Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11
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@KiwiMurph said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
@antipodean said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
@akan004 The whining from some of the Wallaby fans that a NZ ref cost them a win is hilarious and sadly predictable.
They have a point. Williams was bad.
But he didn't favour the home team. Anyone thinking Gardner's going to be any better has rocks in their head.
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Our set piece saved us in that game, we stole plenty of lineout ball and got a number of scrum penalties. We also got a number of crucial penalties with Oz on our line. If Oz can fix their lineout and cleanout better we could be in a lot of trouble. I thought White was excellent with his sniping runs. Their wingers ran hard and fast, kind of like if we had Clarke and Reece/Ioane.
I didn't think the problem was our forwards, we gave away a lot of possession and some errors on D.
I do wonder if Fozzie knows any other way apart from the Hansen way considering that is the only environment he has been in for ages. I would have loved to have seen how the AB's would have played under Rennie.
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@KiwiMurph said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
The positives are there are some players we can bring in to the starting XV to make this team improve.
Yeah it will be interesting what changes come. Two forced changes pre-game.
Clarke was great off the bench and I think most of us predicted he (and Sotutu) would provide impact late in the game against tired defenders. Do they start?
Might seem like an easy decision but as we know many a player has looked good coming on in these situations and it is stark given the way the test has played out.
Ideally at this stage I would still have Mo’unga coming off the bench behind B. Barrett. And my “informed” team selections 😎 I had Barrett at 10 with Jordie at 15. To me Reece and Ioane are our two best wingers and Goodhue and ALB our best midfield.
I don’t have stats or analysis other than from the armchair but it covers several bases.
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@akan004 Aaron Smith said in the post-match interview that the ABs didn't get to the ruck fast enough; the Aussies were way faster. That caused some of the problems for him and Mo'unga, denying them enough time. He said that he and RM should have used their kicking game more ...
Not sure that would have worked with this weather, but I also thought the ABs looked at bit slow at times (compared to the Aussies).
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@akan004 said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
I thought the big work on after the semi was to improve our physicality. We looked even less physical than last year.
If only we got a coach who spent time in a country known for physicality. I genuinely wonder wtf they spent their time in camp doing.
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There was so much wrong with this team, and when it came down to it we displayed the same weaknesses that England ruthlessly exposed at the RWC. Without Cane smacking Wallabies all night to try and slow some of their ball it could have gotten really ugly. We got dominated and the stats reflect that. It's really disappointing that it appears we learnt nothing from that.
The obvious selection mistakes:
- Jordie on the wing instead of fullback, especially after Beauden was ruled out.
- Bridge starting ahead of Clarke
- Savea at 8 instead of an actual 8. Savea is best used off the bench at test level, that is obvious to nearly everyone but the AB coaches
IMO next weeks backline, injury permitting, should read: Smith, Beauden, Clarke, ALB, Goodhue, Jordan, Jordie
The obvious game plan mistakes:
- we didn't have one
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@Stargazer said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
@akan004 Aaron Smith said in the post-match interview that the ABs didn't get to the ruck fast enough; the Aussies were way faster. That caused some of the problems for him and Mo'unga, denying them enough time. He said that he and RM should have used their kicking game more ...
Not sure that would have worked with this weather, but I also thought the ABs looked at bit slow at times (compared to the Aussies).
Aussies have some good young forwards that aren’t carrying much baggage of past AB dominance. They were eager as and we needed to step up and match it. Our tackling overall was good but it was the ruck work that was way to hit and miss.
Aaron is an excellent box kicker, tough conditions, but he didn’t use it as much today.
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@Stargazer Yeah, noticed that at times. But our tackling was poor apart from Cane which allowed the Aussie forwards to make easy metres. Hardly any dominant tackles. Line speed was poor too, but under McCleod I didn't expect anything different tbh.
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@ACT-Crusader we already only had 40 percent possession. Kicking it away? We have to engage our forwards like the Aussies to set up the backs.
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@broughie said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
@ACT-Crusader we already only had 40 percent possession. Kicking it away? We have to engage our forwards like the Aussies to set up the backs.
It’s more about where that possession is though rather than the quantum.
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@ACT-Crusader said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
Congratulations Fozzie. You did something Henry or Hansen didn’t achieve and that is lose the first Bledisloe match against a new Wallabies coach.
Henry got one over Connolly and Hansen got one over McKenzie in their first outings though. If Fozzie has the chance to match up against another Aussie coach I'll be stunned.
The leader in the clubhouse for worst first year is Laurie Mains' and Fozzie ain't off to a good start.
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Also funny how journalists are asking questions (to Foster and Pat T) about what they said to Rieko after that disallowed try when he looked really down. Both Foster and Pat T responded with something like "he'll be fine" and "it's a game". The way the journos were talking was like Rieko urgently needed a consult with a psychologist.
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I think Australia won the exits and gains from kicks a lot better than us. Many times we struggled to get out of our half. The very first exit we only made it to our 22, clearly the wind played its part but many times we made very little ground whereas Oz seems to get a lot of value from their exits. We also misjudged our receiving turning over the ball several times.
I think Bridge, Barret were selected for their high ball kick chase when clearly the two Aussie wingers won out with their pace and strength. I think it is an error to select players who are 'safe', AB Rugby has always been an attacking one and strong wingers are our specialty. Clarke has to feature, his form is undeniable. Clarke, JB and Jordan makes the most sense going forward. They are clearly the future, Bridge is never going to be the long-term option surely.
