Rugby Championship: Australia - South Africa (08/09/2012)

[Darwin]

What just happened there? A South African first-five just ran the ball

 

[Amobokoboko]

Painful loss for the Boks. Well done AUS.

 

[TRF Mr Fish]

Aw I wouldn't have minded a draw - would've been a fair reflection of the game.

 

[Sker]

Please oh please oh please let Goosen start the next game...

 

[TRF Mr Fish]

Haha great awkward interview with Genia afterwards...

 

[dasNdanger]

Just caught the tail end of the match - good game from what I can tell. Will have to watch the rest later.


das

 

[Gena_ZA]

Hope Heyneke Meyer wakes up now, poor display by Boks - no X factor, like the coach they are utterly one dimentional
Use players that want to play with the ball.

 

[madflyhalf]

Looks Deans was right also on Phipps.

Replaced Genia in a difficult moment (no leadership, too many players crocked), but he played very well. Big shoes to fill in the next games, but today he worth the selection!


When the Wallabies pack plays good, they are almost as good as the ABs... today the forward were superb, whenever they had the ball they carried it well, advancing and keeping the backs on the front foot.


Quade Cooper played the most consistent and solid match ever with the Wallabies. I've never see him making so good decisions (and well executed) as today!

Hooper is a dynamo, Samo teached Higgers how to play and it seems Higgers learnt the lesson (at least for an half an hour), AAC tackled 2 men at the same time and saved a certain try!

****ing manic aggression (cit.) for the Wallaby pack, either in attack and in defence, good tackling (almost perfect), and smart attacking rugby, just look at Hooper (MOM today IMO) how many tackles he broke attacking spaces and not running straight into the defenders.


Saffa rugby, Bulls style, is useless, the only guy who attacked the line and the spaces has been put in field with 9 minutes to go.


Sorry, but after all is a fair result, no plan B, no creativity, awkward selection, nothing was deserved to this team.
Each time the Wallabies had ball in hand, they looked much more dangerous than the Boks, too many times they kicked, and too many times they had ball far from the try-line, but twice with 2 or 3 phases played in the 22, they scored 2 tries

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Haha great awkward interview with Genia afterwards...

What did he say to Genia?
I missed the first bit, just heard Genia saying "Are you trying to have a pop at me?"




Good game, though.
Still think Barnes is one of the most underrated players around.

 

[Sam Owen]

What a game!..gutted I lost my bet but awesome stuff from the Wallies.

 

[InsaneAsylum]

Fking bryce lawrence cheated fking lets threaten to kill him

 

[Amobokoboko]

Eben Etzebeth been cited for the header he gave to Sharp. Article here.

 

[SomeOke]

Well played Aus, better team on the day definitely won.

There's nothing else really to be said, Michael Hooper has more heart than all of our back three combined, one of my favorite players from Super Rugby and good to see him perform at this level.
Obviously disappointed that we lost but not surprised if you want to be better than Aus or NZ you have to have some form of creativity in the game plan, honestly Aus and NZ are consistently the best because they can create try scoring opportunities, the upper management of the Boks is desperately clinging to Jake White's style of rugby from 2007 which even he admits is outdated (he certainly doesn't bring that to the Brumbies style of play), as it stands though we have players and coaching staff that needs to realize that Plan A doesn't work anymore.

I'm not overly upset, I've accepted that unless something drastic changes we must settle for the fact that we aren't going to be the force in World Rugby we could be.
The one upside is that it does appear that HM is willing to make changes, I think he's beginning to realize he needs to shake things up.

Anyway well played Aus, deserved win.

 

[Sam Owen]

Haha great awkward interview with Genia afterwards...

Not as awkward as Samos one. His interview was a crack up

 

[Draggs]

Not as awkward as Samos one. His interview was a crack up

I like Samo. He really seems like a lad who loves what he does and just gets on with it.
His reaction to the blokes with the wigs and facepaint last year was funny: who cares?

 

[TRF Mr Fish]

What did he say to Genia?
I missed the first bit, just heard Genia saying "Are you trying to have a pop at me?"

"Good game for you guys tonight, not so much you though" or something along those lines, referring to Genia's injury. Genia didn't take it that way, at first

 

[Darwin]

Fking bryce lawrence cheated fking lets threaten to kill him

Yep, and for the 5th match in a row between these two teams!

Eben Etzebeth been cited for the header he gave to Sharp. Article here.

I can't imagine he will get a suspension - it was an idiotic thing to do, but the fact it didn't even look like he made contact (if he did it was very minimal) should count in his favour.

Looks Deans was right also on Phipps.

Replaced Genia in a difficult moment (no leadership, too many players crocked), but he played very well. Big shoes to fill in the next games, but today he worth the selection!


When the Wallabies pack plays good, they are almost as good as the ABs... today the forward were superb, whenever they had the ball they carried it well, advancing and keeping the backs on the front foot.


Quade Cooper played the most consistent and solid match ever with the Wallabies. I've never see him making so good decisions (and well executed) as today!

Hooper is a dynamo, Samo teached Higgers how to play and it seems Higgers learnt the lesson (at least for an half an hour), AAC tackled 2 men at the same time and saved a certain try!

****ing manic aggression (cit.) for the Wallaby pack, either in attack and in defence, good tackling (almost perfect), and smart attacking rugby, just look at Hooper (MOM today IMO) how many tackles he broke attacking spaces and not running straight into the defenders.


Saffa rugby, Bulls style, is useless, the only guy who attacked the line and the spaces has been put in field with 9 minutes to go.


Sorry, but after all is a fair result, no plan B, no creativity, awkward selection, nothing was deserved to this team.
Each time the Wallabies had ball in hand, they looked much more dangerous than the Boks, too many times they kicked, and too many times they had ball far from the try-line, but twice with 2 or 3 phases played in the 22, they scored 2 tries

Good summary. Glad you pointed out the AAC double tackle, as that was the highlight of the game for me - it was thought he used the first player he tackled to slingshot himself onto the second player!

Overall a fair result in my opinion - the Boks had the better of the first half, but Australia looked the better team in the second. There was no doubt the addition of Goosen and Lambie with 10 minutes to go sparked the Boks though - hopefully Meyer wasn't watching and they stick with Steyn at 10 against at the AB's next week

Arguably the man of the match for me was Ben Alexander. I suggested before the match that he was a poor scrummager, but it certainly didn't look that way this match. He more than held his own against Mtawarira, and was good in the loose, and fully deserved his try with an incredibly powerful run. Polota-Nau and Benn Robinson were solid, though Robinson still isn't the same player he was before his knee injury. I wasn't overly impressed with any of the South African front-rowers, and though Mtawarira in particular had a shocker. Both locking combinations were solid in my opinion, though Sharpe did seem to get himself penalised a lot.

Where Australia had a big advantage was in the loose-forwards, with Hooper basically single-handedly out playing the entire Boks loose-trio at the breakdown! He didn't get many clean pilfers, but he put a huge amount of pressure on South African ball, meaning South Africa could not get any quick ball to play with (not that they probably would have used it!). Hooper's running game was also superb - despite being dwarfed by the South African loose-forwards he was a far more effective ball runner than any of them. Dennis had probably his best game for Australia, with a strong work-rate, a number of takes in the lineout, and some good ball running in the tight. Likewise Samo was very strong with ball in hand, and particularly punishing on defense, while Higginbotham was even effective when he came on! In contrast the South African loosies were barely in the game. I thought Coetzee was the pick of them with his solid defense before he was subbed off. Vermeulen was largely ineffective (apart from some good work at the breakdown late in the game), while if Alberts wasn't standing out for missing tackles I would suggest he was completely anonymous!

Genia was good, while Cooper was resonably solid, though guilty of a few aimless kicks, and did miss quite a few tackles on defense. I was advocating Pienaar at halfback, but after this display I'm not sure. His general covering play was excellent, but for some reason he decided that the slower the Boks backs got the ball the better - he did at least as good a job as Hooper at ensuring the Boks didn't get quick ball! Morne Steyn was Morne Steyn. I hope he starts next week against the All Blacks. Barnes was solid on defense, and his goal-kicking was superb, but his general play was pretty poor in my opinion - I'm not sure why he thought doing useless grubbers whenever he got the ball was a good tactic? Ashley-Cooper was solid at centre, but got few chances with ball in hand. The Boks midfield was very disappointing again, and I think they really need to make a change in this area (though preferably after the AB's test....). Francois Steyn is solid, but offered nothing in attack, while de Villiers was poor at centre in my opinion, missing a couple of crucial tackles. Out wide Dom Shipperly had a superb debut - strong with ball in hand, great under the high ball, and solid in defense - perhaps he should have been starting on the right wing from the start of the season (as I, and a number of others of the forum suggested ). Ioane was well contain, while Beale was solid (stupid grubber kicks aside), which is a step up from where he was against the AB's. I thought Hougaard was probably the pick of the Boks - if they all played with his commitment Australia wouldn't have been in the game! Habana was solid, while Kirchner kicked the ball every time he touched it (like usual). Mvovo had a bit of a shocker from the bench too.

I'm sure both teams have plenty to work on after that match - I'm looking forward the return match in South Africa, which should be a cracker!

 

[kusta]

Clearly we either missing some players or our selections are not the right ones as has been said ever since Meyer was appointed as coach! JDV was nowhere to be seen in this game and we definately miss Jacque Fourie here, I think Juan De Jongh would do better there as well! We miss Schalla as well! Bismarck too ofcos, Brussow as well!

In terms of selection, Morne Steyn needs to go already, and I know most wana see Goosen there but I wana see Lambie there and Goosen on the bench, I believe Frans Steyn is the guy for us at 12 but he just needs players he can combine with, I think him and Lambie would make a great partnership! At no.9 we seriously lack depth I must say...Pienaar was decent enough but really don't see any other number 9 who can play the type of style HM wants to play in SA, which must show that we need to change the game plan cos clearly its not working! How I'd love to see Sarel Pretorious or Charl Mccleod there! Loose Trio is another area! As I said Brussow @ 6, Alberts @ 7, Keagen Daniel @ 8.

So my team would be(with fit players, whether available or not):
1-Beast
2-Craig Burden
3-Jannie(not on form though, crap game yesterday)
4-Etzebeth
5-Kruger
6-Brussow
7-Alberts
8-Keagan Daniel
9-Charl Mccleod
10-Lambie
11-Habana
12-Frans Steyn
13-Jaque Fourie(ofcos if he decided to make himself available)
14-Houggard
15-Aplon

16-Adriaan Strauss
17-Cilliers
18-Bekker
19-Marcel Coetzee
20-Sarel Pretorius
21-Goosen
22-Juan De Jongh/Mvovo

Damn drawing up that team I can see we don't have as much depth in SA as people would think! Barring the injured players

 

[TRF Mr Fish]

Don't know about McCleod and Pretorious...

And I think du Plessis is still your top hooker.

 

[kusta]

Don't know about McCleod and Pretorious...

And I think du Plessis is still your top hooker.

Who else is an option at 9 though? I don't see anyone
Plus I was naming players who are currently fit.