RWC Week 2: Australia v Fiji
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@MajorRage said in RWC Week 2: Australia v Fiji:
Injuries very important for Wales.
Team vs Fiji was decent, team vs Portugal a decent step down.
I’ll be gutted if Fiji don’t make it
We’re going well in that department
And players like Faletau playing themselves into great form
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Right, I've watched it. TBH it wasn't a complete disaster, but wasn't up to Tier 1 standard.
Rugby, like a lot of sport, is a game of inches. Mostly for us it is the top 2 inches that goes missing.
We had a chance to draw level with 10 to go and fluffed our lines. So many times through the match we made good ground and then didn't secure our ball. Wales will have watched that with interest.
A proper Tier 1 team would have finished that game off. Sliding doors but I'd have backed Rennie's Wallabies to win that game. There, I said it.
Our maul defence was rubbish. Our maul attack not much better. When you're no good at the breakdown, you're no good. The stupidity of some of the penalties was mind-boggling.
White needs to go. The increase in speed was noticeable when IFL came on. Lonergan from the Brumbies should be parachuted in. I don't really rate McDermott's passing either, and if you want to play quick rugby on the fringes you need quick passing.
Petaia does nothing, and in fact is a negative. Partly for his stupid kicking just outside Fiji's 22, but also witness him hanging out on the wing in one of our last attacking plays instead of being close in to support or take a short ball.
I'm fucking sick of over-hyped kids who come out of school or club rugby, having torn it up, only to get all their shit destroyed against grown men. This is why we need a third tier - to sort out this bullshit schoolboy rugby once and for all. But that is a rant for another thread. Put Uelese in that column. Marky Mark not much better but at least offers something on attack.
The inability of the back three to take the high ball cost us a lot. Gordon, Marika, and Marky Mark to take blame there.
But enough about the clods...
Frost was the shining light of the forward pack. Good in contact, great in the air. Poor bastard has one of his ears half-separated from his head and still going for 80 minutes. Champion.
Porecki also good in hitting all his targets.
Valetini was pretty good as well but zero support.
In general we looked flat.
Referee - jeez if we'd had a TMO like that Aussie dickhead the other night there might have been some cards both ways. Brace is someone I have trouble watching, but have no issue with his decision-making in general. Lot of shit missed both ways.
TBH we weren't far away but 1 point behind was too far at this stage of the campaign.
Fiji were pretty good. Dropped a lot of ball. Great scrum but had an advantage with Slipper there, and went even harder when Philip came into the second row and got the reward at the end.
They've always been good athletes. Weld a bit of set piece and discipline onto them and they'll go far.
Hope Tonga were watching.
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@NTA said in RWC Week 2: Australia v Fiji:
Frost was the shining light of the forward pack. Good in contact, great in the air. Poor bastard has one of his ears half-separated from his head and still going for 80 minutes. Champion.
A few years in the Crusaders system may have benefited Frost.
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@LABCAT said in RWC Week 2: Australia v Fiji:
who goes through to the QF's if all three teams finish on 15 points?
Several factors influence pool placings and a team’s qualification to the knockout stages. If teams are level on points at the end of the group stage, the list of criteria for deciding who advances is as follows:
- The winner of the match between two tied teams is ranked higher.
- The team with the best points difference in the pool stages is ranked higher.
- The team with the best difference between tries scored and tries conceded in the pool stages is ranked higher.
- The team which has scored the most points in the pool stages is ranked higher.
- The team which has scored the most tries in the pool stages is ranked higher.
Should the teams remain level after steps 1-5, official World Rugby Rankings on a set date will determine the higher ranked team
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@NTA Interesting to hear one of the journos at the press conference ask Eddie if Kellaway is a chance to play against Wales. I'm sure I am not the only one puzzled at why he isn't in the starting XV when you see who Jones does select in the back three.
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@Bovidae said in RWC Week 2: Australia v Fiji:
@NTA Interesting to hear one of the journos at the press conference ask Eddie if Kellaway is a chance to play against Wales. I'm sure I am not the only one puzzled at why he isn't in the starting XV when you see who Jones does select in the back three.
Hope Eddie selects the same team
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@Bovidae said in RWC Week 2: Australia v Fiji:
@NTA Interesting to hear one of the journos at the press conference ask Eddie if Kellaway is a chance to play against Wales. I'm sure I am not the only one puzzled at why he isn't in the starting XV when you see who Jones does select in the back three.
Fucking weird eh?
It'll be interesting to see if Gordon gets another run after getting yanked with 30 to go. If he doesn't, Eddie will get accused of not taking a pick n stick approach.
If that happened, he could at least shoehorn in another Randwick player in Kellaway, moving Donaldson to 10.
Personally think we should start IFL with Donaldson in that case.
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Keep up the good work fellas @mariner4life @NTA ...
Wallabies v Fiji - the Kiwi Perspective
The Fern's FNQ Correspondent shares his neutralish thoughts on Fiji's victory over Straya.
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@booboo said in RWC Week 2: Australia v Fiji:
Keep up the good work fellas @mariner4life @NTA ...
Wallabies v Fiji - the Kiwi Perspective
The Fern's FNQ Correspondent shares his neutralish thoughts on Fiji's victory over Straya.
a few people over at GAGR will read that and join the dots.I'm more diplomatic over there about people like Petaia because otherwise all the Queenslanders immolate
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@mariner4life said in RWC Week 2: Australia v Fiji:
Their young 10 they've chucked in teh deep end Eddie towed, and will now probably never play again
Gordon is super talented.. I can't believe how bad they've mishandled him
They were asking a lot by making him ten this year, but you could make an argument that he was ready. However, the only ten in the squad? A ten in side that lacks other kicking options? Crazy
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How Fiji left the Wallabies shell-shocked and issued a World Cup warning
Australia lost all the pure power contests that the game has to offer against Fiji in Saint-Etienne, and that was all she wrote.
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@Duluth said in RWC Week 2: Australia v Fiji:
@mariner4life said in RWC Week 2: Australia v Fiji:
Their young 10 they've chucked in teh deep end Eddie towed, and will now probably never play again
Gordon is super talented.. I can't believe how bad they've mishandled him
They were asking a lot by making him ten this year, but you could make an argument that he was ready. However, the only ten in the squad? A ten in side that lacks other kicking options? Crazy
and they took no old head to help him manage it. Foley or Cooper, even if you didn't intend to play them much, would have been huge for his confidence and to help him navigate it.
But no, you take only him, and as soon as it gets tough, you tow him? appalling man management (from the outside)
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@GibbonRib said in RWC Week 2: Australia v Fiji:
USA Rugby emphatically agrees
I'd back us to turn it around quicker than them. The USA is a basket case.
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@mariner4life said in RWC Week 2: Australia v Fiji:
and they took no old head to help him manage it. Foley or Cooper, even if you didn't intend to play them much, would have been huge for his confidence and to help him navigate it.
I'm sure plenty of people would disagree, but I would've had JOC standing next to him at 12
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i still think the guy at 12 is awesome so can't agree. JOC probably just needed to show something this year to get picked, unfortunately he really didn't
