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RWC Pool D - Wallabies vs Wales - Sunday 29 September 2019 @ 5.45pm

Derpus

George Gregan (70)
Foley and Genia were both so bad. Just unbelievably bad.

I'm confused about the ball not being out at the end. Is it reffed differently in super? I swear the rule changed to the 'plane?
 

Finsbury Girl

Trevor Allan (34)
Well I'm not surprised, though Wales were pretty poor in the second half I must say. They don't look like a team to make it past the quarters.

Again we were poor at the ruck and tried to play footy without earning the right to.

Flabbergasted by calls to drop Samu, was the only bloke to bust the line & make yardage. Pocock is clearly undercooked what a surprise for a bloke who hasn't played any footy all year. What a pity there's a bloke who was one of the best in the soup, battle hardened and fit as a fiddle, doing kids training camps in Gladstone.

Was Naisarani even on the field?
 

Strewthcobber

Mark Ella (57)
I'm confused about the ball not being out at the end. Is it reffed differently in super? I swear the rule changed to the 'plane?
What changed a couple of years ago; if you stand out and catch the ball you took it out if it hadn't crossed the plane.

Wales started in so not impacted by that change
 

fatprop

George Gregan (70)
Staff member
To me, we lost this game because of mediocre ball security, we had our chances, we were getting over the gain line, had a very solid set piece and yet we struggled to build pressure as we continually dropped the ball, had it stripped or delivered was hand delivered by crap clean outs. (look at how many times our 9s had to clean out)

It is no shock to see us do better in the second half as our ball security improved

Oh an why hasn't Kerevi been taught to keep the ball away from the tackler when running down the sideline so he can use a fend?
 

dru

Tim Horan (67)
We are a side that has to make compromises in order to get our best players on the field. One of those was that we use the lineout for ball security rather than an attacking platform, and the stats show that we adapted well. You were quite vocal leading into the game that our lineout would get hammered, it wasn't.

He wasn't the only one and I remain concerned with only two recognised jumpers. You are right though, the line out went very well under the circumstances.
 

Hookerbytrade

Stan Wickham (3)
Cheik, Scotty J and Mick butchered the halves call. Over the last 2-3 games To'omua has come into his own and rightly deserves the 10 jersey next week and the week after. Forwards still seem somewhat lost early with the halves not directing traffic very well. standing around like browns cows waiting for a ball carrier to put their hand up (IMO) until the finishers come on which change the game completely. WHY is this the case??

Can't rest on what would have been but if the Wallabies pull their fingers out and play 70 minutes like they did with the last 30 of this game. I reckon we will b in for a good game come quarters. But getting that consistency is anyone's guess. Good luck to the boys anyhow!!
 

Derpus

George Gregan (70)
Aren’t Wales supposedly as good or about even with England?
No idea. But England have wiped the floor with us the last 6 times and i haven't seen anything from these lads to show us that they have the tactical ability to compete with England.
 

Adam84

Nick Farr-Jones (63)
We are a side that has to make compromises in order to get our best players on the field. One of those was that we use the lineout for ball security rather than an attacking platform, and the stats show that we adapted well. You were quite vocal leading into the game that our lineout would get hammered, it wasn't.

Need to ask then, are we compromising in the right areas if we’re sacrificing what is statistically the best attacking platform for scoring tries in a RWC?

Actually I was quite vocal that Naisarani isn’t a primary jumper, he took 2 balls, fumbled one. Which still counts as a win, but it completely ruined any chance of an attacking platform. Rest of the time they mitigated his inability to jump by going for short lineouts and putting him in the backline. Sure, they won the ball, but they lost open space in the backline to attack through.

You purely looking at this purely as a statistical output, rather then what the lineout offers to the attacking team.
 

fatprop

George Gregan (70)
Staff member
Cheik, Scotty J and Mick butchered the halves call. Over the last 2-3 games To'omua has come into his own and rightly deserves the 10 jersey next week and the week after. Forwards still seem somewhat lost early with the halves not directing traffic very well. standing around like browns cows waiting for a ball carrier to put their hand up (IMO) until the finishers come on which change the game completely. WHY is this the case??

Can't rest on what would have been but if the Wallabies pull their fingers out and play 70 minutes like they did with the last 30 of this game. I reckon we will b in for a good game come quarters. But getting that consistency is anyone's guess. Good luck to the boys anyhow!!


I retrospect I think Foley was on a hiding to nothing, the guy hasn't played a match for how long? and his form wasn't great in his last games?
 

Strewthcobber

Mark Ella (57)
Cheik, Scotty J and Mick butchered the halves call. Over the last 2-3 games To'omua has come into his own and rightly deserves the 10 jersey next week and the week after. Forwards still seem somewhat lost early with the halves not directing traffic very well. standing around like browns cows waiting for a ball carrier to put their hand up (IMO) until the finishers come on which change the game completely. WHY is this the case??

Can't rest on what would have been but if the Wallabies pull their fingers out and play 70 minutes like they did with the last 30 of this game. I reckon we will b in for a good game come quarters. But getting that consistency is anyone's guess. Good luck to the boys anyhow!!
The change isn't the finishers coming on, it's that the opposition can't maintain their super quick d-line speed for the whole game.

Which is the issue with putting To'omua starting at 10. He's going to look just as bad as all our other half options at the start of the game cause we still haven't worked out how to deal with a rush defense
 

BDA

Peter Johnson (47)
Haven't read through others' comments yet, but I've had a bit of time to digest the game and have a few thoughts:-

1. I'm pretty gutted with the result but not the effort. I think the boys can hold their heads high after that second half performance. Unfortunately you get the feeling that they had the cattle to win that game, but errors costs them big time.

2. I was honestly surprised Foley wasn’t hooked in the first half. I can’t remember seeing a worse flyhalf performance from a Wallaby (I recall Quade Cooper had one or two shockers but that was some time ago). His selection unfortunately cost us the game.

3. Given that this was the game that Cheika has been building two for more than 2 years now, it’s more than fair that we now pass judgment on him as coach. Before I render my judgment, I think it’s fair to say a few things in his favour. A lot of the wallabies’ play looks well coached. The scrum and lineout were better than their opponents, and their ball retention in the second half was mostly excellent. The team is undoubtedly fit. Their defensive line was barely broken once; the two tries wales did score were from an intercept and a bomb into the in goal. Moreover, as much as I can criticise the selection of Foley, Cheika could have never foreseen what a shit show he would serve up. In that respect, I can’t completely blame Cheika for the loss. Had we managed to score at the death, this would have gone down as one of the greatest World Cup comebacks of all time and we’d all be praising him. But since we didn’t I get to sit here and say, overall Cheika has failed to deliver a World Cup winning team.

– Yes Foley was shithouse, but why are we still playing musical chairs at no.10 at the world cup. It really hurt continuity / combinations and really just showed that Cheika still didn’t know who he wanted in the side, after 4 years at the helm. – I don’t feel like Cheika had the players in the right frame of mind to start the game. The first thing that happened in the game is that two wallaby forwards were easily pushed off their own ruck ball leading to an easy 3 points. The players really should have been sharper in the first 20 minutes, instead they were a mess. – We knew the tactics that Wales would adopt against us, which is the same tactic that every NH team does because they know that our team is too stupid to adapt, namely they’ll pressure the halves and look for charge downs and intercepts. That is now 2 games into the world cup, 2 intercept tries. 2 games in and both games the number 10 is getting caught deep behind the gain line with rush defence and our players are looking around as though they’ve never seen this before in their life. It’s all very indicative of a team, with talent that is getting tactically outsmarted by their opposition. The other tier nations view our team as team with weaknesses that with the right game plan can be exposed. The sad thing is that they are not the weaknesses in skill like in years past (i.e. a poor scrum) but they are weaknesses in game management and test match nous.

4. For some reason we seem to be on the wrong side of the referees at this world cup. I’m sure it doesn’t help that Cheika continues to shit on the referees after every game (whether it’s justified or not). Once again they were giving us nothing at the breakdown. To be honest I thought it was a miracle that Wales didn’t get a man sent to the bin in the second half when they were repeatedly lying over the ball to slow our ruck ball. In fact no team warning was ever given. In the first half there was a cynical attempt by one of the Wales’ forwards to stop us getting quick ball after making our way into the 22, no warning from Roman. Our scrum had them back peddling all night, but it was never really rewarded. Obviously much has been said of the pivotal calls in the first half which gave the Welsh 10 quick points. Davis was offside, although, really, not by much and I have no issue with that call being let ago if The Wallabies had also been given the benefit of the doubt on occasions. That just never seemed to happen. In the second half Beale threw a lovely ball to LSL (Lukhan Salakaia-Loto) down the wing and it was called back as a forward pass. There was nothing wrong with it. Look, in every game one team is going to get the better of the referee’s decisions and it was clearly Wales last night, which is fine and to be honest Wales have had some bad calls go against them in previous world cups so it’s our turn now. I just hope that we don’t see this pattern continuing in the quarter finals.

5. Assuming that we are now off to play England in the quarters, is it too much to ask that the coaches actually learn something from the way teams are playing us and maybe, just maybe, anticipate that you are probably going to get defence rushing up on your halves for the first 30 minutes of the game.
 

Hookerbytrade

Stan Wickham (3)
The rush defence was accounted for when To'omua was directing forwards and flat passes with direct running, against the previous teams we have played, that direct running hasn't happened. tried to play lateral and out the back footy instead which isn't working. I just reckon To'omua is taking things into his own hands better, owning the role at 10 and running the ball straight and hard, he's that style of player which is why I think he is our best option to lead the push against that rush d
The change isn't the finishers coming on, it's that the opposition can't maintain their super quick d-line speed for the whole game.

Which is the issue with putting To'omua starting at 10. He's going to look just as bad as all our other half options at the start of the game cause we still haven't worked out how to deal with a rush defense
 
B

Bobby Sands

Guest
James O’Connor was guilty though of too much sideways running in first half

I read that in a review of the game, but didn’t necessarily agree. I think that comment might be about the pass he didn’t get away.
 

BDA

Peter Johnson (47)
Pretty sure it was in the news.


That's a crock of shit. You're telling me Cheika went and told reporters that he actually wanted to play Lilo but was forced to play Foley because he was injured?! Unless you can find me a quote, I don't believe a coach would say that...although post-match i'm sure he'd love to spin that as the reason for the change
 
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