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England v Australia

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Cardiffblue

Jim Lenehan (48)
Good thing about these autumn internationals is that theyve thrown the competition to come second in rwc wide open. And we re not going to know who until the tournament starts. Gotta be good thing.
 

Brumby Runner

Jason Little (69)
Your horsey vision is blinding you. He just makes no impact at this level. He goes through the motions with little effect.

I think we'd all like to see our locks play with more aggression and effectiveness, but as things stand atm Rob Simmons and Sam are the best we have.
 

Brumby Runner

Jason Little (69)
Jones on for Simmons?

What the fuck is Skelton there for then?

Rob should have been replaced after the second time he went down but because Big Will couldn't be relied upon to play out the rest of the game, he was forced to stay on. Very poor bench selection and management. Brave effort by Simmons.
 

Gillys_ghost

Dave Cowper (27)
Agree with the sentiments on Cheika - exactly how he played the game for Randwick and exactly why I'm confident that come Sept 2015 we will be in the mix. Given that Cheika had next to no influence on who went on the EOYT, lets suspend judgement until we see a squad selected and trained 100% by Cheika. I think you might be right about Adam Coleman but I'd also put Caydern Neville in the frame as well. Yes for Toby Smith. The only position I'm struggling with is tighthead. PAE gone, BA is a no no, can Scott Sio be converted? How about the Allalatoa brothers?
I thinks that's such a cop out about cheika picking the squad cause who would have been different in the starting 15? The only player who should have been brought over was PAE, i cant think of any others.
 

S120

Chris McKivat (8)
Disappointing performance for me. A crazy number of handling errors and the scrum (while penalised harshly IMO a couple of times) was always inferior relative to England and got smashed a few times which put us badly on the back foot. Our back line constantly found space out wide by using 2nd man plays effectively but we weren't able to capitalise on that possession and flow well enough at all. Some brilliant passages of play were put together (including the 2 passages that led to our tries to Foley and Skelton, Cheika will be loving the look of those plays on replay) but we lost ball at the lineout, were going backwards in the scrum and turned over ball far too easily.

Around the ground, the pack was fairish for the most part IMO. Carter I thought had a pretty strong game, particularly relative to his earlier tour performances, and Fainga'a/McCalman/Slipper continued their consistent play on tour. Simmons getting injured relatively early hurt.

I liked Matt To'omua's game very much and his last two weeks have surely put beyond any doubt that he is our inside centre. I'm really on the fence with Foley. He does great and tremendously stable things throughout the game but there are times when the attack becomes so stilted and seemingly rudderless with him at 10. To'omua at least did a good job of getting in as a secondary director of traffic to good effect but I think Foley is going to have his hands full with trying to stave off Cooper at 10 in 2015.

AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) was very active. Probably his best game on tour for me, I hadn't been that impressed with his form to this point. Rob Horne was good too.

We really need some reinforcements in the pack from the likes of Pocock, Fardy, Palu, Moore, TPN for the RWC, that's for sure. I want Scott Sio or Paul Alo-Emile on the bench too but who knows if they will be capable of making things happen in a RWC with so little national experience.
 

Upthenuts

Dave Cowper (27)
from my view it seems,

England have gone backwards fromt the 3 test series in NZ, they looked very powerfull back then.
unlike AB players,
aus players dont seem to improve in
the walabies, folau, beale foley they look great in super or their first couple games but tgen go flat or like folau backwards, how folau cant punt it downfield ala Dagg is amazing considering his afl years
 
T

TOCC

Guest
Rob should have been replaced after the second time he went down but because Big Will couldn't be relied upon to play out the rest of the game, he was forced to stay on. Very poor bench selection and management. Brave effort by Simmons.

I don't want to have a dig at Skelton, but this is where his fitness is a liability.. Its easy to say that he can be used as an impact player in the last 20min, but there might be a scenario where he is needed on much earlier in the game.
 
T

TOCC

Guest
Losing Simmons (realistically when he was injured, rather than halftime) was costly at the set piece and around the park.

That guy is almost unrecognizable now compared to to even early this year. Much more accurate and effective, esp cleaning out.


I've been long time fan of Simmons on this forum, and i think he has improved to a fairly reasonable test player, he isn't going to strike fear into the opposition but he has a technical skillet at the set-piece which is currently unmatched in Australia Rugby, so whilst physically he mightn't be the most dynamic player he has the technical skill set to really justify his selection.

His ball running ability is still quite rubbish though, high centre of gravity and slow acceleration mean he is easily brought down and makes little impact.
 

Brumby Runner

Jason Little (69)
Nic White finished the test with a silly pass to no one. Shades of the Box Kick episode previously.

AUS have some loose forward issues to sort out.

Game was already over when Nic's pass went over the sideline. Only poor piece of work by Nic all day and it is the one piece you thought worth mentioning? Overall, White played a better game than Nick Phipps who was particularly slow to the breakdown on a few occasions leading to him being trapped and unable to get clean ball out to his supports.

But you are very much on the ball about the loose forwards. The English were giants in comparison and outplayed them is all aspects of the game. We simply must not go into test matches with such an undersized back row again. McMahon tried hard and did some really good things, and McCalman tried hard as always, but thet were simply out muscled by larger, more effective opponents all match. What I'd give to have a No 8 like Morgan running amok for the Wallabies.
 

KOB1987

John Eales (66)
I don't think our back row is that big an issue when you consider we have fardy, higgers and Palu all to return with certainty, and possibly pocock also.
 

Quick Hands

David Wilson (68)
Here's that thing - if Simmons has just one sub par game, just one, you and the other tah fans will jump all over him again.

I am just saying - you should remember what you have written as a justification for Beale next time you feel compelled to trash a guy who has ALSO been picked in the run on side by the last three wallaby coaches.

I am willing to bet that you won't though.

Find a post on any thread where I've criticised Simmons play. I've neer trashed him. And yes, he's been picked in the run on side by three Wallaby coaches, which is probably why I have never "jumped all over him". In fact, I've never called for him to be dropped. And yes the same logic applies to him as to that of the Beale selection. If you'd have made that point, instead of trying to turn it into some partisan provincial cheap shot (which apparently you're still trying to do), you would have had my agreement.
 

tragic

John Solomon (38)
Or Tomikin comes through with the win, sign up for Foxtel Go/play14 day trial and can it after the game. You can have a good stream.

Damn you Tomkin. I took your advice and now thats 90mins of my life I'm not getting back!! :mad:
Thanks for the tip.
 

Joe Blow

Peter Sullivan (51)
I don't think our back row is that big an issue when you consider we have fardy, higgers and Palu all to return with certainty, and possibly pocock also.

Yep, but when they were playing our set piece wasn't much better. They need to buy into it as well.
 

Brumby Runner

Jason Little (69)
1. Slipper 2. Moore 3. Kepu 4. Fardy 5. Horwill 6. Higganbotham 7. Pocock 8. Palu 9. Genia 10. Cooper 11. O'Connor 12. To'omua 13. Kuridrani 14. Speight
15. Folau

16. Polota-Nau 17. Sio 18. Robinson 19. Skelton 20. Hooper 21. Phipps 22. Beale 23. Hunt

i think that if all the players in that team were performing eg. Horwill 2011 and Beale 2010 we could win the world cup.

We still got a bit of class left in us and im not going to sit here and act like we are fucked forever. We can do it, and im sure cheika and the boys will give it their best next year.

and being a bit more realistic, i dont think it could really get any worse...

Like your positivity but with that team we would be well and truly fucked. Robbo at TH - come on. Fardy in the second row - no, he is our best 6 and needs to play there. Horwill in 2011 form and Beale in 2010 form - dream on. Despite his 1m run to score a try last night, Big Will has a long way to go with his set piece play to be a viable option. JOC (James O'Connor) and KHunt you are obviously taking on faith - we'll really have to wait to see how they come up next year, but at this stage neither could be considered for the Wallabies.

Personally, I think it is the patterns of play rather than the players (with a couple of exceptions) that need to be improved. The defensive system is all over the shop and it was the sole reason we were being outflanked in the backline by both England and Ireland. Our attack systems also need an overhaul. Much too one dimensional with little variety and no planned kicking game. All big matters for the coaching staff to address.
 

Joe Blow

Peter Sullivan (51)
What we really need is a couple of big nasty second rowers and some back up props. With Moore and TPN we are good at hooker. Our 6 needs to be a lineout option and our starting 7 should be an on the baller.
 
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