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I am still eating the humble pie.. Kurtley should be assigned the full back position for the final..( Falou was just off his game and his ankle is a worry ) If any player has stepped up for the world cup I give it to KB .. I was a knocker before the RWC and spoke about him not being part of this tourament due to his prior preformance on and off the field..
Well done KB keep it up lad..
Please do not bring QC into the 23 he will be crushed by the ABs if he gets on
do we have a humble pie emoticon?
I also require one...
Maybeor
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Dear Lord, if you give us back Johnny Cash, we'll give you Justin Bieber.
Humble pie all around. KB was brilliant last night.
I still think Folau is better when fit, but Izzy did very little before getting subbed off, he will be a liability against the darkness.
I did call Australia to be the surprise packet of the tournament, and if it hadn't been for the heroics of Japan, they probably would be by now.
I stand by my call that the All Blacks are vulnerable only to their own mental state and they WON'T switch off in the final, so I think it'll be New Zealand by a try or so.
C'mon the![]()
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if we can keep up the line speed displayed in the first 30 mins this morning for an entire game, we're going to have an awesome game on our hands.
if we play like we did from 50-70 mins, we'll have 5 tries on us - probably to Read, B.Smith, A.Smith, Nonu, SBW/savea, NM-S/Generic forward & it'll be like eden park last year... and i dont want to go there again
While we are eating the Humble Pie with regards to Kurtley Beale. Myself included. I think that perhaps we need to eat a bit more Pie for our comments on Michael Cheika.
The Wallabies turn around in 12 months is nothing short of remarkable and all the credit needs to go to the Head Coach and his team.
Exile
Port Macquarie
"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! Now if you know what you’re worth then go out and get what you’re worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain’t you! You’re better than that!" - Rocky Balboa
Beale has been impressive, but I am more impressed with Chieka, he has made a huge impact to toughness, cohesion and resilience in the team - bloody well done. I have gone from being suspicious about him to a real fan of what he has done, well done Chieka 🍫More chocolates for you.
Regardless of next week's result, the biggest things for me are that it has restored some national pride in our game and can only build rugby in Aus, you bloody beauty 😀
Spot on. Apart from us tragics we are a nation of Mungos and Bogan Ball supporters. But also massive bandwagon jumpers for winning teams. They are leading just about every news bulletin and that hasn't happenned since 2003. We lost that one and became fish n chip wrapping. A win will be massive for the game. Well done Coach, in any event.
Large serve for me
"the fact that the Wallabies didn't get a bonus point in the first match will be their downfall" me
"Australia may not make it out of the group stage" me again.
"never underestimate an Aussie" not me, but a friend after I said the above
and the pick of my World Cup statements
"England may just win the World Cup", me again, to a shocked Saffa.
So in the vein of my successful predictions may I shout:
C'mon you Blacks, Go Richie, Yay that fullback guy who scores all the tries, go Savea, love you guys. (that should do it)
I'm not doing as bad as that Ralto, but I certainly missed the mark when I posted in the RWC predictions thread that Australia will be the surprise packet of the tournament by winning the whole thing. Japan have that sewn up regardless of the result on Sunday.
I still think the All Blacks are too good as long as they switch on at the beginning. I also think the final is not going to be the game New Zealand will walk into unprepared, Quarters and Semis are where they do that these days.
Prepared to eat humble pie on that prediction as well!
C'mon the![]()
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I'm not getting excited about KB as yet as his stats are still well below what we expect from a Full Back.
He has played a total of 291 minutes - equivalent to 3.6 games - in a series of cameo appearances.
I've turned his stats into 80 min equivalents.
He comes on fresh so his stats are unlikely to be what he averages over full games.
Ball Carrying
9 carries for 46m (5.1m/carry). The better FBs average >100m/game.
1 Clean Break, 1 Def Beaten, >1 Offload, 8 Passes per game.
Tackling
In SXV 2015 Rugby KB had a 63% tackling efficiency.
He's lifted this to 76% at RWC with about 4 Tackles made and >1 Missed Tackle per game.
Other stats/game: 3 Kicks Caught (he's been OK under the high ball), 3 Kicks from Hand (but poor strategically), 1 Try Assist, 1 Handling Error, 0.6 TOW.
I've never rated X-Factor because if this doesn't transfer across to outcomes that can be measured then it just represents unknown aspects of his game. I'm not seeing X-Factor in any of the available stats. And he's not showing it at the Breakdown. He may be "good with cats" or at macrame.
He may be our best option at Full Back if Folau can't make the Final but his inclusion in the starting XV is not justified by his stats alone.
I had a chat with a very high profile ex Wallabies scrum half in the qantas lounge at Changi airport back in July.I agreed with his view that the front row would be a major hurdle in getting to the finals.
well we are both wrong--and I hope to remain so on Sunday!
Seriously? Two backs postulating scrumaging. That'll do me.![]()
"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David