Bledisloe #1 - AUS v NZL, ANZ Stadium, Sydney, August 8th

[fatprop]

Spider cam pisses me off when I can see it. I like it when you can't - except when the producer can't keep up and you end up looking at grass.

I was thinking during the game that Cheika got the ARU hire it to get some good overhead shots of our scrum vs The Darkness. I'd be sending a GIF of all the scrums to every ref World Rugby has on their books.

I hope we can keep on dishing it out in the scrums to remove the preconceptions previous efforts have built.

I like it, but it was over used and the operator went in too close in general play at times and then didn't track the play

 

[BDA]

Not sure I'd use the Pooper combo in every game. Looks to give us a important edge at the breakdown and in terms of defence, but certainly hurt our line-out and might also hurt our scrum against the better scrums.

It should be horses for courses. I still think against England we may want to go with a bigger pack with more line-out jumpers. Maybe start Palu or McCalman at 8 and then finish the game with Pooper.

 

[Braveheart81]

Not sure I'd use the Pooper combo in every game. Looks to give us a important edge at the breakdown and in terms of defence, but certainly hurt our line-out and might also hurt our scrum against the better scrums.

How much of our lineout problem was down to Moore having a poor game, a lineout caller who hasn't called the Wallaby lineout for a long time and a new locking combination?

Would our lineout really have been better if Skelton had started instead of Mumm and Palu or McCalman was at number 8?

 

[Colin Windon]

Phipps was way below par but he has a good "body of work" behind him.
He was harassed by loiterers at the back of the breakdown and fell down a few times particularly in his passes to Foley and Gits as well as his yellow card offence. He is obviously being instructed to selectively box kick so hard to fault him there. His energy and mobility has in the past been a major catalyst for our go forward.

Nic White came on and was electric and laid down a great case for his world cup campaign and even a start next week. Good players recover from bad games and competition for places is a luxury we haven't had for some time and....WE BEAT THE ALL BLACKS!.

I hope I feel this good next Monday morning!

 

[Omar Comin']

Not sure I'd use the Pooper combo in every game. Looks to give us a important edge at the breakdown and in terms of defence, but certainly hurt our line-out and might also hurt our scrum against the better scrums.

Do you really think it hurt our lineout? We still had 3 jumpers - exactly the same as when we pick 1 of Hooper and Pocock and start Skelton in the row. The bigger factor is that Simmons was injured and that we had 2 new starting locks that were calling it in his place. Moore also didn't have his best throwing night, and I think poor throws contributed to a couple of the 3 that we lost on our throw.

Against England I'd be playing to our strengths, not theirs. If the Pooper plus Fardy can cause the All Blacks so much trouble imagine how much of a pain they'll be for the slower English forwards.

 

[BDA]

How much of our lineout problem was down to Moore having a poor game, a lineout caller who hasn't called the Wallaby lineout for a long time and a new locking combination?

Would our lineout really have been better if Skelton had started instead of Mumm and Palu or McCalman was at number 8?

Don't know the answer to those questions, because we've only seen us use Pooper on the one occasion.

Certainly the return of Simmons will help the line-out and yes I thought Moore had an off game by his standards.

We'll know more as time goes on. My gut feeling is that for a team like England, which will concentrate their efforts on the set piece, this might not be the best option. Different teams create different challenges. New Zealand give the ball a lot of width, and attack from deeper than a lot of teams. Having both Pocock and Hooper makes our defensive line very hard to breakdown, which frustrated the Kiwi's gameplan. England on the other hand are unlikely to play a running game. They'll rely on tactical kicking and set piece penalties to work their way down the field. Whether that requires different personnel remains to be seen.

In my view, its still too early ew to be saying this will suit every occasion, but it certainly worked on Saturday, and I' go with the same this weekend.

 

[Strewthcobber]

Don't know the answer to those questions, because we've only seen us use Pooper on the one occasion.

Certainly the return of Simmons will help the line-out and yes I thought Moore had an off game by his standards.

Just had a look at the replay at those three lineouts

• First was to the front - 3 - and I think it was probably a poor lift by Hooper(!) at the front of the pod to blame (Hooper and Fardy lifting Horwill)
• The second was to the middle and a timing issue - they didn't get the jumper up in time and got outmuscled by the kiwi in a stronger postion (Horwill and Mumm lifting Fardy)
• Third probably was an over throw over the back, but again I think the lifters+jumper share some of the blam for not getting up at the right time (Fardy and Kepu lifting Horwill)

In all of these lineouts the jumper was going up to the ball instead of being there for the ball coming to him.

 

[BDA]

Again I'm not saying that the lineout in this particular game can be blamed on Pooper, but it's a pretty common concept that the reason you don't play 2 no.7s is that it effects the balance of the forward pack. I thought it helped more than hindered, but there may be games where that's not the case.

 

[Pfitzy]

For those saying Mumm didn't have a big enough game: anyone who has coached rugby knows you don't expect all your forwards to be blockbusting ball runners. Otherwise the silly buggers would be lining up in midfield instead of covering your ruck ball.

If you have 4 good ball runners in your pack, then great. The other 4 can help each pod reset and go again. This isn't fucking rugby league.

Gee, none of the Kiwis that I was talking to at club rugby this morning thought the ABs played badly.

 

[fatprop]

Phipps was way below par but he has a good "body of work" behind him.
He was harassed by loiterers at the back of the breakdown and fell down a few times particularly in his passes to Foley and Gits as well as his yellow card offence. He is obviously being instructed to selectively box kick so hard to fault him there. His energy and mobility has in the past been a major catalyst for our go forward.

Nic White came on and was electric and laid down a great case for his world cup campaign and even a start next week. Good players recover from bad games and competition for places is a luxury we haven't had for some time and..WE BEAT THE ALL BLACKS!.

I hope I feel this good next Monday morning!

I think another ref may have been tougher on both sides

 

[Brumby Runner]

He would only be the third halfback in the RWC squad with the plan that he is never actually played there. He only spent time at halfback because our 9 was yellow carded.

As the third halfback in the RWC squad he'd only appear on the bench as the halfback if one of our two halfbacks got injured for a single game and was then going to be fit again or if a halfback was injured within two days of the test.

In general, the third halfback position for the RWC is not utilised so we may be better served having Giteau as that emergency option and freeing up another space for someone like Leali'ifano.

I don't think you mean it @BH, but the way I read this post it seems you're saying Giteau would sit on the bench for a whole game, probably not being used, if one of the half backs was out injured. Now, I am a loud supporter of Lealiifano playing at 12, but I'm sure that's not what you meant?

 

[cyclopath]

Yeah, there were a lot of sleeping Kiwis and shot Wallabies on Sat night. Moore and Kepu were frequent culprits, McCaw and Franks for them. It's a pain to see and Barnes was pretty lax on it all night. We shouldn't complain as the Wallabies did it plenty.

 

[Brumby Runner]

Don't know the answer to those questions, because we've only seen us use Pooper on the one occasion.

Certainly the return of Simmons will help the line-out and yes I thought Moore had an off game by his standards.

We'll know more as time goes on. My gut feeling is that for a team like England, which will concentrate their efforts on the set piece, this might not be the best option. Different teams create different challenges. New Zealand give the ball a lot of width, and attack from deeper than a lot of teams. Having both Pocock and Hooper makes our defensive line very hard to breakdown, which frustrated the Kiwi's gameplan. England on the other hand are unlikely to play a running game. They'll rely on tactical kicking and set piece penalties to work their way down the field. Whether that requires different personnel remains to be seen.

In my view, its still too early ew to be saying this will suit every occasion, but it certainly worked on Saturday, and I' go with the same this weekend.

Why not attempt to force the English to play a different game rather than us adopting a different structure and plan to counter what they want to do?

 

[Braveheart81]

I don't think you mean it @BH, but the way I read this post it seems you're saying Giteau would sit on the bench for a whole game, probably not being used, if one of the half backs was out injured. Now, I am a loud supporter of Lealiifano playing at 12, but I'm sure that's not what you meant?

I was saying that you would only pick two specialist halfbacks and Giteau would be the third option in case of emergency.

Your scenarios are:

1) Neither halfback gets injured so Giteau is never selected as halfback throughout the RWC. Currently he is in our matchday 23 at 12 and would remain there.

2) If either halfback got injured either for a short time where you thought they could recover for later in the RWC or one of them got injured within 48 hours of the match, Giteau would move to the bench as the second halfback. You would be planning to play the specialist halfback for as close to 80 minutes as possible.

3) If either of the two halfbacks suffer a serious injury they get replaced by a specialist halfback in the squad (presumably Genia comes in).

This is the sort of option I can see happening to allow us to select someone like Leali'ifano as an extra backline option rather than picking a third specialist halfback who might not even get a game.

 

[drewprint]

Why not attempt to force the English to play a different game rather than us adopting a different structure and plan to counter what they want to do?

Exactly. Fuck those guys. Let them try and deal with our style of play. We have a point of difference so let's use it.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Not sure I'd use the Pooper combo in every game. Looks to give us a important edge at the breakdown and in terms of defence, but certainly hurt our line-out and might also hurt our scrum against the better scrums.

It should be horses for courses. I still think against England we may want to go with a bigger pack with more line-out jumpers. Maybe start Palu or McCalman at 8 and then finish the game with Pooper.

I thought our scrum was fine and Pocock was good at the back - which is obviously easier when the scrum is OK.
There's only 4 kgs between Pocock and McCalman - is Palu anywhere near a spot at the moment?
On the issue of the better scrummaging packs: don't underestimate the capacity of our scrum performance on Saturday to change ref's perceptions. Notice Barnes penalised Franks (presumably on Nige's report - doesn't matter) for collapsing: would we have won that but for having demonstrated parity from the beginning?

 

[Teh Other Dave]

Why not attempt to force the English to play a different game rather than us adopting a different structure and plan to counter what they want to do?

Simple really. Ensure a stable scrum. England negated. Next.

 

[BDA]

I'd say the 2 half backs and Giteau option is now very likely considering that Giteau was probably better there than Phipps on Saturday

 

[BDA]

Why not attempt to force the English to play a different game rather than us adopting a different structure and plan to counter what they want to do?

Pretty hard to force a team not to play field position / conservative set-piece rugby unless you have a dominant scrum / line-out / maul defence.

 

[Jagman]

I'd say the 2 half backs and Giteau option is now very likely considering that Giteau was probably better there than Phipps on Saturday

Really? The fact that it caused him to cramp up in just 10 minutes means that he hasn't even been practicing there. Which means the coaching staff aren't preparing him for that role at all. Besides that his passes were fitting of the Sydney harbor scenery. 3 real halfbacks please.


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