Wallabies versus Wales- SFS

[Garry Owen]

Mediocrity? We just beat the 6N champions 3-0!

.

But I wouldn't describe it as convincing by any means. I can understand the dissapointment of the Welsh fans in the refereeing decisions, (but we have been on the end of poor NH refereeing when we toured so vive la difference), and we could have just as easy lost this series without the rub of the green.

Reassuring wins, no. "Fortunate" might be more apt.

I'm also tired of realling through the problems of our team, and that's perhaps what Dingo's hoping for - that we'll all just f* cough. BB, keep the faith, but also your expectations.

 

[Garry Owen]

When the Championship rolls around the Australian centres will be lining up opposite the likes of Steyn/De Villiers and SBW/Nonu. We will need a centre pairing that cannot only stop them, but also stop the momentum that they create for their team. Look what happened to Ireland on the weekend when you don't make dominant tackles on the AB midfield. McCabe/Horne/Ant Finger mightn't be creating pretty tries but they will stop the hard runners on the advantage line and sometimes behind it. If we are to have a shot this year, holding the midfield is not negotiable. AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) or Barnes might pair with one of those three but don't expect anything else unless it is forced.

Stopping them will not be enough. we will need to come up with something good in attack.

 

[waratahjesus]

But I wouldn't describe it as convincing by any means. I can understand the dissapointment of the Welsh fans in the refereeing decisions, (but we have been on the end of poor NH refereeing when we toured so vive la difference), and we could have just as easy lost this series without the rub of the green.

Reassuring wins, no. "Fortunate" might be more apt.

I'm also tired of realling through the problems of our team, and that's perhaps what Dingo's hoping for - that we'll all just f* cough. BB, keep the faith, but also your expectations.

Good call, why the f give any team credit for anything they do. Someone else's fault, someone else's win. Everyone get in a negativity dogpile and let's make some negative babies.

Credit to Australia for winning a series against a decent opponent, how is it hard to say. Sure there are areas they need to improve on, but we have a baseline now that can be built upon rather than a rabble, being constructive doesn't mean being negative.

 

[Alex]

Stopping them will not be enough. we will need to come up with something good in attack.

Of course we need to come up with something good in attack - but it is a team game and balance is important. When choices have to be made between players for particular positions Deans will not, nor should not, make the attacking choice in every position. Deans may choose to sacrifice defensive capability and workrate for attacking flair at 10, 11, 14 and 15. He may also choose Higgers over Dennis and Alexander over Palmer - but he would not pick Paddy Wallace to defend against SBW. Given the opposition we will face this year a strong midfield defence is not negotiable - no matter how good our attack we cannot be expecting to put the sort of points on the ABs that they put on Ireland. With the cattle at Deans disposal, I would be astonished if he sacrificed strong defenders in the 12 and 13 jerseys.

 

[Dai bando]

Not going to traul through all this But I poped on to say well done, Wales gave too many Penalties away need to be a little smarter Australia played what was in front of them better than we did
I enjoyed the series, a win would have been the iceing on the cake, but we play you again in the autumn, we must beat the better teams at home first before we can expect to beat them away. I don't think we are far away and will give any side a game, well done again, One last point the ref never lost us the game we did as a collective,

 

[vidiot]

All I will say is Timani did everything Simmons did in the first two tests, and on top of that gave three offloads in the tackle, one of which created a linebreak.

I didn't wander on here to sink the boot in Timani, but that's a bit revisionist. Timani was barely sighted in the lineout (unlike Simmons) and he 'hit' half the rucks and mauls that Simmons did in Melbourne.

Timani carried the ball as many times, getting a couple of extra pick and drives. He certainly made more offloads, and carried for more metres, though Simmons carries from very flat off Genia and has less of a run to the defensive line - the meagre metres he ekes out are tight.

They made roughly the same number of tackles, though he missed more.

I'm not saying Timani had a bad game, just that they have different strengths.

 

[Bardon]

There have been a lot of positives for Aus from this series and those shouldn't just be dismissed. Pack went well the entire series including the loss to Scotland. For large parts of that game the pack put you in the right area of the field and it was poor captaincy and then a poor kick that put Scotland in the position to score the winning penalty. When you were trailing against Wales there was no panic and also good signs that Pocock is maturing as a captain and is taking the points on offer. Defensively you looked pretty solid and you cut Wales attack out at source most of the time, which was essential as you don't want the big units such as North and Cuthbert marauding in behind your defence. a 3-0 test series win against the 6Ns grand slam champions in nothing to thumb your nose at.

However those that have criticised also have a point. It wasn't a perfect display and there are some areas of worry and other unknown areas. First the scrum was very inconsistent and seemed to go to pieces when you made changes. The Bok scrum was very impressive in dealing with props that were highly thought of in England, Ireland and NZ were probably pretty even in the scrum, but our 1st choice front row is top drawer, but after that there's sadly a vast chasm. although I thought Fitzpatrick went well in the 1st test. I'm not saying that you're going to get demolished every game but it is somewhere the Boks and Arg will target. With your 1st choice front row you should be able to hold your own though. Just you're like us in Ireland that when you get an injury it can all go to pot.

An unknown area is just how good your lineout is as Wales didn't play their 2 form locks (both due to weddings) and Rees throwing meant we didn't really see how you are at competing and disrupting on the opposition throw.

The main worry would be that your attacking paterns didn't cause Wales too many problems and that there's a lot of talk along the lines of "we'll be better when the injured players are back". I think one of the problems with the Aus backline in recent years has been an over reliance on individual brilliance to create gaps and very little coming from the patterns of play and out thinking the opposition that Aus sides used to be famous for. I'm not sure Robbie deciding to be the Head Coach and the backs/attack coach is a good idea. There's no denying his job is on the line this year and wearing two hats is never a good idea in that position.

I'm going to be cheering loudly for Aus during the rugby championship, it'll be a tough task against an ABs team that look like they really mean business. Not to mention the resurgent Boks and Arg who wont want to be whitewashed their 1st year. But we all know things can change very quickly in rugby and who knows which team will be in the best form come the first TRC round of games. One thing I'm really looking forward to is the fact that for the first time there will be two games each round so I can get a bigger rugby fix.

 

[Groucho]

There have been a lot of positives for Aus from this series and those shouldn't just be dismissed. Pack went well the entire series including the loss to Scotland. For large parts of that game the pack put you in the right area of the field and it was poor captaincy and then a poor kick that put Scotland in the position to score the winning penalty. When you were trailing against Wales there was no panic and also good signs that Pocock is maturing as a captain and is taking the points on offer. Defensively you looked pretty solid and you cut Wales attack out at source most of the time, which was essential as you don't want the big units such as North and Cuthbert marauding in behind your defence. a 3-0 test series win against the 6Ns grand slam champions in nothing to thumb your nose at.

However those that have criticised also have a point. It wasn't a perfect display and there are some areas of worry and other unknown areas. First the scrum was very inconsistent and seemed to go to pieces when you made changes. The Bok scrum was very impressive in dealing with props that were highly thought of in England, Ireland and NZ were probably pretty even in the scrum, but our 1st choice front row is top drawer, but after that there's sadly a vast chasm. although I thought Fitzpatrick went well in the 1st test. I'm not saying that you're going to get demolished every game but it is somewhere the Boks and Arg will target. With your 1st choice front row you should be able to hold your own though. Just you're like us in Ireland that when you get an injury it can all go to pot.

An unknown area is just how good your lineout is as Wales didn't play their 2 form locks (both due to weddings) and Rees throwing meant we didn't really see how you are at competing and disrupting on the opposition throw.

The main worry would be that your attacking paterns didn't cause Wales too many problems and that there's a lot of talk along the lines of "we'll be better when the injured players are back". I think one of the problems with the Aus backline in recent years has been an over reliance on individual brilliance to create gaps and very little coming from the patterns of play and out thinking the opposition that Aus sides used to be famous for. I'm not sure Robbie deciding to be the Head Coach and the backs/attack coach is a good idea. There's no denying his job is on the line this year and wearing two hats is never a good idea in that position.

I'm going to be cheering loudly for Aus during the rugby championship, it'll be a tough task against an ABs team that look like they really mean business. Not to mention the resurgent Boks and Arg who wont want to be whitewashed their 1st year. But we all know things can change very quickly in rugby and who knows which team will be in the best form come the first TRC round of games. One thing I'm really looking forward to is the fact that for the first time there will be two games each round so I can get a bigger rugby fix.

Great post, hard to argue against any of that.

I think it's ABs then the also-rans in the RCs this year. One can debate x-factor players but they have more, and more fit that we do. But yes, their structure and patterns are better.

Despite that, to their consternation, we can still beat them on our day. The best thing about beating the ABs isn't our celebration but their utter consternation.

The Boks are open.

 

[Athilnaur]

Completely agree that we need to get patterns going better. I saw the intent there, with our centres running a number of lines particularly while Pat was on - who I thought played very well indeed - but of course not easy to do if the defence is off the line so fast (often too fast). Wales, rightly in my view, played spoiling rugby and did it well, hoping to capitalise on broken play.

In this sense at least Joubert played into their hands. He needed to threaten both teams with cards but didn't. Not his best game.

The game made for a stark contrast to the AB Ire game but some crucial differences apply, with the Ire midfield being unravelled so easily and all too soon falling back in defence.

 

[What2040]

Congrats to Wallabys for win and series win 3-0.

In perspective, we were lucky to win. A lucky win is where either team could have won but one gets up. This was certainly the case in the last 2 matches.

Game 3.
Scrums were belted. Robbo and to a lesser degree Kepu and TPN were flogged. Anything else that that is bullshit. Kepu tried hard around the park and was a bit crook from the flu but he tried. TPN just appeared to choke. Robinson played the full 80 - no wonder the bloke was belted in thye scrum and didn't make a tackle, not friggin 1 in the first 60. he did tackle a bloke around that mark but he didn't even have the ball. Its time that an honest appraisal be made of his contribution to the team - get rid of the Tah mentality that picks hime week in and make him out. One of the best (if not the best) LHP in the world - what a joke !!!!!!!!!

I was surprised that Higgers went off at 60 and Simmons didn't get a run. AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) is a quality player !!!!!

Whiklst I had thought TPN had improved dramatically to warrant run-on Moore must start (and leave TPN as an unbelievable impact player off the bench).

KB (Kurtley Beale) was certainly underdone. Should blokes, even KB (Kurtley Beale), JOC (James O'Connor), or QC (Quade Cooper) come back into the side immediately after such long lay-offs or should they come back, get their timing right etc etc at club level. The national team is not a place to coming up to speed after long layoffs. A week or 2 maybe, but not months.

Had my Monday rant - still great to win over 6N champs. Robbie safe again

 

[Braveheart81]

KB (Kurtley Beale) was certainly underdone. Should blokes, even KB (Kurtley Beale), JOC (James O'Connor), or QC (Quade Cooper) come back into the side immediately after such long lay-offs or should they come back, get their timing right etc etc at club level. The national team is not a place to coming up to speed after long layoffs. A week or 2 maybe, but not months.

It depends on the circumstances. Sure KB (Kurtley Beale) was underdone, but he played a solid enough game and did his job.

After Vuna had a shocker last weekend, it was a pretty obvious call to bring Beale straight back into the side. Any other changes either involved playing an uncapped winger or shifting our midfield around completely and putting McCabe on the wing which would have been much more disruptive.

 

[fatprop]

I thought the game was tight because Welsh are a pretty good side, who played tight hard rugby, they aren't flamboyant anymore. There are big, fit direct units.

They defended well, competed hard and made it hard, just like a test match should be.

Could the Wobs have done better? Maybe, but under the current ruck interpretations we aren't going to spin it wide too often under the risk of a turnover. We are going to keep it close; we are going to try to leverage the turnovers into attacking opportunities.

So the Welsh stopped the turnovers and allowed the penalty instead. That stopped a lot of the free flowing stuff and it ended up a tight rugby match, playing set piece to set piece and penalty to penalty.

 

[Garry Owen]

The Boks are open.

I think we are underestimating the Boks. "Monstered" is an apt description of what they did to England in their second test. The third test was a draw because they chose to rest many players to take the opportunity to give fringe players the experience (what a clever idea?). Yes, they have a younger team in the rebuilding stages, and recently have been our bunnies, but we should be studying the footage closely.

 

[Garry Owen]

but we have a baseline now that can be built upon rather than a rabble,

WJ,

But haven't we always had that baseline? It's just the building process, more so the architects, that I have lost any faith in. The style is unimaginative and uninspiring. Please, all the best well wishes in the world for the palyers for overcoming the 6N champs (minus the locks), who would have been so hungry to beat us.


Unfortunately, (or fortunately?) the games have been followed by two other televised games, teams whom we'll be up against shortly, and that sobered me up somewhat.

 

[mudskipper]

Wallabies weren't that remarkable this month and were very fortunate in this test series... The Welsh were far better than a 3-0 result...

But I still don’t get it why there were so many Waratahs in the squad? But job done, they'll need to be better against the ABs and Boks or sadly we'll get smashed out of the park...

Good to see Beale back, but he was rusty... Wallabies missed Tomane's attacking verve…

 

[matty_k]

Is that an air horn when berrick kicks for touch? Has happened 3 times.

Happened in the 44th, 45th, 48th, 72nd an 75th minutes. They were sitting at the northern end of the ground. A bunch of fans of both teams were trying to point where they thought the sound came from.

 

[vidiot]

Good to see Beale back, but he was rusty. Wallabies missed Tomane's attacking verve…

As they have in every game apart from that masterpiece of attacking rugby, the game against Scotland.

 

[Ignoto]

But I still don’t get it why there were so many Waratahs in the squad? But job done, they'll need to be better against the ABs and Boks or sadly we'll get smashed out of the park.

I don't believe in this crap. Name me who should have replaced them all and how they would have change the course of the series?

*Disclaimer, I'm secretly posing as a Reds fan as I work for the NSWRU*

 

[maxdacat]

The thing is, the All Blacks were allowed to play in that way because the Irish let them. They fell off tackles and didn't shut down SBW who just created holes left right and centre for Dagg, Savea and Smith to cause chaos.

Nah the AB's went looking for the offload and putting players into gaps. We played conservatively and mainly took the ball into contact, looking for a quick recycle which was not always forthcoming. The take home message is to BRING the RUCKUS!

 

[ChargerWA]

The thing I am dissapointed about is the fact that Robbie Deans is gripping the steering wheel so tightly, shitting himself about what is coming up in the rear mirror that he didn't take the chance to blood a few young guys in the 3rd test. Hugh Pyle and Nick White should have both got a run.