[2014 TRC] Australia v New Zealand in Sydney (16/08/2014)

[squirrel]

I thought the wallabies looked a bit more dangerous with ball in hand than the ABs and I think the wallabies should be pleased with the effort from a pretty poor selected team

 

[Big Ewis]

Yes see you there? You guys are stuffed now. No chance of winning the bled IMO. I can't see any positive out of this for the Wallabies.

the same way you can't see the utter ridiculousness in wearing a quote from somebody making fun of you, not even mentioning your name as a signature ? Right...

well the Wallabies may not have played a perfect game but they did manage a draw against an AB side that did show up, although arguably rusty, with everybody (or mostly) in the lineup. How many teams have achieved this recently ? The AB were cut at the source and never looked all that threatening for 80 whole minutes and had pressure moments themselves to deal with. Luckily they're fantastic defensively. They were down 3-9 after a very clumsy first half at HT and came back with a quality second and tied it up while the AB only produced another 3-pointer the whole 40min. They dominated the AB territory-wise and ran way more and were way better in the discipline department.

Check out those stats, nothing surprising in there if one's watched the game attentively:

 

[Chikwa]

Well, he's not exactly a game changer but I think Ryan Crotty is probably a safer option in the sense he knows when to pass a ball. Obviously no where near as much potential as Fekitoa, but less of a liability in my opinion (as a centre who always backs himself without looking to set up others is a liability in international rugby in my opinion). Fortunately we may be lucky enough to see Smith and Kahui be available come next year (and I'm sure SBW will be in as well to play 12), so it's really a race against time for Fekitoa to get some game awareness.

I do like Fekitoa, he has a lot going for him and is awesome for the Highlanders, but going from Conrad Smith who always makes the right decisions, to Fekitoa who always makes the same decision (run it himself and then offload whether he should or not) is very frustrating to watch.

No way would I touch Ben Smith. He's staying at 15.

Israel dagg's long range kicking would have been useful. He is however a suspect defender who is easily beaten as the last defender.Though Ben smith was not outstanding he remains at 15.
Fekitoa is too predictable.Powerfully built and a strong runner who needs to develop his rugby brain.Kahui is an outstanding player whose best position is outside centre and not on the Wing.

 

[William18]

Well, he's not exactly a game changer but I think Ryan Crotty is probably a safer option in the sense he knows when to pass a ball. Obviously no where near as much potential as Fekitoa, but less of a liability in my opinion (as a centre who always backs himself without looking to set up others is a liability in international rugby in my opinion). Fortunately we may be lucky enough to see Smith and Kahui be available come next year (and I'm sure SBW will be in as well to play 12), so it's really a race against time for Fekitoa to get some game awareness.

I do like Fekitoa, he has a lot going for him and is awesome for the Highlanders, but going from Conrad Smith who always makes the right decisions, to Fekitoa who always makes the same decision (run it himself and then offload whether he should or not) is very frustrating to watch.

No way would I touch Ben Smith. He's staying at 15.

Tough on Fekitoa. He didn't get too many chances in attack at all but always made his tackles on defence. Crotty will probably start next week because there is no way Nonu will be playing after that injury. I don't think Fekitoa would be tried at 12.

 

[Jaguares]

Another Bledisloe for ABs, Wallabies have lost their chance today

 

[Gavin]

I was really impressed by Carter today. Thought he played well and was good with ball in hand. Hooper was fantastic as usual. Beale at flyhalf just didn't work for me, perhaps it was because of the weather but I don't like it. Interestingly Steve Hanson suggested Link was forced into the call because of the NFL interest in Beale.

 

[RoosTah]

Pretty awful game from a spectators perspective thanks to both the conditions and an awful referee who has a habit of trying to spoil games.

All the same, I thought the wallabies outplayed the All Blacks in the second half and will surely be disappointed that they couldn't quite get the job done. There were a few times we should have scored, but the team did have a tendency to move side to side a little too much. It seems Conrad is blaming Beale for everything, but I think it was more White and also the teams general tactics at fault. His passes were slower and less accurate than Phipps, which killed a bit of the momentum. But it was noticeable that all the players in the backline were just shifting it laterally on most plays in the way the crusaders were earlier this year. The whole thing became predictable and I thought what the wallabies needed was for Phipps and Foley to replace both Toomua and white in order to give that Waratahs dynamism to the attack.

I also thought Link waited too long to use the Bench. Cheika gets the impact players on with 20-25 mins of play so they can have a real impact, but McKenzie seemed reluctant to make any changes until quite late, and I think the team lost a lot of potential opportunities as a result.

All the same, the forwards really held up, and given the massive injury toll we have right now, that's a huge plus moving forward. Eden park will be a massively tough assignment, but I think the boys will give it a good go and I'd definitely back them to have a shot at winning it.

 

[Tony Manx]

I start by saying I am no supporter of either side so have no axe to grind.....I agree with sanzar, it was a pretty poor match with many mistakes due to the rustiness, weather and over eagerness. However, it was ruined as a spectator game by the awful, truly awful, refereeing!!

The AB's as usual were slow to start and this time they were caught by an enthusiastic and willing Wallabies side who should have done better but made too many mistakes, ran up too many blind alleys and against a very strong defence, that being the element to the AB's side which did work well.

That was the chance for the Aussies and do not see them getting a look in in the next two matches against the Blacks who will NOT be at that standard after this match!

Lastly............is Nick White really the best 9 in Australia.............I thought he was hopeless!!

 

[Chikwa]

I start by saying I am no supporter of either side so have no axe to grind.....I agree with sanzar, it was a pretty poor match with many mistakes due to the rustiness, weather and over eagerness. However, it was ruined as a spectator game by the awful, truly awful, refereeing!!

The AB's as usual were slow to start and this time they were caught by an enthusiastic and willing Wallabies side who should have done better but made too many mistakes, ran up too many blind alleys and against a very strong defence, that being the element to the AB's side which did work well.

That was the chance for the Aussies and do not see them getting a look in in the next two matches against the Blacks who will NOT be at that standard after this match!

Lastly............is Nick White really the best 9 in Australia.............I thought he was hopeless!!

I agree!!!!

 

[William18]

Peyper have a yellow card for that. Shows how crap he was really. Once again, I don't think he was biased but he made a lot of poor calls. When McCabe (i think) was tackled into touch the Aussies had lots of advantages prior and he inexplicably called advantage over.

 

[Jaguares]

It seems Conrad is blaming Beale for everything, but I think it was more White and also the teams general tactics at fault. His passes were slower and less accurate than Phipps, which killed a bit of the momentum.

He wasn't the only culprit, but everyone knew that was not the position for Beale, although he says it's his best position. I think Beale had not the expected level, and had 2 very important errors.

First, the child's penalty (rolling forward) wasting a HUGE opportunity near to the NZ's ingoal. And then at the end of the first half missed an easy kick, which would have meant the Wallabies victory. I support Wallabies, you know. I think this game was very winnable and maybe with Foley at the starting XV the opportunity would have been greater.

 

[Bean]

the same way you can't see the utter ridiculousness in wearing a quote from somebody making fun of you, not even mentioning your name as a signature ? Right...

well the Wallabies may not have played a perfect game but they did manage a draw against an AB side that did show up, although arguably rusty, with everybody (or mostly) in the lineup. How many teams have achieved this recently ? The AB were cut at the source and never looked all that threatening for 80 whole minutes and had pressure moments themselves to deal with. Luckily they're fantastic defensively. They were down 3-9 after a very clumsy first half at HT and came back with a quality second and tied it up while the AB only produced another 3-pointer the whole 40min. They dominated the AB territory-wise and ran way more and were way better in the discipline department.

Check out those stats, nothing surprising in there if one's watched the game attentively:

View attachment 3116

The ABs had some seriously suspect calls against them too. Odd that... It won't happen again, they played with one man down for a quarter of the game.

And the sig is a complement...

 

[Bean]

Another Bledisloe for ABs, Wallabies have lost their chance today

That's pretty well how I see it. They surely won't win in Auckland. They could win in Brisbane, but it wouldn't matter, that'd only draw the series. Pretty processional affair from here on out, ABs should secure the Bled next weekend.

 

[Big Ewis]

And the sig is a complement...

 

[Bean]

:lol:

 

[Jaguares]

That's pretty well how I see it. They surely won't win in Auckland. They could win in Brisbane, but it wouldn't matter, that'd only draw the series. Pretty processional affair from here on out, ABs should secure the Bled next weekend.

A win in Brisbane would be important for the Wallabies, even if they can't win the Bledisloe Cup. They showed interesting things, if I was South African I would be very worried about them, if Link didn't make experiments by inventing a new first five eight, they would have won.

They have the players, it was just a coach's mistake. They can beat ABs

 

[Tony Manx]

A win in Brisbane would be important for the Wallabies, even if they can't win the Bledisloe Cup. They showed interesting things, if I was South African I would be very worried about them, if Link didn't make experiments by inventing a new first five eight, they would have won.

They have the players, it was just a coach's mistake. They can beat ABs

SA must be laughing all the way to Argentina!!!

 

[Jaguares]

SA must be laughing all the way to Argentina!!!

Yeah, because playing as today and as the second June's test against Wales, they have many chances of beating to NZ and AUS. That's why there are so many happy messages of Saffers in the thread of the game.

 

[nzlizard]

Had time to reflect and think.

This test showed how important Coles is to us, when Mealamu came on it turned ***s up.

Fekitoa didn't really have a chance to shine, AAC was average and look how skilled he is, he needs major game time to get him ready for the WC.

Ben Smith has to stay at 15.

Retallick is still best mode, our loosies were great.

Nonu is still inconsistent - come back SBW.

Given we played 25% of the match with 14 and had 30-35% possession and territory things looked pretty good for us, we certainly looked just as good Aussie.

Aussie were helped greatly by the ref at a few key moments and they failed to initialize on them, the ref had an average game and while his performance was not great he only really made a few key calls that were blatant, I would love to see him stand in front of people the day after and have to justify why he made the calls, I think he would have to admit to a few mistakes, esp that Aus defensive scrum late in the game where Higginbottom? was basically lying down and the ruck previous.

There were a lot of 50/50 calls both ways but that is part of rugby, his yellow cards were odd at the best.

Anyway, move forward to one week to Eden park and hopefully dry weather and lets see what happens there, I am not prepared to write of Aus yet as they showed real promise, just some bad on field calls by a couple of players cost them.

 

[austingtir]

Peyper have a yellow card for that. Shows how crap he was really. Once again, I don't think he was biased but he made a lot of poor calls. When McCabe (i think) was tackled into touch the Aussies had lots of advantages prior and he inexplicably called advantage over.

^^THIS. I really feel like going through and disecting every decision made by Peyper going both ways. He was terrible. The wallabies certainly got the rub of the green in this match imo.