World Rugby U20 Championship 2019

[Lost]

Best Australian rugby performance in 15 years.

This side has serious mental toughness.

Win or lose, McReight will be crowned the u20s Player of the Year. His leadership is fantastic as well.

Wallabies bolter anyone? McMahon did it in 2014.

Great player, doesn’t have to do it all in rush

He has a lot in front of him doesn’t need to be cooked now to save the Titanic

 

[Lost]

Only saw the second half

Great effort, Argies a good quick side. They most probably thought the man advantage would see them home but the young blokes did great. Donaldson and McReight outstanding. They got plenty of turnovers and did not panic.

There is hope at the end of the drought. The pathways may be working. Throwing them into the seniors too early will be tempting but we must resist the temptation. Full of talented kids and there were some rippers who didn’t get to go as well.

Now to find a coaching structure that will do them justice.

 

[wamberal]

Well done the lads. Now keep your heads down and get the job finished. We need it!!!

 

[swingpass]

Didn’t get up for this one. Keen for a summary if possible. 40 mins with 14 men apparently? What happened?

actually 50, McDonald was yellow carded twice in first half. keep the los pumitas scoreless in second 40 and scored two tries themselves

 

[Dctarget]

Didn’t get up for this one. Keen for a summary if possible. 40 mins with 14 men apparently? What happened?

in the 19th minute Argentina centre jumped into McDonald's low tackle, so his legs were hitting McDonald's shoulders and he just stood up, completely flipping the Argentina player, landing on his back. Yellow carded for that.

Argentina slot 3 points off that penalty.

Australia seem to galvanise after that, with one off plays down the field with Lucas and no. 11 alternating between scrumhalf and the forwards making good metres. Longeran makes a half break near the line and offloads to Wilson who gets to run a few metres under the posts to score. 3 - 10 Australia.

Argentina slot another penalty 6 - 10.

Late in the 1st half, Australia keeps it in hand attacking from about halfway. Once again simple one off runners, with Wilson featuring well and making good metres. McDonald passes a nice ball to Noah who runs a beautiful line and slices through the defence and runs about 30m before offloading in the tackle about 5m out to McDonald supporting on the inside who falls over the line. 6 - 17.

Argentina regather off the kickoff with a few minutes left of the 1st half and probe deep into the Aus half, before getting bundled into touch. Aus have lineout 8m out of own line, McDonald does a poor box kick into touch and gives Argies an attacking lineout about 20m with seconds to go.

Argies maul it very well to a few metres out. They spin it to their right winger, who takes McDonald with him across the line. Somehow the Argie hadn't grounded the ball, but McDonald wrapped one arm around the back of his neck, so yellow card, making it his 2nd = a red and a penalty try.

13 - 17 HT
Argies lucky to be in it at this point, Aus look dominant.

Robertson comes on in the 2nd half at scrummie at the expense of Tui on the wing.

Argies open 2nd half with some good attack but their one man overlap is nowhere to be found with Aus defence seemingly everywhere and strong. Eventually they spill the ball. Robertson does a clever kick from Aus 22 deep into the Argies half from the scrum, then chases his own kick just in time to charge down the Argentina player attempting the clearance.

Argies put a silly box kick from their 22, then get penalised for not clearing the 10m radius of the kick because it went nowhere. Aus kick for the corner, well set up maul from 10m out, Longeran scores. 13 - 24.

Argies have some good footy led by their winger, Carreras with a huge tackle on his opposite, Argies get the penalty from dominant rucking over that successful tackle, but it all comes to naught when their maul is well defended by Australia.

This is the story of the 2nd half, Argies look good but then poor execution fluffs it. They looked like they scored in the corner, but a last ditch tackle by Lucas shunted their winger out.

Argies keep pressuring the line but Aus defence still holding. McReight comes through with a superb pilfer and spins it out to some open men on the wing, Donaldson punts it down field and has a foot race with Carreras. Donaldson wins it by mms and scores, 13 - 31.

I've been impressed with Robertson so far, very good tactical kicking. Also, McReight of course, pilfers everywhere and Wilson making metres every carry. Wilson and Robetson team up to hold an Argie up over the try line at the 60th minute.

Doesn't feel like Aus have any ball, Argentina all the possession but can't convert.

Aus hold up ball in a tackle, about 7 players in there, ball definitely not coming out except McReight magics it out has a small saunter down field but drops it.

Aus scrum has been failing them and conceding penalties, keeping them pinned in their own half. But Argentina keeping making mistakes.

Aus has held up their opposition in the tackle near 10 times so far. Finally after a good clearing kick and chase by our 11, we get a penalty and get a lineout 15m out from Argie's line. Aus don't convert pressure and give away ball, but for 10 minutes Argies and Aus concede breakdown penalties and go back and forth up the field losing ball in contact or at lineouts, messy play from both.

Argentina are rushing everything to try and make the points up and it shows in their mistakes.

Argentina player is off his feet 10m out from argentina sticks and after some imploring from Robertson to the ref, the ref sees it Robertson's way and Australia slots an easy three. 13 - 34 with three minutes to play.

Australia soak up the last few minutes running one man off from 10m inside their own half. With Bell and Wood featuring in good hit ups. Argentina concede a penalty and Aus use the last 30 seconds of the match for a penalty kick dead in front, but 57m out. Kick is short, Argentina run it back, but concede a penalty at the breakdown for holding on, to who else but McReight. Aus kick it out.


Thoughts: McReight looks the goods. The lord taketh the lord giveth, we lose Pocock we get McReight. I liked Robertson much more than McDonald. Our scrum still needs work. But our lineout is great with lots of steals (though Argentina weren't helping themselves).

Argentina had a period of 20 minutes attacking our half, they even got across the line a few times but Aus stood strong with only 14 men and never really looked like losing it which is crazy.

Our backrow was dominant, with the Argentina backrow seemingly not showing up. Wood was great as well. Lucas dangerous whenever he touched the ball.

Bring on France.

 

[Braveheart81]

Tough on Michael McDonald who will now miss the final. Henry Robertson is the only other halfback in the squad so that will be a bit of a risk for the Aussies in the final.

Pat Tafa is available again after his suspension so will be back on the bench.

 

[RugbyReg]

awesome stuff thanks.

Was curious about the scrums so thanks for that tidbit. Assume the French scrum is strong?

Saw the two yellows and both looked deserved. An unhappy match for McDonald. We have shown excellent depth this tournament.

One more to go lads. Good luck

 

[Braveheart81]

Here are the highlights.

 

[Finsbury Girl]

I like the look of this Donaldson kid, he play 1st grade down @ the Wicks?

edit: that high tackle for the 2nd YC was a shocker. Well and truly deserved at least a YC.

 

[Bobby Sands]

Didn’t get up for this one. Keen for a summary if possible. 40 mins with 14 men apparently? What happened?

Wallabies were quite incredible.

Our 9 got two yellows, both debatable but he could have avoided the second by waiting 5 seconds longer to kick the ball out.

Wilson & McReight were phenomenal. Actually throw Michael Wood in there too.

Noah made two or three clean breaks. Donaldson scored a pretty ridiculous long range try.

We had 5 turnovers from choke tackles, ie holding the man up and something like 15 turnovers all up.

We are the real deal, not Kurtley Beale.

 

[Tex]

Really impressed by the running lines from the Aussies.

Unlucky red card. I think the first yellow was justified but the second unfortunate. Great steel and resolve from the young men. Bravo

 

[barbarian]

It seems the second YC was more for the act of preventing the try, rather than the tackle itself.

If the Argentinian player managed to ground the ball, he probably would have stayed on the field.

 

[Tex]

Yeah that's what I mean. It met the threshold but the tackle itself didn't look malicious or deliberate, just happened to slip up and in the act of preventing a try. Ticked the boxes

 

[Braveheart81]

It seems the second YC was more for the act of preventing the try, rather than the tackle itself.

If the Argentinian player managed to ground the ball, he probably would have stayed on the field.

Yep. I find it a bit of a silly technicality.

I think there should be the potential to award a penalty try without also handing out a yellow card.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

I look forward to finding a replay of the game. These young blokes are an absolute credit to the game in this country. It looks like we've got a group of blokes coming together that will be as good as the crop that hit the seniors in the late 80's and early 90's. To the ARU: this is a gift DON"T SQUANDER IT!!!!

 

[Dctarget]

So, does McDonald definitely miss the next game? Do we bring back Harrison at 10? Interesting questions for the halves pairing.

I liked what I saw from Robertson at 9, seemed more composed than McDonald. I didn't think Donaldson was great at 10, so halves pairing of Robertson & Harrison (if fit) is my go.

 

[Dctarget]

Also think we can thank Ireland for knocking off England in the pool matches. England seem to be the most dangerous team out there aside from Aus.

 

[Derpus]

Great player, doesn’t have to do it all in rush

He has a lot in front of him doesn’t need to be cooked now to save the Titanic

Agreed. We have good players in form for the back row this year at Wallabies level. Let him develop naturally.

 

[Dctarget]

Highlights for France v South Africa.

A maul try each with a swag of penalties for France being the difference 20 - 7.

Based on that, if Australia can keep their penalty count down they'll be in with a good chance. But that's a big if as Australia give away plenty.

 

[Derpus]

I like the look of this Donaldson kid, he play 1st grade down @ the Wicks?

edit: that high tackle for the 2nd YC was a shocker. Well and truly deserved at least a YC.

Really? he might have grazed his head with the hand that wrapped around but the majority of it was fine.

The first tip/flip tackle was genuinely dangerous though.