Derpus
Nathan Sharpe (72)
I think its pretty damning that was the best 7 performance we've had. He was involved a lot, for sure. Didn't have much influence though. And no slight on the lad either - he's a rookie 6 playing test 7.Agree with most of this WF.
In my opinion, Rob Valetini was best of the Wallabies, nearly BOG, Angus Bell was excellent as was Allan Ala'alatoa until he went off injured. Tom Hooper put in the best No 7 performance of TRC series for the Wallabies. Others claim he didn't have the speed for a No 7 but he was everywhere even into the 80th minute. Nic Frost put in another sterling performance and Skelton had some notable moments but seemed to miss quite a bit of the action from time to time. I also have some concern about our second row at scrum time. Reportedly, the scrum was the heaviest ever put out by the Wallabies but still got pushed backwards by the ABs. Who isn't pulling (or pushing) their weight?
Tate had a couple of horrible moments but he was overall far superior to Nic White when he came on. Is it time for Lonergan to get a run, if only for his goal kicking and better skill at box kicking?
I was happy with Carter Gordon's efforts, ignoring the poor kicking. Quade did nothing when he came on, so I'd stick with Carter.
We have big problems in the centres and outside backs. Kerevi is not up to scratch and looks to be still suffering from his injuries. I think Foketi is better value in the 12 jersey at this stage. Jordan Petaia just makes too many poor decisions to run the backline at 13. He is best suited to wing and I'd like to see him out there. Len Ikitau is sorely missed at 13.
Andrew Kellaway did not perform any better than Tom Wright at 15.
Before the game I tipped to my family that the ABs would put 50 points on us this game. As it turned out, they didn't, and I suggest they would have been closer to half that had the injuries/yellow cards not affected the Wallabies so severely. So, overall I was pretty happy with most aspects of the game, but I am left wondering about the wisdom of bringing Eddie Jones and his League/English entourage in to oversee our run to the Cup. I fear we are on the brink of having the game destroyed at the Wallaby level again, just as he did in his previous sojourn as Head Coach.
Thought the centre pairing went way better than I thought they would. Petaia shanked a kick into touch and I'm sure they all missed a few tackles in the last 15 mintues when they had clearly given up. But they were otherwise pretty good in defense and did OK with basically nothing in attack. Generally made a few post contact meters etc.
Kellaway was absolutely better than Wright. He didn't do anything blindingly idiotic the whole game.
No wisdom bringing Eddie in. I thought Rennie made a series of errors that warranted his sack but bringing this fucken bloke in has not been the move. Would prefer Cheika was still around.