England to whitewash Australia
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="ACT Crusader" data-cid="589540" data-time="1466256976"><p>Not that I'm a huge fan of Brown, but it wasn't a great night for England backs in attack, ball in hand.</p></blockquote>
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Hopefully next week... -
As predicted three losses on the trot for Cheika. Hard to even pick a truly quality performance out of the last 6. Not sure how many other best coaches in the world managed that? Even previous Aussie coaches going back to Dwyer?<br><br>
A fun throwback game tonight. I didn't think the quality from both sides was as high as some at least with ball in hand - even accounting for weather. That perhaps flattered the defence a touch. But a wet weather fixture between two top teams is always something worth watching - the scrap and the struggle is what you watch for not sublime skill.<br><br>
Will be very curious to see the mentality from both sides here. Will England go for the kill? Will Australia lie down or battle for pride? I suspect we will get he biggest margin of the series - but who knows in what direction? -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Cookie" data-cid="589539" data-time="1466256466">
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<p>Oh and Mike Brown, if the guy running the most metres in your team is Billy V, then you need to take a long hard look at yourself.</p>
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<p>Absolutely terrible, knocking on high balls, not kicking the ball after the turnover but conceding a TO himself instead, not beating a single defender that I can remember.. utter crap. He was pretty good in 2014, wasn't he?</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Tordah" data-cid="589551" data-time="1466262361"><p>Absolutely terrible, knocking on high balls, not kicking the ball after the turnover but conceding a TO himself instead, not beating a single defender that I can remember.. utter crap. He was pretty good in 2014, wasn't he?</p></blockquote>
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Used to be one of my fave players, safe as houses under the high ball, really worked on his pace and just the right amount of attitude to keep the team honest. Now I think Goode should start the third test, he's improved massively over last season or so, although to be fair he was pretty shit before then. -
<p>Congrats to England for refusing to yield. But some of the dullest play by Oz in a while. Two kickable penalties and 13 all and then England would have had to play instead of rope a dope.</p>
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<p>Amazing that England didn't cop YC -- I think they thought they were getting one at least three times!</p>
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<p>Hope third is as hard fought.</p> -
<p>I thought Australia would be too good at home before the series, </p>
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<p>But over the last 10 years, Ive always considered England to be something of a bogey side for the Aussies , and tended to forget all that due to what went on at the WC. </p>
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<p>So really in hindsight , its not that surprising to me , its more a case of business as usual. </p> -
<p>Nah, don't see that Kiwinmelb. England rarely beat Aus in Aus. We have handed them their collective arses a few times over the years but also vice-versa. I do feel that our traditional strengths sometimes are too much for Aussie's traditional weaknesses and again the other way round, whereas our trad strengths are very rarely a NZ weakness. Yeah we take the odd game but never in a 'your my bitch today' type of way.</p>
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I'm not sure about putting the boot into cheika here, look at the team list they are basically a bunch of nevilles when you compare this mob to the great Aussie teams with eales, horan, little etc etc. <br><br>
Agree with an earlier poster about phipps I don't think he gives much variation in attack. -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="infidel" data-cid="589593" data-time="1466282445">
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<p>I'm not sure about putting the boot into cheika here, look at the team list they are basically a bunch of nevilles when you compare this mob to the great Aussie teams with eales, horan, little etc etc.<br><br>
Agree with an earlier poster about phipps I don't think he gives much variation in attack.</p>
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<p>I'm not putting the boot into Cheika, have a look at page 4 and 5 of this thread and the aussie vs kiwi impressions of him. He might have been a great club/superrugby coach but he's not a great international coach.</p>
<p>Eales Horan etc was 15 years ago, I'm not sure I see your point there.</p> -
<p>According to these ratings i cant see why Oz didnt win by 30 points..</p>
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<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2016/06/18/australia-vs-england-second-test-player-ratings/michael-hooper/'>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2016/06/18/australia-vs-england-second-test-player-ratings/michael-hooper/</a></p> -
I think that although England won there was an element of luck involved.<br>England tried to sit on a slim lead early in the second half. They started doing tactical grubber kicks to pin Australia deep in their half. You can't sit on a lead that slim and<br>sure enough 5 minutes later Australia were hot on attack only mere metres out from the try line. Congratulations on the win England but next time when you have the ball in hand in a good attacking position then<br>try to run it and score a try as you can't back your defence to hold the other team scoreless every week.<br><br>Still as was explained to me on my other message board, this was England's first series victory ever in Australia and the magnitude of the occassion was huge. So I can see that<br>point.
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Nepia" data-cid="589615" data-time="1466292579"><p>
I think my talking up of Foley last week was a bit premature ....</p></blockquote>
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Me too. I called him worldclass last week. He was dire yesterday. <br><br>
In fact pretty much every back had a serious case of white line fever. -
There was an excellent article someone posted last week about Australia using a 1-3-3-1 formation for their forwards,<br><br>The commentators picked up on this and said it was part of the problem last night. The formation calls for both flankers to be out on the wing and as such they were fairly silent,<br>according to the comms Hoopah gave up on 1-3-3-1 and just started chasing the ball and Australia improved for a time.
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You drop that much ball when you repeatedly have backs running at a set defense because the forwards have failed to punch through. Or when you do generate momentum your halfback throws it behind his intended receiver. <br><br>
It seems to me the keys to beating Australia haven't changed in 15 years through a number of coaches -
One of the real issues of Chieka is the lack of variety in their play - he hasn't been known for having great plan Bs. Their kicking game is woeful and it looks like they are sorely missing Beale in attack - the Foley Folau Beale combo makes it all go.<br><br>
As has been mentioned they don't have great player options at the moment but it might help if they got their backrow balance right - McMahon a 100kg 7 playing 8 and a wide running non traditional flanker playing 7.
