France v Wallabies (RWC Warm-up), 28/8 1.45AM AEST

[Linerunner2023]

Well Eddie jones heading into the RWC 0-5
Seems like he is saying now the RWC is all that matters after originally quoting he wanted to win all including rugby champs and bled cup
Sum good players with bell and tupou performing well!
Suli played well but Marika will come straight back in
Anyone maybe thinking we are missing Quade for kicking now? I just hope gorden isn’t the next whipping boy if he fails through RWC

 

[Linerunner2023]

Positives:

Vunivalu had probably his best game in Rugby against arguably the best team in the world. Not sure where this leaves our back 3 and our reserves. Most impressed with his work off the ball and decision making.

Marky Mark (Nawaqanitawase) (Nawaqanitawase) was good as was Kellaway apart from 1 big mistake.

Skelton was massive. Probably our only piggies to really dominate his opposition.
Mcreight was good. Our best 2 forwards.

Leota looked good off the bench.

The scrum was good.

We had some really good passages of play. Left 2 tries out there in the first half. Convert those and it's a different game.

Negatives:

Goal kicking. Can't throw that on Carter. Selection problem.

Usual Wobs inconsistency. Been our big issue for the past decade.

Breakdown is still an issue for us. Late or poor clear outs.

The centres.

The defense. Mainly the structure and systems seem poor. Also some individual decisions.

We were a bit passive into contact quite a few times and looked a little lost in attack.

Tupou's discipline. C'mon mate. He has got to be smarter.

Our discipline in general as well actually. Too many easy pens.

All in all a good hit out. Very disappointed with some aspects of the game however I think they're building. The draw is favorable for that.

At least Kerevi will be back to fix 12
Maybe we should have kept Quade for his kicking?

 

[Linerunner2023]

Pros

• Vunivalu looking for work. Seems to wake him up.
• Angus Bell. Just Angus Bell being himself. Particularly the first half
• Really like Gordon’s ability to release the pass quickly. Biggest reason for our first try.
• Skelton getting through 70mins and not dropping off like he has before at the 50min mark.

Cons

• WTF does Arnold offer. Wouldn’t be a 1st grader if he wasn’t tall. I’d be tempted to move Hooper in there to play an extra back rower.
• McReight is infective against a skilled bigger pack. Finishing off the try doesn’t cover it up.
• Place kicking will get us knocked out of this tournament.
• Maul not effective, line out started to fade.
• Ruck Defence not great
• Giving away simple penalties
• I like Tates field play but gee his passing can be pure shit at times. Either behind the player or they are reaching to get it and stunting their run or a turnover.

Why did we wait so late for subs. Gleeson getting 10 mins is absurd when he hasn’t had any game time in 2 months. French made subs at 47mins and maintained the pace. We watched the game disappear

Yes with Arnold we should play Skelton and frost with Phillip off the bench
Arnold offers less then Neville so Neville should have been on the plane

 

[rugbyAU]

Arnold was completely anonymous, start Frost with Phillip on the bench, Gordon needs to learn to kick to go to the WC, Tupou, Vunivalau, Mark were good & Leota from the bench, scrum was good but maul still a big work on. Not sure if Petaia is the best option at 13, or Peers and play Petaia at 23 or 15.

 

[RugbyReg]

McReight was excellent. Got through a pile of work. A couple of pilfer and excellent clean out work. Great attack too.

And people saying ‘finally Vunivalu’ haven’t watched the last half of his super rugby year. He has been very involved off the ball as well as on. Still issues but this game has been coming.

 

[Drew]

Oh yes it does at world cups, pretty sure every winning team has a world class goal kicker

The whole point of his post was that it does

 

[Dctarget]

Mhmmm a veritable mixed bag. A 24 point loss, yet 4 tries - 3 tries. Gordon's kicking wouldn't have won it, but it would've kept scoreboard pressure and maybe changed how the French played.

Hopefully Kerevi would stop Danty earlier, Danty got way too much change through Gordon and Foketi but seeing Kerevi's recent performances doubt he'll be a better tackler.

Our scrum was fucking beautiful, same 8 v 8 men, why can't we do that in the maul. Surely this is technical and can be rectified in training but maybe not in a few weeks. It's cute Richie Arnold can drink beers with half the French team but can he tackle them?

Sweet that Vunivalu put in a 10/10, 'bout time. Park him at reserve winger to Nawaqanitawase and Koroibete and know that we're developing depth, no need to change our 23 just yet. How tasty was it when Kellaway stepped that absolute weirdo Penaud. His cover tackle on Villiere with Nawaqanitawase was chefs kiss too. A really quiet game from Petaia too, forgot he was playing.

France at home with a biased crowd will be a formidable task, Pearce had a good game but fuck me that's a hostile place to play. A few 50/50 calls, not helped by Tupou's 3(?) penalites and damn you'll be 2 tries down.

Anyway, 24 point loss just before the RWC, not this year folks. You know what that team looks like? With young McReight and Hooper? a team for 2027. Give them 40 more caps like Ollivon and Aldritt have. Same goes for Tate and Gordon. 4 more years.

 

[Members Section]

Geez that French side is good. Though we were actually alright but you only have to give them the slightest sniff to capitalize. Yes kicking goals may have put a little bit of scoreboard pressure but it still was a warm up game & Dupont still just played with freedom.

 

[BobbyD]

Well, Eddie has said all along that the player base was unfit and from all reports he has flogged them at training through this whole two-month campaign and the players have consequently entered each game somewhat fatigued. We can only hope that they will now ‘taper’ properly leading into the upcoming WC games. Whilst that might give them and extra few % physically, it’s hard to see where the extra few % of rugby IQ is going to come from.

 

[cyclopath]

France by 20.
No, I'm not kidding.

I was wrong.

 

[Tomthumb]

They need to learn to hold on to games a lot better. Seem to drop their heads when ever the other team gets a bit of momentum. They put the French under a lot of pressure at times but they just soaked it up

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

McReight was excellent. Got through a pile of work. A couple of pilfer and excellent clean out work. Great attack too.

And people saying ‘finally Vunivalu’ haven’t watched the last half of his super rugby year. He has been very involved off the ball as well as on. Still issues but this game has been coming.

I still think he’s our best all round 7 but for me was unnoticed until 60min+ and the game was gone. Try, long run and pilfers seemed to happen then. Was the first time I’ve thought the size did hamper him until the game slowed down.

Probably harsh to single him out when the team loses by such a margin in the end. What’s a 7 gotta do…

Agree about Vunivalu. But, he could very well go radio silent in the next game. Need a game plan to involve him which they did with the aerial kicks.

 

[molman]

McReight was excellent. Got through a pile of work. A couple of pilfer and excellent clean out work. Great attack too.

And people saying ‘finally Vunivalu’ haven’t watched the last half of his super rugby year. He has been very involved off the ball as well as on. Still issues but this game has been coming.

Agree. He's starting to get some of his link play that we see at the Reds working. It was similar in that test down in Adelaide against SA, but with more time in the squad you can see the combinations, expectations for offloads etc forming.

Suli is looking more physically confident which is good. His one on one tackling is fine, he's a strong guy, but I'm still not entirely convinced on his positioning in defence all the time. It's nice to see the faith in him rewarded because his prior performances in Gold haven't been convincing.

 

[molman]

I’m not down on that performance. Plenty of room for growth. We’ve got time.

I also agree with this. I'd much rather watch us loose swinging some punches than play like the English. We are creating chances and have some really nice sequences of play, but we just lack the consistency to continually execute. Our defensive system also doesn't look entirely right at times.

It was great to have Tupou & Bell back in that pack. Scrum was a real treat. Tupou in general play needs to take some care however, he looked a little sloppy in places.

I'll admit I'm am a tad nervous of Carters kicking coupled with the amount of penalties we also give away. I really don't want to loose to Wales because Biggar n Co. are slotting them from all over the field and we're not.

 

[rugbyAU]

My team for Georgia

1 - Bell
2 - Porecki
3 - Tupou
4 - Frost
5 - Skelton
6 - Hooper
7 - McReight
8 - Valentini
9 - McDermott
10 - Gordon
11 - Korobiete
12 - Kerevi
13 - Perese
14 - Mark
15 - Kellaway

 

[dillyboy]

Agree about Vunivalu. But, he could very well go radio silent in the next game. Need a game plan to involve him which they did with the aerial kicks.

I feel if you select Vunivalu, you need someone with a kick pass like Quade to make the most of it.....

 

[Members Section]

My team for Georgia

1 - Bell
2 - Porecki
3 - Tupou
4 - Frost
5 - Skelton
6 - Hooper
7 - McReight
8 - Valentini
9 - McDermott
10 - Gordon
11 - Korobiete
12 - Kerevi
13 - Perese
14 - Mark
15 - Kellaway

We may have a very important game, Slipper may start & if the result goes our way Pone might get serious min. Leota may start.

 

[Dctarget]

Villière and Danty both bitched it in the first half. Danty milked a penalty by crying out in outrage when Valetini wrecked him in a clear out. Clean out was fine, Danty was being melodramatic.

Don't know if it's Carter's kicking/vision over Quade's or Eddie's tactics have changed but it's refreshing that we're actually using Vunivalu's talents properly. His try at the end was stereotypically him, great piece of skill executed so lackadaisically. We won the aerial battle easily with him and Nawaqanitawase.

What was with our backline defending? Foketi had a few forgettable reads, shot up to try and tackle people already covered, leaving Penaud in acres of space.

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

I feel if you select Vunivalu, you need someone with a kick pass like Quade to make the most of it.....

True.

Could be wrong but I haven’t seen that being a big part of Tates game but I could see White being able to do it.

Lonergan is probably the best half we have in Aus in that regard.

 

[Dctarget]

I feel if you select Vunivalu, you need someone with a kick pass like Quade to make the most of it.....

Did Tate & Gordon not make the most of him?