I sat through it again. To put it politely, it wasn’t particularly fun, but I’m going to pretend it made me a better fan/analyst/master of my shakras.
The game was hard to rate. It wasn’t horrible and the Wallabies came closer to scoring than I remembered, but they never looked like really getting near the All Blacks. Mostly that gave us some middling player ratings with no stand outs but no ‘tell your story walking’ performances either (no, I don’t think QC deserves all the criticism he’s copped).
Every single All Black would have received a higher rating than their Aussie counterpart.
| Player | Rating | Comments |
| Adam Ashley-Cooper | 5 | Had to deal with yet another shift in position, ran strongly but passed about as much as McCabe; which was never. Please, Robbie, just keep him in the centres. |
| James O’Connor | 7 | Continued his solid run of performances during the World Cup. Threw a beautiful pass to Ioane who almost scored, kicked his goals and was solid in defence. Always a danger with ball in hand too. |
| Anthony Faingaa | 4 | Suffered from Wallaby 13 syndrome and couldn’t get his hands on the pill. Made some decent hits in defence but nothing that really shone in a mediocre performance. AAC might have done better but I guess we’ll never know. |
| Pat McCabe | 5 | Another huge defensive effort, especially given he still has those shoulder issues. Underdone in attack – running straight at Owen Franks and getting penalised with QC inside and Ioane to the left summed it up. |
| Digby Ioane | 7 | Came oh so close to scoring a try from an awesome run and was a constant threat when he got his hands on the ball. Ran good lines but couldn’t manage to stop Jane and Dagg running riot. |
| Quade Cooper | 5 | Had a shocker of a first 20 minutes but played fairly solidly afterwards. He made some tackles – one was a try-saver – and took the high ball under pressure but he still has a long way before anyone will call him a ‘general’ in Test rugby. |
| Will Genia | 5 | Box kicks! Too many, too obvious and too inaccurate, especially as his passing is always on the money. It’s a tough gig behind the Wallabies forward pack at times but Sanchez has looked below his best throughout the tournament and this was unfortunately no exception. |
| Radike Samo | 5 | Big Radike looked like he was still recovering from last week, and he probably was. Can’t fault the effort but the impact wasn’t there. |
| David Pocock | 7 | Joubert watched him like a hawk and Bam was penalised a couple of times early but he adapted and worked and worked and worked. Turnovers, tackles, runs and G&GR Man of the Match |
| Rocky Elsom | 5 | Fell off a few tackles but up against Jerome Kaino was probably never going to look amazing no matter what happened. Had fire in the belly though. |
| James Horwill | 6 | Pulled off a few big hits in defence again and obviously played his guts out. There have to be some questions asked about his leadership when the Wallabies constantly look rudderless under pressure. |
| Dan Vickerman | 6 | We now know he copped a broken nose about 20 minutes in. Still played his usual hard-nosed (bad pun intended) game and made a big impact at the breakdown without conceding penalties. |
| Ben Alexander | 5 | Worked hard but beaten both in the scrums and around the park by the All Blacks front row. |
| Stephen Moore | 6 | One of the better performed Wallabies. Threw well and was always in the ruck, his best work was in the tight as usual. He is no chance of being shafted by TPN on current form. |
| Sekope Kepu | 4 | Injured early on before he really had a chance to make an impact. Pulled off a couple of tackles but the scrum didn’t look great while he was still there. |
| Tatafu Polota-Nau | 4 | Still way below his best. According to the stats he made one tackle for one miss, conceded a penalty and didn’t touch the ball in his 15 minutes. |
| James Slipper | 5 | Played longer than expected because of Kepu’s injury but was all over the park and the Wallabies probably didn’t lose much from it. Unfortunately the scrum was just as average too. |
| Rob Simmons | 5 | Got a solid 20 minutes and was decent without being an ‘impact’ player. Can’t help but think that Sharpe in his 100th test would have been a better option. |
| Ben McCalman | 5 | The pack was well and truly beaten when he came on but he worked harder in tight than Samo and didn’t really do anything wrong. |
| Luke Burgess | N/A | Did not play. |
| Berrick Barnes | 6 | Once again we saw direction, space and a cool head when Sookface came on (and some decent tackling to boot). Maybe Quade would have felt a bit less pressure if Berrick had started next to him. |
| Rob Horne | 6 | Looked hungry and was everywhere in defence. Came on too late to make a real impact when he wasn’t able to get his hands on the ball. Didn’t get injured! |
The patented G&GR ratings guide:
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
Fire away with questions and comments.
