RWC 2015 Semi Final 2 - Australia v Argentina Twickenham, Monday 19 October, 2:45 AEDT

[Pfitzy]

It's been said already but please let's drop the Quade V Foley its been said and said over and over from all sides. How about we start talking about something like will the scrum work or will the wallabies be as passive at times in defending again.

I'm heartened by Cheik's admission that he got the prep wrong. Won't happen this week - we'll be breathing fire and pissing napalm to lay down a marker. Argies will be well up for it too, and its going to be thunder up front and lightning out wide.

I'm definitely hitting the hay early Sunday night though. FUCK turning up to work that tired again.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

You're not wrong there ACTC. I'm sick of it already! There's no point to any conjecture, Foley will play bar some injury or heinous criminal act on his part. He's been good in this tournament and fully deserves the chance to step again and improve on last weeks performance. I think he will, because he strikes me as fairly mentally strong.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

I'm heartened by Cheik's admission that he got the prep wrong. Won't happen this week - we'll be breathing fire and pissing napalm to lay down a marker. Argies will be well up for it too, and its going to be thunder up front and lightning out wide.

One thing I appreciate about Cheik is how up front he is and it seems the players do too. Simple honesty is a very good trait for a manager to have. I certainly hope we're switched on from the first minute, because it could be a very long night if we're not.

 

[Brumby Runner]

I'm not saying he set up the tries, Brumby Runner. I'm saying he played his role correctly. Seb was saying he "barely touched the ball" in those tries. What should he have done differently? If he'd thrown a 20m cutout pass, then Kuridrani wouldn't have scored.

"A few weeks ago, Seb, we were ciriticising Foloy for *not* setting up his outsides. Now we seem to be criticising him *for* setting up his outsides."

That comment immediately followed your description of Foley's role in each of the tries scored by the Wallabies. In that context I took it to refer directly to those tries he had a hand in. Sorry if I have misread your post.

 

[Brumby Runner]

If Cooper in future games beyond RWC can prove he deserves to start at 10 and can be consistent and form warrants it - I am all for starting Cooper.

But he simply has not sold any case for him starting at this point in recent performances, so until he shows in at least one game a very good game at 10 I struggle to see why so many people want to discuss how brilliant he is. Lets wait until he plays the game that proves it and lets stop raising how Cooper does this or that whilst RWC is on as who cares at this point as we are not about to start Cooper for any of the remaining RWC matches which is focus of this thread re: RWC semi final game.

I wasn't going to buy into this debate, but now feel I must offer some observations as a non-Tahs and non-Reds supporter but as a Wallabies supporter.

Very few, if any, of the posts criticising Foley's efforts against Scotland are advocating replacing him with Cooper at this time. What they are complaining about is, in their collective opinion, the different treatment they perceive Foley gets on this site for errors that if they were made by Cooper would be much more severely criticised.

The majority of responses to those posts are interpreting those criticisms to mean that Cooper should be starting in place of Foley. I do not believe that to be the case. I think most, or nearly all, posters now accept that Foley is the No 10 for the remainder of the RWC and barring injury Cooper will not get a start at all at No 10 and maybe won't get any game time at all in the remaining games.

In short, it's not the comparative skills of the two players that is the issue, but the comparative treatment of any criticism of their respective games.

Time to put it all to bed. Foley will start in the SF and the Final if we make it, and he will have a big bearing on the outcomes of those games depending on whether he has a good or bad game. Cooper's form will not have any bearing, or at best a very small bearing, on the outcomes of those games.

 

[Tangawizi]

So.... moving on then? Argentina looked pretty shit hot for the 1st & last 20 minutes against Ireland.

Anyone got some thoughts on where their weak links are besides trying to frustrate them into giving away penalties?

And are they pulling any of the scrum tricks England/Scotland used?

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

 

[BDA]

defensive composure and discipline look to be weaknesses IMHO. Earlier this year we carved them up on counterattack and when we were able to give our backs good front foot ball. They look to have gone up a notch since then, but I think they'll still struggle to contain us. After their brilliant start last week Ireland were fairly easily able to chip away at that lead, and Ireland weren't nearly as dangerous with ball in hand as we will be.

 

[BDA]

this might have already been reported, but i just read that Sio's injury is apparently not as bad a first thought. still an outside chance of being available for this game.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

The quality of their attack is what has startled me in this world cup. The passing and offloading are so much better now than they've ever been, so it's not just forward domination they seek, it's creativity in the backs too, especially in broken play.

I think we need to be picking and driving around the fringes to get their defence walking back a bit and then getting Izzy and TK hitting that 13 channel at pace. They've conceded a few tries, so it's not impossible to score against them. We definitely don't want a repeat of the Scotland scenario against these blokes, because they love that kind of scrap. When they can get a team off balance and making poor decisions they seem to thrive on it and keep the points coming regularly.

 

[Forcefield]

Need to control the pace of the game at the breakdown. Ireland didn't and were blown away.

 

[Slim 293]

Positive news on the injury front...........

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/r...rael-folau-and-scott-sio-20151020-gke64v.html

 

[Groucho]

"A few weeks ago, Seb, we were ciriticising Foloy for *not* setting up his outsides. Now we seem to be criticising him *for* setting up his outsides."

That comment immediately followed your description of Foley's role in each of the tries scored by the Wallabies. In that context I took it to refer directly to those tries he had a hand in. Sorry if I have misread your post.

That's okay Brumby Runner. I simply meant that often the correct role of a fly half is to give the ball to the man in space with a well timed pass in front. Observe the number of times In a game Dan Carter does only that.

Foley did have a hand in both those tries. That doesn't mean he was personally responsible for them. Nor does he have to be. Rugby isn't an instrument played with only one hand. That's something else.

 

[Groucho]

Positive news on the injury front.....

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/r...rael-folau-and-scott-sio-20151020-gke64v.html

Unfortunately that's from Rugby Heaven, a renowned source of rugby fiction.

 

[Slim 293]

Unfortunately that's from Rugby Heaven, a renowned source of rugby fiction.

It's actually sourced from Reuters..........

 

[Groucho]

It's actually sourced from Reuters....

A clever subterfuge, first used by Greg Growden in the great pie scandal of 2013.

 

[Slim 293]

A clever subterfuge, first used by Greg Growden in the great pie scandal of 2013.

Growden hasn't been at Fairfax for a few years now..........

 

[Groucho]

Growden hasn't been at Fairfax for a few years now....

Slim 293 is Greg Growden and I claim my inflatable Georgina Robinson doll.

Actually, I claim the doll regardless.

 

[Pedrolicus]

I feel like last week's effort will be good for the wallabies. It was our fifth win in a row but the nature of it means that no one will feel like they're owed anything.

If we blew Scotland off the park we might feel like we should be able to account for Argentina. As we are now going into the match as underdogs we will play knowing how crucial it will be too get evening right.

 

[Brumby Runner]

That's okay Brumby Runner. I simply meant that often the correct role of a fly half is to give the ball to the man in space with a well timed pass in front. Observe the number of times In a game Dan Carter does only that.

Foley did have a hand in both those tries. That doesn't mean he was personally responsible for them. Nor does he have to be. Rugby isn't an instrument played with only one hand. That's something else.

Dan Carter's performance against France was sublime - almost the perfect game for a 10 imo. We haven't seen a 10 in Aus like that since Larkham.

 

[cyclopath]

Dan Carter's performance against France was sublime - almost the perfect game for a 10 imo. We haven't seen a 10 in Aus like that since Larkham.

And it was even almost "extravagant" for Carter, who is usually the most understated of 10s, just doing all the basic things consistently well, more often than not with very few flashy elements. A terrific performance.