Tri Nations: Wallabies - Springboks @ ANZ Stadium, Sydney (23-07-2011, 11:00 GMT)

[Gavin]

Try South Africa. Lambie has made a huge difference, or maybe Australia have let off the gas..

 

[madflyhalf]

Why would you give Quade Cooper that much room to run?! Steyn and Olivier just let him run right across them - didn't even have to step them! Mvovo really caught napping there as well

What a try by Stephen Moore! Showing that even fat, bald front rowers can look like their heroes in the backs when playing against the Boks!

IMO De Jongh did wrong defence with blitz outside, opening space for QC.
Insane!

 

[Easdon]

IMO De Jongh did wrong defence with blitz outside, opening space for QC.
Insane!

Good point, I'd agree with you on that one!


Dunno how much this reveals for the WC though, a lot of Bok fans have been pretty vocal about the fact that because it's a world cup year no other tournaments matter but surely a performance like this is inexcusable

 

[TVH11]

Tell me, is this a second string Bokks team?? I don't recognise many SA players, and with the score and performance atm surely this isn't a 1st XV???

 

[Amobokoboko]

PdV chose this team so his RWC squad could have a rest.

 

[Black Heart]

Tell me, is this a second string Bokks team?? I don't recognise many SA players, and with the score and performance atm surely this isn't a 1st XV???

Most of the starting Boks are out with injury i.e. Matfield, Botha, Du Preez, Habana and co.

In saying that it isn't the first time South Africa have squeezed in a B side into the Tri Nations.

 

[beerholder]

Tell me, is this a second string Bokks team?? I don't recognise many SA players, and with the score and performance atm surely this isn't a 1st XV???

It's well know that deVilliers likes to experiment stuff with the team. I was expecting to see a better performance out of SA in the 2nd half like they did last year when they've beaten Australia once and almost twice (thanks to Beale) all in the 2nd half.

 

[racingmetrofan]

Australia's defense and especially scrum looked very good (for them). Real world cup contenders if they play as well as they can and don't have any major injuries.

 

[Amobokoboko]

I reckon that SA isn't really interested in the Tri Nations this year but solely wants to focus on the RWC which is fair enough.
Next week vs NZ will be another difficult game for them.

 

[SelimNiai]

Just wasn't expecting that result. Ok, people can and will claim that it was a weaker side. That arguement doesn't wash in my opinion. The way the Aussies played they would have beaten the 1st choice SA side. O'Connor, Cooper and Beale were outstanding, Moore was solid up fronty and Elsom did what he does best and leads from the front.

 

[darkozone]

Wow. Great game. Thank you to DirecTV for showing the entire Tri-Nations this year in the states. As for the game, the Wallabies whipped the Boks, and obviously some serious work needs to be done by the South Africans if they want to win a game in this year's series. If Australia continues to play this well, they might seriously give the AB's a run for their money. They seemed off during their game with Fiji, for NZ's sake I hope that's just because they're playing a weaker team and not going 100%, because otherwise the All Blacks are definitley going to struggle when they play the Aussies.

 

[shtove]

PdV chose this team so his RWC squad could have a rest.

I only saw a half-hour highlights version of the match.

SA seemed to play the same-old same-old patterns. First string players might execute them better, but I'll be doing well to stay awake during their RWC campaign. There was some movement at about 57 mins that showed they can play rugby and create gaps, but it didn't last long.

Aus cut through when it mattered, but Genia probably won't make those breaks against a better backrow.

Tragedy that rugby is more popular in SA than Aus, when the latter play it so much better. C'est la vie.

 

[Darwin]

Just wasn't expecting that result. Ok, people can and will claim that it was a weaker side. That arguement doesn't wash in my opinion. The way the Aussies played they would have beaten the 1st choice SA side. O'Connor, Cooper and Beale were outstanding, Moore was solid up fronty and Elsom did what he does best and leads from the front.

I fully expected this sort of result - Australia beat a full strength (apart from a couple of injuries) South African side by 17 points in Australia last year (30-13), so beating an understrength side by the same sort of margin didn't really have come as a shock at all.

Overall a pretty dominant performance by Australia - in some ways the score flattered South Africa in the end. As expected South Africa struggled defensively, and didn't really have any creativity in attack (until Lambie came on at least).

I thought the scrums were reasonably even. All of the Australian tight five had solid games, with Stephen Moore having a particularly strong game around he field for Australia. Pocock was good (as usual), while Elsom certainly improved on his performance v Samoa (though he still has a way to go). The Aussie backs thrived as they were generally getting clean ball. Genia had a strong game and exposed South Africa quite a few times around the breakdown, but I thought Cooper had a very mixed game. He made a large number of errors, but he was at his creative best at times... I'm sure South Africa would love to have had such creativity at 10! I thought the McCabe/AAC midfield was strong, though I'm sure they didn't find their defensive responsibilities that difficult. Beale was surprisingly quiet, but both wings were exceptional in my opinion - if Australia get clean ball there are few teams in the world that are going to be able to contain the Australian outside backs.

I thought Ralepelle looked good for South Africa when he came on (and got a well deserved try). Hargreaves was good in the lineouts, but I still think he lacks the physicality required for test rugby. The loose-forward trio (as I predicted) was not effective at all. Johnson looked out of his depth at test level (especially on defense) though I actually thought Stegmann has one of his better games (I don't think he even got penalised!), while Rossouw certainly tried hard (but was more effective at lock), while Kankowski and especially Deysel did add bit when they came on. Overall the trio certainly didn't work as a combination though. Pienaar had a very poor game, while Morne Steyn played like Morne Steyn (which is not really a compliment). Oilvier was poor too - he crashed a lot of ball up in midfield, and I thought his defense (which is usually reasonably solid) was actually very poor. All the outside backs actually had there moments with the ball in hand, but they weren't given enough chances. They did all struggle in defense, though as I mentioned most outside backs are going to struggle to contain Ioane, O'Connor and Beale if they get front foot ball.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Is Polota-Nau still injured?
If so, will be interesting to see who gets the 16 shirt between him and Faingaa
Faingaa has been great for the Reds this season, but I've never been impressed by him internationally, and he wasn't great off the bench today

 

[Siva Tau]

Wallabies were ona hiding to nothing they were expected to win well. Cooper was fantastic and is surely world no 1 first five. Without him the Wallabies are a different team. The Springboks were a total disappointment and seemed to lack commitment for the full 80 mins. There defence was deplorable.

 

[Darwin]

Is Polota-Nau still injured?
If so, will be interesting to see who gets the 16 shirt between him and Faingaa
Faingaa has been great for the Reds this season, but I've never been impressed by him internationally, and he wasn't great off the bench today

Yep Polota-Nau is still injured. When he is fit he will at least make the bench, and may even push Moore for a starting spot. Faingaa is ok, but I agree he never really excels at test level.

 

[Thingimubob]

Saw this one coming a mile off (in fact my guess in the prediction competition was very very close!)
Haven;t managed to watch any highlights yet (waiting for WRN on youtube to upload them), but what do the Boks expect when they name that kind of team? Just feels that it demeans the tournament a little when you name second string teams to 'focus on the world cup', why bother playing if you're not even gonna try? If they carry on with a selection policy like this they're gonna go into the World Cup with one hell of a losing streak and bugger all momentum.
And they have Wales first. Ah, carry on then Peter de Villiers!

 

[Darwin]

Something I forgot to mention: the Wallabies backline formation from set pieces was very interesting - Ioane at 10, with Beale on the wing and Cooper at fullback. It seemed to work very effectively against the one-dimensional South African attack, but it will be interesting to see how Ioane goes defending at 10 against a more creative backline ( as I'd imagine he has very limited experience defending in that position). I'm sure he will be a huge upgrade from Quade Cooper defending at 10, but oppositions backs may try to expose his defensive positioning, which may not be perfect given his limited experience defending in that position (not saying it will be a weakness, but rather it might be a weakness).

 

[Black Heart]

Wow. Great game. Thank you to DirecTV for showing the entire Tri-Nations this year in the states. As for the game, the Wallabies whipped the Boks, and obviously some serious work needs to be done by the South Africans if they want to win a game in this year's series. If Australia continues to play this well, they might seriously give the AB's a run for their money. They seemed off during their game with Fiji, for NZ's sake I hope that's just because they're playing a weaker team and not going 100%, because otherwise the All Blacks are definitley going to struggle when they play the Aussies.

Keep in mind that the All Blacks were only playing a B side and they've traditionally been slow out of the blocks when it comes to the first few test matches in a rugby year anyway. But you're right about the Wallabies. I don't think they can be counted as a dark horse going into the WC any longer. They've got the most effective backline in the world and their fowards are comming up to play aswell. I don't think they will beat the All Blacks in Auckland in a couple of weeks though. Eden Park has always been a real fortress for New Zealand sides and the Wallabies havn't won there since the late 1980s from memory.

 

[beerholder]

Keep in mind that the All Blacks were only playing a B side and they've traditionally been slow out of the blocks when it comes to the first few test matches in a rugby year anyway. But you're right about the Wallabies. I don't think they can be counted as a dark horse going into the WC any longer. They've got the most effective backline in the world and their fowards are comming up to play aswell. I don't think they will beat the All Blacks in Auckland in a couple of weeks though. Eden Park has always been a real fortress for New Zealand sides and the Wallabies havn't won there since the late 1980s from memory.

yeah, but the match with Samoa showed that the injection of reserves might ruin the well oiled mechanism the back line has. And since the WC is a long tournament I doubt they will remain intact in the latest stages.