Wallabies v England in Melbourne, 18 June

[The torpedo]

I'm also wondering whether we really lost at the breakdown. Does anyone have the possession stats?

We seemed to have the ball for an awful lot of time (and have an awful lot of fast ball in attack) for a team being consistently beaten there. Especially considering the 15-8 penalty count against us.

I think that impression might be the result of the crucial field position of their steals, like the one by Itoje in front of the sticks.

I think we had like 65% possession (and around 60-69% territory), which makes the result look even worse

 

[wamberal]

I think Cheika is the forwards coach and Ledesma is the set piece coach. Other than that I would hire Jonny Wilkinson as a kicking and skills coach, and poach Dean Benton from the poms as a fitness coach (and head trainer).

I doubt that Jonny is for hire. If he is, surely the Dodgers would have nabbed him. He can cover defence, as well.

 

[RugbyReg]

I'm also wondering whether we really lost at the breakdown. Does anyone have the possession stats?

We seemed to have the ball for an awful lot of time (and have an awful lot of fast ball in attack) for a team being consistently beaten there. Especially considering the 15-8 penalty count against us.

I think that impression might be the result of the crucial field position of their steals, like the one by Itoje in front of the sticks.

 

[The torpedo]

I doubt that Jonny is for hire. If he is, surely the Dodgers would have nabbed him. He can cover defence, as well.

Some Qatari investors can solve this problem

 

[Groucho]

I think Cheika is the forwards coach and Ledesma is the set piece coach. Other than that I would hire Jonny Wilkinson as a kicking and skills coach, and poach Dean Benton from the poms as a fitness coach (and head trainer).

I think there are plenty of qualified Austrian candidates before considering Wilkinson and Benton or any other England candidates. The best solution to losing to a nation is to beat them next game, not plot to poach their trainers. And our fitness is fine.

 

[RedsHappy]

The Wallabies lost because they played excruciatingly badly at crucial moments. There was plenty of excellent play, both in attack and defence, but as Simon says, most of their tries were against the consistent run of play.

That's not an excuse: it's a criticism. Rearranging the team won't stop Folau from thowing a howler of a pass at the back, and it won't help Foley kick more goals.

What the team should be working on this week is execution, not experimenting with new combinations to fix problems that weren't why we lost, otherwise we run the risk of finding new ways to lose.

So true. And Groucho this is why I consider the well-worn 'first Test for ages, we (the team) were rusty' as at least partly a misleading cop-out of an explanation for the loss. The flaws on Saturday night were typically individual player's responsibility, it was not a case of consistently poor team coherence, or obviously bad inter-player communication or such like.

It's not as though our players have not been playing any high-intensity rugby for months now vs good Super teams. Many of the contests vs the NZ Super teams have been very high pressure affairs demanding intense concentration and good skills to get anywhere near winning.

 

[Groucho]

View attachment 7972

F**k. So rather than losing the breakdown, we appear to have monstered them. Those are the stats of a 30-point victory.

 

[galumay]

What the team should be working on this week is execution, not experimenting with new combinations to fix problems that weren't why we lost, otherwise we run the risk of finding new ways to lose.

Absolutely correct, we won the game across the park in nearly every stat, we lost on one place, the scoreboard, because of a lack of accuracy - your point is very well made.

 

[RugbyReg]

yup, those 2nd half stats are pretty amazing. Perhaps a sign of the quality English defense as much as anything

 

[The torpedo]

I think there are plenty of qualified Austrian candidates before considering Wilkinson and Benton or any other England candidates. The best solution to losing to a nation is to beat them next game, not plot to poach their trainers. And our fitness is fine.

Hmmmmmm.............Who are these Austrian candidates you speak of?

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Those stats lend a fair bit of credence to Groucho's argument. We had plenty of the ball and created plenty of opportunities to go with it, we just needed to finish off. Let's not panic here and make as few changes as possible. I doubt that Cheika will be reacting hysterically.

 

[Groucho]

Hmmmmmm.....Who are these Austrian candidates you speak of?

Oops!

 

[KOB1987]

Yeah those stats can sum up our loss in 2 words - execution and discipline.


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[The torpedo]

Yeah those stats can sum up our loss in 2 words - execution and discipline.


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*and goalkicking

 

[ExiledinBorders]

He didn't seem to be under any pressure in general play. We carved the Poms up, made consistent metres in attack, outscored them 4 tries to 2 until the last minute when we were chasing the game, and it could easily have been 5+ tries. Both of their tries were soft - off a fumbled poor pass, and off a poorly-defended maul.

The English tries were not soft. They are typical of the tries that result from the Wolf Pack defence adopted by England. This is an enhanced version of the blitz defence - sort of a blitz on steroids. Saracens are Europe's best club side and they have been playing this way for years. They score a vast amount of tries from pressurising the attacking team. Paul Gustard has recently moved from Saracens to be England's defence coach. The commitment to the system can be seen by Burrell getting pulled off after just thirty minutes because he was not committing to the system.

Australia scored out wide because that is where virtually all tries are scored against the wolf pack defence.

I expect England to be better in defence after another week to practice the new system. I expect Australia to better too.

 

[The torpedo]

The English tries were not soft. They are typical of the tries that result from the Wolf Pack defence adopted by England. This is an enhanced version of the blitz defence - sort of a blitz on steroids. Saracens are Europe's best club side and they have been playing this way for years. They score a vast amount of tries from pressurising the attacking team. Paul Gustard has recently moved from Saracens to be England's defence coach. The commitment to the system can be seen by Burrell getting pulled off after just thirty minutes because he was not committing to the system.

Australia scored out wide because that is where virtually all tries are scored against the wolf pack defence.

I expect England to be better in defence after another week to practice the new system. I expect Australia to better too.

From watching the wolfpack defence at the game I saw that a short kick in behind the defence would pay dividends as there didn't appear to be a sweeper at all. Anyway, an excellent post Exiled.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

It's high risk and high reward, a bit like our attacking system. A test of wills you could say!

 

[Viking]

Yeah those stats can sum up our loss in 2 words - execution and discipline.


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DISCIPLINE! 7 god damn penalties in kicking range. Farrell kicked all but one. It's not just giving away penalties in the danger zone - it seems it's the speed at which we do it.

Those stats indicate almost immediately after they have entered our half we give away a penalty.

On a positive, if we fix our discipline in our half, then those stats indicate we would smash them by 20+ points.

 

[Viking]

The English tries were not soft. They are typical of the tries that result from the Wolf Pack defence adopted by England. This is an enhanced version of the blitz defence - sort of a blitz on steroids. Saracens are Europe's best club side and they have been playing this way for years. They score a vast amount of tries from pressurising the attacking team. Paul Gustard has recently moved from Saracens to be England's defence coach. The commitment to the system can be seen by Burrell getting pulled off after just thirty minutes because he was not committing to the system.

Australia scored out wide because that is where virtually all tries are scored against the wolf pack defence.

I expect England to be better in defence after another week to practice the new system. I expect Australia to better too.

Really interesting theory behind the early subbing. Great post ExiledinBorders.

 

[Simon.]

The English tries were not soft. They are typical of the tries that result from the Wolf Pack defence adopted by England. This is an enhanced version of the blitz defence - sort of a blitz on steroids. Saracens are Europe's best club side and they have been playing this way for years. They score a vast amount of tries from pressurising the attacking team. Paul Gustard has recently moved from Saracens to be England's defence coach. The commitment to the system can be seen by Burrell getting pulled off after just thirty minutes because he was not committing to the system.

Australia scored out wide because that is where virtually all tries are scored against the wolf pack defence.

I expect England to be better in defence after another week to practice the new system. I expect Australia to better too.

I don't think that because England were using a wolf pack defence, it follows that their tries weren't soft. The one from Folau's pass was definitely soft, he was under a bit of pressure from the rush but nothing unusual for a fullback. It was just a shocking pass. After that, it was fortunate bounce more than anything that allowed Joseph to kick ahead to score.

And the try off Haskell's break was from an attacking maul, where the Wallabies left a gap large enough to land a jet in. After that it was simple numbers.

Anyway, if they want to try and employ the same defence on us in Melbourne, I say let them go nuts. Phipps was getting some of the quickest ball I've seen, Foley and our backs were standing deep enough that the rush didn't work, and they were "wolf-packing" in so close to the breakdown that they didn't have enough out wide to deal with Folau and co.