Australia V Italy

[Prestwick]

Robbie Deans in Italy-actually-very-good-at-scrumtime shock realisation!

This Deans I gotta say, every time he comes up here he goes away with a little bit more knowledge. Last year it was "don't try and play running rugby in a swamp" and this year its "Italy are pretty good in the scrum."

It makes you wonder if Robbie Deans actually knew there was a world outside of Cantebury, must have been an almighty shock when this huge club called "Australia" wanted to pay him in yachts to coach their team.

The moar u know I guess :lol:

 

[barbarian]

fair to say the 'minnow' sides have shown great deals of improvement in the discipline and professionalism of their game. While italy didnt exactly light the world on fire they showed some good flair at times and I was impressed with their line defence.
One thing i've noticed about the wallabies of late is their lack of patience. they showed what patience can do in their win over the All Blacks in HK but in their last few matches they seemingly want to score off every line break they make. I think Barnes' stats from the match crtainly dont do his performance justice, his handling was generally good at times and his kicking was superb, i would give him a run against France.

 

[madflyhalf]

Is the Italian no. 14 a regular? He was so hopeless. Hands, positioning.. he just did not seem to have a rugby brain on him.

Italian 14 is the Heineken Cup try leader (4 tries in 3 matches), but he is an outside centre, a classy outside centre!
I really can't understand why Mallett uses him as a wing, it's clear to anyone that he isn't confident in this position!!

This is the first of 2 tries he scored against Leicester (a shame that his 2nd and his dropgoal isn't shown here!!) [video=youtube;uSf0h90qmPk#t=1m57s]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSf0h90qmPk#t=1m57s[/video]
He just runs line that Canale and Masi don't!! Move Masi on the wing (he can play well there) and drop Canale!! He is horrible with national side!!


Hard to say about Italian scrum: there is truth in Deans' words. Castrogiovanni is a superb tighthead also because he can play a little outside the rules, for a couple of times he went a bit around the corner, forcing Slipper to collapse, but Berdos penalized Oz loosehead.
Then Berdos saw it so Castro were penalized for this (early in the 2nd half), but Mallett immediatly pulled him off (to prevent any other penalties)...
Unlucky for Australia, we have good props on the bench too, a tired Castro has been substituted by a fresh and big Cittadini, he is our future tighthead.

But I feel Deans is quite right in his words...

One thing i've noticed about the wallabies of late is their lack of patience. they showed what patience can do in their win over the All Blacks in HK but in their last few matches they seemingly want to score off every line break they make.

You got the point!
The first 3-4 balls moved by Australia were amazing, heaven of running line, support, handling, they arrived near the try line, but they wasted it and they scored only once (Mitchell's try, just in front of my eyes). And after the first 10 minutes I remember that I've said: "Ok, today it's a 50 point match... they're gonna smash us".

They were a beauty until the last 5 meters, then they lost the ball, just like against England! They were lucky that our handling hasn't been good yesterday and we dropped a lot of turnover balls (Parisse intercept, a few turnover in our 22...)!


Mitchell tattoo