England v Australia

[Strewthcobber]

Bullshit. Massive overreactions to this scrum performance. All year the scrum under Slipper and Kepu was solid. 15th Test of the year and Slipper and Kepu didn't receive one rest. What do you expect?

Agree to an extent. Our locks were injured and/or incompetent for large portions of this match.

 

[kiap]

That was the Yanks, don't you go stealing other countries accomplishments!

They couldn't have dunnit without us (looks like a Kiwi even got a gig as well).

 

[Forcefield]

Reckon we would have performed a lot better at scrum time if Moore or TPN or Charles were the hooker.

 

[Viking]

All the great ideas on how to improve our backline, seriously they were fine, it was the forwards who were not up to it.

All this shifting the deck chairs on the Titanic is just baffling. forwards not at least breaking even = no win, simples

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

The difference is we have other options that could improve the backs. Eg Cooper for Foley.

The forwards are the best we got. Who can we bring in to fix them? No-one who isn't already injured or ineligible. They current forwards just need to be better.

 

[Cardiffblue]

We can put a man on the moon but Australia seemingly doesn't know what it takes to have a stable scrum.

Or beat the darkness at Eden park. Eye on the prize. Concentrate on that one for now. If you pull it off the rugby world is at cheika's feet in a rwc year

 

[Kenny Powers]

Agree to an extent. Our locks were injured and/or incompetent for large portions of this match.

But in the rankings on the right hand side they rated in the top ten.

Two of the front row rate in the top 5!

All but two forwards are in the top 10 and we got smashed in the forwards.

All of the bottom five positions are occupied by Waratahs.

Somehow the same thought process that inflicted Clive Palmer, Pauline Hanson and Bob Katter on the rest of Australia is at work on this forum.

 

[kiap]

Or beat the darkness at Eden park. Eye on the prize. Concentrate on that one for now. If you pull it off the rugby world is at cheika's feet in a rwc year

My goodness, you boys have been emboldened by that result over the Boks. And fair enough, talk it up. T'was a handy win.

We've had a few wins at Eden Park, though. I think some of them may have even been after the Apollo program.

 

[Cardiffblue]

My goodness, you boys have been emboldened by that result over the Boks. And fair enough, talk it up. T'was a handy win.

We've had a few wins at Eden Park, though. I think some of them may have even been after the Apollo program.

Shows how much the world can change in an instant. Which is my point. If Australia can knock off the all blacks just once next year The world will seem a different place. If you don't, and on the back of this tour you possibly lose to argies or saffers it's going to be difficult to keep up any of the hubris that has kept you overtaking us in the last minute. You'd be going into rwc on back of 2 or 3 from 10ish

 

[Shiggins]

What's with the hunt love. He could suck

 

[tragic]

All the great ideas on how to improve our backline, seriously they were fine, it was the forwards who were not up to it.

Because we have better back line options than those that started but unfortunately no better forward options.
Better finishing, or one more try would have won us all four games on tour, even with a beaten forward pack.

Edit: Seb V beat me to it

 

[Lorenzo]

"deckchairs on the titanic" is code for "we are losing but I would rather not rotate out players that are from my provincial side"

It's fucking stupid. Plenty of wallaby sides have won without parity upfront and this side can too, with some adjustments.

 

[Brumby Runner]

I'm big fan of Foley but the speed of Quades pass is so impressive. It gets to those outside him just a fraction quicker than Foleys which allows the backs to make more ground.

I'm a bit concerned about Speight. His attack is impressive as always, he can tackle well, but his defence read and positional play seems to be lacking at this level. Nothing that can't be fixed but he was out of position on quite a few occasions on this tour.

Simply part of the defensive pattern that the Wallabies have adopted.

 

[Cardiffblue]

Because we have better back line options than those that started but unfortunately no better forward options.
Better finishing, or one more try would have won us all four games on tour, even with a beaten forward pack.

Edit: Seb V beat me to it

A couple less 3 pointers would have lost you all four. things are v v tight

 

[tragic]

A couple less 3 pointers would have lost you all four. things are v v tight

Yep - prob should have won some we lost and lost some we won.
Reckon we could play all 4 games again with different results.
Its a sign of how little difference there is at the moment.

 

[Cardiffblue]

Yep - prob should have won some we lost and lost some we won.
Reckon we could play all 4 games again with different results.
Its a sign of how little difference there is at the moment.

I think it's great. Finally a wide open rwc

 

[Joe Blow]

Disagree. It's fascinating. Come rwc time you know exactly how england are going to play, but to counter it is going to require big change in forwards play. But learning and practicing it against nz or South Africa youll be cruising for a bruising in the run up. This will be great test of cheika

Both SA and the ABs have solid packs and there is no better place to practice a new approach.
Firstly we need to shore up our scrum and general forward play. Enter Pocock, Moore, TPN, Palu, Fardy, Higgers and Coleman, Sio and maybe one other up and coming lock. Shit, get Timani back even.
Secondly we need to get a halfway decent kicking game. Coopers ability to kick long and away from the English defenders was in direct contrast to what Foley had been doing all game. JOC (James O'Connor) will add kicking ability to the back 3. I would look seriously at putting Folau back on the wing and having JOC (James O'Connor) or Beale at 15(as much as I cringe at the thought of suggesting KB (Kurtley Beale) as a starter). There must be someone else who can kick and play at 15?
It's really not that hard, and once again, there is no better training ground than the RC.

 

[Shelts89]

I think it's great. Finally a wide open rwc

I would still put money on the Kiwi's... Though it should still be a cracker!

 

[ForceFan]

Have added my ruck stats to other stats from ESPN Scrum.

Forwards' ruck involvement as follows:
+ Hooper (80mins) made 38 rucks, 30 early (79%) and 34 with impact (89%). Hooper's best ruck stats from the 4 Spring Tests.
(9 runs for 22m, 8 tackles/2 missed, 1 lineout, 1 turnover, 2 penalties – 6pts)
+ Fainga’a (72 mins) made 31 rucks, 24 early (77%) and 20 with impact (65%).
(7 runs for 8m, 6 tackles)
+ McMahon (58 mins) made 30 rucks, 27 early (90%) and 22 with impact (73%).
(5 runs for 5m, 5 tackles, 2 lineouts)
+ Carter (80 mins) made 29 rucks, 22 early (76%) and 23 with impact (79%).
(11 runs for 12m, 3 tackles, 2 penalties)
+ Slipper (67 mins) made 25 rucks, 12 early (48%), and 15 with impact (60%).
(9 runs for 3m, 5 tackles, 1 penalty)
+ McCalman (80 mins) made 22 rucks, 16 early (73%) and 15 with impact (68%).
(6 runs for 17m, 1 tackles/2 missed, 1 lineout, 1 penalty – 3 pts)
+ Kepu (51 mins) made 18 rucks, 8 early (44%) and 8 with impact (44%).
(3 runs for 0m, 6 tackles, 1 penalty)
+ Simmons (40 mins) made 15 rucks, 11 early (73%) and 11 with impact (73%).
(2 runs for 0m, 3 tackles, 3 lineouts)

Off the bench
+ Jones (40 mins) made 16 rucks, 15 early (94%) and 13 with impact (81%).
(5 runs for 6m, 0 tackles, 2 penalties – 3 pts)
+ Alexander (39 mins) made 6 rucks, 3 early (50%) and 4 with impact (67%).
(2 runs for 8m)
+ Skelton (22 mins) made 7 rucks, 5 early (71%) and 3 with impact (43%).
(5 runs for 7m, 2 tackles, 1 try)
+ Robinson (13 mins) made 5 rucks, 2 early (40%) and 3 with impact (60%).
(1 tackle)
+ Hanson (8 mins) made 1 rucks, 0 early (0%) and 1 with impact (100%).
(0 runs, 0 tackles)

Wallabies only engaged in 17 defensive rucks (<50%) - only 2 in 2nd half.
Those involved as follows: Hooper & Slipper - 4; McCalman & Fianga'a - 3; Carter, AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) & Speight - 2; To'omua, Horne, McMahon & Kepu - 1.

Significant ruck contributions by Backs as follows:
To'omua – 16, AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) – 12, Folau – 10, Foley – 10, Horne – 9.

Comments:
+ Early engagement = 1st or 2nd to ruck.
+ Impact = active engagement, strong physical contact, changed shape of ruck, clean-out, etc.
(more than hand on someone's bum or playing statues.)
+Impact doesn't mean that the player was "menacing" at the ruck.
+Rucks stats gathered while watching replays of the game. Other stats from ESPN Scrum.

 

[BabyBlueElephant]

I'm going to put this out there. But NZ fans seem to be especially quiet in comparison to Aus and Saffa fans this year in terms of thinking they had a poor year. The AB's for me were woeful at times this year. In a lot of games they were seriously outplayed. They are the best team in the world two reasons being that 1) Their players are ridiculously skillful and 2) they don't know how to lose. But if they lacked point number 2 which comes from past success, then they could of had a bit of a poor year. Could easily of had two losses to Aus, one to Wales, three to England, one to Scotland and another to SA. They got through them by the skins of their teeth. Considering that in point number 1) they have ridiculous depth everywhere, it means that Hansen is being out thought for large patches of games.

SA had a much better year than last year, Aus are just being held down by their fatties and defence but hell these are notoriously issues that stem from new coaching set ups. If you had the AB's winning mentality for the final 20 mins of games you would of had two wins over the AB's, a win over Ireland, France and England too. And a win over SA as well.

Just to put things in perspective that all is. I think this NZ team is very beatable coming up to RWC15, its just having a mindset to step it up a gear at 60 mins to rival them. Maybe that comes down to bench depth though. Aus and SA weren't that bad this year, its more the NH teams stepping it up a notch.

 

[fatprop]

Because we have better other back line options than those that started but unfortunately no better forward options.
Better finishing, or one more try would have won us all four games on tour, even with a beaten forward pack.

Edit: Seb V beat me to it

fixed