Cardiff Blues v Australia

[LydiatesGirl]

yeah probably will be error ridden

 

[Ozzay]

i was going, but couldn't afford both

 

[DuncTheDoodle]

Cardiff Blues team to face Austrailia:

15 Ben Blair 14 Richard Mustoe 13 Gareth Thomas 12 Dafydd Hewitt 11 Chris Czekaj 10 Sam Norton-Knight 9 Gareth Cooper

8 Xavier Rush © 7 Ben White 6 Sam Warburton 5 Scott Morgan 4 Deiniol Jones 3 Gary Powell 2 Gareth Williams 1 Taufa'au Filise

Replacements:

16 T Rhys Thomas 17 Sam Hobbs 18 Paul ***o 19 Robin Sowden Taylor 20 Richie Rees 21 Ceri Sweeney 22 Gavin Evans



Can't understand ***o being on the bench. Besides that, it's not too bad a team, considering the injuries and international call-ups. Why isn't RST starting?

 

[Ozzay]

isit on sky

 

[Jethro]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Fushitsusha @ Nov 24 2009, 02:16 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

O'Connor at fullback... and Beale on the wing...

Is Deans friggin' retarded?[/b]

Or maybe looking for a career change

O'Connor needs to get the arse back to hairdressing school or where ever he came from. Beale simply staggers belief ....

 

[Olyy]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Ozzay @ Nov 24 2009, 07:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

isit on sky[/b]

it's on S4C, which you can watch on their website if you aren't in Wales (not sure about outside of the UK, for any Aussies wanting to watch)

 

[Ozzay]

watching it now

how many of these will start against wales?

cooper at 10? o conor 15?

anymore?

 

[Juggernaut]

any latest updates on the game??

 

[dullonien]

Aus in control in this one. Stupid from Blair at the end of the first half, gifts Aus a try to go in 17-3 up. Not sure if there's a way back for the Blues into this one, although the conditions were certainly against them in that first half. They were in with a chance at 10-3, but not now imo.

Funny thing is, O'Connor and Beale are Aus's best players in that first half, after all the Aussies complaining in this thread.

 

[Juggernaut]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (dullonien @ Nov 24 2009, 09:25 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Funny thing is, O'Connor and Beale are Aus's best players in that first half, after all the Aussies complaining in this thread.[/b]

then again, it's only Cardiff...

 

[dullonien]

The Blues backs have looked very poor. The problems seem to stem from Norton Knights lack of attacking threat at the moment. He receives the ball so far behind the advantage line, then just ships it out straight away, easy for the Aus backs to just drift across and cut the men outside him off. In comparison, the Aus back are playing very flat, and bombarding the midfield with runners coming from all kinda different angles and the Blues can't seal with it.

Not impressed with the Blues atall so far. Hewitt is the only one fronting up.

 

[dullonien]

Terrible second half from both teams, Although Aus are kicking well and pinning the Blues back. The Blues lineount and scrum have been misfiring badly, starving the Blues of attacking ball in the Aus half.

Another try to seal the victory for Aus, 22-3. Come from another mistake from the Blues, however it was good pressure by Austrailia. Conversion good, 24-3.

 

[Woldog]

Beale is the fattest winger I've ever seen, a better option would be to put Dunning on the wing and a cake at the other end.

 

[Thingimubob]

I went to the game, was a pretty flat atmosphere, the Wallabies annoyed the crap out of me with the amount of times they killed the ball. The Blues weren;t going to win, so why kill the ball all the time? Wrecked the game as a spectacle. Btw, who was the Aussie no.20? He made a peach of a pass right in front of me to put the winger in for the 3rd try. Thought the Blues played quite well in the 2nd half, they really had the Wallabies on the back foot for a while, helped massively when Rees came on for Cooper (remind me again why Gatland picked Cooper ahead of Richie Rees and Martyn Roberts, let along Dwayne Peel?!), and the Blues improved when Sweeney came on at 10 and Norton-Knight moved to Fullback. Blues just couldn;t seem to finish though, kinda followed the same pattern every time they got into the Aussie 22: Blues look like scoring, Aussies kill the ball, Blues go for scrum/line out, muck it up and give the ball back to Australia. Still, I kinda expected it, it's very hard when mopst of your back line is on international duty. James O'Conner was impressive, Kurtley Beale has bags of pace and Quade Cooper looked pretty good, will be interesting seeing him vs Davies and Roberts.
31 - 3 was the final score btw.

 

[Bluemoon]

Some of the running from AUS was great to watch - some fantastic lines taken and a few stand out players. My overall opinion is that AUS had far to much power at the break down - often ruining Cardiff's ball, forcing silly errors like knock ons and turnovers which generally took the wind out of the blues sails. I think they will not have the same forwards dominance against Wales - and they are going to have to be much more clinical.

Why were the blues not taking penalty goals. We had a clear 3/4 attempts which would have put us very close to their 17 -may have given us a bit more go forward. We all said it at the game - we just ended up getting a bit desperate. As I said before the game Hewitt gave us a bit of penetration - but with an ineffective backrow support and the almighty waste of space that is Gavin Evans outside him - we had very little to hope for. I thought when Sweeney came on we ran a few good moves (Blair had an absolute mare), but in general we never looked like scoring.

I think we must put this in perspective - that was AUS 'A' Vs a team way below par - even at a domestic level.

 

[Woldog]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Thingimubob @ Nov 25 2009, 09:18 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

. Btw, who was the Aussie no.20? He made a peach of a pass right in front of me to put the winger in for the 3rd try.[/b]

Richard Kingi, Queensland Reds.

3rd Choice Halfback for the Reds, soon to be 2nd choice, if they decide to stop using Ben Lucas as a half back.

 

[Juggernaut]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Woldog @ Nov 25 2009, 12:51 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Thingimubob @ Nov 25 2009, 09:18 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

. Btw, who was the Aussie no.20? He made a peach of a pass right in front of me to put the winger in for the 3rd try.[/b]

Richard Kingi, Queensland Reds.

3rd Choice Halfback for the Reds, soon to be 2nd choice, if they decide to stop using Ben Lucas as a half back.

[/b][/quote]
I've always been impressed when watching Kingi playing 7s for Aus. A cool-headed playmaker... will be good to see him develop further and give competition to Genia.

This can only be good for the Wallabies....and the Reds.

 

[LydiatesGirl]

game was shocking
Blues were outclassed
hope O'Connor starts against us as he had a very good game

 

[Wally]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (LydiatesGirl @ Nov 25 2009, 09:51 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

game was shocking
Blues were outclassed
hope O'Connor starts against us as he had a very good game[/b]

He's hot aye

 

[LydiatesGirl]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Wally @ Nov 26 2009, 12:07 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (LydiatesGirl @ Nov 25 2009, 09:51 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

game was shocking
Blues were outclassed
hope O'Connor starts against us as he had a very good game[/b]

He's hot aye
[/b][/quote]

whats that got to do with it?

but aye he is