Rugby Championship: Australia - New Zealand (18/08/2012)

[Darwin]

Well, we won. Not the best game from either side - hopefully the matches improve once the teams shake off a bit of rust!

Great to see Dagg looking back to his best - a couple of scorching runs from him. In general the New Zealand backline was pretty quiet though. Smith looked pretty sharp, but Carter didn't offer too much with ball in hand (but did defend superbly). SBW reverted to his pre-2012 self somewhat - instead of hitting the line hard and straight he jogged up to the line then off-loaded (often to the worms...). Nonu was superb in defense (an area I was slightly concerned about before the match), but I can't recall him running with the ball!?!?! Jane and Gear were pretty solid, but it wassn't really a night for NZ wings.

Up front the scrums were a bit of a mess, but Mealamu did some good work around the field. Romano and Whitelock were solid, but the loosies had pretty mixed games. McCaw was the pick of the loose-forwards by far for me - he made a pile of tackles, and carried the ball well, breaking tackles at will on a couple of occasions. Read was pretty quiet, but seemed to get himself penalised a lot. Messam got himself involved well, and was very physical on defense, but he made a lot of errors (ranging from running into touch, to poor passes) which was a bit disappointing.

Ioane was the standout for Australia - he is just so dangerous with ball in hand. I thought Genia was pretty good too, and the loose-forwards as a whole were pretty effective (Dennis and Higginbotham were both great in the lineout too). Barnes and Ashley-Cooper were reasonably solid, but Beale had a shocker - I'm still not convinced he is fully fit....

 

[William18]

That was not a good game of rugby. Both teams made far too many mistakes. Overall, I thought we deserved to win by more but were completely nonclinical.

For Australia, I thought their lock Timani was very good. It was interesting though that they didn't really use either lock in the lineout. I thought overall Australia's tight five held their own. There was that one tighthead but their scrum was by no means dominated. I thought Pocock was ineffectual. Australia really need Cooper back IMO to beat the All Blacks. Australia was just not providing enough quality ball for Ioane. He touched the ball plenty of times but he never got into much space. When he did get into space he helped to create a try. I think apart from Ioane and Genia (and Beale) if he is on form Australia just don't look threatening. I'm not a fan of that centre combination either.

For us, I don't think anyone played particularly badly. I thought Messam overall was good after a poor start to the game. Carter, Mealamu, Romano and Dagg all played very well. I was disappointed by SBW though and I don't think him and Nonu worked well together. I would prefer Ellison to come in at centre for the next test or maybe perhaps even Ben Smith.

 

[nero]

First post...
Messum did some great things and poor things. He's got a bit of what I call 'shazzam' ie; he can make things happen. I'm glad he's there, even if he is a bit inconsistent.
Good fast ball from Smith has made a huge difference to the AB's, I'm so glad he's in there rather than Weepu. His kicking was decent tonight, too.

 

[TRF Mr Fish]

I don't think the combo of SBW and Nonu was particularly great, but I actually thought SBW had a pretty good game.

Dagg was fantastic, Romano was very good while he was on the field. Mealamu, Read and McCaw had solid games.

Interestingly very few subs were used by NZ, with only Retalick and Franks getting any real game time. Hore had a good cameo, Weepu didn't make any mistakes. I thought Vito or Smith might get some decent game time, but obviously not. Does this mean the coaches were happy with Messam?

 

[nero]

I was happy to see Gear have a decent run. I thought Nonu was more involved than he has has been recently, and his defence was pretty solid, too. I have never been a huge SBW fan, but i'll admit he has improved. I liked the fact that there were few subs. Sometimes it seems that they make changes for the sake of it.
Who are they getting in as number 12 when SBW leaves? I see he is fighting another old has-been in SA.

 

[TRF Mr Fish]

Conrad Smith will come in from his injury, but it will really just be Nonu, C Smith and Ellison as proper midfielders, with Carter and B Smith providing cover.

 

[smartcooky]

From a referee's perspective, I was not at all impressed with the usually reliable Alain Rolland. Far too much whistle. Somewhere in there, a game of rugby was trying to break out, but Rolland kept it under lock and key!!!

He seemed to forget about materiality and the advantage law. A classic example was in the 66th minute. The All Black scrum absolutely mullered the Wallaby scrum, blew them right off their own ball, An All Black player picks up the ball and advances with supporting players while the Wallaby defence is out of position, 5m back and back pedalling furiously.... and what does Rolland do? He blows his effing whistle for a scrum infringement by the Aussies ... awarding a penalty to the All Blacks.


AAArrrgh!!!! What about materiality? What about advantage?

 

[William18]

I have to say that kicking to Ioane off the kickoff was a great tactic. I think it tired out Ioane a lot and took him out of the play a bit. He made about 12 runs but half of them were from the kickoff where he wasn't going to get anywhere.

 

[TRF_Cymro]

From a referee's perspective, I was not at all impressed with the usually reliable Alain Rolland. Far too much whistle. Somewhere in there, a game of rugby was trying to break out, but Rolland kept it under lock and key!!!

He seemed to forget about materiality and the advantage law. A classic example was in the 66th minute. The All Black scrum absolutely mullered the Wallaby scrum, blew them right off their own ball, An All Black player picks up the ball and advances with supporting players while the Wallaby defence is out of position, 5m back and back pedalling furiously.... and what does Rolland do? He blows his effing whistle for a scrum infringement by the Aussies ... awarding a penalty to the All Blacks.


AAArrrgh!!!! What about materiality? What about advantage?

Rolland has been dire for much of a year or so.

 

[Big Ewis]

anybody got a go-to website for hghlts ?

 

[coonor]

From a referee's perspective, I was not at all impressed with the usually reliable Alain Rolland. Far too much whistle. Somewhere in there, a game of rugby was trying to break out, but Rolland kept it under lock and key!!!

He seemed to forget about materiality and the advantage law. A classic example was in the 66th minute. The All Black scrum absolutely mullered the Wallaby scrum, blew them right off their own ball, An All Black player picks up the ball and advances with supporting players while the Wallaby defence is out of position, 5m back and back pedalling furiously.... and what does Rolland do? He blows his effing whistle for a scrum infringement by the Aussies ... awarding a penalty to the All Blacks.


AAArrrgh!!!! What about materiality? What about advantage?

I didn't watch the game but in this example I was wandering did the scrum collapse following the Aus pedalling backwards? If so then I agree with Rolland because leaving a collapsed scrum is a big no no in my books!

 

[nickdnz]

Well, we won. Not the best game from either side - hopefully the matches improve once the teams shake off a bit of rust!

Great to see Dagg looking back to his best - a couple of scorching runs from him. In general the New Zealand backline was pretty quiet though. Smith looked pretty sharp, but Carter didn't offer too much with ball in hand (but did defend superbly). SBW reverted to his pre-2012 self somewhat - instead of hitting the line hard and straight he jogged up to the line then off-loaded (often to the worms...). Nonu was superb in defense (an area I was slightly concerned about before the match), but I can't recall him running with the ball!?!?! Jane and Gear were pretty solid, but it wassn't really a night for NZ wings.

Up front the scrums were a bit of a mess, but Mealamu did some good work around the field. Romano and Whitelock were solid, but the loosies had pretty mixed games. McCaw was the pick of the loose-forwards by far for me - he made a pile of tackles, and carried the ball well, breaking tackles at will on a couple of occasions. Read was pretty quiet, but seemed to get himself penalised a lot. Messam got himself involved well, and was very physical on defense, but he made a lot of errors (ranging from running into touch, to poor passes) which was a bit disappointing.

Ioane was the standout for Australia - he is just so dangerous with ball in hand. I thought Genia was pretty good too, and the loose-forwards as a whole were pretty effective (Dennis and Higginbotham were both great in the lineout too). Barnes and Ashley-Cooper were reasonably solid, but Beale had a shocker - I'm still not convinced he is fully fit....

Would + rep for this but I need to spread some more out first. Bang on the money.

Both Messam and Sonny Bill Williams didn't impress me this game. SBW - as you mentioned, was jogging it up and looking for offloads that weren't on. Messam did what he's actually done all season for the Chiefs, and that's run sideways. He looks to break the line, but he often tries to get the space by running sideways instead of hard forward running (something Victor Vito much more efficiently). I agree Nonu looked good on defense, was very impressed with his game at 13 overall to be honest.

Like smartcookie alluded to, the All Blacks backs such as Carter, Nonu, Gear and Jane, really weren't able to showcase what they are capable of due to Allan Rolland refereeing any continuity out of the match. Very hard for a player like Gear, where all his games against Australia have been under similar circumstances. I felt if general play was allowed to continue for longer, we'd have seen a bit more running rugby.

Overall I'd agree with you it was a very messy game. Scoreline seemed to flatter the Aussies a bit, as they only looked dangerous for one or two times in the match (with Ioane looking very good for parts). I'm expecting a much better performance next week in Auckland.

 

[Draggs]

Was it just me or did Rolland ignore blatantly not straight lineout throws?

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Stop + repping darwin

Didn't see the match yet, going to watch it tomorrow but from what I've read the least awful display of rugby won? Both teams not up to their normal standards?

 

[big ginger 8]

Was it just me or did Rolland ignore blatantly not straight lineout throws?

Yeah noticed a few mainly from TPN.

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Yeah noticed a few mainly from TPN.

The touch judges are the ones who should be calling it anyway, they normally do anyway.

 

[Tony Manx]

Thoughts......NZ were as, usual, clinical and cynical yet, by their very high standards (I emphasise by their standards!!), below average which allowed Australia, as usual, to disappoint but still avoid the drubbing that their numerous errors and lack of attacking nous deserved and the Irish Rat was, as usual, along with the many mistakes, able to disrupt the game sufficiently to make it very uninteresting with his constant whistle blowing and little chats!

 

[donmcdazzle]

Messam didn't take his chance in my opinion. Way too many errors for me. Got himself into a couple of decent positions but mucked them all up. Vito should start the next one.

 

[Darwin]

Was it just me or did Rolland ignore blatantly not straight lineout throws?

I thought the 1st 3-4 AB's throws weren't straight, but I'm not complaining about that. There were a few crooked looking Aussie throws too, and I think it was shocking that they weren't called

Stop + repping darwin

Didn't see the match yet, going to watch it tomorrow but from what I've read the least awful display of rugby won? Both teams not up to their normal standards?

Nah, Darwin deserved +ve reps. He is a top guy, and quite a looker too by all accounts (and incredibly modest)

It certainly wasn't the best match if you want to watch a free flowing contest. A pedantic ref didn't help help the situation, but the teams themselves were also to blame, with both sides making a lot of basic handling errors. However, there were good breaks from both sides, and some great set piece moves from NZ, and their certainly wasn't as much kicking as we saw in the Argentina vs South Africa match!

 

[austingtir]

I think they need to give Messam a few more (quite a few if necessary) games to settle in Kaino was not great in his first couple of seasons let alone his first few matches. To me Vito just does not have the overall potential of Messam. Messam has the ability to really take other teams loose forwards out of the match when he plays to his potential.