Rugby Championship 2025: South Africa v Australia

[Brumby Runner]

I thought he refereed very well.

How long before another Rassie missive comes out aimed squarely at BOK?

 

[Upthemaroon!]

Rewatched the game and a good thing that JAS brings is intent, in attack and defence. The moment he shot up out of the line, his technique was shit but the intent was there. Jorgo, Pietsch and Wright really grab on to those moments of intent it feels like.

Same with Skelton when he played in the second Lions match. His moments of intent (and shithousery) really elevated the pack around him.

 

[Uh huh]

It’s the big strides. He summed up what was happening at first and then realised it was open so he went for it.

I think the 10 situation has Schmidt wanting a guy like Len close to the play. He’s a great brain who takes pressure off the 10. JS right now couldn’t do that.

Is a valid point about Wing though. Mortlock did start out there for the Wallabies right?

Another player who could potentially do that at 12 is O'Connor, assuming of course that the first or second choice 10 comes back.

While O'Connor made quite a few puzzling choices in attack, I was very impressed with his strength. I spotted two vital clean-outs against a few sides of South African beef. He's always been a bloke who plays a lot bigger than he is.

 

[rugbyAU]

I don’t think it’s worth changing the centres we don’t have a test quality 12 and they’ve played 8 of the last 9 tests together

 

[Upthemaroon!]

I agree - but, if Pietsch is out, I also don't completely hate the idea of moving JAS to wing, Ikitau to 13, and Paisami (or even O'Connor - don't crucify me) to 12.

Would not be ideal with JAS growing in the the 13 position, but if they do it, the starting 10 for the Wallabies just needs to kick league style bombs to JAS all night. Those Springbok wingers have a combined height of 0.8 JAS

 

[Uh huh]

We are already invested with him at 13. Might as well continue now. He is having his issues but he’s also doing more than enough good stuff to warrant persevering. Especially seeing we’ve won our last two and his contribution has been a net positive in both.

I see your point, but I also think we want to avoid getting sucked in by the sunk cost fallacy. The amount of effort and time that's been spent on Sua'ali'i as a 13 isn't relevant to whether he can serve the team better at 13 or 14.

 

[Upthemaroon!]

I see your point, but I also think we want to avoid getting sucked in by the sunk cost fallacy. The amount of effort and time that's been spent on Sua'ali'i as a 13 isn't relevant to whether he can serve the team better at 13 or 14.

Fair point, just don't think our replacement on 12 would be better than our replacement on 14.

 

[Spamnoodle]

Another player who could potentially do that at 12 is O'Connor, assuming of course that the first or second choice 10 comes back.

While O'Connor made quite a few puzzling choices in attack, I was very impressed with his strength. I spotted two vital clean-outs against a few sides of South African beef. He's always been a bloke who plays a lot bigger than he is.

He set up 3 tries with vision and accurate long and short passing.
Kicking game was mostly okay and that 50\20 was tactically smart and perfectly executed. Tackled everything and marshalled well.
He had a triumphant return.

 

[HogansHeros]

What did I just watch???
How good!

 

[rugbyAU]

Wilson said on the today show he was 'feeling positive' about the leg - but will be scanned tomorrow

 

[rugbyAU]

Given Hooper's performances in Valetini's absence, is it worth considering starting both, and bringing Gleeson on after 45 minutes to manage Valetini's workload?

Yep that would be best - better for the line out too assuming Skelton starts again

 

[PhilClinton]

Just watched the replay again - very good win!

Not to take anything away from the general gameplan but we did benefit from a lot of great individual performances when it came to our attack.

A few of our tries came down to 1 v 1 execution and our blokes for once came out on top. Hopefully we keep building on that.

 

[Brumby Runner]

IMO JOC (James O'Connor) has taken over the No 1 ranking for the No10 spot. Not one of the group who has featured in that spot in the past two years has attacked the line like O'Connor. In this test we actually had some backline flair in attack and were able to put the Bokke defence under pressure. At least in the second half.

 

[Major Tom]

Given Hooper's performances in Valetini's absence, is it worth considering starting both, and bringing Gleeson on after 45 minutes to manage Valetini's workload?

Hooper stays at blindside (crucial for the lineout with skeleton). Valetini straight swap for Wilson. Gleesons power off the bench is so handy.

 

[TSR]

I see your point, but I also think we want to avoid getting sucked in by the sunk cost fallacy. The amount of effort and time that's been spent on Sua'ali'i as a 13 isn't relevant to whether he can serve the team better at 13 or 14.

That’s fair - but I think his long term best spot is 13. The two questions then become is it better for him and for the team to stay there and develop or to move to 14 now.

I think the best option is to let Ikitau and Sua’ali’i develop together in their current spots. There is an argument to be made for shuffling Sua’ali’i to 14, but if Len is going to be our Wallaby 12 I don’t see the virtue of pushing him back to 13. As a combo I think it is best suited for them to continue where they are. And as a team I think we have better options for wing then we do to replace one of them in their respective jerseys.

So in sum total I’d much rather they stay as our 12 & 13.

 

[Brumby Runner]

Yep that would be best - better for the line out too assuming Skelton starts again

My impression is that Hooper hardly participated in lineouts at all, being used to hit the ball up in centre field. But with RV back, that could change as that is a go to play with Rob.

 

[rugbyAU]

Surely it's time to start Bell again

 

[Blue]

Congratulations Wallaby fans. What an incredible comeback.

That takes some bottle.

Deserved it every bit.

Savour every moment.

Schmidt is building something special. Hope for you guys that Kiss can build on it.

Boks are left with a lot of questions.

 

[Major Tom]

IMO JOC (James O'Connor) (James O'Connor) has taken over the No 1 ranking for the No10 spot. Not one of the group who has featured in that spot in the past two years has attacked the line like O'Connor. In this test we actually had some backline flair in attack and were able to put the Bokke defence under pressure. At least in the second half.

He had a pretty solid game. Kicking wise he could improve off the tee and for the line. Bloody good shift for a bloke that didn’t look play out many games (if any) in super this year. He also managed the loss of Len for a while.

 

[griffins]

Surely it's time to start Bell again

Scrum in the first half was rock solid til the last one. It creaked the whole second half. Bell was massive but he also benefited from the game getting a bit ragged, he wasnt always carrying into a brick wall (though when he was he still did pretty well).