RWC: Pool C - Wallabies v Fiji - Monday 18 Sep 2am AEST

[Hawko]

Skelton officially out.

RIP RWC campaign.

RIP Eddie.

I thought this was a bit extreme when I first read it but after having watched the game it is maybe an understatement.

For all their possession and territory, Fiji only scored one try all day. They got treated very leniently at the offside line while we got absolutely caned. Reaction to the Wales match I guess. Notwithstanding that, we played very poorly without our two big guns. No one stepped up to fill the hole that Tupou and Skelton left.

Why we lost is 90% down to Eddie:

He over-trained our forwards again so that our two biggest forwards ended up with soft tissue injuries. This is not the first time, its been a recurring theme, but when you're Eddie you know better than anyone despite the facts.

His gameplan is clear: Run the ball no more than twice and then kick. That is just so easy to defend because the defence never gets pulled out of alignment. This is a gameplan for England or Wales to play, where the lack of experience in running and handling suits them. It doesn't suit our skills.

His selections are absolutely mind boggling: Vunivalu, whose first reaction after he made a clean break was to kick the ball dead. Why he did not pin his ears back and run like hell, pulling infield to link up with his supports; it was a try butchered. White starting and playing most of the match. White plays Brumbies football with forward dominance and running off the 9. Works for the Brumbies when they establish forward dominance. But we didn't have it without our two big guns. We needed to work off 10 with quick ball and stretch the defence to our two gun wingers. Did Korobeite ever get put in the clear once? I don't remember it. Donaldson does not attack well from 10 or 15, so Eddie gave him a go in both spots, pulling Gordon who'd just made a 10 metre half-break.

The combination of selections and gameplan together became a clusterfuck. We were at 78 minutes and seven points down so we entered into a minute long kicking duel (which we arguably lost).

Gotta stop before my blood pressure explodes. Qwerty is 100% right.

 

[Dctarget]

He over-trained our forwards again so that our two biggest forwards ended up with soft tissue injuries. This is not the first time, its been a recurring theme, but when you're Eddie you know better than anyone despite the facts.

Many problems with Eddie but this accusation is unfair. Our injury toll, whilst devastating for us, is similar to other nations. France lost Paul Willemse, Julien Marchand, Jo Danty and Cyril Baille to soft tissue injuries. We just can't afford to lose our two best whereas they can.

 

[Goosestep]

I thought this was a bit extreme when I first read it but after having watched the game it is maybe an understatement.

For all their possession and territory, Fiji only scored one try all day. They got treated very leniently at the offside line while we got absolutely caned. Reaction to the Wales match I guess. Notwithstanding that, we played very poorly without our two big guns. No one stepped up to fill the hole that Tupou and Skelton left.

Why we lost is 90% down to Eddie:

He over-trained our forwards again so that our two biggest forwards ended up with soft tissue injuries. This is not the first time, its been a recurring theme, but when you're Eddie you know better than anyone despite the facts.

His gameplan is clear: Run the ball no more than twice and then kick. That is just so easy to defend because the defence never gets pulled out of alignment. This is a gameplan for England or Wales to play, where the lack of experience in running and handling suits them. It doesn't suit our skills.

His selections are absolutely mind boggling: Vunivalu, whose first reaction after he made a clean break was to kick the ball dead. Why he did not pin his ears back and run like hell, pulling infield to link up with his supports; it was a try butchered. White starting and playing most of the match. White plays Brumbies football with forward dominance and running off the 9. Works for the Brumbies when they establish forward dominance. But we didn't have it without our two big guns. We needed to work off 10 with quick ball and stretch the defence to our two gun wingers. Did Korobeite ever get put in the clear once? I don't remember it. Donaldson does not attack well from 10 or 15, so Eddie gave him a go in both spots, pulling Gordon who'd just made a 10 metre half-break.

The combination of selections and gameplan together became a clusterfuck. We were at 78 minutes and seven points down so we entered into a minute long kicking duel (which we arguably lost).

Gotta stop before my blood pressure explodes. Qwerty is 100% right.

Talking realistically.. Is it even possible to fire a coach so quickly ? I mean Jones could argue he hasn’t been in top position long enough for this to be truly to be a reflection of vision …

not my personal take …just talking corporate jargon …

 

[Rebel man]

Many problems with Eddie but this accusation is unfair. Our injury toll, whilst devastating for us, is similar to other nations. France lost Paul Willemse, Julien Marchand, Jo Danty and Cyril Baille to soft tissue injuries. We just can't afford to lose our two best whereas they can.

Also Eddie is the third consecutive coach to highlight the playing groups lake of fitness. That points to systematic failings at rugby Australia

 

[RugbyReg]

I tend to think a lack of fitness is a crutch response by coaches recently for a team just playing poor footy. Our basic skills yesterday (and decision making) were very poor. And that was early in the game before fitness should be a factor.

 

[liquor box]

Have you actually watched any of the recent games? We kick more than we ever had in the past,(and we even have a player solely picked for his goalkicking) certainly more than Fiji who we just lost to.
This isn’t a team playing the old ‘run it from everywhere mantra’

Yes, and I have noticed that we kick for touch from penalties to get a line out (sometimes with the kick going out on the full in goal) within the range of most goal kickers.

 

[Joe Blow]

He literally had no other options???

Run the ball……go wide, whatever. Don’t give it back to the opposition.

 

[Rebel man]

I tend to think a lack of fitness is a crutch response by coaches recently for a team just playing poor footy. Our basic skills yesterday (and decision making) were very poor. And that was early in the game before fitness should be a factor.

I don’t think it is. In professional sport the fitter teams are normally the best teams.

 

[Brumby Runner]

Our only hope to progress from here is for Eddie to come out tomorrow and say we have picked up some unfortunate injuries and Kemeny/Leota/Donaldson/Vunivalu and Perese are going home and being replaced by Samu/Hooper/Quade/Ikitau and Wright

Think we need Sio and a THP or two in there too.

 

[Rebel man]

Our only hope to progress from here is for Eddie to come out tomorrow and say we have picked up some unfortunate injuries and Kemeny/Leota/Donaldson/Vunivalu and Perese are going home and being replaced by Samu/Hooper/Quade/Ikitau and Wright

Such a shit take, Hooper has admitted he is not fit and people are still simping over him not being in the squad

 

[Linerunner2023]

Many problems with Eddie but this accusation is unfair. Our injury toll, whilst devastating for us, is similar to other nations. France lost Paul Willemse, Julien Marchand, Jo Danty and Cyril Baille to soft tissue injuries. We just can't afford to lose our two best whereas they can.

But the French are still winning so they can get away with it

 

[Linerunner2023]

I tend to think a lack of fitness is a crutch response by coaches recently for a team just playing poor footy. Our basic skills yesterday (and decision making) were very poor. And that was early in the game before fitness should be a factor.

Exactly I have never seen Skelton, tupou, pone , uelese and AAA look so trim and fit
Fitness is not the issue a team gameplan and basic rugby nous are what we are lacking
Eddie said teams don’t score after 3 tries hence the kicking - which is very hard to watch

 

[Rebel man]

Exactly I have never seen Skelton, tupou, pone , uelese and AAA look so trim and fit
Fitness is not the issue a team gameplan and basic rugby nous are what we are lacking
Eddie said teams don’t score after 3 tries hence the kicking - which is very hard to watch

They look fit yet between them they would have played 120 minutes in the WC

 

[Pfitzy]

Watched the game later today.

Look, it wasn't a complete disaster out of context. Fiji are a good team and did the simple things right.

But we haven't improved:
- Discipline (in fact went backwards)
- Ruck basics
- Top 2 inches

There were players who did themselves no favours. No point naming them because we failed as a team.

Flush the shitter, get to the next one.

 

[Overtime]

Nah that's on McReight.

It's one of those ones where if McReight didn't compete for the ball, the ref would've been fine with Valetini most likely.

He needs to be smarter.

Be careful my friend, there are a few players in this team that are considered sacred on this forum. McReight is one of them. Been saying for a while they should be playing a bigger back rower than McReight. Have not watched the games yet but by all reports on here looks as though I wasn't far off.

 

[dusk]

Run the ball……go wide, whatever. Don’t give it back to the opposition.

They were literally rushing at us and I believe he only had 1 player next to him. He's not a fucking magician. If you want to be specific and look at the chances, we were legitimately more likely to have conceded a penalty and lose by a bigger margin.

 

[Pfitzy]

There's nothing wrong with kicking around your own 10m and making the opposition play from their half. As long as you execute it, and can take your medicine when they do it back.

Fiji didn't exactly run over us. They had better fitness than they've historically possessed, which helped eliminate many of the mistakes that allowed us to beat them easily in the past. Their set piece is about the best it has ever been (lineout in this game aside), and their discipline on defence is getting seriously good.

If we were a proper Tier 1 nation we would have beaten them, but guess what? We aren't. And historically, rarely have been except under certain circumstances.

The video someone posted with Matt Williams' comments was pretty much bang on.

 

[LeCheese]

 

[whitefalcon]

Our only hope to progress from here is for Eddie to come out tomorrow and say we have picked up some unfortunate injuries and Kemeny/Leota/Donaldson/Vunivalu and Perese are going home and being replaced by Samu/Hooper/Quade/Ikitau and Wright

Unfortunately I think its now too late to even replace the cattle (as much as I think those players are better)

I think the game plan is the problem.

 

[ForceFan]

Think you might not have been paying attention there, McReight didn't conceed any penalties in this game. Valetini gave one away for not rolling away when McReight got on the ball at the ruck, but the ref was clear that McReight was fine and the penalty was for 8.

Very easy for McReight to not get penalised when he’s late to every ruck.
Fans need to chill-out.
Can we just come to the reality that we do NOT have the talent on the park - as confirmed by the SRP (Super Rugby Pacific) results.
More than happy for Eddie to be blooding players for 2027
Need to rebuild from the grass roots w/out the senseless NSW focus.
As per usual I’m really excited about the prospects for the Tahs next year!