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Bledisloe II @ Eden Park

KOB1987

Rod McCall (65)
1. Sio
2. Latu
3. Alan
4. Rodda
5. Rory
6. LSL (Lukhan Salakaia-Loto)
7. Hoops
8. Naisarani
9. White
10. CLL
11. Koroibete
12. Kerevi
13. JOC (James O'Connor)
14. Hodge
15. Beale

16. FF (Folau Fainga'a)
17. Slipper
18. TT
19. Coleman
20. Pocock
21. Genia
22. To'omua
23. Banks
 

Dctarget

John Eales (66)
All Blacks will be smarting from the absolute hiding in Perth, will they come back breathing fire or is their patchy form more alarming than initially thought?

Wallabies have served up some absolute drivel recently, so Perth could just be a freak flash in the pan. But against tier 1 opposition NZ in their past 5 games:
- beaten England by one point
- lost to Ireland
- beaten Argentina by four points
- drawn with South Africa
- spanked by Australia

Then again, Australia haven't won at Eden Park for 33 years...

NZ still absolute favourites and deservedly so.

Predictions: Hansen will stop playing silly buggers cos if he's the first coach to lose the Bledisloe in 17 years he'll be exiled faster than you can say: "The Pitcairns are quite nice at this time of year"

- He'll stop the Kiwi Pooper, probably bench Cane and start whatever blindside they find at the airport.
- Mo'unga experiment over, bench him, BB revert to flyhalf and BFA goes back to fullback instead of doing absolutely fuck all on the wing.
- ABs to actually remember how to lay a hit on.

For the Wallabies, I pray Cheika doesn't fuck with the team too much, drop in Pocock on the bench if fit. Happy to see White start again.
 

BDA

Peter Johnson (47)
Yeh Hansen's got some tough decisions to make this week.

Surely he has to go back to playing Barrett at 10? He seemingly ended up playing there anyway.

Is Ryan Crotty fit? If so, they surely must play him. Do they recall Sonny Bill?

Having lost Retallik and now possibly Scott Barrett, it's likely Australia will, for once, have the edge in the second row. In fact, taking into account the players on the bench, you'd expect the Wallabies to have the advantage in the tight five.

Of course that won't necessarily mean much because the All Blacks' game plan against us appears to be to spread it wide at every opportunity. To be fair that seems to have worked pretty damn well over the last few years. I think the All Blacks will look to put Australia away early. Given that they seem to play their best rugby there, it’s not out of the question that they have a comfortable lead after 20 minutes and then just wait for us to overplay our hand, as we inevitably do when we try to chase a game. If I was the Wallabies I’d play a tight game, lots of attacking up the guts and then kicking to the corners and contesting the lineout. If the game’s close with 30 minutes to go, I think the doubt might start to creep in a bit with the Blacks and our bench players might just give us the edge to get over the line.

I do think having Pocock on the bench could be crucial. His ability to get around the field and contest the breakdown usually causes the all blacks to curb their movement of the ball a little bit to ensure that their runners aren’t isolated.
 

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
Is Ryan Crotty fit? If so, they surely must play him. Do they recall Sonny Bill?



Crotty broke his thumb. I think he is expected to be available in mid to late August so it will be touch and go. He has certainly been unavailable through the Rugby Championship.

SBW is now available and likely to play at Eden Park it seems.
 

Strewthcobber

Mark Ella (57)
No chance. Only an idiot would change the 9/10 after handing the All Blacks their biggest ever defeat.
The forums are certainly going to be entertaining when it happens. Note, I don't think it should happen.

The plan will be to not play CLL against NZ two weeks in a row to protect him for the WC, and they'll stick to the plan
 

Slim 293

Stirling Mortlock (74)
Let's play to win this........ keep the momentum with minimal unforced changes - in fact, I would only bring Pocock or Samu onto the bench.
 

fatprop

George Gregan (70)
Staff member
I think the will be one of those games whereby reputations are improved by missing selection

I would guess the selectors have had these two games mapped out with changes coming and all the dirt trackers rolling out against Samoa
 

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
I would guess the selectors have had these two games mapped out with changes coming


I think this is 100% likely but I also think that plan has to and will change after the win in Perth.

I also think that if our forwards play like that again, it doesn't really matter whether we have Lilo or Foley playing 10. That was certainly a much more involved game from Lilo compared to the Pumas game but both have been on the back of strong forward performances. I thought Foley was good against South Africa behind a beaten pack.

It goes both ways for Cheika. I think he could comfortably say that he doesn't know what his best combination is at 9 and 10 but he could also be pretty satisfied that White and Lilo are playing well enough that he can leave them there for now without worrying that he is missing out on something substantially better.
 

Dctarget

John Eales (66)
I wouldn't mind seeing Coleman brought on earlier or even started. Tough against both locks as they have been amazing, but Coleman showed glimpses of his best in his cameo and needs game time. If we had Rodda, Arnold and Coleman all fit and firing for the RWC, that'd be a very envious position.
 

Slim 293

Stirling Mortlock (74)
I definitely wouldn't start Coleman..........

He's earned a reprieve with his performance off the bench, and I would play him there again, but our current starting locks are building a nice combination and we need to keep that momentum going.

Also, our lineout is functioning for the first time in about five years - and to add to that we're putting pressure on the opposition by having two accomplished jumpers in Rodda and Arnold.
 

TSR

Mark Ella (57)
The forums are certainly going to be entertaining when it happens. Note, I don't think it should happen.

The plan will be to not play CLL against NZ two weeks in a row to protect him for the WC, and they'll stick to the plan
Fuck that. He could get hurt crossing the road.

This is the first time for a long time I can remember going out on a Sunday and turning up at work on Monday and non-rugby followers talking about how good the Wallabies were. We need to play 100% to win and deal with any fallout come what may.

Let the kid play.
 

dru

Tim Horan (67)
Should Cheika pull this off expect the “Cheika for PM” campaign to follow.

And I don’t think I’d mind at all.
 

The_Brown_Hornet

John Eales (66)
No rotations this week, go for broke and try to win. If they don't, so be it, but one of the two most significant trophies the Wallabies play for are on the line. Go out there and try to wrest it back from the Kiwis. Imagine the momentum that creates going into the RWC. If there are injured blokes, fair enough replace them, but it seemed most emerged unscathed.
 

Tex

John Thornett (49)
I don't expect us to win...but...

Can you imagine the confidence we'd take into Japan with a reclaimed Bledisloe in the dusty trophy cabinet behind us? Deadset if we can scrape over the line by a single solitary point, RA should spend the 2020 marketing budget and send the Cup on a national tour to every registered school and club in the land.

Sure, Bill is the biggest prize in the game, but the Bledisloe Cup is where the romance of the sport lies in this country. Win the Bledisloe at all costs.
 
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