Australia v Argentina, Sept 14th in Perth

[hughbert]

Apparently the scrum has to be deemed to be square and steady first, hence the ref call. I think you agree that there is no need for the call at all and the half can determine the timing of the feed, and I agree that I had hoped to see less intervention being needed.

design by committee innit.

I'm all for the straight feed enforcement though.

I also think full arm penalties have no place being awarded in scrums.

 

[hughbert]

Lol. Priceless. I made no excuses at all for him as I made no comment on how he played at all (good, bad or indifferent).

All the balls going over his head? Laying the groundwork. I get it, it's an illness. It's fine.

 

[Garryowen]

Was the last scrum good because they improved or because the starting Argie front and second row had been replaced?

As for recalling Robinson, he looked like he was attempting to live up to his nickname in the Woodies game, he was thicker through the waist than across the shoulders. I am not singling him out in this, but most Australian Frontrowers appear overweight when compared to their international opposition. The Uni front rowers appeared much trimmer than the woodies (excepting the backrower turned hooker Roach?)

I'd celebrate a good scrum against the Argentinian 10th xv at this point,

 

[gel]

All the balls going over his head? Laying the groundwork. I get it, it's an illness. It's fine.

However you wanted to take that - the problem is squarely with you my friend as you have put your own spin twist on things and cast your own biases on others.

Your comment was bullshit and nothing less than a shit stir.

 

[hughbert]

However you wanted to take that - the problem is squarely with you my friend as you have put your own spin twist on things and cast your own biases on others.

Your comment was bullshit and nothing less than a shit stir.

You're very sensitive aren't you. It's just a game.

Quade had a reasonable game. He didn't gift the opposition multiple tries and that's always a positive.

 

[Brumby Runner]

Mowen just isn't good at picking up the ball at the back of the scrum, something probably quite important for an eight. What we really lack though is a big running unit. If one of the locks or front rowers could just consistently make good, clean ball meters we wouldn't be so worried about not having a classical no. 8.

Although I wasn't previously a fan I feel in the current climate, Timani is a valuable edition. His skills are a good fit, almost inverse to Mowen's. If you have a pack of say Simmons Timani, Higg(Fardy), Hooper (Gill), Mowen, you have 3 solid jumpers and a big runner. As has previously said, Timani is basically your "Palu" type player, he just happens to pack in the second row, now with a number 8 that jumps we can afford a lock that doesn't.

Timani is a Palu type player. Surely you are joking. Should not be in the Wallabies' squad at all.

 

[FairWeatherAussie]

On a different note, what the he'll is going on with our collection of the high balls? Being allowed to bounce once in the odd and very occasional game is one thing, but this is the third game in a row where there seemed to be no communication and every second high ball was allowed to bounce. We probably should feel a little lucky that we normally collected the balls on the bounce and not the Argies.

 

[Brumby Runner]

Thought sita was great off the bench

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Aaagghhhh!

 

[GaffaCHinO]

Aaagghhhh!

You dont agree?

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[Shiggins]

You dont agree?

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I do.
Nice avatar mate

 

[Moono75]

The Wallabies just aren't playing as a team. They are disjointed loose esemble of players cobbled together but divided by coaching philosophies, poor skills, egos, state aleigances and lack of team dynanism. My dog Charlie has more conviction in beliveing he can imgregnate his pony toy (and he has no balls) than the Wallabies have in playing rugby. Thats just sad.

 

[Brumby Runner]

You dont agree?

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You're on the ball - more than I can say for Timani.

 

[lewisr]

All the balls going over his head? Laying the groundwork. I get it, it's an illness. It's fine.

My god, the baiting is funny once or twice, but you take provincialism to a whole new level. Just tone it down a few notches, please? I'm seriously getting sick of the whole "you're a reds fan, therefore your opinion on any player is going to be bias!". It's REALLY fucking annoying. Get over it.

Nic White's kicking - Awesome. Good decision by Link and Genia will be feeling the sting. I think we really underestimate how advantageous it is to have a player that can kick the crap out of the ball down field. Service was good and generally had a great game.
Forward Pack - looked more like a unit and were far more confrontational - albeit against the 10th best side in the world. Fardy, you're a legend. Timani really stepped up as well. Simmons had a shit game. Hooper immense work rate and great chat at the pack.
Gameplan - Thought it was implemented well. THey stuck to it and kept it simple. Still need to figure out why we love to lose possesion when we get into the 22... it's like a disease or something.
Mowen as captain - Wow. Team looked composed and well led under him. He always has a good reputation with the ref and thats half the deal. Still not as good on the paddock as he was in the BIL series but solid nonetheless.
Quade - played solidly and was significantly more physical than we've ever seen him. Good tackles and hit the rucks a few times. Will be interesting to see his stats. Didn't get much attacking opportunity in the wet.
Lilo - good running game tonight. Shame he had to sacrifice his kicking record in the crap conditions.
Folau - lots of kicking and it worked quite well IMO!

 

[Joe Blow]

Thought sita was great off the bench

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Many criticised his inclusion this week but the fact remains he is a step above Simmons and Douglas and his size and strength are perfect for test rugby.
He carried the ball from deep and bent the Pumas line a couple of times and generally made his presence felt.
Stick him in the second row next week with Horwill.

 

[mst]

My god, the baiting is funny once or twice, but you take provincialism to a whole new level. Just tone it down a few notches, please? I'm seriously getting sick of the whole "you're a reds fan, therefore your opinion on any player is going to be bias!". It's REALLY fucking annoying. Get over it.

Nic White's kicking - Awesome. Good decision by Link and Genia will be feeling the sting. I think we really underestimate how advantageous it is to have a player that can kick the crap out of the ball down field. Service was good and generally had a great game.
Forward Pack - looked more like a unit and were far more confrontational - albeit against the 10th best side in the world. Fardy, you're a legend. Timani really stepped up as well. Simmons had a shit game. Hooper immense work rate and great chat at the pack.
Gameplan - Thought it was implemented well. THey stuck to it and kept it simple. Still need to figure out why we love to lose possesion when we get into the 22. it's like a disease or something.
Mowen as captain - Wow. Team looked composed and well led under him. He always has a good reputation with the ref and thats half the deal. Still not as good on the paddock as he was in the BIL series but solid nonetheless.
Quade - played solidly and was significantly more physical than we've ever seen him. Good tackles and hit the rucks a few times. Will be interesting to see his stats. Didn't get much attacking opportunity in the wet.
Lilo - good running game tonight. Shame he had to sacrifice his kicking record in the crap conditions.
Folau - lots of kicking and it worked quite well IMO!

I agree wholeheartedly. Cut out the state vs state crap. It's the national team FFS, get over whatever issues you have.
Have to say, I was pretty disappointed in the review of the game on this site, though not entirely surprised given its author. Apparently White was 'average' with poor kicking. From reading the comments here it looks like people have a much more sensible and unbiased view of Whites game than the author of the article.

 

[christawph]

I don't know why the wallabies are copping so much flak from everyone, they still remain a world class team, how many countries can boast that? They are rebuilding after Deans hopelessly coached them and have many new players who are settling in and getting use to playing as a unit.

Imo rugby union is in a bad state presently which i think can be largely blamed on Paddy O'Brien and his minions (referees). The all blacks and springboks (to a lesser degree) have perfected the art of playing in the grey area of the game, while the wallabies are yet to make this shift. The refs are making appalling calls at the scrum and break down and seem to be ignorant to the rampant professional fouling and slowing down of the ball at the ruck. Take the recent wobs v boks game, never have i seen so much lying over the ball at the ruck while the ref stands there with thumb up coit.

Edit: How about the blatant obstruction that the pumas used to score their try? How did the refs not get the call right when they watched it from a number of angles on replay, clearly showing that lealiifano was obstructed in his attempt to tackle the try scorer.

 

[Joe Blow]

There is no dancing around the fact that our scrum is crap. There is just no gray area here and we were lucky not to get a card last night. Blades must take a good chunk of responsibility for that. Why have we been unable to adjust to the new engage sequence whereby pretty much everyone else has done so well?
I think the problem is in the back 5 and specifically the second row. Simmons is not renowned for his scrum work and his setup was terrible. His arse was way up in the air. Timani kept a flat back and moved forward and through.
Our scrum improved in the last quarter when Timani, Sio, Fainga'a and Kepu were on but the Pumas front row also changed, so this may have also accounted for them not being so dominant.
TPN, Horwill, Robinson, Timani and even Higgers, Palu and Pocock will help our scrum......but they have to have the correct technique and coach.

 

[christawph]

I agree with you joe blow, there is plenty of room for improvement in the team and the state of refereeing should be no excuse. It does no good for the game though and this problem of incompetent referring needs to be addressed. It kills a teams momentum when the ref consistently makes bad calls and in turn brings down the moral/headspace of the players which arguably has huge impacts on the direction of the game. It is something the wallabies need to work on, they need to nullify the referring (or use it to their advantage) as much as they can and play above it.

As someone who has years of experience playing union at club and state competition levels i would have to disagree with you about the grey area of the game, there certainly is one, especially at the break down

 

[Mank]

Imo rugby union is in a bad state presently which i think can be largely blamed on Paddy O'Brien and his minions (referees). The all blacks and springboks (to a lesser degree) have perfected the art of playing in the grey area of the game, while the wallabies are yet to make this shift.

Whoah there, I say, whoah. Are you trying to imply that the Spirngboks are smart enough to bend the rules like the ABs do? Brute force, biff, gees, abrasive, mongrel, frantic, pressure, all of these adjectives I'll give you to describe the Boks, but playing smart, or at least smarter than the Wallabies? No, I don't think so sir.

 

[Athilnaur]

I don't know why the wallabies are copping so much flak from everyone, they still remain a world class team, how many countries can boast that?

World class? Scrum weak. Ball handling error filled. Realignment atrocious. Support runners for carriers non-existent. Transitions achingly slow. Combinations appalling other than a few decent set moves, and they all crashed with errors.

Alexander looked like he was going to die at 55mins. Moore spent most of the game annoying the ref. Simmons was lost. Again. Cooper was most notable for a couple of runs which went nowhere and a couple of tackles any player can do. Cummins played like a 4 month old puppy, plenty of enthusiasm, no brains.

Some players were passable; Lilo, JOC (James O'Connor), Mowen, Fardy, Hooper, Timani, Folau White (mostly). To a degree Faiinga.

World class? I can't think of a team in the top ten I'd be confident of the Wallabies beating and I can think of a fair few I fear would paste us. Their confidence looks shot.

After watching the AB Bok game the Wallabies made my eyes bleed.