you're about to cop a yellow, you are god damn awful at your job as captain.

Drop Foley as ten or supplement him with a 12 who can kick. Holy mother f@*cking sh#t we need someone who can kick for territory. Yeah he missed a few spot kicks but the lack of a territorial kicking game is undermining all other aspects of the wallabies play.

Fardy is not a second rower. He's rapidly fading as an 8 as well.

Can we please stop the angsty hand wringing over Hooper. Surely, after being one of our best in three games in a row we can conclude he is good enough. Would give him the Captains armband myself.

Before everyone blames Skelton, the big lad actually had a pretty good game taking on the Vunipola brothers, who more or less walked through the rest of the forward pack.

Boy have our number 9 stocks fallen rapidly. Gone from peak Genia being best in the world to Phipps being sh^te and starting.

Can anyone really see us beating the Allblacks? i can't.

 

[Slim 293]

Fardy is not a second rower. He's rapidly fading as an 8 as well.

I guess we'd better keep playing him at 6 then.........

 

[cyclopath]

Goo run To'omua, great run Fardy - as expected Phibbs

Phibbs plays for Randwick, numpty.


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[Twoilms]

I guess we'd better keep playing him at 6 then...

You know what i mean.

 

[Highlander35]

Everything to be said has been said.

Although I'll also say that McMahon probably played his best game for the Wallabies, at least if we discount the Uruguay game at the World Cup.

 

[cyclopath]

Fucking Tahs

At least you managed to find the right thread this time. I congratulate your dog.


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[ForceFan]

Before everyone blames Skelton, the big lad actually had a pretty good game taking on the Vunipola brothers, who more or less walked through the rest of the forward pack.

If that's Skelton having a "pretty good game" then we've certainly lowered our standards of what we expect from a Wallaby Lock.

55 minutes game time - his average in Super Rugby 2016.
Contribution:
+ 8 carries for ZERO m (1 Off Load)
+ 4 tackles
+ 3 Penalties conceded
+ Nil Line Out Wins (or did I miss one)

Talk him up as much as you like but he is incapable of playing 80 minutes, makes no useful contribution in the Line Out and shouldn't be in the squad.
He should be charged for stealing his Wallabies top-up from more worthy candidates.e.g. Adam Coleman or Rory Arnold.
Skelton still has some potential if he developed full match fitness and the total skills package necessary to be a Lock at Test level.
The Waratahs can continue to select whomever they wish.
But the Skelton Test experiment has failed.

 

[cyclopath]

That & they played 3rd tier opposition.

Yep we are 3rd tier

Still, England were excellent & deserved these 3 wins.

It was 2nd in the world playing 3rd. It wasn't Namibia.


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[cyclopath]

OT but play this team for Bled 1:

1. Slipper
2. Moore (c)
3. Kepu
4. Douglas
5. Simmons
6. Fardy
7. Pocock
8. Houston/McMahon/Palu
9. Genia
10. Cooper
11. Tomane
12. Giteau/To'omua/Lealiifano
13. Kuridrani
14. Folau
15. DHP
16. Polota-Nau/Chibba/Ready
17. Sio
18. Holmes
19. Neville/Skelton/Coleman
20. Hooper
21. Pickle
22. To'omua/Giteau/Lealiifano
23. Kerevi/Taqele/Morahan

If you pick 35 players it's pretty easy, eh? Even the injured ones.


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[Twoilms]

If that's Skelton having a "pretty good game" then we've certainly lowered our standards of what we expect from a Wallaby Lock.

55 minutes game time - his average in Super Rugby 2016.
Contribution:
+ 8 carries for ZERO m (1 Off Load)
+ 4 tackles
+ 3 Penalties conceded
+ Nil Line Out Wins (or did I miss one)

Talk him up as much as you like but he is incapable of playing 80 minutes, makes no useful contribution in the Line Out and shouldn't be in the squad.
He should be charged for stealing his Wallabies top-up from more worthy candidates.e.g. Adam Coleman or Rory Arnold.
I suggest that the Skelton Test experiment has failed.
But he still has some potential if he developed full match fitness and developed the total skills package necessary to be a Lock at Test level.
The Waratahs can continue to select whomever they wish.

Yeah, because relying on pure statistics in rugby always go so well. How many times did he get the ball behind the advantage line, standing still. How many of those tackles were crucial tackles stopping momentum? How many times did he lift a jumper? How many times did he clean out a ruck on the cusp of turning? i'm tired of people reeling out three random statistics in a game that requires performance in a number of roles to debase the performance of a player.

 

[Highlander35]

Skelton was ok. I thought Coleman was better in his 30 than he was in his 50, but it wasn't a bad game. Needs to be an 80 minite player though to make up for his other deficiencies.

 

[kiap]

C'mon lads. Under 20s Aus v NZ about to kick off.

If you're up then take a break and check it out.

Then we can resume the lambasting.

 

[Joe Blow]

That last decision by Owens that handed England the game was a shocker. That was advantage aus every day of the week

Yes. Itoje should have been pinged for going off his feet. But the game was won and lost by then.

 

[BarneySF]

This.

Cheika is forcing his game-plan of "running-rugby" on the players. Rather then picking the best players and forming a strategy that suits their strengths and weaknesses.

Sorry Cheika, but your game plan doesn't work with no Potgeiter, Douglas, Beale, etc.

Did/does Randwick have a kicking game? Someone remind Cheiks if so.


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[tragic]

Yes. Itoje should have been pinged for going off his feet. But the game was won and lost by then.

Can you imagine if they hadn't got that 3 points and Foley was kicking the conversion to win after the hooter.
I would have gone from shitting bricks to hurling my beer at the telly.
Thanks Owens for saving my brand new flat screen smart tv.


(And fuck off if you're tempted to reply with a post about butterflies and sliding door moments - you know who you are)

 

[Marcelo]

Drop Foley as ten or supplement him with a 12 who can kick. Holy mother f@*cking sh#t we need someone who can kick for territory.

Boy have our number 9 stocks fallen rapidly. Gone from peak Genia being best in the world to Phipps being sh^te and starting.

And you are a Tahs supporter

Can anyone really see us beating the Allblacks? i can't.

I can't see the Wallabies beating to the f*cking super ABs in the next 10 years. At this point is like the State of Origin, the NSW Blues Wallabies vs the QLD Maroons Super All Blacks. Everybody knows who's going to win and both play their homes games at ANZ stadium. At least they could win a series in 2014.

 

[tragic]

Well that was an entirely winnable series that got away.
We were a better side in so many facets but until we pick a kicker that can reliably find touch, exit our half when under pressure, and kick for goal, we are starting with a 10 point handicap.
The only teams we will beat are teams that we are 10-15 points better than, and on an off night we'll even lose to some of them. Any team that's close has got us covered.
As I've mentioned previously it's the reason why we often score more tries and lose, and rarely put away the lower tier teams convincingly.
It needs to start becoming a selection priority, even if it means picking a player who is not as strong in other aspects of his game. We have the firepower elsewhere to cover it.

 

[Joe Blow]

I will have to watch it again but once again it felt as though we could have won but didn't deserve to with 20 to go.
Phipps had a shocker. He threw a couple of air balls, tried to pop up that ball to Izzy when he should have just secured it and was slow to get to the base of next ruck for most of the night. That last one is a bit of a game changer when the game plan is to outpace your opposition with quick phase play.
I thought Foley was pretty good again, kicking aside. He kicked out of our 22 about 10 times without finding touch so that we were immediately under pressure again. He needs to be better at both goal kicking and general play kicking and have someone next to him who can also kick for relief and field position. Gits comes to mind but is no spring chicken and probably does not have 2019 in his sights. To'omua was excellent considering he has not played for a long time at this or any other level. Maybe Cheika should have persevered with him rather than bringing Gits in over the top of him. If he remained the starting 12 ahead of everyone else for the past year or so maybe he would not be leaving and might have notched up nearer 60 tests by now.
Adam Coleman looked liked he belonged. The first throw to him when high and cost us a 7 pointer I think. Bad throw rather than a miss from him. After that he looked assured in the lineout jumping way over the Poms tall timber and was able to push his weight around in general play. The highlight from the test for me was seeing that he should be there. He will get much better.
Simmons departing injured kind of threw a spanner in the works for Cheika. He had to leave Skelton on and eventually push Fardy to lock. Mumm should have been on the bench in place of Cliff. Mind you Simmons is becoming more and more injury prone.
McMahon was very good but is Hooper light. Having both in the starting 15 gives us no balance in the back row.
We missed have genuine pace out wide and even Naiyo made some serious yards when he came on with little opportunity. We need finishers out wide.
DHP once again was one of our best. Put him at fullback.
Front row was OK and Stuey seemed to sort out Cole quick smart. Once he remained straight the scrum was a good contest until we lost Simmons.

We need some changes and a change in direction from Cheika. There may be some short term pain but it is time to turn over a few veterans and bring in new blood.

It was a bloody exciting test match but very disappointing for us to be on the wrong side of the scoreboard again.

 

[Ulrich]

I actually watched this game and once again nothing has changed.

Australia were bullied man-for-man. England were physical and fit from 1-23 and I simply can't say the same for the Aus squad (or the Bok squad but that's another matter).

They seem to barely fit into their clothes and instead of being big they are physically well conditioned. That's probably the greatest difference between them and Aus as Aus are not a bad side at all.

Other than that, they did the basics so very well and didn't try to be too fancy. Rugby is a basic game in the end. Fancy come when you fancy a chance you deserve.

I feel sorry for Cheika as he has to make do with what he has. He does not have that much time with his squad. If I'm not mistaken the Wallabies face the All Blacks back-to-back next as well. So could be a 6 match losing streak.

 

[gel]

That was a good match to watch, so long as you leave your wallabies jersey in the wardrobe.

England have shown the ability to adapt and play what's on front of them - and execute it well.

Australia came close (should have won the first and were crucial moments away from the third) and that will please some people on this forum.

Not me. I fucking hate the attitude of "well, I just gave it my best and I'm just not good enough", because that breeds laziness and contempt for hard work.

The Australian players are poorly skilled, and not professional, and it is that what costs us matches.

It's not Cheika's fault. Why should he be teaching wallabies to do the basics properly. it's the super rugby franchises that are not training properly and delivering deficient players across the board. How the fuck is Cheika going to cram a years worth of what the guys should have been training into a week or two?

Start at the franchises. They are delivering poor quality to the wallaby program.