[2016 Rugby Championship] Australia v South Africa (10/09/2016)

[TheOvalBall]

When are England playing again ? I like watching them.... funnily enough.

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Where's everybody ? Watching the Manchester derby ? LOL

 

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

When are England playing again ? I like watching them.... funnily enough.

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Where's everybody ? Watching the Manchester derby ? LOL

12 November vs South Africa. That should be a good game.

Anyone know when the last time Pocock had any game time at 7 for Oz was? Unless he had a switch there mid-match at some pint that I'm unaware of it must've been over a year ago.

 

[LeanTaladro]

Both teams should take care of the ball a lot more. Looking at Australia's performance, I think we might have a shot at winning them.

 

[TheOvalBall]

Horrendous display from South Africa. They will be slipping down the rankings like the cricket team. Well done ANC on destroying SA sport.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

SA are bloody useless

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

A lot of credit has to go to Cheika, a weird lineup but it largely worked. I've said it before and will keep saying it, Oz should finish second and are underrated. Their remaining three fixtures should all be crackers.

I would like to see the Northern hemisphere teams have a real crack at both these sides in November. Despite the RWC semis lineup there is no doubt the gap has closed.

 

[smartcooky]

My God, that was dire!

 

[LeanTaladro]

A lot of credit has to go to Cheika, a weird lineup but it largely worked. I've said it before and will keep saying it, Oz should finish second and are underrated. Their remaining three fixtures should all be crackers.

I would like to see the Northern hemisphere teams have a real crack at both these sides in November. Despite the RWC semis lineup there is no doubt the gap has closed.

I don't think they are underrated. South Africa played horribly and still could have won the match, they had quite a few chances in the last 5 minutes.

Both teams are a lot better than what they are showing on the field.

 

[kusta]

That was a terrible performance from the Boks. Not a single player stood out for me today! Too many penalties, I think by half time we had conceded 10. And our defence is in shambles really! Waiting for people to blame Quotas and politics etc... But it was the players who were just terrible. All of them! Predicting a hiding next weekend, 50 + points scored against us.

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

I'm with Lean. I don't think Cheika deserves any credit for this game. Australia was terrible. The barely managed to squeeze a tight win against the worst South African performance i've ever seen.
Both teams are better than what they've displayed today. They just have to.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Oz had two tries effectively chopped off / not awarded and gifted SA 7 points with an interception yet still defeated the RWC runners up by six points. I think their performance merited a 20+ points difference and is better than they were getting credit for. This is despite the SA SR clubs arguably being a lot stronger than the Oz ones this year. The Cooper / Foley tandem actually looked credible and their morale was high despite an unprecedented series of defeats. These are all things that I'd give the coaching staff credit for.

And when I say they are underrated I don't think anyone other than myself was predicting them as favourites to finish second after being caned by NZ in the first test. I think many still won't predict that and in my opinion to predict they'll finish lower than second is to underrate them.

 

[RoosTah]

Glad the Wallabies finally had a bloody win, but jesus christ our decision making is terrible... thankfully the boks were even worse, but our incessant and tactically terrible kicking, impatience with the ball and generally sh## handling don't fill me with a tonne of confidence going forward.

Some good things - our scrum held up, Foley's goal kicking was on target, Kerevi was strong with his runs, Folau was safe under the high ball and dynamic with it, Cooper combined with Foley reasonably well and seemed to work together and Haylett-Petty has been great.

But bottom line is the team's decision making and tactics are just very poor and I'm not really convinced we'll be good enough to beat Argentina at this point.

 

[ianw16]

I think Australia might win. I also think SA might win. Or it could be a draw. In other words, I haven't got a clue what's going to happen!

Well, I got this pretty much spot on

 

[Ospervat]

So what do New Zealand do now?

They have no real opposition anywhere - literally none!

Could we possibly be looking at a scenario where we can introduce a second NZ team - since quotas are acceptable now maybe NZ should be made to have 2 teams - 1 made up of Maoris only and one not- just to keep it interesting.

Comes to something when a team may have to intentionally dumb down because they are too good and have no worthy opposition.

 

[The Jones Boy]

Thats not very fair to the Pumas who looked superb for almost three quarters of the game.
Every team has a purple patch every now and then and the All Blacks are perfectly capable of playing well below par, suffering at the wrong end of refereeing decisions and copping injuries and other teams lifting their game on the day.
You're only as good as your last game and there is no guarantee that you will be as good for the next one.
Each game on it's merit.
Lets get through the RC unbeaten first before we start to throw plaudits around too readily.
The Wallabies and the Boks are both capable of playing well above what we saw today and when they do they can beat anyone, AB's included, no doubt about that.
The Pumas are a revelation and playing at home they can beat anyone.

 

[Jaguares]

Oz had two tries effectively chopped off / not awarded and gifted SA 7 points with an interception yet still defeated the RWC runners up by six points. I think their performance merited a 20+ points difference and is better than they were getting credit for.

This is THE POINT

This is despite the SA SR clubs arguably being a lot stronger than the Oz ones this year.

It was just because they played less games vs NZ sides

 

[kesh]

Looking at Australia's performance, I think we might have a shot at winning them.

Should be a cracker, still don't think you guys have the cardio to live with Australia. Plus your home game isn't at home.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

This is THE POINT

It was just because they played less games vs NZ sides

Harsh to say Cheika was in any way reponsible for throwing an intercepted pass, diving to the try line with the ball in the wrong hand, or blowing the whistle incorrectly to deny a prop from scoring. Fair point on the respective strength of the SR clubs I guess given QF results, although I'd argue SA had four teams that weren't awful and Oz had only two.

 

[TheOvalBall]

So what do New Zealand do now?

They have no real opposition anywhere - literally none!

Could we possibly be looking at a scenario where we can introduce a second NZ team - since quotas are acceptable now maybe NZ should be made to have 2 teams - 1 made up of Maoris only and one not- just to keep it interesting.

Comes to something when a team may have to intentionally dumb down because they are too good and have no worthy opposition.

For the moment, England.

 

[sharkfan]

I see that Willem Alberts has been recalled for the New Zealand game, which is a good call. Why doesn't AC recall the du Plessis brothers as well? Surely they have still some role to play?