TRC Round 1: South Africa v Australia, Sunday 21 July 1:05am AEST

[Derpus]

Just got back from a delightful weekend away in the countryside and read all the comments, think I'll skip watching this game.

So, two easy tries from not defending the blind side? Presumably easy problem to fix.

Our forward pack was bossed? In contact or at the rucks or everywhere? How did our scrums and line outs hold up?

Was our lack of pace on the wing punished like predicted?

Does Beale start now?

Beale starts, wobbly scrum - understandable, dominant lineout which largely amounted to nothing, bossed around the park, slow to the breakdown.

 

[Derpus]

And yet his peers keep voting him as one of the best (if not best) player in their team.. He is very effective at what he does- he leads the defensive line and makes about 50 tackles a game, protects our attacking ball and is quite a decent ball runner. Undoubtedly he could go harder on the ball but to say that his workrate is ineffectual is absolutely ridiculous.

Matera is a 6 not a 7- he should be a better ball runner.

He's also routinely referred to as our best player by opposition teams. Him and Beale.

 

[TSR]

I guess the problem is that none of Hooper, LSL (Lukhan Salakaia-Loto) or Naisarani play particularly hard on the ball. I’m not having a crack at Hooper for that per se, but we still lack the balance we are looking for.

 

[Th0mo]

Do you ref? Do you know the laws of the game, or do you prefer to use "the vibe" like in the movie The Castle"?
2) Eldstat was on the side of the ruck when TT made contact and his grub shot as you like to call it was legal as he entered from his gate and his first contact was with the arm not the shoulder and for a "grub shot" it was very ineffectual. ​

Finding comments that that was legal bit strange.

9. 20. Dangerous play in a ruck or maul.
a. A player must not charge into a ruck or maul.Charging includes any contact made without binding onto another player in the ruck or maul.

Soft, yes. Legal, no. Binding at a ruck is usually adjudicated similarly to the tackle ie two arms attempting to wrap. That was no arms binding (first contact point not relevant in this case). A caution for both players would have been sufficient and SA keeping penalty but if going to escalate to cards then that was equally worthy.​

 

[Ulrich]

Another weeks debate raging about a ref and a card.

 

[Up the Guts]

Another weeks debate raging about a ref and a card.

The point of watching rugby is to disagree about the refereeing until the next game.

 

[Joe Blow]

I thought the ref was pretty good in general. TT may not have been able to pull out completely but he came in from the side and it was off the ball. He has a little history with this. The whistle had gone so he at least should not have gone through with it at full force as he did.
It was a pivotal moment in the game and discipline was required. We were getting on top.
He has so much to offer but he needs to wipe this sort of stuff from his game and play smarter.

 

[Tomikin]

If we’re done taking parochial potshots at individual players.....

The main issue seems to be the defensive structures, again, as Reg pointed out.....

Players seem to be confused as to where they should be at times.....

The constant throwing away of the ball - stupid offloads to players in a worse position than the ball carrier, or miracle passes to players in no position to catch them.

The TH side of the scrum got cleaned up - AAA should help that out when he’s back.

Tupou to play club rugby for the next month.

Largely I’d keep the starting team unchanged but bring in AAA and Korobeite....

Maybe Sio too to keep the LH’s rotated.

I reckon Slipper and Usulese might be lucky to play next game

 

[Dctarget]

I reckon Slipper and Usulese might be lucky to play next game

Was Uelese pretty uselessese when he came on?

 

[Up the Guts]

Was Uelese pretty uselessese when he came on?

Got knocked out.

 

[Tomikin]

Got knocked out.

Him and Slipper were knocked out cold, both being out for a good amount of time as well... And you made me spit my coffee with that pun.

 

[Braveheart81]

Whether the decision to yellow card Tupou was correct or not, it happened and it will happen again. There will be plenty of occasions where he gets away with that but others where he won't like this. The biggest problem with the cleanout was that it was never going to achieve much. Tupou is trying to assert some physical dominance but it wasn't like he was cleaning out a player right over the ball or that a good cleanout was going to get us quick ball and a scoring opportunity etc. There was very little to gain and everything to lose.

It was the moment that turned the game and we have to avoid putting ourselves in that situation.

 

[formerflanker]

There was very little to gain and everything to lose.

It was the moment that turned the game and we have to avoid putting ourselves in that situation.

Exactly the right description of the DH-P "cleanout" which left the blind side unmarked. Trytime.

 

[Braveheart81]

Exactly the right description of the DH-P "cleanout" which left the blind side unmarked. Trytime.

That was by far the dumbest play of the match. As soon as he engaged with that ruck for absolutely no purpose I knew that Jantjies would score in the corner.

Despite scoring a try, DHP had an absolute 'mare and almost certainly his worst game for the Wallabies. For all the talk that we should have picked genuine wingers on the wing (and mostly I agree with that), DHP has played there many times for the Wallabies and been consistently good.

With the dual fullback role we want we will almost always have someone like him on one wing. This week I think it should be Banks.

 

[Tex]

He pulled down a fantastic high ball which would have troubled all except Izzy, then fucked the pooch by throwing a speculative offload to a non-existent runner. His pass behind Hodge when we had solid go-forward was another lowlight.

He might be ruled out this week - that shiner on his cheek looked pretty nasty.

 

[Slim 293]

That’s now two poor tests in a row for DHP - he had a shocker against England too............

Coupled with his Super form, there’s a good argument brewing not to take him to the RWC unless he turns it around, quickly.

 

[Braveheart81]

The pass behind Hodge is a tricky one. When it first happened I was fuming at DHP but on the replay it didn't really look like he could have thrown it much flatter without it being forward. The ball seemed to float to Hodge pretty slowly and by the time it got there Hodge was past it.

Hodge was probably a bit flat for the distance he was away from DHP. Not sure if DHP could have done much differently to get the ball to Hodge successfully.

 

[Tex]

Strong case to be made for picking fullbacks at fullback and wingers at wing

 

[Braveheart81]

Strong case to be made for picking fullbacks at fullback and wingers at wing

Sure, but I think we will still want that second fullback on one of the wings and DHP has played the majority of his test career on the wing and generally played very well. In my opinion if we're only going to play specialist wingers on the wing then DHP is the third choice fullback and won't play again.

We absolutely need Koroibete or a similar player on one of the wings and I don't think we have that complete specialist winger at the moment who has the kicking and positional game of a good enough quality to fill that second fullback role.

 

[Finsbury Girl]

If anyone is remotely happy with that game then the bar is set very low. We are plumbing the depths here yet it seems our coach and captain are living in an alternate universe or are the new Marx Brothers.

"Our attack in the first half was world-class"

"I believe we showed a lot of good signs..."