Wallabies v. Springboks, 18th July 2015, Suncorp, Brisbane

Two spots taken up by wide-running lightweight carriers. That's what you have with Higginbotham (effectively) and Hooper (literally). Having one is a maybe, playing two is balls-to-the-wind.

Did anyone else think Etzebeth try was pure luck? I mean kicking straight to Izzy is certainly not a smart decision. Willie's knock back was great skill but the decision to kick still baffled me.

It was shocking to me how easily the Boks turned us over at the breakdown time and time again in the first half. We'd get into their 22 and look like creating an opportunity to score and BdP or Louw would reach in (legally) and pilfer the ball. Frustrating. There wasn't enough clean out and nowhere near enough numbers at the ruck area. The two wider runners in the back row certainly didn't help and I hope we don't make the same selection again. I think most of us here wanted Fardy/McCalman/Hooper or Fardy/Higginbotham/Pocock and I reckon that was shown on the weekend.

Even worse was that the Bok's weren't committing numbers to the rucks yet they still managed to turn over ball at ease.

Seb, if that was pure luck, then every try ever scored is down to luck

Boks were exerting good pressure at that point and the kick chase was effective enough to have the Boks coming up as a line.

I think Meyer will look back on some of those substitutions and probably not make those mistakes again.

OZ were a lot better in securing their own ball in the latter part of the test because the tight 5 players on the field started to man up.

And on par with the crowd there for the Broncos vs Wests Tigers NRL game there yesterday, which was just a regular round game, although with the benefit of Sunday afternoon.

Lot of ground to make up.

I guess "luck" was a poor choice off words.

What I was trying to say was the kick was a very low percentage play that required a great amount of skill to pull off - although Willie pulled it off brilliantly kicking straight to Folau isn't a smart move.

I don't expect to see too many of those low percentage plays at the RWC, unless they have an advantage.

50k for the soccer on Friday night too, though that was a pretty special event for that sport

SA did have a penalty advantage when they did that kick.

Yeah, it was definitely a low percentage play - realistically, the only way Habana was gonna get to it before Folau was with a tap back like that which could have gone anywhere.

Exactly, so it's not a play they're gonna go to that often and even when they did, it required a bit of luck with the speculative tap back falling perfectly for Le Roux. It's not like it's a huge weakness for the Wallabies that needs to be addressed, basically.

Opps. I take back everything I said then.

I agree. I didn't realise they had an advantage.

I have always regarded the Springbok supporters (by their behavior in the grand stands), and players (by their behavior on the field), as good sports, and able to accept a loss. Sadly this all changed yesterday, when (in an act of revenge), one (or two) White Pointer sharks were 'herded' into the water where two Australian surfers were competing in the final of the J-Bay Open surfing classic in South Africa, and one subsequently attacked Gold Coast Surfer, Mick Fanning!!!

I think about 35k of that were from the UK.

It was a training drill.

(The two wider runners in the back row certainly didn't help and I hope we don't make the same selection again. I think most of us here wanted Fardy/McCalman/Hooper or Fardy/Higginbotham/Pocock and I reckon that was shown on the weekend.)
BH, I wondered if Wallabies were perhaps borrowing the All Blacks idea of wide running loosies (see Kaino and Read) and the reason they can use it reasonably well is that the AB midfield tend to snaffle as much ball at breakdown as loosies at times.

I think they were looking to use that AB model with the wide loosies but it fell down because the starting tight five were largely ineffective at the breakdown, not because of the midfield. I do wonder how much effect the harder training in the lead up might have had on their work there. Not that it was necessarily a bad thing, they'll need the extra fitness in the rwc, I just wonder if we might see some improvement from those guys as they adjust to the workload again over the next couple of weeks.

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Why're they bitching about the last try? The ball obviously touched the ground.

I just think it's cause they know it didn't actually decide the game. I mean, if that penalty against McCaw in the 2014 final had occurred in the 1st minute instead of the 79th, I doubt anyone would have made a big deal about it.