Well, Holy 💩 Wallabies fans, that was close. Some might say it was undeserved. But the Wallabies have managed to scrape through to a hard-fought victory in terrible conditions at Estadio Uno Estudiantes de La Plata in Buenos Aires to break their 8-game losing streak in The Rugby Championships.
So let’s dive in and look at the game, its highlights and lowlights as we pick apart the Wallaby performance. Make sure you vote for the Wallabies players so that they can appear in RAWF’s Tuesday news.
Let’s get into it!
First Half
The pre-match coverage clearly showed the conditions were terrible and that it was going to be a scrappy match. And a scrappy match it was. The Argies came out of the starting blocks like a bull at a gate, contesting hard, and pushing the Wallabies. The Wallabies had possession for an extended period and after 27 phases and being inside the Argies 22, came away with nothing. The Argies got possession and their high tempo game paid off with the FISMs pushing out to a 10-0 lead inside the first quarter.
Jake Gordon was on the receiving end of a great offload via play from Icky Sticky and Tom Wright and managed to cross the line and get the Wallabies on the scoreboard. Then Big Bobby V got over the line for a nice try, but alas that was closely followed up by a late penalty to Argentina, who converted easily with their sharpshooter (man I wish Lolo could kick like that guy). The FISMs went to the sheds with a 13-7 lead, with both teams looking competitive and wanting to play in the dire conditions.
Second Half
The teams came out and started the second half with purpose. The Argies, playing to the conditions, taking the points when they were on offer, and slotting an easy penalty to start the second half. The Wallabies were not to be outdone with Icky Sticky beating a pair of defenders to break through before some magic hit-ups and runs got Big Bobby V over the line to reduce the lead to two points. Lolo converted for once in the game and managed to take the Wobs to the lead for the first time in the game.
Australia’s absolute 💩 restarts continued and we handed possession back to the Argies. And the Argies didn’t look a gift horse in the mouth and went straight back on the attack. If it wasn’t for Captain Dirty Harry’s magic try-scoring tackle, Thomas Gallo would have been over the line for sure. But alas the Argies kept coming and managed to retake the lead through a Tomas Albornoz 3-pointer. But the Wallabies weren’t giving up and they continued to slave away for the line.
With only minutes to spare Lolo finally did something good and broke the line and passed it to Max Jorgensen on the 22, who promptly did what a lot of Wallabies did that night and dropped it cold. From the scrum, the Wallabies managed to turn over possession and continued to hammer away at the Argentinians. They remained disciplined for once pushing the Argies inside their 22, until Mayco Vivas took out Angus Bell who was moonlighting as a half back, getting the Wallabies the penalty that they needed.
Smart leadership ensued. A sufficiently long enough discussion was had about the course of action to be undertaken before Dirty Harry Wilson nominated that they would go for the 3 points. Once the shot-clock started Dono wound it down until they were in extra time, and with 9 seconds remaining on the shot clock nudged it over for the 3. Doleman blew the whistle to end the game and give the Wallabies their first win in 8 games of the TRC.
Positives
There were quite a few positives to take away from this game. Let’s take a look at them:
Determination – The Wallabies could have easily let the conditions and the game get away from them, yet they persevered. They didn’t give up and grafted away and stayed in the game.
Scrum – With the return of Angus Bell and Tongan Thor the Australian’s scrum went up a few notches, winning a number of scrum penalties.
Defence – The Wallabies defensive patterns seemed to be a lot more stable and they seemed to be making fewer defensive errors.
Players – A number of players had a good evening. Bell, Tupou, LSL, Carlo Tizzano, Hamish Stewart, and Icky Sticky to mention a few. But I will leave this to you G&GRs to score the players properly.
Negatives
There were a number of negatives in this game. Let’s have a look:
Restarts – Wow our restarts are complete and utter 💩. We really need to work on this, because NZ will absolutely punish us if we don’t get these sorted out and pronto.
Players – There were a number of players who didn’t cover themselves in glory. Lolo had a really inconsistent game, and his kicking for touch and for points was not up to standard. In fact sometimes it was Foleyesque. Koroibete had a disappointing game, and Commissioner Gordon had a real rocks and diamonds game as well.
Skills – I know the conditions were bad, but a number of our players dropped some absolute sitters, handing over possession. Really not up to speed for international rugby.
Adjudicating – Doleman had a bit of a Barry Crocker adjudicating this match. The number of knock-ons and no-arms tackles were let go for both teams. The scrum penalties at times were hit-and-miss, as well as clear forward passes that were let go. This round of the TRC was clearly not up to the adjudicating standard of the last two rounds that is for sure.
Anyway, that is enough of this old grumpy bastard dribbling crap. Over to you G&GRs. Make sure you rate the players. Have at it.
Australia v Argentina – 1st September
