Australia v Argentina - 21 November, Newcastle

[Brumby Runner]

Agree with all of that Pfitzy.

Additionally, there were some poor tactical decisions by Rennie. Again he failed to get Lolesio on the ground near the end to at least have the option of a field goal. His replacements were poorly made and timed. Not only was Paisami playing just his second game at 12, he was also given the primary role at No 10 when on attack and apparently had the extra responsibility of being the main kicker in general play. Paisami had a good game but was overloaded with responsibility imo. Hodge did not handle the 10 spot at the required level and needs to be sent back to the bench or moved to 15.

I am over both Koroibete and Daugunu on the wings. Neither seem to have a lot of rugby intelligence. Koroibete is frustratingly inconsistent and makes more dumb decisions than the rest of the team together. Daugunu is a dangerous attacking player at Super level but his passing to support stepping doesn't cut it against test defenses.

 

[cyclopath]

I’m going to have to put on my Brumbies goggles, although to be fair he’s now a Rebel so to hell with him......

But if you want a halfback for his box kick and all round reliability - Powell would be a big step up from Gordon.

True. I was only answering as to why Gordon, not McDermott. Rennie seems cold on Powell for some reason.

 

[dru]

Our line out was 81% to their 75% - it was not the problem at least not on a list a major items.

Banks is criticised for high ball receipts and Hodge is suggested at 15, something I have said for a while. BUT Hodge dropped2 from memory at the tail end of the game.

We complain about dumb penalties and sure dumb penalties are grinding, but the penalty count was 12 (Arg) 11 (Aus) - it isn’t really key to this game.

Like others I was not impressed with some scrum interpretations and I don’t feel the stats reflect what I felt was Aus dominance, at least in the first half. Again though I don’t think it this turned the game.

Here’s something to ponder though:
First half possession 66%
First half territory 78%

Another item somewhat more successful. We went into this game with the widely held suggestion that the Argie loose three were going to tear us another one. While Hooper was pretty much nullified the ruck performance is a different story.
Rucks won Arg 57/58
Rucks won Aus 94/98

Not for the first time, we failed consistently to convert opportunity. Perhaps Hoops deserves a kick for that, but I am brought back to our halves. White faded in the second half IMO taking way too many steps to pass and not sniping to keep them honest.

Ideally we should have brought on a new half about 10 mins into the second. Someone to snipe and get delivery back to speed. That person is not IMO Gordon and we missed Tate.

Hodge, bless his cotton socks, one of our best. But it sure would be great to have JOC (James O'Connor) back. Paisami, also one of our best, but it still would sure be good to have To'omua back. And Lolesio on the bench is pointless unless the coach is prepared to use him. Not my call but we don’t need pine warmers, if the coach won’t use him then move him on.

I think complaints re Banks are OTT, but with Hodge current performance, and his kicking, with JOC (James O'Connor) back Hodge to 15 and encouraged to get involved.

Our selections and strategies have worked fine for the power and work to play test rugby. But they have failed to close games. Something needs to change to develop a winning habit.

PS stats used are stats guru https://www.espn.com.au/rugby/matchstats?gameId=592926&league=289274

 

[KOB1987]

Agree with all of that Pfitzy.

Additionally, there were some poor tactical decisions by Rennie. Again he failed to get Lolesio on the ground near the end to at least have the option of a field goal. His replacements were poorly made and timed. Not only was Paisami playing just his second game at 12, he was also given the primary role at No 10 when on attack and apparently had the extra responsibility of being the main kicker in general play. Paisami had a good game but was overloaded with responsibility imo. Hodge did not handle the 10 spot at the required level and needs to be sent back to the bench or moved to 15.

I am over both Koroibete and Daugunu on the wings. Neither seem to have a lot of rugby intelligence. Koroibete is frustratingly inconsistent and makes more dumb decisions than the rest of the team together. Daugunu is a dangerous attacking player at Super level but his passing to support stepping doesn't cut it against test defenses.

Whilst most of this post is correct you are still going to lose most viewers at your insistence of dropping Koroibete. He’s a winger, and while he’s not faultless his pros FAR outweigh his cons.

 

[KOB1987]

^^^ dru, the problem with Banks isn’t dropping bombs, it’s having zero impact, and his other errors. I want to see what Hodge can do from back there, and he deserves a shot.

 

[PhilClinton]

Hodge played like the bloke who was filling in at flyhalf, not the guy you needed steering the ship during the last 20mins. Backline full of young guys who were all eager but didn’t quite have that direction. Part of me feels like Petaia’s decision making was the outcome of what he believed was a lack of direction and variation from the blokes inside him, so he tried to do too much.

 

[Dctarget]

I am over both Koroibete and Daugunu on the wings. Neither seem to have a lot of rugby intelligence. .

I'd argue Koroibete has one of the best feels for the game I've seen in a long time.

His reads in defense are fantastic and has saved countless tries. Essentially won us the game against NZ, how short your memory is. What's your alternative to partner with Wright? Muirhead? Kata? Maybe put Darcy Swain on the wing?

 

[dru]

^^^ dru, the problem with Banks isn’t dropping bombs, it’s having zero impact, and his other errors. I want to see what Hodge can do from back there, and he deserves a shot.

Hey KOB. I thought Banks impact considerably higher than “zero” though I’ll look closely when I get to the replay. Anyway I come to the same conclusion that you do. Hodge could be an excellent FB and yep, he deserves the chance.

 

[Derpus]

Our selections and strategies have worked fine for the power and work to play test rugby. But they have failed to close games. Something needs to change to develop a winning habit.

PS stats used are stats guru https://www.espn.com.au/rugby/matchstats?gameId=592926&league=289274

A new captain?

 

[eastman]

The silver lining to all of this is that it has invigorated an interest in rugby while there is little competition for eyes. The best outcome next week is that either team wins a nail biter without a bonus point, and then we need to put the Argies to the sword to take the silverware.

I’m not too sure about that- the game wasn’t the best advertisement of rugby and wouldn’t retain many neutral viewers.

 

[eastman]

Hey KOB. I thought Banks impact considerably higher than “zero” though I’ll look closely when I get to the replay. Anyway I come to the same conclusion that you do. Hodge could be an excellent FB and yep, he deserves the chance.

I thought Banks was better than he has been previously- it looked like he added some elements of ball-playing in addition to his general ineffective try to beat the man one on one on the outside.
I don’t think Hodge would be too dissimilar tbh- either way you’re not getting a scintillating ball runner.

 

[dru]

A new captain?

I’m thinking Hodge might be an interesting choice.

While Hooper should have IMO taken a couple of extra penalty kicks, his call to back the corner through Argie I’ll-discipline was good. Hooper loosing the c won’t change game play.

You have to earn the right to go wide. We did. The pack was fine. While the back line is nicely settled it is not doing its job in game play. For me that means a) coaching/strategy; b) the halves. I’m OK with White but the coach needs a better playable bench option. FH is the trick though. Hodge is a must start for me, even at 10 while JOC (James O'Connor)/To'omua are out. The bench needs someone like Hegarty or a coach with enough balls to actually use the selection Lolesio.

 

[TSR]

I started to post, then decided to watch the press conference first. Glad I did and it’s worth a listen. A couple of my take outs from that is the Rennie didn’t seem to have an issue with Hooper’s decision making and seemed more critical that we weren’t patient enough to turn the opportunity into points and that the kicking in behind & kicking for position is something Rennie wants more of, not less. I get the Impression that we are currently only 50% or less of the way there in terms of playing Rennie’s game plan.

Here’s my collection of random thoughts (with some in response to previous comments) -
- we jinxed BPA. Missed a couple of key throws - although not all of the lineout losses were his fault. Not sure why he would be at fault for a hitting someone when he didn’t hear the whistle though. General game looked pretty solid again.
- I thought Tupou was awesome in the first half with his scrum work, tackles, carries and some of his ball work. He just needs to rein in those 1%ers like the pass to BPA and needs to watch his discipline with the 2 offside penalties. I do find it a bit frustrating that we are getting props warned for a few innocuous hand bags but Williams had clearly talked to the captains before the game
- Philip - some guys get found out at test level and some guys get better the higher they play. Matt is definitely the latter.
- Wilson - strong game - carried hard & tackled hard. Happy 21st
- White - I thought White was very good. I thought he mostly showed the best of what he offers and, when he does this, he is well suited to Rennie’s game plan. Where he fell down was running too laterally at times, but I’m not convinced that was actually his fault. I thought there were a lot of times we needed to flatten our attack and White had to search for runners. I thought Hodge & Paisami showed their inexperience here and I think if JOC (James O'Connor) & To'omua had have been on the field we would have got far more pay
- Paisami - at the start of the year I thought he was a very good kid, but very one dimensional. He is going to get better and better. I think in time he’ll take 5 metres off his first kick in behind and 10 off his second and both will probably be tries (2nd one still 50/50 to be fair). As above I do think he should have looked to flatten up a number of times. He’ll get much better yet.
- Petaia - the first year I watched him one of the real features of his game was how well and unselfishly he positioned his outside man. I wonder if he has almost been too good at running over people. Gee he has ability though. He’ll also improve with some consistent rugby and I hope they keep him at 13 for the Reds. Not sure on the criticism of his one hand passing - if is standard fare at this level, and for good reason. If you disagree maybe reflect that it is Increasingly being coached at junior levels as a core skill. We absolutely want Petaia using one handed offloads with a free hand to fend.
- Tom Wright - very good player with good instincts and footy acumen. Really like what he does.

Hooper - I do agree he should have take more shots. But I also think that, once the decision was made, the team needed to do better. They really needed to convert pressure to points and I do think we let ourselves down too often as opposed to the Argentinian defence being too good. I also quite liked his interaction with Williams. Without meaning to focus on the officials I thought there were a number of times the refs and ARs were off the mark and I thought Hooper was entitled to state his point.

Overall, I enjoyed the game and, while disappointed with the draw I thought there lots of positives in there with how the team and individual players are heading. I think we again need to remind ourselves what a huge changing of the guard this is for Australian rugby. Personally I am quite happy to keep the faith as I think we have got plenty out of this international season.

 

[Derpus]

I’m thinking Hodge might be an interesting choice.

While Hooper should have IMO taken a couple of extra penalty kicks, his call to back the corner through Argie I’ll-discipline was good. Hooper loosing the c won’t change game play.

You have to earn the right to go wide. We did. The pack was fine. While the back line is nicely settled it is not doing its job in game play. For me that means a) coaching/strategy; b) the halves. I’m OK with White but the coach needs a better playable bench option. FH is the trick though. Hodge is a must start for me, even at 10 while JOC (James O'Connor)/To'omua are out. The bench needs someone like Hegarty or a coach with enough balls to actually use the selection Lolesio.

I like Hodges passion - he seems to genuinely care. But Philip or Simmo for me. Simmo has been really good this year - that one dumb penalty in Wellington aside.

I don't think we'll see it though. Seems Rennie is on board with going for the line.

 

[Forcefield]

The big turning point for me was the penalty from Daugunu's kick return. We did very well out of playing in their half. He should have put it in the air.

Interesting call on Hooper. I thought he actually could do that under the laws.

Listening to Williams he did penalise Hooper for taking him past the ball (he didn’t actually take him that far), he got him for cleaning a guy who wasn’t part of the breakdown because there wasn’t one. But he was part of the tackle, which Williams seemed to subsequently admit to Hooper. As far as I understood the rules he is therefore fair game.

Any refs on here want to give me their view?

I don’t mind in any case - if the ref got it wrong at full speed so be it. Just interested on what the correct ruling is.

I remember at the time thinking he was very near the tackle but not part of the tackle.

 

[cyclopath]

Our line out was 81% to their 75% - it was not the problem at least not on a list a major items.

Banks is criticised for high ball receipts and Hodge is suggested at 15, something I have said for a while. BUT Hodge dropped2 from memory at the tail end of the game.

We complain about dumb penalties and sure dumb penalties are grinding, but the penalty count was 12 (Arg) 11 (Aus) - it isn’t really key to this game.

Like others I was not impressed with some scrum interpretations and I don’t feel the stats reflect what I felt was Aus dominance, at least in the first half. Again though I don’t think it this turned the game.

Here’s something to ponder though:
First half possession 66%
First half territory 78%

Another item somewhat more successful. We went into this game with the widely held suggestion that the Argie loose three were going to tear us another one. While Hooper was pretty much nullified the ruck performance is a different story.
Rucks won Arg 57/58
Rucks won Aus 94/98

Not for the first time, we failed consistently to convert opportunity. Perhaps Hoops deserves a kick for that, but I am brought back to our halves. White faded in the second half IMO taking way too many steps to pass and not sniping to keep them honest.

Ideally we should have brought on a new half about 10 mins into the second. Someone to snipe and get delivery back to speed. That person is not IMO Gordon and we missed Tate.

Hodge, bless his cotton socks, one of our best. But it sure would be great to have JOC (James O'Connor) back. Paisami, also one of our best, but it still would sure be good to have To'omua back. And Lolesio on the bench is pointless unless the coach is prepared to use him. Not my call but we don’t need pine warmers, if the coach won’t use him then move him on.

I think complaints re Banks are OTT, but with Hodge current performance, and his kicking, with JOC (James O'Connor) back Hodge to 15 and encouraged to get involved.

Our selections and strategies have worked fine for the power and work to play test rugby. But they have failed to close games. Something needs to change to develop a winning habit.

PS stats used are stats guru https://www.espn.com.au/rugby/matchstats?gameId=592926&league=289274

Good post.
That backline last night was pretty green - the centre pairing may well end up as a great one - I hope so - but they showed the lack of experience at this level and would benefit from some wiser heads around them. None were drawing and passing well - let the drift defence get them too often. Hodge has been pretty good (at 10), somewhat to my surprise, but I agree. Another concern I have with regards to the kicking is that Hodge is not a high% kicker - stats I lifted last night have him at 59% in Tests and 67% in Super over the past 5 seasons (combined at 65% overall which is way down the list in terms of kickers over the Super rugby teams (all comers)). I know he is used for long-range kicks in Tests mainly, but is a more regular kicker in Super and still not flash. Problem is, none of the kickers in and around the squad have great numbers (high 70s to mid 80s % wise). Great as a second kicker but we could use a gun. Hopefully Lolesio or Harrison in time might be that.
I think the change to get into the habit of winning is experience and trust in what they are doing. They moved away from things they were doing well last night and that took the foot off.

 

[Dismal Pillock]

Argentina didn't defend well at all for the first 35 minutes

But..... but..... Wallabies were camped in the Arg half for the entire first half, usually around the 22, with virtually uninterrupted possession of the rugby football for the entire time, and yet still couldnt find a way through. Arg must've been defending kind of well.....

 

[TSR]

The big turning point for me was the penalty from Daugunu's kick return. We did very well out of playing in their half. He should have put it in the air.

I wouldn’t say it was a turning point for me. The reality is we should have been ahead by 20 at that point and the game in the bag. A bit rough to call it a turning point which lays too much responsibility at Dauguni’s feet for mine.

But it was a bad option and Rennie commented specifically on the Wallabies running the ball back and turning it over in the PC, so no doubt Daugunu will get to have his moment in the post game review. And fair enough. I disagree with the notion he is not up to this level but, like a lot of the Wallabies proved in this game, too many of them aren’t making consistent good decisions at this level. Hardly surprising given the number of caps. I’m confident they’ll improve under Rennie because he will have no problems moving them on if they don’t.

 

[Derpus]

Daugunu is steadily working himself out of a jersey eh. Big fall from his first game.

 

[formerflanker]

Media saying Matera pulled BPA’s hair. Anyone see that?

Media saying likely to be cited and suspended for it. From memory falou did it a while back but I can’t remember what sanction he got.

Didn't just pull his hair. Matera pulled BPA to the ground, from behind, by yanking on his hair.