19 November 2024 #20
Good Morning G&GRs and welcome to another Tuesday following a Wallaby victory, a very good victory. As always there’ll be things that the coaching staff have taken away from the game that the players need to work on. We’ll get onto Wallaby player ratings from the Monday morning test, but before that there is some Australian rugby centric news to get through.
England A v Australia XV
The Australia XV team were on the wrong end of a 38-17 score line in their game against England A played on Sunday (local time) at Twickenham Stoop. There were plenty of Wallabies, and Wallabies hopefuls, on display for the Australians and they were right in the game at 65 minutes, but the English closed the game out with two late tries.
Stan covered the game and it was good to see the generation in waiting get some international experience. Even in the mini game you could see that Hamish Stewart and Luke Reimer were in everything and their class showed. England won by 6 tries to 2, but were the beneficiaries of two interesting forward pass decisions, one to deny Australia a great attacking opportunity with a pass that would normally be called flat and back out of the hands, and one to not call a clear forward pass by the Poms on the way to a try.
At 24-17 to the English with 13 minutes play, Australia threw a terrible attempted cut-out pass to the English winger Muir who raced 40 metres to score. England then scored again at 77 minutes to put the result beyond doubt. It was the English bench that made more impact than the Australian bench and got the result. The Australian players will be better for the experience of playing international rugby. Let’s hope Rugby Australia keep this concept going.
Australia looking to keep Kerevi on the field this weekend
Samu Kerevi had is yellow card upgraded to red for his high tackle on Jac Morgan. It was one of a few decisions made throughout the game by the referee, TMO and whatever the name of the official is that rules on foul play. In the end, the Wallabies took the referees out of the equation, and played enough good minutes of rugby to get the win.
Kerevi will face a judiciary hearing this week, and may be forced out of the Scotland test which would, in my opinion be a blow to the Wallabies chances of beating Scotland. The Wallabies weren’t happy with the red card ruling, and Joe Schmidt commented, “We’re pretty disappointed with that decision around Samu, and we’ll have a look at that,” said Schmidt. “It’s pretty tough for Samu to be sent off in that tackle. He is distraught. Fiftieth game for the Wallabies and he gets a red card.
“He was trying to drop into the tackle, I thought. We were surprised that there was no mitigation, particularly because Jac played on, and there was no ping on his mouthguard, so it was then described as high danger. We will look at that closely, and potentially ask some questions through the right channels.”
As you can see by the images above, its a game of fine margins, yes Kerevi hit Morgan high, but Morgan was pretty low at the point of contact. It looks like the Australians will be making every case they can to keep Samu out there for the Scottish game. I think he showed enough in his time on the pitch to be included in the team, they are light on centres on tour, and while JAS had a good first outing in attack against England, he’s got a lot to work on defensively. There were a few G&GR commentators that thought he could’ve seen one or two yellow cards himself.
What was pleasing was that the Wallabies took control of the momentum and the game while Kerevi was off the field. Instead of taking a kickable penalty at 19-13 up, they kept control of the play, went to the corner with a lineout and drove the ball over. Previous teams would have taken the points and continued to kick the ball away, but the Wallabies used the time to up the pace and intent, and put the game beyond reach.
Australian rugby stars nominated for World Rugby Awards
Australian rugby stars Maddison Levi, Maya Stewart and Caitlyn Halse have received nominations at the World Rugby Awards in Monaco on Sunday, November 24.
Maddi Levi has been nominated for World Rugby Women’s Sevens Player of the year after her incredible season scoring 69 tries overall and 14 at the Olympics.
Maya Stewart was nominated for best try with her solo effort against Wales in Cape Town in the WXV2 opener. She beat six defenders and ran 60 metres to score,
And Caitlyn Halse has been recognised for amazing start to her international career being nominated for the Women’s 15s breakthrough player of the year award. Halse became the youngest test debutant for Australia when she ran out against the USA in May.
Rugby Australia has more details over here.
It’s a fantastic achievement by these three great players, and good luck to each of them on Sunday.
Wallaby Player Ratings
It’s Tuesday after a Wallabies test, so it’s time for another set of player ratings for the game. The general sentiment last week was that I was generous in my ratings for the game against England, so we’ll see how I’ve adjusted for this week.
I’ve applied the G&GR rating system for this.
10 – A legendary performance to go down in the history books
9 – Outstanding performance: Man of the match shoo-in
8 – Excellent all-round game
7 – Good game with a few sparkles
6 – Solid performance
5 – Average – ho hum
4 – Below par
3 – Had a bad game
2 – Tell your story walking pal
1 – A complete joke
0 – Didn’t make it on, or no meaningful involvement
- Angus Bell – Was good around the field, and played big minutes after Slipper went off injured. Was exposed at scrum time and hopefully this is something that can be fixed, or at least start to be fixed because he will need to be better against Scotland. Score: 4
- Matt Faessler – Became the first Wallabies hooker to score a hat trick, and it was great reward for his efforts around the field and his technical work. It is only his 14th test, and I’m sure he’ll play a lot more. Would have been 9, except for the general scrum performance. Score: 7
- Alan Alaalatoa – A solid shift by 7As, I’m not sure if any of the scrum woes can be put on him, Score: 6
- Nick Frost – Turning into a genuine international quality lock and along with solid defence, good footwork in contact, offloads, lineout work he ran 50 metres to score a great try. I’ll leave it the forwards as to whether he should shoulder some of the blame for the scrum troubles. Score: 7
- Will Skelton – Polarised opinion in the comments section of the game review. Added physical size to the attacking and defensive maul. Score: 6
- Seru Uru – In his second game, and his first start, made positive contributions across the field and looked at home. Score: 6
- Fraser McReight – Made 22 tackles, and another very good 80 minute performance by Fraser. Thought he could’ve been given the captaincy with Harry Wilson ruled out. Generally busy and effective in his work. His support lines are excellent. Score: 7
- Bob Valetini – Yet another massive performance by Sideshow Bob in his 50th test. Played 80 minutes, made some massive hits in defence, and carried the ball ferociously. Just ask Botham. Score: 8
- Nic White – Looked sharper than in recent games for the Wallabies, seemed to spend less time waiting at the back of the ruck. His passing and kicking is good, doesn’t challenge the line running like Tate or Gordon. Score: 6
- Noah Lolesio – One of his best games in Wallaby gold. Shanked an early conversion attempt but was much better from the tee after that. Made good choices about when to challenge the line and looked evasive with the ball in hand. Hopefully he’ll take a lot of confidence into next week’s big game against Scotland. Score: 8
- Max Jorgensen – A solid performance from the winger, looked composed and fed an early offload to Nick Frost for his runaway try. Was outplayed by his opposite winger Rogers, who was probably Wales’ best. A dropped pass and a very loose pass could have led to a Welsh try except Wales dropped it cold. Score 5
- Samu Kerevi – A disappointing finish to his 50th test after copping a red card early in the second half. He carried the ball strongly and asked questions of the defence when he got the ball and with the exception of his high shot on Morgan, made his tackles. Score: 4
- Len Ikitau – Returned to the more familiar number 13 to start the game, then had to play 20 minutes solo in the centres after Samu was sent off before switching to inside centre when JAS came on. His late try showed some crazy footwork to make the Welsh fullback look foolish. Score: 8.
- Andrew Kellaway – Seems to be returning to his best form and looks to have found a few yards of pace. Organised the defence well and was threatening in attack, without scoring. Score: 8
- Tom Wright: Another great performance from Tom with the only blemish being a restart knock on to put pressure back onto Australia and led to Wales’ first try. Otherwise outstanding and teams will need to be very careful kicking it to him in open play. Scored a hat trick, his first came from almost nothing with strength and deception. Score: 9
- Brandon Paenga-Amosa – BPA was solid again from the bench. One missed lineout throw and the scrum was still a mess, but looks to have good game awareness when the Wallabies have the ball. Score: 5
- James Slipper – Was on the field for less than 20 minutes before coming off with what looked like a head knock. Didn’t really fix the scrum, but plenty of tackles and ruck involvements Score 4
- Zane Nongorr – Got 20 minutes on the field and carried and tackled well.
- Lukhan Salakaia-Loto – Was pinged at the lineout twice for jumping across, but was otherwise very good, stole a couple of Welsh lineouts at critical times, and carried and tackled well. Score: 6.
- Langi Gleeson – One of his best games in a Wallaby jersey. Was solid defensively and ran hard into contact. Score: 6
- Tate McDermott – As expected, Tate picked up the pace of play, and his clean break from nothing set up Tom Wright for his hat trick try, and was good defensively. Score: 6
- Ben Donaldson – Actually not sure if he made it onto the pitch. No score.
- Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii – Back to earth for JAS in his second test. He tried to get himself involved after coming on in the 61st minute following Kerevi’s red card. One very nice touch chasing an Ikitau chip, but got found out defensively. Lucky not to be penalised or carded for a shoulder on Morgan, and a high tackle trying to make a tackle on the try line. Will be better for the experience. Score: 3.
My man of the match goes to Tom Wright. For a player previously accused of being rocks and diamonds, he’s taking the rocks out of his game and looks threatening with the ball, often creating something where there looked to be nothing doing.
Let me know if you agree with the ratings above and why.
G&GR Teams podcast
And if that isn’t enough, check out the G&GR podcast for this week.
That’s it for this week. As always, thanks for reading today’s ramblings, and I look forward to the comments section.
