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Have a rank: Wallabies v. Boks Pretoria

Matt Rowley September 30, 2012 21

No GravatarHow did you rank each of the team? Have a rank on us.

 

Ratings: Wallabies vs Springboks Pretoria 2012


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POSTED IN » South Africa, Wallabies
About the author: Matt Rowley View all posts by
Matt started G&GR just before the 2007 Rugby World Cup and has been enslaved ever since. Follow him on twitter: @MattRowley

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Discussion »

  • first time long time

    I don’t think I can rank hard enough!

    Tough one to watch. Thank god the Boks were exciting and lets face it they should have had 50.

    I still can’t get my head around the inconsistent selections. They pick a 5 – 2 bench, hopefully with some sort of plan, and when one of the forwards gets injured before the game he is replaced with a back. Fortuitously given the injuries.

    Who would have thought we would ever over-use the bench.
    Tried to be too clever and one of our front rowers can’t play longer than 30min.

  • McKenzie

    I struggle to fathom how we could be so sh1t!
    Hooper, sharpe and AAC good. Beale created opportunities almost every touch – just not enough of them.
    McCabe utterly ineffective. Not enough beef to do the damage required and distribution is poor.
    Forwards had a shocker at ruck battle. If we have to have Deans again, he needs to wield the axe: Dennis, robinson, tpn, Douglas. Passengers. Jet lag?
    How about the substitution stuff up? Was basically two yellow cards!

    • Old Weary

      Whoa…. Before we start throwing nooses of tree branches and setting crosses on fire, i think we shld slow up on the Wallaby bashing for a second a have look at the game.

      The injuries in this team are immense comming in – Kepu, Moore, Horwill, Timani, Vickerman, Pocock, Palu, Elsom, McCalman, Genia, Cooper, O’Connor, Mitchell I would think most would start in this side and Turner, Horne also injured. Beale and Mcabe rushed back with no real prep also.

      Add to that the massive injury toll this game, I think they did bloody well. When have you seen only 14 players on a team due to injuries?

      In regard to the forwards I thought they were very good. For christ sake even the Saffa comentators, the most myopic of comemtators in the rugby world, paid credit to the strong Australian scrum. In the first 20 mins they were winning the breakdown, the defensive line with the backs was where large wholes were made. With such little time together that is somewhat understandable. I thought beale was as good as we have seen.
      So rather than continually putting grief on this team I think they should be holding their heads high – many a wallaby team has been to Pretoria and come away of the wrong side of the scoreboard, none I can think of that carried such injuries.

  • Parker

    Mackenzie, why would you put have to have and Deans in the same sentence. We the rugby public need to send a strong message to the bozos in the ARU by voting with our wallets. It will be a case of short term destruction in order to create long term success. Deans has got to go. He’s broken enough spirits and mismanaged personnel consistently at great physical cost. I am sick to death of hearing that the Wallabies lack depth. We have some absolutely incredible talents and they are so poorly coached. Robbie is small minded and can’t accept that there are greater visions for the WBs than his bleak perspective can see. His time in charge has been ruinous for Oz rugby. Regardless of what happens in Argentina, the immigration service should revoke his visa and send him straight back to Canterbury. Thanks but no thanks Robbie.Go back to provincial rugby which suits your skill set better and learn from the experience of being appointed to a position way above your ability. If you can you imagine what an insult the appointment of, and persistence with, Deans is to Dwyer and Macqueen, it’s an even bigger insult to the Wallabies who play their hearts out even though their spirits are constantly challenged by their coach. If this game is first about the players, you only have to look at the beleaguered and demoralized team of troopers who are leaving Pretoria in Wallabies blazers. Australia owes them more than a substandard coach.

  • easts

    Whuuuut? Radike is easily the laziest forward on the pitch, Deans should have hooked him at half time for Gilly. And what about those two turnovers he gave away by running away from his support or running sideways?

    • bill

      That’s more than a little harsh, I thought ‘dikes tried pretty hard, I’m pretty certain the boks made a point of targeting him and it came off for them, not so much for him. I can’t see how subbing in Gill would have helped when the main reason we got smashed was the size AND athleticism of the boks. Good game from them and we just weren’t at the races.

      • The Rant

        Even the south african commentators were praising samo fro getting through a lot of work. I read the reviews and ratings before seeing the game I recorded and he was nowhere near as lazy as people seem to say.

  • PD

    How can this all be Deans fault? How did McKenzie (being spoken of in messiah terms) do with the reds this year when his team had a load of injuries? He shifed Genia to first reciever. I don’t think I have ever seen a test team so decimated by injuries. I am not Wallaby bashing. I feel sorry for them.

    • Pie Thrower

      He did pretty well all things considered. Hot the reds to to the top of the conference and into the finals. The genia decision was odd, but it was one bad decision all year. Compare that to Deans who makes multiple mistakes on a weekly basis.

      • Brax

        MacKenzie made the same mistake (moving Genia to 10) twice against the same opposition.

        • bill

          Genia was fairly poor that first game at 10, the second game I thought he showed a fair bit of promise, made a mistake or two but also made a big improvement in the way he played the role.

        • Pie Thrower

          Fair point, but the first time over in Durban it had to be done as there were no other options. Radike was playing in the centres from memory they had suffered that many injuries in the backs.

  • Doctor D

    Kurtley throws a ball into touch, a monumental error that just compounded the woes. We lost but Beale is hailed as a having a great effort.

    Two weeks prior, Quade knocks on a shit pass from Phipps and is derided for it. We won and yet the coach publicly blames Cooper for… well… not really sure actually.

    Aussie Rugby Public deserve Deans as a coach.

  • bill

    Well I guess there were positives in this game for us, but it was kind of like looking for lost skiers buried in a green avalanche.

    I’d like to think Cooper would pull his head in, stop looking like a soccer player agitating for a transfer and give us the 5/8 we need. because we do need him. But it’s a bit difficult to see him being accepted back without doing some penance, which he ought to do. Self destruction is a shit of a thing to watch in as wildly talented player as he is.

    However, as poorly articulated or self serving as Cooper’s criticisms of the set up are, looking at the performance of the team over the last few years i’d say there is an issue with the workload on these guys between tests and super rugby. Both TPN and Moore at hooker have looked flat much of these past couple of seasons. A situation the english/NH players have complaining of for a long while on end of season tours. I picked Moore and TPN out deliberately because when fresh there aren’t many that can match them and they’ve looked fairly lacklustre for their ability lately.

  • bill

    Kane Douglas would be experiencing an interesting mental space at the moment after having a great game last time out and then running into the boks in a mood this time. S’pose Sharpie would be haveing an interesting time of things as well in trying to mentor the youngsters in these circumstances.

  • dave

    i thought kurtley had a really good game considering how much ball he got on the back foot, quade made more errors with better ball against agentina and didn’t threaten the line as much, although quade has a better passing game than beale i much prefer kurtley at 10 than quade

  • spectator

    Get well soon AAC & Berrick Barnes (an extremely under-rated world class second five classic style pivot).

  • Jack

    The sooner you get Deans out and MacKenzie in the better! Then we will see what excuses you can come up with. I would just love to see what this supposed messiah can pull out of his hat…nothing much different as far as results go I suspect, given his awesome and substantial record as a coach, but at least it will be an Aussie coach.

  • Stin

    Should Deans get the boot, there’s no guarantee Link will get in is there? We’ll be screaming from the roof tops if Deans goes and Nucci gets in! Holy shit that’s not a good thought!

  • Parker

    ” Beale and Mcabe rushed back with no real prep also.” says Old Weary at the end of a litany of other injuries. Well who is responsible for THAT poor management of personnel? Dingo treats Aussie players similarly to the way senior British military personnel and policy makers treated ANZACS. In his time Deans has burned through more players than I remember any other WB coach ever doing (invitation to stat men). How many more blighted player careers are we prepared to witness? How many more feeble game plans, thoughtless substitions, baffling selections and humiliating losses are we prepared to endure before we draw the line? So, Old Weary, don’t be too impulsive in putting the noose away. “What about a trial?” you might say. Well what the hell have the last fives years been?

  • Cave Dweller

    For a moment I thought the Wallabies played in Green when I saw these guys running the ball all over the park and a 10 standing flat, running with the ball and giving flat passes. Then I realized the Saffers had a change at 10. You would not say it is his first international start would you?

    As for injuries. Practicing defensive drills in a test match on Highveldt air you were lucky to have at least 14 guys who could finish the game.

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