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England v Australia

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Brumby Runner

Jason Little (69)
Pretty piss poor. This has to be the worst ref going around at the moment. I don't know how he thinks a team can hold the ball at the back of a maul forever and not get called to use the ball. Wallabies definafly the better team. Just couldn't finish. England play that boring style and it works. Win a penalty from a scrum. Maul the ball down field and kick a penalty. Great stuff.

Maybe not the worst in terms of affecting the outcome, but surely has the least knowledge of the laws of rugby in any ref I've seen.
 

Brumby Runner

Jason Little (69)
What was wrong with the defensive system?
They scored 2 tries off the back of two dominant scrums.
England had no other opportunities to speak of.
Their defensive system worked well IMO.

I disagree. A couple of overhead shots showed that the Wallaby backline was very compacted in defense and there was always an England player outside our widest defender, whether the winger or Folau who more often than not was the widest defender. This led to many of the breaks the English (and the Irish last week) made on our outside. The fact they were not converted to tries says more about the cover defense than the set defensive pattern being played. That compacted pattern also relies heavily on inside backs (To'omua especially) coming out of the line and cutting the attack off before it gets wider. It is a system that imo lends itself to being exploited by a well drilled attacking backline. Watch out if we play the ABs with this defense. Expect a bloodbath.
 

Cardiffblue

Jim Lenehan (48)
Pretty piss poor. This has to be the worst ref going around at the moment. I don't know how he thinks a team can hold the ball at the back of a maul forever and not get called to use the ball. Wallabies definafly the better team. Just couldn't finish. England play that boring style and it works. Win a penalty from a scrum. Maul the ball down field and kick a penalty. Great stuff.
I've watched the game now. Your whingeing about the ref is completely unfounded. England forwards were frankly awesome. Their backs were shit. However for you to say australia were better team confirms that you are still drinking your own urine
 

Brumby Runner

Jason Little (69)

Pfitzy

Nathan Sharpe (72)
I am always happy to speak the truth as I see it.


If you differ, I am always happy to engage in a rational debate, without the need to resort to childish insults.


That was a joke, and your complete inability to see it that way proves what a codmouthed perspective you've got on the whole thing. Don't you keep thinking we need to join up with league or something?
 

Brumby Runner

Jason Little (69)
One thing I will point out from today's game is that those people who have been critical of Beale under the high ball need to have a look at speight there as well..he did not look comfortable at all. In fact when Beale took his spot they appeared to stop kicking to that wing

Henry dropprd or fumbled two balls that I recall. The first, he was tackled around the arms before the ball arrived with him.
 

Pfitzy

Nathan Sharpe (72)
It is easy to get down in the dumps over the recent performances. But as a Tahs fan, I did that as well, and we turned it around with a change in attitude and some personnel tweaks.

I'd really like to see guys like Coleman and Neville step up next year to help alleviate the second row problems. They both have the frame for Cheika's plan.

THP is still a quandary. Kepu great is great but next cab off the rank.... let's hope Project Convert Sio still has some legs.
 

ForceFan

Peter Fenwicke (45)
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.
Are we talking about the same Higginbotham who's gone missing in Test rugby in 2014?
 

Froggy

Nicholas Shehadie (39)
Unfortunately, every time we lose all we get is all the partisan bullshit. To the Brumbies and Reds supporters, the fault lies with Cheika, Foley, Hooper or any other Tah you can name, for the Tahs supporters, they leap to their defence, and blame Simmons, White, Carter or anyone else.
Guys, during the S15 be as biased as you like, support your province, that's what it's all about, but this is the Wallabies!!!!
The problem is, quite simply, an inability of our forwards to dominate (or even match) the opposition. This happened under Deans, Link and has persisted under Cheika. Until we fix that, I don't care who you play at 9 or 10 (I like Phipps/Cooper, by the way).
Plenty of talk about Cheika's ball in hand, get it wide attractive backline play at the Tahs. It was only possible because he got dominance up front, both in attack and defence, from the likes of TPN, Palu, Douglas, Potgeiter and Hooper.
I was at the Tahs/Brumbies match at the Stadium (not the semi), early in the second half the Brumbies won an attacking lineout on the Tahs 22. After 13 phases of being smashed by the above, they were behind the halfway. That's the platform you need to win rugby. We need to find and develop the forwards to do that. Maybe some are there (for example, if Carter can recreate some of the toughness and aggression of his father would be a start) and it needs developing, maybe it's in the wings like Coleman, Neville etc, but we have to find it.
 

fatprop

George Gregan (70)
Staff member
I think we did rather well considering we couldn't sustain any pressure in their 22.

First mistake instead of being, scrum to poms and clearance with us starting again from near the half way, was scrum, penalty, kick up field with their throw in

So no sustained pressure for most of the match
 

swingpass

Peter Sullivan (51)
having watched the game on replay this morning. one simple observation as alluded to by others.

a simple game plan, that plays to your strengths and well executed will almost always win at test match level. the australian plan also plays to our supposed strengths, but because it involves a higher level of skill execution is much more vulnerable. execution errors once gain cost the wallabies badly. the last two weeks we have seen try scoring chances butchered/fucked up/gone begging/not taken..., that would have seen both Ireland and England beaten. i really do not know if we have the cattle to play at test level the multi phase, off loading game the Waratahs played this year. This EOYT has exposed once again the Wallaby fragility at scrum time, not just execution but "nous" as well. The lack of power in the back row also evident.
in patches the wallabies looked formidable, but then at other times simple things get fucked up. the set piece remains a significant problem because it is inconsistent, i believe there is an upside, but we have been waiting for a long time, at least since 2010 and probably longer for consistency.

the great myth of australian rugby is the "smarts", well it hasn't been obvious for at least the last 7 - 10 years, plenty of dumb football and dumber off field/administrative decisions.

can cheika turn it around in 12 months ? we will see and i will hold off judgement till then.

great team work, backing up, running from deep, off loading, multiple touches is the sort of rugby that we as australians like to see played and think we can do it instinctively. it ALWAYS relies on good set piece ball however. it also relies on a high level of skill execution, something the current squad lack consistency in. and there's the rub, some times it will come off and at others the more conservative plan of the opposition will prevail. really at the moment only NZ have the capacity to play the all around game. SA can, but too often revert to type, Wales possibly but don't seem to be able to do it, Ireland are the ones capable of adapting to thwart their opponents and England remain one dimensional but very effective.

a long and at times frustrating year for australian rugby and its supporters. hopefully this time next year the glass half full GAGR's get to say "i told you so", not the others

ps the parochialism just gets a whole lot worse when the Wobs lose doesn't it :rolleyes:

pps as an aside i thought QC (Quade Cooper) was really pretty good when he came on. he laid on the initial wide pass that put the outside men away down the touch line, eventually leading to the Skelton try. he did make a big error in not opting for the line out option over the 5m scrum when chasing the kick through. Phipps did well with the crap ball he was and the protection he wasn't getting. To'omua my MOM.
 

Cardiffblue

Jim Lenehan (48)
The problem is, quite simply, an inability of our forwards to dominate (or even match) the opposition. This happened under Deans, Link and has persisted under Cheika. Until we fix that, I don't care who you play at 9 or 10 (I like Phipps/Cooper, by the way).
Plenty of talk about Cheika's ball in hand, get it wide attractive backline play at the Tahs. It was only possible because he got dominance up front, both in attack and defence, from the likes of TPN, Palu, Douglas, Potgeiter and Hooper.
This
 

Brumby Runner

Jason Little (69)
It is easy to get down in the dumps over the recent performances. But as a Tahs fan, I did that as well, and we turned it around with a change in attitude and some personnel tweaks.

I'd really like to see guys like Coleman and Neville step up next year to help alleviate the second row problems. They both have the frame for Cheika's plan.

THP is still a quandary. Kepu great is great but next cab off the rank.. let's hope Project Convert Sio still has some legs.

Have you watched the game yet Pfitzy? If not, think when you have you might agree that Ben Alexander was particularly strong at the scrum, didn't collapse once and didn't give away a penalty. Apart from that, he had a good game in the open, making ground with ball in hand and on more that a couple of occasions providing excellent link service to his outside supports. Last thing I want to see is Sio being converted to TH. Changing sides was the impetus to Alexander's initial loss of form as he was one of the stand out LHs at the time.
 

tragic

John Solomon (38)
Not surprised at all by that result - a win from England off the back of scrum and maul dominance. Injuries to a few key forwards with early bench replacements amplified the issues that were expected in the last 20.
A few positives
Horne was better than I expected - lack of pace shown up a few times but pretty strong performance. Irrelevant though I suspect when JOC (James O'Connor) returns.
Quade added a lot of attacking spark. Should quieten his few remaining detractors on the back of that performance.
A few clear answers after that game
To'omua has the 12 position unless a smokey emerges next year.
We wont win RWC with the current starting lineup
Quade needs to start
We need a scrummaging lock on the bench
Our bench props need to be drilled in scrummaging and strength work all through the off season and Super 15. Don't even let them near a ball!
 

Cardiffblue

Jim Lenehan (48)
Oh btw. John Lacey looks the real deal as international ref. Wales game didn't have any tries but he didn't let it descend into a kick fest. Made a couple of mistakes but really promising
 

Pfitzy

Nathan Sharpe (72)
Have you watched the game yet Pfitzy? If not, think when you have you might agree that Ben Alexander was particularly strong at the scrum, didn't collapse once and didn't give away a penalty. Apart from that, he had a good game in the open, making ground with ball in hand and on more that a couple of occasions providing excellent link service to his outside supports. Last thing I want to see is Sio being converted to TH. Changing sides was the impetus to Alexander's initial loss of form as he was one of the stand out LHs at the time.
Haven't seen it yet.

I know he's capable of being a good THP. But good enough? And if he was good against England, why not anyone else?

Of course the second row he has to work with is a factor as well.
 
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