Good morning to you G&GRs. Another painful round for us Wallabies fans, but a slice of heaven (did you see that little Dave Dobbyn pun there) for our Kiwi supporters with both games being played in sub-optimal conditions.
So let’s look at the weekend’s games, a review of the TRC ladder (hint no surprises there) and then have a bit of an ‘Old Man Shouting at Clouds’ moment. So strap yourself in, grab a big cup of you know what ☕, and let’s get it on.
The Rugby Championsip Round 2
New Zealand 42 defeated Argentina 10
If you did’tn get the chance, have a look a the G&GR review of the Kiwis v Argentinians here.
As mentioned in my review of the game, you really don’t want to have to play the All Blacks after they’ve come off a loss. And last week’s loss was an embarrassing one in Wellington. They don’t lose two in a row very often if at all, but then to have to play them at Eden Park where they haven’t lost in over 50 years, was always going to be a bridge too far.
The game was exciting and fast paced, and I mean really fast paced. Blistering attacking raids and speedy breakdown work. The ABs were certainly out to extract some revenge, and that they did. The Argies came out firing in the second half but alas it wasn’t enough, considering the 35-3 margin at oranges.
A good match to watch the full replay of that is for sure. Certainly more entertaining than the Wallabies game.
South Africa 30 defeated Wallabies 12
If you haven’t read RAWF’s excellent game review, click here, and make sure you vote in the player ratings survey.
I’ve watched this game twice now, and I’m not certain if we were better or worse than the previous week. Some parts had me going “yes we have improved”, then other parts going “gee we’ve regressed further”. So overall, I’ll take a balanced view that we were as 💩 this week as we were last week.
It’ll be interesting to see what the player scores are. But I thought we had a few players out there that were busting a gut, and others that just had really bad days. Here is Bris’s player feedback dribble:
- Angus Bell – Good to see the big forward back. I though he put in a great shift, and added some starch to our tight five and the scrum.
- Angus Blyth – The big Queenslander, who for the record I thought was pretty lucky to make the squad based off little game time this year due to injury, put in a solid shift and got his head in some dark places.
- Tom Wright – Had another ‘rocks and diamonds’ kind of game. Some moments of skill and pace, coupled with some poor decision making, bad kicks and defensive lapses. But to be honest he wasn’t on his Pat Malone there.
- Nic White – Time to move this fella on. Slow passing from the base of the ruck and appalling whinging at referees. It looks like Tate Mc and Jake Gordon (scarily enough) will be our 9s going forward.
- Lolo – Yep another Barry Crocker for the young fella. And as well as the poor performance picked up Nic ‘The Lip’s’ trait of whinging at the officials. Time for you to leave the tribe.
- Seru Uru – I was so hoping for a great debut for the big Fijian/Queenslander, but alas his debut turned into a bit of a nightmare. A couple of penalties and a slice of 🧀, hurt the big fella. I do hope he can bounce back from it.
Anyway, let’s see what the score cards bring out, but it was a bad night at the office for our guys, and I don’t expect their scores will reflect much otherwise. Time to focus on the next match.
The TRC Ladder
Did we expect anything different?
Old Man Shouting at Clouds
I have to be honest and say there were two things that made me a little cranky over the weekend. And for the second week in a row, the refereeing wasn’t it; it was the Wallabies’ discipline and the way we dealt with the referees. So let’s have a shout.
Discipline – The first half went reasonably well with us being competitive. But the moment we get put under score board pressure our discipline turns to 💩. The second half we started conceding penalties and for silly things. Seru Uru came on and copped a few, and by no means am I hanging it on him, but he just seemed to be the man in the wrong place at the wrong time. Two quick penalties and a 🧀 was costly. The cards and the discipline have been an issue for the Wallabies for a while. If we had a deeper squad people would be dropped for next week. But alas, we don’t. Maybe Joe gets the players that really screw the pooch to forfeit their match payments or something. But there has to be a consequence and there just isn’t. Thoughts?
Dealing with the Match Officials – Back in the dark days, I used to have a big problem with the way our players and especially Michael Hooper as captain dealt with the match day officials. In recent times under different captains this seemed to improve. Jimmy Slips, Skelton, and 7As all seemed to have a much more nuanced approach. That changed last night and went to poo. It wasn’t the captain, whoever the captain was at that point of the game, as it was hard to tell. But Nic the Lip White, and later Lolo, decided to be obnoxious, belligerent reprobates. You could even hear the referee warning Nic White. I thought Australia and the Wallabies had moved past that point. But apparently not. Man those two lads need to be dropped for that reason alone. It didn’t help that they were also having a crap night performance wise. But I no longer want to see those two in the green and gold based off that behaviour alone. Time for them to go and write their autobiographies now.
Anyway enough of this fat old man raving. Over to you G&GRs. Have at it.
