NZ v Australia.

[rugbywhisperer]

I am puzzled at the comments on Sharpe. Every time I looked he was in there, he won or assisted in oodles of turnover, he did the job tonight.
In fact I was very happy with all the forwards except Baxter who now has been exposed (again) - this time with with evidence - that as a THP he makes a great benchwarmer at club level. Alexander can on and did what Baxter should have been doing - ACTUALLY NOT COLLAPSING. It's funny how the simple things impress.
Kaplan must have a: read the law book on the flight over and b: had the riot act read to him because the refereeing at the breakdown while still not perfect was light years up on previious games, week, months, years of the blind guessing his compatriots (and he) have dished up.
The backs - well they are useless.
I have said since day one, some years ago that Gitteau is not a 10 - the backline is totally inept in running when he is there, they (the backs) have have absolutely NO respect for the hard won ball the forwards delivered to them, they (read MITCHELL and the back 3) do not know how to either create somehing or keep it safe, their first option every time - even in straight out attack is kick the ball directly back to the opposition and have them return it with interest either by great back line play or a kick that actually achieves something other than push the ball off the foot. Honestly, how our forwards keep their rage under contol is beyond me - to actually perform and win respectable ball in good position, then to see it kicked away by a back who wants no more to do with it only to see the opposition return it with interest - time and time again - well they get my respect. Maybe it's time some of the backs spent some time in a scrum machine.
The interesting point is - WE HAVE NO ONE - NOT EVEN TUQURI OR IOANE to replace them. For too long now we have nurtured a philosophy of easy way out for the backs - we just don't know anymore how to attack - ball in hand and play multi phase rugby, we have become so damned scared of turning the ball over or committing an infringement at the T/R/M that we now take the easy option of kicking it away - uselessly because simply if we don't have the ball in hand how can we turn it over - great logic. More later - I need to kick something for a while.

 

[mark_s]

I agree the scrums improved when Alexander came up, but we were still getting screwed at will and was getting poor quality ball. My main problem with our pigs was that, as per previous games, they got dominated at the ruck during the last 20-30 mins. Look how the Black forwards hunted together during this period and how our forwards were disjointed and struggled to win turnovers/maintain quality possession.

 

[rugbywhisperer]

Have got to agree with that, but aside from that, and the aquaduct, education, peace - our forwards did far better than past endeavours

 

[cyclopath]

RW - I agree re Giteau / Barnes. Last year I and others called for them to be swapped. This year I got suckered into thinking Giteau had sorted himself at 10 after the S14 where he looked good. Shows the difference between the 2 games really, doesn't it?
Mark - the impression I had at the game was that we lost the breakdowns also - maybe not in pure numbers, but at critical times which is probably more important. I still think that overall our forwards did more than enough to have us in that game, and how many games in the past did we win with 35-40% possession? Our backs attacking play is too scratchy to do that.

 

[waratahjesus]

was at the game, dont remember much but just want someone with stats ability to show from the time giteau became flyhalf how many we have won/lost, i think he is the problem, he isnt the leader!

 

[cheezel]

I agree with most of what's been said, it was an extremely poor loss. The only positives to take from the match were Smith, Robinson, Rocky and Hynes. It's like the Wallabies are playing like the reds have been, they've got the cattle but they are just continuing to suck.

Our ability to get to the breakdown in the second half is atrocious, do we need better fitness/tactics so that our ball carriers don't get isolated and fucked on by 5-6 opposition players every time we make a small break.

It wasn't good at all.

 

[the gambler]

Just a few comments from the nosebleeds.

Moore is nowhere near the best hooker in the world on that performance. I realise he had to come on and off with the blood bin but gee his ball running and some of his work at the breakdown was extrememly poor.

Sharpe actually got more involved than usual but obviously didnt deserve MoM and wouldnt be in my starting XV. Having said that I'm more disappointed with Horwill who we all had such high hopes for.

Brown just doesnt have the impact required for international rugby. Did pull off a couple of decent hits but there was just not enough when we had the ball.

Pocock was pretty ineffective when he came on.

Burgess - easily his best game of the tri nations. Some of his cover defence and general mop up work was immense.

AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) is easily the most dangerous of Australian backs at the moment although perhaps that is not saying much.

Gits kicking out of hand was just woeful. If Barnes had been able to play the 2nd half we would have won.

With 5 mins to go we are leading by 2. We have the ball in the ABs 20 but we are short on numbers with no attacking threat. Surely the field goal has to be an option??

I qualify all of the above by admitting I called for a 5-2 bench which given the injuries in the backs would have meant Burgess on the wing for most of the 2nd half. Shows how much I know.

 

[louie]

randwick had better attack then we did last night.

 

[Grandmaster Flash]

With 5 mins to go we are leading by 2. We have the ball in the ABs 20 but we are short on numbers with no attacking threat. Surely the field goal has to be an option??

Suprised this hasn't been discussed more. The hooter had gone and we were flinging it left and right to inside the AB 22 going for the try, surely a field goal would have been a better option?

 

[rugbywhisperer]

I was waiting to see if anyone brought it up -
come on Lee - please put some perspective on us poor misguided ones.

 

[the gambler]

I could understand not going for the field goal after the hooter. As it was we had a couple of overlaps and should have scored the try. I also have a feeling they were starting to think about it when Alexander dropped the ball as by that stage the Kiwis were forming a pretty straight defensive line and had numbers on both sides of the field. The period 5 mins before that was when we could have sealed the game.

 

[Rugby Rat]

Sharpie's a legend. Cowan should have been binned for interference a metre out. Ref sick of blowing his whistle. The AB"s could have been penalised in every ruck. They were offside on almost every kick.

Why is it we are getting the rough end of the stick by the SA refs ? Penalise all illegal play not just half of it, even if it means that the wallabies get a penalty every 2 minutes.

Backs aimless kicking lost it in the last 20 but I cannot not miss the refs missing 50% of All Black illegal play. How did Cowan not get a card ?

 

[louie]

here we go. don't blame the ref. we had our chances and we couldn't win the ball. Australia weren't go enough. again and again and again.

 

[cyclopath]

Sorry, ref kept us in it if anything. Cannot blame him at all. We are our own worst enemies.

 

[the gambler]

Absolutely Cyclo.

But Cowan definately should have got a card for his cynical professional foul 2 metres out from the line. Hell it could have been a penalty try in my books as I reckon a try probably would have been scored. How he didnt go to the bin is beyond me. But before PB has a whinge I am not blaming the ref for the loss. Just saying he made a mistake in that decision. Just as Sharpe did in the way he went to ground so easily. Butchered what should have been a certain try.

Who was the touch judge who came in to penalise the Wallabies for the late tackle? From what I saw that looked like a soft decision.

 

[cyclopath]

Absolutely Cyclo.

But Cowan definately should have got a card for his cynical professional foul 2 metres out from the line. Hell it could have been a penalty try in my books as I reckon a try probably would have been scored. How he didnt go to the bin is beyond me. But before PB has a whinge I am not blaming the ref for the loss. Just saying he made a mistake in that decision. Just as Sharpe did in the way he went to ground so easily. Butchered what should have been a certain try.

Who was the touch judge who came in to penalise the Wallabies for the late tackle? From what I saw that looked like a soft decision.

Sharpe really pissed me off there. He is the easiest lump to tackle - as soon as anyone goes near him, he falls in a heap; no fend, leg drive or anything, just over like a felled tree. Anyone else in the pack in that situation would have scored probably.
The penalty for the Carter "interference" was a joke. He ran into the Wallaby player and did a Hollywood. It made absolutely no difference however as they ended up with a lineout at the same spot. Case of "Look at me, I'm the Assistant Ref!!".
I didn't see the Cowan thing - will need to check replay.
All in, we have no gripe with the reffing - there are always some each way that are strange, and the ABs copped a few iffy ones against them last night too.

 

[JJJ]

With 5 mins to go we are leading by 2. We have the ball in the ABs 20 but we are short on numbers with no attacking threat. Surely the field goal has to be an option??

My read on it was that they were mainly hoping to milk a penalty and then changed their minds and went for a try when they got a bit closer to the line.

 

[Gagger]

I was sat behind the tryline for the second half. Two observations from there:

- why the fuck did we not DG at the end? I can land a dropgoal from directly in front on the 22. Which wallaby couldn't?
How on earth was going for a million pick and go's (with shit ruck defence) going to be a safer option than the DG? We needed just 2 points to win, not 4 or more.

- We seem to have pathetically slow wingers. Hynes got put in the clear at least twice (picked up kick that Siv left, and put in clear overlap bottom right corner) but couldn't burn the cover that was behind him. WTF???

 

[Rugby Rat]

Let's face it.

The All Blacks infringed every time we had the ball. That's all they had. When they had it and kicked they were offside.

We smashed them in both defence and attack. Even turned it over with a minute or so to go. Lost on the scoreboard.

Not blaming the ref, we should have won. Yet I fail to see how the AB's did everything to stop us building pressure through illegal play which also included a penalty offence 1 metre out and not one was carded. I could even go as far as to say the last AB's penalty was not correct. The replay showed a clear release of the ball. It was the AB that held the ball up. Watch that again. Very interesting.

That's my 2 cents worth. Apart from every back making an error at the wrong times we played very well until the aimless kicks at the end.

When the refs realise that they can blow the AB's all day not just half of it then we'll bolt in.

 

[Spook]

Let's face it.

The All Blacks infringed every time we had the ball. That's all they had. When they had it and kicked they were offside.

We smashed them in both defence and attack. Even turned it over with a minute or so to go. Lost on the scoreboard.

Rubbish. THe ABs were better and deserved to win. Their kicking game was so much better than ours. We played in our half most of the game.