Wobbs v Cardiff

[spectator]

I think he's 20, soon to be 21 but fair point Groucho. These young kids are living the dream and even if they are dubious selections it's hardly their fault.

Hope he has a cracker.

 

[PaarlBok]

Can't wait to see how To'omua goes. Beale really has fallen since the massive hype he had on him, hes been moved all over the place. Surely won't stay at wing though.

How has Beale "fallen"? He's a 19 year old kid on his first Wallaby tour. How many other players have achieved that at the same age? Give him a break for Chrissakes.

I watch them both and would have preferred Beale. Think he had lots to offer, maybe 12 or 15. Look like the Aussie Earl Rose.

 

[Spook]

Well Beale hasn't been selected at fly half on tour. I'm a little surprised. He should get 1/2 a game there to see how he is going.

 

[Lee Grant]

I don't care where he is playing, this tour should be good for Beale in the long run being in the Oz squad and soaking everything up; at least, I hope he is. When the S14 starts he would have just turned 21 and if he is going to be an international player, we should expect to see some signs in the next S14.

Meantime young Mattie To'omua gets a chance to start for the Wobs for the 1st time; albeit in a DT game. Let's all wish this lad well. Of all the young flyhalves who showed promise in schoolboys days within 2-3 years of each other, he is the one I picked to have the best balanced game of the lot of them as a senior player, including the one most likely to be able to control a game.

 

[James Buchanan]

I don't care where he is playing, this tour should be good for Beale in the long run being in the Oz squad and soaking everything up; at least, I hope he is. When the S14 starts he would have just turned 21 and if he is going to be an international player, we should expect to see some signs in the next S14.

Meantime young Mattie To'omua gets a chance to start for the Wobs for the 1st time; albeit in a DT game. Let's all wish this lad well. Of all the young flyhalves who showed promise in schoolboys days within 2-3 years of each other, he is the one I picked to have the best balanced game of the lot of them as a senior player, including the one most likely to be able to control a game.

Agree with everything you're saying Lee.

Without trying to put too much pressure on the bloke, To'omua looks like he could be the long term 5/8th solution that Australia is looking for. Just depends a lot on how he matures.

Beale seems to have accepted that he probably isn't a 10, which is a positive thing. I'm also hoping that he's gained a lot from this tour and I think there are promising signs there that he is willing to play where-ever he gets put, as shown by his placement at 11 for this game.

I get the funny feeling that there'll be a lot of experimentation going on with the dirt tracker team by Deans, just to see how different players play in different positions.

 

[jauzy19]

Legal link : mms://s4c.unique-media.tv/s4c_uk_live

 

[Jethro Tah]

Well done wobbs for the win and convincingly too. Thought Cooper, Beale, G Smith and the front row had good games. Still worries in the lineout. Brown was useless again. Burgess showed some glimpses but still a bit slow. Great cameos from Kingi and Monahan. Sympathy to To'omua. T Smith surprisingly quiet. All up, great to see a solid win from our second 15 who, as the commentators rightly said in my mind, should be on song by the World Cup.

 

[Spook]

Managed to watch the game on the Welsh language channel over here.

Poor Matt To'omua lasted 2 mins and came off with a suspected fractured jaw. Looks nasty. Quade came on after this.

Australia got on the wrong side of the ref and got served 2 yellow cards. Our mate Brown was one of them and Hodgson copped the other. Brown still likes to come in from the side. No changes there.

We killed Cardiff at the breakdown and in the scrum especially when we had the heaviest Wallaby front row I've ever seen on - Maafu, TPN and Kepu. Scrum wasn't as good when both TPN and Kepu came off and were replaced by Dunning and Cowan (at hooker) . Cowan started at loose head but got replaced about 20 mins in after giving away about 3 penalties at scrum time. Maafu came on and the scrum was dominant - at one stage our seven man scrum was pushing Cardiff all over the place.

The OZ defense was excellent. Lineout started well but went to pieces when Chapman came off with an injury about 30 mins in.

Quade Cooper was outstanding and was my man of the match. His kicking was superbly accurate and he controlled the game. The backs looked very dangerous off first phase but after the lineout fell apart they had few opportunities. We did score one very good try off first phase when Beale got a great offload off to JOC (James O'Connor) who sprinted to the line and then passed to Cross (JOC (James O'Connor) could have scored but was unselfish). OZ scored the remaining 3 tries from turn overs. The second try resulted from some good work by T Smith who attracted a few defenders and got the ball to Beale who ducked inside the covering defense and scored. The third try came from a cracking break from Kingi who offloaded to Morahan on the charge. He sprinted 30-40 metres to score with his first touch. Final try came from loose ball G Smith scooped up and passed to to a charging Dennis who got ankle tapped but passed the ball up to Beale who scored.

Beale and T Smith were good - Beale had a go and kicked beautifully from the wing. JOC (James O'Connor) was a stand out as was Quade as mentioned previously. I thought Cross had a strong game - just ran hard and took some good lines. In the forwards TPN was awesome (apart from lineout). Hodgson and G Smith also played very well. Burgess was strong in defense - made one good hit in our 22 to dislodge the ball.

 

[Spook]

and Sam-Hyphen was really bad.

 

[fatprop]

Cooper got the space and time he needs and looked great.

Beale just reminded us of his ability to have plenty of time to make good decisions, he threw a great pass to JOC (James O'Connor) for the try but more importantly he looped and tracked Cross to the try line. We need more players who are prepared workhard and into good support positions consistently.

 

[aussie1st]

Can't wait to see how To'omua goes. Beale really has fallen since the massive hype he had on him, hes been moved all over the place. Surely won't stay at wing though.

How has Beale "fallen"? He's a 19 year old kid on his first Wallaby tour. How many other players have achieved that at the same age? Give him a break for Chrissakes.

Hes gone from the next big 5/8 to losing his spot to Halangahu and then To'omua gets the 5/8 spot before him. That is fallen in my books. Doesn't mean hes crap or won't still be our number 10 in the future, but the fact remains he has gone from being a first choice 5/8 to being moved all over the place.

Nice to hear Cooper got back to what he does best and sounds like Beale could offer a good utility value off the bench.

 

[waratahjesus]

Can't wait to see how To'omua goes. Beale really has fallen since the massive hype he had on him, hes been moved all over the place. Surely won't stay at wing though.

How has Beale "fallen"? He's a 19 year old kid on his first Wallaby tour. How many other players have achieved that at the same age? Give him a break for Chrissakes.

Hes gone from the next big 5/8 to losing his spot to Halangahu and then To'omua gets the 5/8 spot before him. That is fallen in my books. Doesn't mean hes crap or won't still be our number 10 in the future, but the fact remains he has gone from being a first choice 5/8 to being moved all over the place.

Nice to hear Cooper got back to what he does best and sounds like Beale could offer a good utility value off the bench.

i wish i had fallen!
beale is improving, he struggled at the tahs this year by having a backline outside him that chopped and changed and had very little ball movement between 12 and 13, his tackling and his kicking game improved though and he played well at both fullback and very well at inside centre, he was on the plane before To'omua, so regardless of who got chosen to play first the pecking order was To'omua/beale, that being said, beale has utility value now and will likely make more wallaby tours in the short term due to that.

 

[Lee Grant]

Spook,

Terrific report - thank you.

I can't work out how to post my thanks to Gagger and his mates on the live call; so I'll do it here - a big thumbs up to the clowns. And well done to Gagger for travelling to Cardiff and returning the same night. But did he report to work on time on Wednesday?

I didn't know the result when I got out of bed and saw the "live call" record - so it was like reading it live.

Was gutted for young Matt To'omua. After you watch these young blokes playing schools rugby, you follow them through and sometimes it's like watching your own boy out there when they make their debuts in club rugby, the S14 and international matches. Mattie will be back though and let's hope that he gets some time with the Brumbies in 2010 and, through player movements due to the 5th team, he gets a starting spot for 2011.

I've forgotten - who was responsible for the live call idea and setting it up? Was it Gagger or Moses - or both? Anyway, a big (kneels down with arms up and gives the "you're a legend" wave) to the responsible party.

Apart from the manner of the win, the magnitude of it was massive. Sure, they had internationals out, but they still had some very good players on the park, as I mentioned above.

Well done Wobs DTs. It probably doesn't mean beans but the results of the 2 midweek games on this EOYT and the 3 they played 3 years ago against the Sprays, Ire A and Scotland A (and lost the first two) are a huge improvement.

Maybe there is a silver lining to this tour after all.

 

[Scotty]

Did Turner do anything to promote his cause for getting picked this weekend?

 

[fatprop]

Did Turner do anything to promote his cause for getting picked this weekend?

He didn't do enough but he had two good touches.

Both times he used his jet shoes.

The second one was great he chased a kick hard, Blair was trying to shepherd it over the sideline, Turner came around and toed it over the try line. Unfortunately it had just touched the sideline.

 

[James Buchanan]

Did Turner do anything to promote his cause for getting picked this weekend?

He didn't look horrible, but he didn't stand out.

He did one or two nice things. A near try from a foot race down the wing and another clever near try because of Ben Blair's hesitancy to put the ball into touch.

Edit: Beaten by moments!

I was also just thinking that Turner should be relatively worried about Morahan, who seems to have him covered in his major strength (speed)

 

[PaarlBok]

Good win for the Wallabies. Hope this will set you up for the Druids on the weekend.

 

[Aussie D]

Does anyone else think it strange that Deans replaced To'omua with Cooper when he went off after 2 minutes? Is this a portent that Cooper may in fact be on the bench on Saturday? I would have thought the intelligent substitution would have been to bring on Morahan and move Beale into 10....

 

[chief]

Does anyone else think it strange that Deans replaced To'omua with Cooper when he went off after 2 minutes? Is this a portent that Cooper may in fact be on the bench on Saturday? I would have thought the intelligent substitution would have been to bring on Morahan and move Beale into 10....

I think Deans was thinking we really need a win this match to avoid humiliation. I think he'll be starting verse Wales.

 

[James Buchanan]

Also, I don't think Deans sees KB (Kurtley Beale) as a 10