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Wallabies vs Wales - Docklands Stadium June 16

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Cardiffblue

Jim Lenehan (48)
On Vuna, I don't have a pitchfork like others.

He didn't get any better this week (will confirm via replay), however looking at the stats, his down on key indicators you'd want from a winger. Not comparing to Ioane or anything like that.

Bring in Shippers next week, see how he goes. We've got the series, blood players. Cue the criticism.
Now that's a different issue. Vuna was indeed poorest back on the park. wales tried to target him but Priestland and Philips kicked too long and into touch on the full. He is a liability. Hope Deans hasn't noticed and he plays next Saturday
 
W

What2040

Guest
Scrum under pressure and rare dominance by Wallabies - having said that IMO Kepu had his best game by far as did TPN - Robinson still poor around park. When Alexander came on - oh my God. Have to admit I was surprised the lack of impact of both Hooper and Moore.

Barnes played well wheras Genia gave away a 7 pointer - fairly poor performance by the "world's best halfback".

It seems to me that the NH teams have lifted their play substantially over the past 12 months and are now not easybeats - its a real contest and terrific to see.

The wallabies were very lucky to win. The team should not be celebrating too much but Deans will be happy getting away with the game. Next week will be interesting
 

Slim 293

Stirling Mortlock (74)
Gotta say the Tahs contingent played well last night........

Maybe there's something about Melbourne that causes them to lift their game?
 
W

What2040

Guest
Ah, a good personality for a girl often means longevity and meaningful relationships, whereas just having nice tits is shallow and eventually Newton's Law of Gravity cums into play
 

BDA

Jim Lenehan (48)
A few thoughts on the game:-
- Both teams played well. I think the Wallabies deserved their win. The second Welsh try was against the run of play, and the Wallabies were comfortably back in control of the game before Vuna went off.
- Vuna again was effective with ball in hand, and poor in every other area (particularly his positioning). send him back to Super rugby until 2013. maybe next year. atm he's a work in progress.
- As good as Alexander is around the field I cringe everytime he comes on. I think Slipper/Palmer should get a shot next week.
- Scrum was good in the first half though. Robinson/TPN/Kepu is a good front row combo.
- Was impressed with Kepu and Simmo in the forwards. both had good work rates.
- Barnes was superb.
- Pocock did a great job as captain.

The big advantage of winning this game is that we can try some new cattle for the third game, and still claim the series. For next week, I'd like to see a few things
1) I'd like to see us rest our starting front row. perhaps start with Palmer/Moore/Slipper with Kepu on the bench.
2) I'd like to see Pyle get a run. give sharpe a rest.
3) Morahan in for Vuna.
4) Beale back in the side.
5) Maybe give White and Hooper some game time.
 

Cardiffblue

Jim Lenehan (48)
Watched the replay and felt different but similar pain to when 5 of our rugby club jumped on top of me as the kick went over and whilst I think Hibbard is a lard arse who looked stupid, I think it strange that this maul collapsed when no other had all night. With winning everything, in my unbiased opinion that maul was collapsed by australia to milk a penalty
 

Cardiffblue

Jim Lenehan (48)
A few thoughts on the game:-
- Both teams played well. I think the Wallabies deserved their win. The second Welsh try was against the run of play, and the Wallabies were comfortably back in control of the game before Vuna went off.
- Vuna again was effective with ball in hand, and poor in every other area (particularly his positioning). send him back to Super rugby until 2013. maybe next year. atm he's a work in progress.
- As good as Alexander is around the field I cringe everytime he comes on. I think Slipper/Palmer should get a shot next week.
- Scrum was good in the first half though. Robinson/TPN/Kepu is a good front row combo.
- Was impressed with Kepu and Simmo in the forwards. both had good work rates.
- Barnes was superb.
- Pocock did a great job as captain.

The big advantage of winning this game is that we can try some new cattle for the third game, and still claim the series. For next week, I'd like to see a few things
1) I'd like to see us rest our starting front row. perhaps start with Palmer/Moore/Slipper with Kepu on the bench.
2) I'd like to see Pyle get a run. give sharpe a rest.
3) Morahan in for Vuna.
4) Beale back in the side.
5) Maybe give White and Hooper some game time.
treat the welsh with disrespect and expect a hiding
 

FANATIC

Fred Wood (13)
Last nights game displayed such quality, focus and courage from both sides that this morning I feel so contented that I am a bit lost for words. Thoroughly enjoyable rugby. However, it is nice to read the words from others especially possibilities for next weeks game.
 

FANATIC

Fred Wood (13)
treat the welsh with disrespect and expect a hiding

Agreed.
Next weeks game has nothing to do with glory or winning a test, it will be all about honor. It will be personal for this Welsh side next week and we can expect them to bring guns to this gunfight. If the Wallabies don't, they may well be seriously punished.
 

Cardiffblue

Jim Lenehan (48)
australians have whinged fro years about NH bringing second and third string teams here to blood players. this year they havent and the matches have been excellent. Now there are suggestions of doing the same. shame.
 

barbarian

Phil Kearns (64)
Staff member
Watched the replay and felt different but similar pain to when 5 of our rugby club jumped on top of me as the kick went over and whilst I think Hibbard is a lard arse who looked stupid, I think it strange that this maul collapsed when no other had all night. With winning everything, in my unbiased opinion that maul was collapsed by australia to milk a penalty

This maul collapsed because it was well constructed and put the tired Welsh under incredible pressure. The culprit in it's collapse is clear- you can't see the number or the jersey, just a pair of white shorts on the very bottom of the pile. It was a penalty regardless of the game situation.
.
 

barbarian

Phil Kearns (64)
Staff member
Just rewatched the game.

Overall the Welsh really muscled up in defence (as expected) which made it a far tighter contest. The thing that was good from an Aussie perspective was our game management- we were patient but not slow, skilful but not extravagant. We did the basics well and slowly chipped away at the Welsh line. It wasn't a performance for the ages but it was pretty good. In the end we built pressure in the final five minutes and it told. I thought we were deserving winners.

Barnes was outstanding and directed play brilliantly. He underplayed his hand which was exactly what the game required. His kicking game was once again very good.

I was also impressed with Sekope Kepu. Kept the scrum solid and made some big plays in the loose. One of his best games in gold.

Another who was good was (deep breath) Rob Horne. Made a couple of crucial defensive plays, and ran well all night.

Same with Rob Simmons. I wrote him off last week but he showed me up last night. Defence was noticeably better as was his work with ball in hand.

No-one really had a bad game once again. Vuna made one silly error but overall wasn't bad.

I think that was an important win. We needed to go back to back to prove that Brisbane was the norm and Newcastle was the blip, not vice-versa. In that sense I was very happy we got the job done.
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BDA

Jim Lenehan (48)
treat the welsh with disrespect and expect a hiding

How is that disrespectful? In my view Palmer, Slipper, Pyle and Hooper are test quality players. Bringing Morahan in to replace Vuna is an improvement. Bringing Beale into the side is an improvement. We dont lose anything by bringing moore in for TPN. Please explain how my suggested changes are disrespectful?
 

Gnostic

Mark Ella (57)
Gnostic, I think you will find there will be a little more spark in our back line when a few of our first choice players return from injury and find form (i.e. Cooper, Beale, O'Connor). Having blokes like Lealilfano and Tapuai in the mix again will not hurt either.

You have misconstrued my meaning.

If you wish to play a wide running based game certainly Beale, JOC (James O'Connor) and Cooper are the players for the side. If you wish to play a balanced game consisting of some running, significant tactical kicking and counter attack then Beale and JOC (James O'Connor) though not both at once. If the tactics are more conservative then perhaps none of the above and bring in Mark Gerrard.

It all depends on the tactics that are going to be played. IMO that was the biggest flaw in Deans selections last year at the RWC, he opted for an ultra conservative game plan and selected Cooper at 10 and had pop gun kickers on the wingers. Wouldn't a better selection for the game plan been Barnes at 10 and Gerrard at 15 with his huge boot?

First choice isn't because they are the best individuals, but should be because they best suit the game plan to be employed. That is my biggest beef with Deans (apart from selecting players out of position), on so many occassions he has selected players to play a game that doesn't and never has suited the game plan to be played just because they are deemed to be the "best".
 

WorkingClassRugger

Michael Lynagh (62)
Just rewatched the game.

Overall the Welsh really muscled up in defence (as expected) which made it a far tighter contest. The thing that was good from an Aussie perspective was our game management- we were patient but not slow, skilful but not extravagant. We did the basics well and slowly chipped away at the Welsh line. It wasn't a performance for the ages but it was pretty good. In the end we built pressure in the final five minutes and it told. I thought we were deserving winners.

Barnes was outstanding and directed play brilliantly. He underplayed his hand which was exactly what the game required. His kicking game was once again very good.

I was also impressed with Sekope Kepu. Kept the scrum solid and made some big plays in the loose. One of his best games in gold.

Another who was good was (deep breath) Rob Horne. Made a couple of crucial defensive plays, and ran well all night.

Same with Rob Simmons. I wrote him off last week but he showed me up last night. Defence was noticeably better as was his work with ball in hand.

No-one really had a bad game once again. Vuna made one silly error but overall wasn't bad.

I think that was an important win. We needed to go back to back to prove that Brisbane was the norm and Newcastle was the blip, not vice-versa. In that sense I was very happy we got the job done.
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I think it proved that we could control the direction of a game when it requires a tighter structure than we prefer to play at. Apart for a few aparitions we not the Welsh dictated much of the direction of the game in the face of a far sterner (and borderline offiside) Welsh defence. Did the Welsh actually manage to work the ball into our 22m at any time apart from the try against the run of play?

While the Welsh were far more put together and competitve this week, a one point loss for the Wallabies would have been a unfair result as far as I was concerned as we were still the better team.

As for the players. TPN and Kepu were great and outside of Barnes were probably close to our best. Got to love Kepu's athleticism for a Prop. Robinson was solid and did his job from my perspective. I don't necessarily want to see Props running lines and perorming deft touches. Rather they do the grunt work in close as that often proves more valuable and I thought he did that well enough. Not his best but still good. Can we settle the issue of our best front row (as a unit) now and say the Tahs combination is the clear leader. Simmons improved and I thought Sharpe played better this week as well. Pocock, well, I don't need to say much about his performance. It's pretty consistent. Great temprament as a Captain, works the refs over nicely. Palu seemed a little subdued. Not his usual self. Still stats don't lie and his involvements we still solid.

Genia was off from last week but I think that had a lot to do with the Welsh watching him like a hawk and not giving him the space to work. Well done to them on that account. Barnes, excellent. McCabe and Horne were both strong with a reversal of last weekend with Horne taking the points this time. Digby and ACC were again quality in their positions. Vuna. Worked a little harder, looks strong with ball in hand but boy, that yellow card was ugly. Can remember thinking to myself 'no,no,no,noooo!!' as he went into that contact.
 
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