All posts tagged "post match review"

Sunday afternoon Rugby in Brisbane is always special, but when it’s on a beautiful clear Autumn day it’s nearly perfect. The chiefs...

An improving Reds side travelled to Christchurch to take on a Crusaders side who look to be...

The Reds are counting the cost and crossing their fingers after a brutal encounter with the sharks...

The Sharks lost JP Pieterson in the warm up. A late change to any team is disruptive...

I’ve written this post straight after the game while the pain is still raw and untempered, and I’m trying to work out if that’s the worst I’ve seen the Wallabies play. I suspect it is. We’ll post a more balanced review later. That we still had a chance to win with the...

So far this season the Wallabies have let themselves down in just one, sometimes two facets of the game. Tonight, they fucked every single one. The scrum, lineout, breakdown, kicking, discipline, running, passing; all sucked. It was only an average defensive performance that kept them anywhere near the match. The heroics in...

There are a number of proposed reasons going around for why Australia, having started so promisingly, lost in Auckland. The Wallabies no doubt created the lions share of attacking opportunities, yet consistently failed to convert pressure to points. Seeking clarity, I’ve gone back through the tape minute by minute, identifying those key...

1. Benn Robinson (Tahs) – Has gotten the better of his opposite numbers two weeks in a row and shown that he is the number one, no. 1 in the country. More often than not he was scrumming against two opponents, as George Smith would slide up along side the under pressure...

Juan Cote names his Australian Super 14 team of the week for round 3. Do you agree with his picks?

Australian Super 14 team of the week round 2 2009

Super 14 Australian team of the week from round 1 2009

For mine, this tour has been a huge step forward for the Wallabies. The most important thing is that they’ve started laying the foundations of what could become a very good, if not great, winning, team. The key to winning games? Your pack and your goal kicker. Australian rugby has tried to...

. . France 13 – Australia 18 It was ugly as hell (and that might have been because it seemed like I was watching it underwater through a snow blizzard on an intermittent webstream) but stuff it, it was a win. I get the feeling there will be plenty to pick apart...

England 14 – Australia 28 There is only one test match I’ve been to that felt better...

Today we’ll be finding out who makes the Wallabies European tour squad. But before we start talking...

In the hope that this wouldn’t just turn into a full rant, I’ve slept on it. Unfortunately though, the next morning it’s not looking that much better. Rage has just given way to deep disappointment. The ultimate disappointment comes from the fact that the Wallabies had that game. Retaining 65% possession and...

When you get hammered by a record 45 points, the summary of how you played is pretty easy: shit-house. So what I’m going to do here are two things – put together the main causes of the arse pounding (at 53-8 there were plenty) and out of that pull what the Wallabies...

All Blacks 39 – Wallabies 10Australia’s Tri-Nation hopes and confidence that had been building under Aussie Robbie took a sizeable dent on Saturday night in Auckland, with the Wallabies being on the receiving end of almost exactly what they dished out to the All Blacks just seven days earlier in Sydney. The...

I’ve watched this game twice now, and I’m still having troubles finding the words to describe it, or rather Australia’s role in the match. Because for this Bledisloe, there was only one word: breathtaking. In some ways it’s difficult to pinpoint any single player, as all the Wallabies had a hand in...

Australia 16 – South Africa 9I’m tempted to say for the review, read the preview. The core of this story was as predicted – a tough battle that was just one too far for the Springboks. But it was detail around margins that was most interesting from a Wallaby perspective. In such...