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Wallabies v. Wales Player Ratings

Hugh Cavill June 25, 2012 38

No GravatarI’ve watched the game a few times now, and think I may be ready to attempt the player ratings.

Overall I thought it was a solid win with no one having an abject shocker. Also, no one really played the house down — it was a good old-fashioned 15-man effort. So I think the ratings may reflect that.

 

Name Rating Comment
Benn Robinson 4 The scrum went backwards and his impact around the field was minimal. He has certainly had better days in gold.
Tatafu Polota-Nau 5 TPN was dynamic in the loose and got through a fair bit of work, certainly more than his front row counterparts. But his throwing was at times off the mark and he is also penalised for the poor scrum.
Sekope Kepu 4 Same as Benny Robbo. Scrum went backwards and he was pretty quiet in the loose.
Sitaleki Timani 6 Considering all the flak his selection copped in the lead-up, I thought he did fairly well. Did the hard yards and had a few nice touches, including an offload to put a support player through a hole.
Nathan Sharpe 7 The engine that drives the forward pack, big Sharpie was good again. Topped the tackle count, took a few hitups and generally worked his arse off. Can we get him back for 2013?
Scott Higginbotham 5 Had a solid game. A couple of nice runs, a couple of good tackles. I know he can do better though, and I’d like to see him running of Sanchez a bit more. Dropped the ball once as well when we were hot on attack, for which he loses a point.
David Pocock 7 I love how his running game is slowly but surely developing into a real asset for the team. His breakdown work was again outstanding, although he did miss three tackles in a very un-pocockian effort. Has taken to the captaincy well, certainly better than I thought he would.
Wycliff Palu 7 Would have bagged an 8 if he hadn’t dropped the ball on a couple of occasions. He is in the form of his career at the moment, and played 80 minutes in gold for the first time in what feels like decades. His workrate was fantastic, leading the count in runs and tackles. I can’t wait to see him against the ABs, and am now praying for his fitness every day…
Will Genia 7 Directed the play well. There was a noted absence of slow-ball Meerkat Genia, which pleased me greatly. He took on the line at the right times, and generally kept the Welsh on their toes around the ruck.
Berrick Barnes 8 Once again takes out the award for G&GR Man of the Match. It wasn’t a performance for the ages but he steered the Wallaby ship expertly and got us the chocolates in a close game. His only error was a kick failing to find touch from a penalty. Other than that he was pretty much perfect, and took the right option almost 100% of the time. Goalkicking was again good. Defence solid. He offers stability, which is something our backline will desperately need come the Rugby Championship.
Digby Ioane 7 Same old Digby performance. Came looking for work, and made an impact every time he did. You’ve seen it so many times before it’s almost getting stale. But then you step back and see how much of a crucial cog he is in the team at the moment, and I couldn’t tell you the last time he scored a rating of less than 6.
Pat McCabe 6 Was looking good until he copped a bump in the schnozz and went off in search of feminine hygiene products just before half time. Runs harder than any other centre in Oz.
Rob Horne 7 Did all that was asked of him, although he got a bit cocky when he started showing off to the crowd by scoring tries with his elbow. We get it mate, your elbow has healed. Finally. But seriously his defence was flawless, his attack was generally good. The latter could certainly improved but what he offers in that are at the moment is OK, and not much more. But he can certainly be happy after Saturday.
Adam Ashley-Cooper 6 Typical AAC game. Chased every kick-off like a mad greyhound, always made ground in attack, and when faced with open space and two unmarked men inside chose to tuck it under his arm and run at the Welsh defence. Could be in trouble with JOC and Drew coming back.
Kurtley Beale 6 He added some much needed spark to our backline, and created a few opportunities off his own bat. He tried a lot, and some of it came off. His pass to Horne under pressure was excellent and set up the try. However he also dropped a regulation kick and stepped out when under no pressure. The rust was evident. But still a good effort overall.
Stephen Moore 5 He is also penalised for the scrum failing, and also bungled a lineout throw. But other than that he did well.
Ben Alexander 6 Made a great impact with ball in hand, but is penalised a point for the scrum.
Rob Simmons 5 Played 15 miutes and was barely sighted. Which for a second rower is something to be proud of.
Dave Dennis 7 Made a real impact, and set up the Horne try through his linebreak. Has stepped up well in the gold jersey.
Michael Hooper n/a Didn’t get on.
Nic White n/a The new ‘Anthems’ Whitaker it seems.
Ant Faingaa 6 Took over from McCabe and did OK. Didn’t miss a tackle, had a couple of hit-ups. Vintage A Faingaa stuff. Never let the side down.

 

So there it is. Nothing too high, nothing too low. But I imagine I will now be vociferously torn a new one by angry punters, as seems to happen every week at player ratings time.
Bring it on…

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POSTED IN » Wallabies
About the author: Hugh Cavill View all posts by
The artist formerly known as Barbarian, but now using my real name. A pretty average writer and an even worse player. Subbies struggler and Tahs fan. I know I've said it before, but 2013 will be our year. Trust me.

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Discussion »

  • RockyElboa

    How does Alexander end up with 2 more points than Robinson. The scrum was struggling all night and only got worse when Alexander came on. Plus I don’t think you can rate Alexander’s impact with ball in hand as great.
    Alexander 3

    Also I don’t think you can rate Higganbotham as a 5 and say he had a solid game. He deserve a 5 or 4 and was ordinary. Soft at the breakdown and body height while running the ball is a real problem. I think he has potential but has not stepped up to international level. A nice rest on the bench would serve him well.

    • Hugh Cavill

      BA had a couple of great runs- one to come within a metre of scoring after Dennis’ linebreak, and then another wide out in the 75th minute from memory. Ran about 20m.

      • Pat

        Mate you’ve rated Alexander based on 2 runs in the very loose. He did none of the hard stuff and was awful come scrum time. A 3 to be kind. Also agree with rocky elboa re higgers.

        I think the backs got the rub of the green in the ratings considering their impact vs the piggiesbut

        • bill

          Alexander had a bad scrum early, the welsh replaced their prop, and from then Alexander and the wallabies got a few aggressive scrums. You can say it wasn’t their first choice front row but he still had more effect than Benn Robo.

          I thought Kepu was a 6, very useful around the park.

  • robbo

    If the scrum got worse when Alexander came on it was because Kepu got replaced instead of Robinson who was clearly toast at that point – he was the one giving away the penalties not Alexander.

    TPN a 3 – apart from his throws, how many times did he go early?

    • jrsONE

      Joubert was painfully slow to say engage – leaving more time than any of the other pre-scrum instructions.

      Joubert: “Crouch! Touch! Pause! … WAIT FOR IT! WAIT FOR IT! WAIT FOR IT! Engage!

      • BDA

        I find it funny that the IRB are trialling a removal of the ‘pass’, yet Referees still want to drag it up as much as possible

      • NTA

        Yeah why do we have a pause call when there are already too many ****ing pauses already! Get out of the way ref; as Magilla famously snarled: “just hold my hat and count to six!”

      • Old Weary

        I read a stat of only 35mins of rugby was actually played… pretty terrible spectacle considering the perfect weather and two teams that love to run. The pauses at the scrum engagement were a complete joke.

        Questions:
        Do we really believe that TPN should be starting over Moore? Or am I missing something?

        I also thought Kepu had a good game – Robbo just didn’t look good out there. In tight or loose.

        Hate to say it, but Higgers, from my pov, was crap this week, and rightly subbed. Not effective when hitting the rucks, and not involved.

        I have a terrible man love crush on Sharpie and his workrate. Love to see him paired with a healthy Vickerman, and cause havoc at the breakdowns.

    • Mart

      I dissagree. Robins side kept driving and Alexanders was the one going backwards and collapsing

      • Mart

        Robins= Robinson’s

  • Drop Kick

    Can someone explain what happened to the scrum? We haven’t been monstered like that for a while and the Tahs front row has held their own or bettered most other S15 scrums.

    Did the Welsh use some dastardly tactic or was it Joubert’s interpretation? Were our boys sick, tired or out of sync?

    Explanation in words of one syllable (i was a back) or even better some of those wonderful videos/diagrams with arrows pointing at hips etc.

    oh and no player vilification please. none of them are soft or without pride in jersey etc. All of them have performed better in other matches though.

    • http://www.twitter.com/scrumblue scrumblue

      In my opinion, the ratings in this post toward the props are way, way off the mark.

      Yes, our scrum did get pumped (it was still a fascinating battle), but there were a couple of pointers here that I can’t believe have been missed in this analysis and in the media:

      1. Adam Jones binding – Despite being one of my favourite players in world rugby, an old school prop, he’s a prick of a man to come up against. In the second scrum, he got away with binding onto Robbo’s arm, near the shoulder, even with Joubert just 1m in front. This then enabled him to dictate for the rest of the game…he was able to dominate Robbo’s centre, roll him in and down, and milk penalties when the scrum collapsed. How he got away with this, I’ve no idea…but good luck to him all the same. (I think the touchie even weighed in at one stage). Look at the best Oz scrums and this wasn’t happening.

      2. Alexander’s technique and lack of support – The majority of the problems in the second half can be attributed to Alexander’s side. I need to have a second look, but it seemed as though Alexander couldn’t get a good bind, while when he did, there was little rear support (i.e. that final of many at around the 59min mark). As a general rule, when the scrum goes down, it’s often technique that’s most to blame. When it goes backward, it’s often rear support.

      3. Scrum tactics – you’ve got to give it to the Welsh, they asserted themselves and played up on a perceived Australian scrum weakness (we didn’t have a weak scrum in the 1st half). Make no mistake, they were playing Joubert well here by electing to take scrums with all the bent arms…probably a ploy to get a penalty late in the game. I’ve got no qualms with this, and congratulate the Welsh on this aspect.

      • suckerforred

        There was a few times that I noticed that the Wallabies were penalised but from what I could see the Welsh were binding on the arm and then pulling the scrum down.

        As you said scrumblue, How the heel did they get away with it? But they did and played the ref well. I sometimes think that our boys are to honest for their own good.

      • The Other Dave

        It’s that classic case of the ref trying to pull a penalty out of their arse rather than watching the simple things like binding, body height and drive angle. I’d like to see Pocock or Genia get into the ref’s ear about it.

      • Who?

        Great post scrumblue. A few other things to note…

        On Jones’ binding on Fat Cat’s arm, we shouldn’t forget that this is the man who ended Baxter’s career by penalizing him off the park for incorrect binds – a TH prop binding on the arm.

        There’s another reason why Fat Cat was beaten. His shoulders were level with his hips, his head below them. But Jones’ hips were well below his shoulders, and his shoulders were generally below Robinson’s shoulders. Jones’ body positioning was fantastic. Meanwhile, Robinson was lining up head to head, meaning that, to engage, he had to drop his body and move sideways, while Jones just had to drive, given he was already underneath his opposing LH. This meant Robinson was often caught with his knees in front of his hips after the hit. Robinson at his best pops TH props, getting underneath them. His body positioning in the last game was nowhere near his best.

        Sadly, I can’t comment on Kepu and Alexander, as most of the camerawork I saw focussed on Jones and Robinson.

    • AJ

      Jones was also taking a step back after the hit and dragging his opposite number down. I hope the coaching staff were taking notes – their forwards stepped up massively at scrum time. I guess the last two games hurt their pride (I even seem to remember the Welsh going backwards in the first game!).

  • NTA

    Robinson and kepu were both packing too high, and couldn’t maintain it on engage. Lazy. Palu needs to rediscover his impact in contact because his ball running looks hesitant. Why didn’t Pyle get a run? Better than Simmons.

    • MrMouse

      That neglects the good work of the Welsh. They gamed both us and the ref by easing off the engage nicely and once we were off balance bringing us to ground-this was particularly effective against benn as he likes to hit the engage like a freight train.

  • Jez

    Ben Alexander a 6!?!

  • tommy

    I only watched the replay when I was pretty p!ssed but IMO there was no way that Horne should have been given that try. Surely he had lost control?

    • Patrick

      What rule is that?

      But he certainly should have passed it, no ifs, buts or whatevers about it, he should have just drawn the last man and passed, there is no excuse for not doing that.

      • Hugh Cavill

        Why should he have passed it? If he hadn’t bungled the put-down it would have been a well taken try. Why risk a long pass to Digby when you can run for the corner yourself? It wasn’t as if Digby would have gone in untouched, the covering defence would have certainly got to him on or close to the line, and the sideline would have been very much in play.

        • Patrick

          You’ve watched it more times than me but it certainly looked to me like Horne could draw and commit the last man and that Ioane then would have had (if Horne had moved in to commit the last man and beat the slide) about 10m clearance.

          As for Ioane dropping it, you simply have to trust your wingers to take those catches. Unlike with Beale’s, he was well-positioned for this one (iirc) a bit deeper.

          The ABs did it a few times, passing when you might have thought they didn’t need to. That’s one of the reasons they scored so many tries, they simply took the basic option (and, of course, pulled it off).

        • KDog

          Bollocks. You rate Horne at 7 out of 10. So if SBW or Cruden is 10 How can Horne be a 7 out of 10. Hogs the ball, cost the Wallabies a try in the first test and nearly butchers the second try with Diggers on his outside. Man I would give him a 4.

  • suckerforred

    Over all I would agree Barbar. Only point of contention I have is Kurtley. I would have out him as a 5. Some of the errors he made were just …… I have no word. Shouldn’t have been made. As you said rusty.

  • Handles

    Re the front row – I agree wholeheartedly with the mob. Whatever your relative rankings were for Kepu and Robinson, then they should get worse for Alexander. We did have a few solid scrums in the first half. We had none after Kepu was replaced.

    Absolutely every-damn-thing that Beale touched turned to shit. He also fell off at least two tackles that I can remember – not good enough. We know he can improve, but on this game I would rank him 3.

    The worry about Horne is that he always seems to make easy tries look hard. He clearly gets white line fever – and in this case he lost control of the ball. O’Connor would have gone for the showpony dive, which I hate, but would have gone over untouched. Or he would have gone inside, (like he has done several times) and made it look easy. He is flattered by your 7 – same as Digby and Sanchez? I don’t think so.

  • jrsONE

    Someone (AAC maybe?) needs to teach Rob Horne how to fend -with the focus of the lesson on the timing. Just hanging your arm out there is never going to work.

    • Eddo

      I’d rather ask Hosea Gear or Manu Tuilagi to teach him, but essentially agree.

      If he’d have blown that try I’d have gone from a Horner lover to a Horne hater pretty quickly..

  • Gordo of Brisbane

    As the collective rugby world heaps praises on the AllBlack juggernaut, a shrewd and unleashed Australian side is awakening from a winter slumber. To all the pundits whom so easily discredit this Wallaby side, just realize that the mighty beast has yet to emerge. Pocock and company certainly have it. Just when they will unleash it all is what us Australians are smiling about. Go you good things!!

    • KDog

      Mate I am as one eyed as you are about the Wallabies. But I reckon you been suckin on those magic mushrooms in Brissie or some moonshine juice from the highlands cause I reckon the only thing slumbering in the Wallabies is Dingo Deans.

      We have been waiting for 4.5 years for the beast to arrive and sure as hell by those four games if the slumbering beast is fat Sheila she ain’t warbling yet. I dont even think she has got started.

      Time to ask Jake White to take over and see if he can do better.

  • Jimbo81

    Getting sick of watching Australia-A embarrass the country. Time to pick a real team deans!

    • The Rant

      cheer up mate. 3-0 over 6n champs.

      • murph

        just. at home. against an underperforming team that hasn’t played together for 3 months. with players who haven’t played for six or more weeks.

  • Eddo

    Beale 6?? SIX?
    I thought you said you watched it a few times.
    As a fullback by trade, that was difficult to watch and I’d be betting that Robbie was wishing he’d put three backs on the bench rather than two.

    It was clear early on when Beale’s first pass went behind diggers that he was rushing things, neverous and generally just off the ball. He then kept that up through the full 80 and never settled. His chip through was a bucnh of bullshit. You can’t try that every time you break the line. I also felt he deliberately ran at Halfpenny because he felt the ball go off the side of his boot and he knew he had no chance to rectify the error.

    Not sure how you can say “rusty” and then dish out a 6?

    Honestly, given some of the 2′s, 3′s, and 4′s handed out already I’d have given Kurtley a 3. He managed to bring his boots this time.

    On the Ben Robinson chat. It was confusing to me why he is pulling his bind arm back to his hips during the ref’s call. Seems remarkably amateur. No other international level prop does that and I hadn’t seem him do it before either. I’d have given him a yellow for not even attempting to bind multiple times in a row.

  • Who?

    Did poor Digby get a pass in front of him all afternoon? I know Kurtley didn’t give him one in front…

    And Eddo – on Fat Cat’s binding arm, there’s another prop who does it. I think it’s the LH, Poux, in the French scrum who always takes the hit, then swings the arm forward from the hip to bind. I’m guessing he finds it easier to use his arm to stabilize himself in the hit, without worrying about grabbing the opposition’s jersey at the same time. I’ve never seen his hand hit the ground either. French scrums don’t reset any more often than any other nation – arguably less often.

    I find Fat Cat’s high hips and odd head placement a much bigger concern. Why are Aussies – Robinson, Alexander, Daley – the only props who seem to regularly line up head to head? If better scrummaging nations aren’t doing it then it mustn’t be the way to go. I can see it as an attempt to counter (illegal, but not penalized in 3 years) boring tactics from opposing TH’s, but I’d argue that setting up head to head FORCES the opposition TH to bore in. :-\

    • murph

      “Did poor Digby get a pass in front of him all afternoon?”

      Who cares?! What’s more important is Rob Horne. Just ask him.

  • mad italian flyhalf

    I agree about Benn Robinson.. I found him a bit off form and with some troubles in scrummaging time.

    BTW he had Adam Jones in front of him, that must be considered!

    I would have seen a new front row with Alexander, Moore and Kepu, with Slipper or Palmer on the bench.

    Brumbies front row with Alexander on LH side, seems very strong and steady, Super Rugby it’s not Test rugby, but Dingo doesn’t have experimented this yet…

    I have the feeling we won’t see this until november!

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