Wallabies 28 vs All Blacks 49, July 31st 2010, Fourth Tri Nations Test FT

[Duckdee]

It's rather frightening how dominant NZ can be, I don't think a 15th man whould've helped Aus much.

 

[DanCarterite]

I think we can say the Tri-Nations is a done deal.

I also won't bet against the Aussies nabbing one test win against the AB's this season, not that I would bet on them doing so, the AB's are in frighteningly good form at the moment, but the signs are there that the Aussies are going to be a force that cannot be ignored, the new rules suit them as well as they suit the AB's.

Roll on Christchuch, I'm hoping for a match as entertaining as this one was.

 

[.me]

Matt Giteau 5/7 (71%)
Dan Carter 6/9 (67%)

After getting harsh yellow/red cards - All Blacks threw the ball away 3 or 4 times before Elsom pointed it to out to the ref - there were some positives from the Wallabies performance.

 

[Feicarsinn]

Pah, you call that rugby? Give me a 6-3 forward fest any day. I blame the backrows for letting the scrum halves near the ball.

 

[smartcooky]

Matt Giteau 5/7 (71%)
Dan Carter 6/9 (67%)

After getting harsh yellow/red cards - All Blacks threw the ball away 3 or 4 times before Elsom pointed it to out to the ref - there were some positives from the Wallabies performance.

Rocky Elsom will have learned a valuable lesson... you don't point out something that the opposition are doing when your own team is doing it too. Will Genia threw away or refused to give up the ball at NZ free kicks too...3 times by my count.

BOTH teams were guilty of doing it, not just NZ. The referee called BOTH captains over and said "Sort it out. I do not want to have to result to yellow cards"

Then Mitchell has his brain explosion, so Joubert had little choice.

You cannot blame the referee when a player acts stupidly

 

[.me]

BOTH teams were guilty of doing it, not just NZ. The referee called BOTH captains over and said "Sort it out. I do not want to have to result to yellow cards"

I never said the Wallabies weren't guilty of it, but before the ref called out the captains, if I recall correctly, New Zealand had offended more than Australia. After they were called out Australia were offending more of the time. Joubert should know the laws of the sport he is refereeing and not have to get captains to point it out to him. He should have handed out more yellows, in my opinion. I was saying it was harsh cause only Mitchell got the yellow for it.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

But the law says noone can do it, he can't call the captains in and say "Richie, if your team does it again, it's a yellow, Rocky, you've got three more chances before a card"

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Be fair to Joubert he did say next one to do it goes ... warning was there.

 

[madflyhalf]

Just cut away 12 points from the ABs:

- try Carter: Barnes' kick gets charged down by Carter, the ball hit Nonu's feet, Carter in front of him, plays it the ball and scores. Offiside, I give you the benefit of accidental, because Carter didn't see the ball hit Nonu, but referees and TG must see it.

- try McCaw: Conrad Smith doesn't roll away after tackling AAC, preventing him from clear the ball, and it seems he also handles the ball from the ground. Penalty to Australia.

37-28 would be more fair than 49-28.


And this is another true point:

I never said the Wallabies weren't guilty of it, but before the ref called out the captains, if I recall correctly, New Zealand had offended more than Australia. After they were called out Australia were offending more of the time. Joubert should know the laws of the sport he is refereeing and not have to get captains to point it out to him. He should have handed out more yellows, in my opinion. I was saying it was harsh cause only Mitchell got the yellow for it.

You can't get away without any cards, making more professional fouls than your opponents, and also beginning doing it before them!
Joubert focus was only on the breakdown (well managed of course), but forgetting anything else.


But anyway, NZ by far the best team on the pitch... they deserved to win! But I hate there are always some mistakes from refs, that give you a few doubts!

 

[TRF_Olyy]

- try Carter: Barnes' kick gets charged down by Carter, the ball hit Nonu's feet, Carter in front of him, plays it the ball and scores. Offiside, I give you the benefit of accidental, because Carter didn't see the ball hit Nonu, but referees and TG must see it.

I saw that as well, but i'm unsure of the rules concerning charge downs so i don't know whether it's allowed or not

 

[nickdnz]

Ahhh, what a game!

The Aussy red card I was a little bit disheartened by it. Stupid by Drew Mitchell. The game was a real spectical, but I just feel that Australia would have looked better had he not been yellow carded. Can't blaim the ref for the card though.

NZ Player Ratings out of 10-
1. Tony Woodcock - 6.5 - Not his best game in my opinion. He was unfairly penalised during the scrum for not binding, however he got his bind up after about 3 seconds, which as long as your making an effort to stabalize the scrum, it's not a penalty offence. Still, didn't look to have a great game by his large standards. Scrums were fairly even, a slight advantage to the AB's once or twice, especially on hard grounds.
2. Kevin Mealamu - 9 - Man of the Match in my opinion. He had a huge work rate at both the ruck, and making runs. Looking like NZ's #1 hooker coming into the World Cup.
3. Owen Franks - 6.5 - Scrum was solid when he was on, and he had good aggression. Stupid sholder charge though, and brain explosions like that can cost you. It also means a player has to end their game early, so a replacement prop can come on.
4.Brad Thron - 7.5 - Another solid game, a few good runs, solid work rate.
5. Tom Donnely - 7.5 - A lot of clean ball from kick off, and good work rate around the park. Looking like first choice lock.
6. Jerome Kaino - 8 - Hit every ruck with aggression and won a few good turnovers. He also had a brilliant fend.
7. Richie McCaw - 8.5 - His running game was pretty decent, but I'm always worried he'll hurt himself and get injured. MOTM performance, although I thought Pocock was equally impressive as a scavanger.
8. Kieren Read - 7 - His quietest game of the season. Knocked the ball on a few times, but also linked well and had some good runs.

9. Jimmy Cowan - 7 - Looked alright when he was on, but looks like he's injured. Weepu performed well.
10. Dan Carter - 8 - A few small errors which led to Aus scoring a try from a charge down, but made up for it with a try of his own, and played well for the rest of the match.
11. Joe Rokocoko - 7.5 - Looking more like the Joe of old, and he scored quite a nice try. Hopefully he carries on good form. A few very good looking runs.
12. Ma'a Nonu - 7 - Not a special game for Nonu, but he wasn't that bad. Held well in defence, and was always very heavily marked in attack.
13. Conrad Smith - 8 - Played as well as usual. Made plenty of tackles (although he missed one on Giteau, which was suprising). Very sneaky player.
14. Cory Jane - 9 - Touches of magic. Seems to do things no one else can do. Magic footwork and magic fends. Everything he did was class.
15. Mils Muliaina - 8 - Scored two good tries and was consistantly solid.

It'll be interesting to see if McCaw or Whitelock get cited for a "lifting tackle". If McCaw gets cited, we're screwed for next match.

Best line of the match was Elsomes to Joubert "You're ruining the game".

 

[cyRil]

Same here, I thought the ref was going to call Carter back, because it seemed obviously offside to me.

 

[TRF_Cymro]

NZ Player Ratings out of 10-
1. Tony Woodcock - 6.5 - Not his best game in my opinion. He was unfairly penalised during the scrum for not binding, however he got his bind up after about 3 seconds, which as long as your making an effort to stabalize the scrum, it's not a penalty offence. Still, didn't look to have a great game by his large standards. Scrums were fairly even, a slight advantage to the AB's once or twice, especially on hard grounds.

Sorry but the rating is being a bit fair on Woodcock. He was pretty poor today. He was CORRECTLY penalised for his binding, his hand hit the floor which you can't do.

 

[madflyhalf]

Mealamu MOM for me too!
When Australian were still fresh on their legs, and players keep tackling advancing, he was one of the few NZers that always gave problem to the defender!
Also good point on Woodcock, he played poorly in the scrummage...

Australian scrums is getting better game after game, but how long will they do that?

I saw that as well, but i'm unsure of the rules concerning charge downs so i don't know whether it's allowed or not

Nothing against the charge down, because there is no offside after the charge down, but the offside line came when Nonu accidentally hit the ball, not a penalty but a scrum!

 

[smartcooky]

I never said the Wallabies weren't guilty of it, but before the ref called out the captains, if I recall correctly, New Zealand had offended more than Australia. After they were called out Australia were offending more of the time. Joubert should know the laws of the sport he is refereeing and not have to get captains to point it out to him. He should have handed out more yellows, in my opinion. I was saying it was harsh cause only Mitchell got the yellow for it.

Cobblers matey. The Captain isn't actually supposed to point anything out to the referee. His job is to captain his team, not to gob off and yell at the referee, which he did several times.

I thought Joubert was very tolerant of Elsom, who was rude and disrespectful. Any player talked to me like that and, captain or no-captain, I would bin him on the spot. I promise you, if he tries that crap with Jon Kaplan next weekend he'll be in real trouble.

By the way, when a team warning is issued, some unlucky sod is going to cop the yellow if he's the one who infringes, even if he has not committed that particular infringement before. Them's the breaks

 

[smartcooky]

- try Carter: Barnes' kick gets charged down by Carter, the ball hit Nonu's feet, Carter in front of him, plays it the ball and scores. Offiside, I give you the benefit of accidental, because Carter didn't see the ball hit Nonu, but referees and TG must see it.

Yes I saw that, but only after a couple of slo-mo replays. Even the commentators didn't pick it up until after they saw the slo-mo replay.

Also, I think you will find Joubert was not in a position to see it, and the far side Assistant Referee would not have expected the charge-down, and would have been heading downtown.

The other issue is, did Nonu actually play at the ball

From LAW 11 Definitions:
"In general play a player is offside if the player is in front of a team-mate who is
carrying the ball, or in front of a team-mate who last played the ball."

Note that it says played not touched. It is a generally accepted practice for referees to regard "playing the ball" as deliberate and "touching the ball" as inadvertent. This is why if the ball bounces off you into you touch, even though you may not have played the ball the throw-in is to your opponent.

LAW 19.4 WHO THROWS IN
The throw-in is taken by an opponent of the player who last held or touched the ball before
it went into touch. When there is doubt, the attacking team takes the throw-in.

So even if one of the To3 saw it, it is entirely possible that they considered Nonu didn't play at the ball.

 

[madflyhalf]

Nonu touched with his foot, which is not a knock on, Nonu played the ball (is a way to play it, no infringments in this): but Carter take advantage from the defender by continue playing it.

It's like when a scrum half comes to a ruck, touches the ball with is foot (volountarly or not), sending it against someone of his teammate who's in the ruck.
I've always seen it penalized as an accidental offside, at any level in any competition.

 

[veux]

If Aus get their restarts and conduct sorted it wouldn't surprise me if they can pinch one from the ABs when Cooper comes back. I really hope McCaw is cited for that tackle and banned for a couple of games.

 

[cyRil]

Are you talking about the tackle made with Whitelock? Is it just me who thought it was perfectly legitimate?

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Are you talking about the tackle made with Whitelock? Is it just me who thought it was perfectly legitimate?

It was perfectly legitimate, as he was not brought down on his head / rotated / inverted 180 degrees downwards.