There were two key decisions in the game that I thought were dubious.
The Yellow Card to Patrick Tuipolotu.
He never took his eyes of the ball when he jumped for it. I thought the referee guidance was that as long as both players were jumping for the ball then it is considered accidental. Secondly, if he was culpable for what happened to Rob Simmons then so was Simmons lifter. He just let his team-mate go,
The Aaron Smith try
I've watched the replay this morning, with particular attention to the period leading up to it. I am sure that the Wallabies offence (not rolling away) for which advantage was being played) took place considerably further to the left than than the place from where Smith took to the quick tap kick that he scored from. I don't think it was his problem as he took it right next to the referee, I just think Joubert was indicating the mark in the wrong place.
Personally I felt the yellow card was deserved. You are obviously more aware of the referee's guidance than I am, but I felt it was clearly dangerous (reckless) play by Tuipolotu, and a yellow card was consistent with what I've seen these last few years for similar offenses.
I agree Smith didn't take that tap anywhere near the mark. He would have been at least 5m - if not 10m - to the right of where the penalty offense occurred. I did enjoy watching James Horwill's face after the try though. He was the one that committed the penalty offense and the one that missed the tackle on Smith (despite being offside) but all he could do when the try was scored was whine to the ref like a little child. Amusing.
Anyways, back to the match itself. Even after a sleep I'm still struggling to work out how we won that. I said during the match that if we (somehow) managed to win the match I don't think we will have deserved it. I stick by that. We were incredibly flat for the vast majority of that match, made basic errors with ball in hand, didn't seem to have a game-plan, didn't support our ball runners, were incredibly passive on defense and missed a pile of one-on-one tackles.
We did start to show a few signs of life at the end there, but lets be honest: Australia choked. They had the game in there hands with 20 minutes to go. They were up by 10 and the AB's had just been reduced to 14 men. Instead of "putting there foot on the throat" they froze. They went away from the game-plan that was so successful for them all match - exploiting the space wider of the breakdown (both on the blindside and open-side) - and tried to run through the AB's forwards. It didn't work. The AB's certainly played into the Wallabies hands by matching the Wallabies unstructured style for 60 minutes, but the Wallabies played into the AB's hands that last 20 minutes when they tried to play a slow structured game....
Onto the players.....(starting with the men in gold for a change...)
- I thought both Aussie props had good matches. Slipper got pinged a couple of times in the scrums, but I couldn't see what it was for (though to be honest I'm still trying to work out this scrummaging business). Both Slipper and Kepu were good around the field though - they could give our props some tips on hitting the ball at pace!
- I felt the Wallabies had a clear victory in the the loose-forwards. Fardy played his best game in ages. He forced 2-3 turnovers at the breakdown, and we saw a lot more of his running game. Hooper was Hooper, and I felt Higginbotham did a good job at 8. The open game certainly suited his style - I'm not a fan, but I concede has can be effective if the Australia are going to (attempt to) play expansively like this every week (as long as he keeps his discipline).
- Phipps has turned into a much better test player than I thought he would (even if he did miss a few too many tackles). Replacing him with White one of the turning points in the match. Surely Genia needs to back involved ASAP.
- Foley I thought was pretty good, and I thought the midfield paring of Lealiifano and Kuridrani was outstanding. I've never been convinced with Lealiifano at test level but I thought that was the best performance by and Aussie 12 at test level this year.
- Tomane looked sharp at times but made a few errors. AAC played as expected. Folau tried hard but was well contained.
Onto the good guys....
- The front row was solid. They made (most-of) their tackles, but apart from one great burst by Coles seldom were seen with ball in hand. I felt the replacements - specifically Mealamu and Faumuina - made a good impact though. Mealamu slipped a few tackles but added some real enthusiasm, but the standout replacement for me was Faumuina. He added some real physicality to the AB's. Almost every time he made a tackle he drove the Wallabies back, and was hitting the breakdown like a man possessed. His little break from the AB's seems to have fired him up!
- Retallick was everywhere. Not only does he make piles of tackles and hit every breakdown but he is our primary ball-runner (/distributor) in the forwards too.
- The loose-forwards were solid, but outplayed IMO. Messam was pretty accurate but relatively quiet, and likewise though Read made a couple of good offloads out-wide (and was our primary lineout option) he wasn't as dominant as he can be. McCaw made a lot of tackles, but did concede some crucial penalties. Though some may claim they were 'harsh' penalties he did spend the whole match deliberately falling on the Australian side of the tackle - when you do that you always put yourself at risk of being penalized. He was also lucky not to be penalised on several more occasions for diving in at the breakdown - the ref thought it was ok though because he was "attacking the ball" (that's a new law to me!). Cane again made a strong impact off the bench, both at the breakdown and with ball in hand.
- A Smith played well despite the average ball he was receiving. I don't think Barrett played very well tactically - though that was likely the coaches instructions - he did show some positive signs. He was attacking the line far more than he has been, and was very close to breaking it completely on 2-3 occasions. His kick-offs were excellent too. Defense was a bit of an issue, though he can't be solely blamed for that.
- Fekitoa did some good things again with ball in hand, but did look lost a times in defense (the time Lealiifano strolled through was a particularly bad read). Hopefully he learns a lot from this match. C Smith was C Smith.
- The outside backs barely got any ball, so it is harder to judge them. Jane did take his try very well though. Dagg didn't have a poor match, which is an achievement for him these days
