[2014 TRC] Australia v Argentina in Gold Coast (13/09/2014)

[TRF_stormer2010]

Shhhh, you are summoning sig.. no, I daren't finish!

 

[Jaguares]

I think the Wallaby pack will get a right, royal rogering. If Argentina can keep them scrummaging (see Ireland v Australia, RWC2011) they could win, but their defence will have to be absolutely rock solid!

What worries me is that in the last two RC's this has been about the time that Argentina have started to fall off the pace.

Argentina can't beat Australia, we don't have ball carriers as Folau or Kuridrani. If I were Link, I would choose Beale in the starting XV at 12 because we don't have ball carriers on the centre (Hernandez and Bosch) then Beale's defense won't be a problem for Aussies.

Gonzalo Camacho said in 2012: "The Wallabies style (running rugby) is the most difficult for us, because they are constantly moving the ball and they have players who can do amazing things". Wallabies use the full width of the field, then you have to run more, then get tired faster against them.

 

[psychic duck]

If Argentina wins the toss they should chose to kick-off, then deliberately kick it directly into touch on the full. This would give Australia a scrum on halfway, which would allow Argentina to set the tone for the match (of course Australia could choose to take the lineout, which would ruin my devious plan...).

A couple of interesting changes for Australia. TPN will add another dynamic ball runner (and tackler) to the pack, though he can be a bit inaccurate at times. I'm slightly surprised they stuck with the same locking combination, but I suppose they don't have any obvious replacements. Good to see McCalman starting at 8. I think he was Australia's best 8 throughout the Super Rugby season, and could stake a more permanent claim for the 8 jersey with a strong display. I assume Tomane is not yet 100% fit meaning Betham gets a shot. He at least adds some genunine pace to the Wallabies outside backs. I'm still not a fan of the 6/2 split on the bench (as it limits Australia's ability to use Beale as an impact player), but obviously the coaches are pretty happy with it..

I remember Italy tried that once.

 

[Big Ewis]

Shadows?

fully aware. Part of the "mind fuk"..

 

[Darwin]

same story every year for us while NZ and SA come away relatively unscathed. Is there a fatal flaw in our S&C programs or injury management?

I'm not so sure about this. I know Australia has a pretty long injury list, but both New Zealand and South Africa have their fair share of injuries too. Stormer2010 has listed the key SA injuries - here are the key ones for the All Blacks (going into the SA test):

1. Tony Woodcock (1st choice)
4. & 5. Sam Whitelock, Patrick Tuipolotu, Luke Romano, Dominic Bird (2nd-5th choice. Thrush - who will start - is our 6th choice lock)
6. Jerome Kaino (1st choice), Liam Messam (2nd choice), Victor Vito (maybe 3rd choice?)
10. Daniel Carter (1st choice?)

Charles Piutau is only just back to full fitness, and the likes of Keiran Read, Aaron Cruden, Ma'a Nonu (and his replacement Ryan Crotty), Julian Savea, and Israel Dagg have missed 1 or more tests this season with injury (and it has hardly been a long season - only 6 tests so far).

I know Australia has a lot of injuries at the moment (mainly to their hookers!) - perhaps slightly more than NZ and SA (though not significantly more) - I think my point (like Stormer2010's) is that most test sides have to deal with a lot of injuries, and no side come away relatively unscathed...

 

[Jaguares]

Pumas team named:

1 Marcos Ayerza
2 Agustín Creevy (c)
3 Ramiro Herrera
4 Mariano Galarza
5 Matías Alemanno
6 Juan Manuel Leguizamón
7 Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe
8 Leonardo Senatore
9 Martín Landajo
10 Nicolás Sánchez
11 Manuel Montero
12 Juan Martín Hernández
13 Marcelo Bosch
14 Juan Imhoff
15 Joaquín Tuculet

Reserves:

16 Matías Cortese, 17 Bruno Postiglioni, 18 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 19 Benjamín, 20 Rodrigo Báez, 21 Tomás Cubelli, 22 Jerónimo de la Fuente, 23 Lucas González Amorosino

 

[Darwin]

Looks like Argentina have a bit more fire-power out wide this week.

What style of lock is Alemanno? I see he has some resonable size (listed at 115kgs on Wiki), but Argentina may miss Lavanini's more extreme bulk at scrum time (though should still dominate in this area one would think).

 

[Guilty]

I'm not so sure about this. I know Australia has a pretty long injury list, but both New Zealand and South Africa have their fair share of injuries too. Stormer2010 has listed the key SA injuries - here are the key ones for the All Blacks (going into the SA test):

1. Tony Woodcock (1st choice)
4. & 5. Sam Whitelock, Patrick Tuipolotu, Luke Romano, Dominic Bird (2nd-5th choice. Thrush - who will start - is our 6th choice lock)
6. Jerome Kaino (1st choice), Liam Messam (2nd choice), Victor Vito (maybe 3rd choice?)
10. Daniel Carter (1st choice?)

Charles Piutau is only just back to full fitness, and the likes of Keiran Read, Aaron Cruden, Ma'a Nonu (and his replacement Ryan Crotty), Julian Savea, and Israel Dagg have missed 1 or more tests this season with injury (and it has hardly been a long season - only 6 tests so far).

I know Australia has a lot of injuries at the moment (mainly to their hookers!) - perhaps slightly more than NZ and SA (though not significantly more) - I think my point (like Stormer2010's) is that most test sides have to deal with a lot of injuries, and no side come away relatively unscathed...

I'm inclined to agree with you here Darwin. I think it always seems like Australia are hit hardest with injuries because our depth in many positions is quite shallow so losing our first choice players hurts harder than it does NZ and SA.

The depth in the All Blacks squad is frankly ridiculously good (outside the front row). A NZ Second XV would still have a very real chance of winning the RC which is crazy.

 

[Guilty]

Argentina can't beat Australia, we don't have ball carriers as Folau or Kuridrani. If I were Link, I would choose Beale in the starting XV at 12 because we don't have ball carriers on the centre (Hernandez and Bosch) then Beale's defense won't be a problem for Aussies.

Gonzalo Camacho said in 2012: "The Wallabies style (running rugby) is the most difficult for us, because they are constantly moving the ball and they have players who can do amazing things". Wallabies use the full width of the field, then you have to run more, then get tired faster against them.

While I do think Australia matches up better against Argentina than NZ or SA in particular, the Pumas can certainly win. If the Pumas can dominate set piece and control the ball, then they can dictate the pace of the game. This is how you beat the Wallabies. Personally, I am pretty worried about scrum time as I think all Wallaby supporters will be going into the match. A yellow card and poor weather would give the Pumas a real crack IMO. I was one of those people who thought that the RC should probably go back to the Tri Nations but the Pumas have really impressed this year. They are very unlucky to be on no wins and I am sure will show up on Saturday.

Got to agree with you about starting Beale at #12. This is the game to do it before we lock down our major backline combinations for the rest of the RC and the Spring Tour. Seeing him come on with space to run against SA was brilliant and Folau instantly looked more at home.

Really frustrated to see Fardy still starting. I would loved to have seen Higgers, Hoops and Big Ben on together.

I'm liking the look of the Pumas team - massive forwards and aggressive backs. Could be a winning combo under the right conditions.

 

[Big Ewis]

uhm

Even on the beach, Marcos Ayerza looks mean. Can't wait for this one, VAMOS PUMAS.

 

[squirrel]

I'm glad to see they stuck with Toomua at 12, I think he's the long term solution with a good all-round game for the position he just seems to take time to get his confidence going as it was with super rugby as well. Thinking back to the days of Anthony Faainga and Mcabe at 12 is abit embarrassing for the wallabies and would hate to see them go down that sought of route again, though I would have Beale at Fullback and Folau on the wing.

 

[RWC2011Fan]

So, the Wallabies continuing their trend of awful home crowds this year. Apparently they're expecting less than 15,000 people for this match. That's pretty much a Super Rugby crowd. So much for the whole 'Call of the Wallaby' campaign.

 

[Jaguares]

So, the Wallabies continuing their trend of awful home crowds this year. Apparently they're expecting less than 15,000 people for this match. That's pretty much a Super Rugby crowd. So much for the whole 'Call of the Wallaby' campaign.

A very poor crowd in Gold Coast, Canberra can get a bigger crowd.

 

[RoosTah]

So, the Wallabies continuing their trend of awful home crowds this year. Apparently they're expecting less than 15,000 people for this match. That's pretty much a Super Rugby crowd. So much for the whole 'Call of the Wallaby' campaign.

Yeah, that's just pathetic... it kinda reflects the Gold Coast in general right now though - people there aren't turning up to anything. That said, Australian rugby more generally is badly struggling to regain it's place in the public's imagination - the first two Bledisloe Cup games couldn't crack a million viewers, where as in the earl 00s they'd usually crack 1.5 million for those. Even that was under acheiving though - the Rugby League State of Origin series got 4 million plus for it's first two games this year, and it's a contest involving two Australian states.

 

[Jaguares]

Yeah, that's just pathetic... it kinda reflects the Gold Coast in general right now though - people there aren't turning up to anything. That said, Australian rugby more generally is badly struggling to regain it's place in the public's imagination - the first two Bledisloe Cup games couldn't crack a million viewers, where as in the earl 00s they'd usually crack 1.5 million for those. Even that was under acheiving though - the Rugby League State of Origin series got 4 million plus for it's first two games this year, and it's a contest involving two Australian states.

According to this link there will be about 20k as McLean Park in NZ, that's a decent crowd:

Wallabies on track for massive crowd

ROUGHLY 8000 tickets remain for the Wallabies' clash with Argentina this weekend. It is believed that between 16,000 and 17,000 tickets have already sold for Saturday's Test at Cbus Super Stadium which has a capacity of 27,400.
This compares to roughly 25,000 spectators that attended the Wallabies last match at Patersons Stadium in Perth last weekend.
The Australia and Argentina match will begin at 8pm on Saturday.

http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/es/viewer.aspx

 

[Tony Manx]

we don't have ball carriers on the centre (Hernandez and Bosch) then Beale's defense won't be a problem for Aussies.

Certainly not a fan of Bosch but he IS a ball carrier and have always said that has been a problem as he tends to die with it after disappearing up his own...........................

Looks like the Raining Championship is living up to its name ..............

 

[Jaguares]

I like the new Pumas away jersey

 

[Gavin]

The guy who sung the Australian anthem was quite rubbish

 

[Jaguares]

Certainly not a fan of Bosch but he IS a ball carrier

Not at the same level as Kuridrani or Folau

 

[Tony Manx]

The guy who sung the Australian anthem was quite rubbish

I would say his nerves got the better of him..............he sounded like he had a speech defect?

Aussies have to win this at a canter surely.................?

Not at the same level as Kuridrani or Folau

For sure....I would say that he is not even up to most of the international standards!!

Try and away we go.............