Wallabies vs Ireland match review

[greenandgoldrugby]

Wallabies 18 - Ireland 12

In so many ways this was a perfect opening hit-out for Aussie Robbie. Importantly the Wallabies won - a loss would have killed the Dingo Deans feelgood factor stone dead. But equally, in this game we saw all of the Wallabies collective traits, both positive and negative, in spades.

In the first 20 minutes we saw some irresistible attacking rugby that resulted in two tries for Australia. In the first Tuqiri reproduced what he's done all year in super 14 to bulldoze through two tackles and then offload deftly to Barnes form him to scoot over.

The second was simply breathtaking. Through a combination of hard running, quick ball and stunning offloads, Horwill got on the end of a magic Giteau pill to score a well deserved try. The Wallabies having made 50m with ball in hand.

But then, having shown us what they can do with the ball in hand, the Wallabies attacking edge went AWOL. Instead we saw Berrick Barnes repeatedly kick the ball away while the forwards forgot about the breakdown and instead tried and get in on the game of touch footy that was breaking out among the back line. Having watched the English pack in the first half of the ABs game, had we been playing them, it may have been a much unhappier ending.

While the Aussie line-out was impressive, we'd been told that this Irish scrum wasn't up to much, and yet neither of the usual suspects Dunning nor Baxter looked in any way comfortable, if not distinctly fold-able. Reassuringly though, the trademark defence was still rock solid, locking the Irish out for the last 10 minutes.

In short, we shouldn't have expected much more after just two weeks - just how much can you change? But what AntipoDeans will now know, is just how much work he has left to do.

For Australia:
Tries: Barnes, Horwill
Cons: Giteau
Pens: Giteau 3

For Ireland:
Tries: Leamy, O'Driscoll
Con: O'Gara

Australia: 15 Cameron Shepherd, 14 Peter Hynes, 13 Stirling Mortlock (c), 12 Berrick Barnes, 11 Lote Tuqiri, 10 Matt Giteau, 9 G&GRs own Luke Burgess, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 George Smith, 6 Rocky Elsom, 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 James Horwill, 3 Matt Dunning, 2 Stephen Moore,1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements: 16 Adam Freier, 17 Al Baxter, 18 Dean Mumm, 19 Phil Waugh, 20 Sam Cordingley, 21 Ryan Cross, 22 Adam Ashley-Cooper.

Ireland: 15 Robert Kearney, 14 Shane Horgan, 13 Brian O'Driscoll (c), 12 Paddy Wallace, 11 Tommy Bowe, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 Shane Jennings, 6 Denis Leamy, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 John Hayes, 2 Rory Best, 1 Marcus Horan.
Replacements: 16 Jerry Flannery, 17 Tony Buckley, 18 Mick O'Driscoll, 19 Stephen Ferris, 20 Eoin Reddan, 21 Geordan Murphy, 22 Girvan Dempsey.

Referee: Christophe Berdos (France)
Touch judges: Chris White (England), Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand)
Television match official: Johann Meuwesen (South Africa)
Assessor: Andrew Cole (Australia)

[chook]

You get a cheers for using AntipoDeans!

ELVs rock, bring them back. Too many players laying around on the ground allowing broadcasters to slip in ads about Yellowpages and Bundy.

Gits played ok, good hands, hogged the ball at times when he should be passing to Sheps to hoof it down field. He has the bigger boot does Sheps. Too bad for Sheps that he didn't get the ball so much in those situation (thanks Gits) cos he missed a mark and missed a tackle or two. Hardly a showcase of his skills.
Sharpe is getting blunt. Cut the fat and bring in someone new. Horwill was keen, but lacked the mongrel that was touted before the game. Possibly the Munster lads were too hungover to really want to fire up.
Deans Means Hynes was sorta ok. Still, the talk is that he is the fastest man in the universe but all I say was a shorter, paler Lote on his side of the field. He did the 'ol Bulldozer Lote stuff but we have Lote to do that. Lack of agro too on his behalf. When you have Sharpie sticking up for Hynes after a rough tackle you know you got probs. Commentators kept dropping hints at Hynes's pace 'fastest man in the squad' and 'the pacey speedster Hynes (which doesn't make sense)' but Beans didn't take the hint.

Barnes was good, can't kick like Carter though, but can tackle like a mungo and is an all round nice guy. MOM.

Burgess pretty good, loked like he got panicked at times and his passing went astray but he was quick. Looked totally shagged when subbed at 75min mark which to me says he put in 110% (if that was possible). Forwards let him down a couple of times and let him get swamped by defenders. The forwards wanted to play touch like gagger said, but nobody told the Irish guys.

Smith was solid, Waugh was made to look good by coming on with a few minutes to go and firing up hardcore and tackling everything. I guess he knew that he only had a few minutes to impress AntipoDeans.

First 40min was ok, I could sorta see what the game plan was. 2nd half was not worthy of a dogs breakfast and made the Irish look better than they are. Brian O'Driscoll should have retired 5 years ago. Has been.

At least he didn't vomit.

[robyn <3]

i thought it was a pretty good game for a first outing with a new coach.
'deansmeanshynes' is not drew standard, as the people stirring me during the game leant last night.
i thought gits didnt shine as much as normal...
shapre was... sharpe
shep wasnt bad at all should help his number 15 fight a bit
burgess was pressured and they shut him down completelty. deans will have him fixed by the 28th though
im not sure what went wrong, but i would say the wallabies who didnt perform to expectations as much as he was meant to was mortlock. not what i was expecting at all...

[Burgs]

Well personally I would have gone for Horwill as MOM and Hynes did more than enough to answer all the pre-match questions I had.
I'll even go as far to give Lote some credit for a good match.
Waugh came on at the right time, if not perhaps five minutes late and made the instant impact he is there for.
Burgess had a more than satisfactory debut and Rocky went well.
The Front Row was a joke in the scrum and I find it a national shame that Trestle is now our most capped Prop.
Well done to Sharpe, Gits and Shep, amongst the first picked for the next match, if not being rotated, and you would hope Crossy gets a chance next time as Mortlock wasn't brilliant.
Overall I would class it as a fairly good match by individuals but, as can be expected I guess, not a very good team display.
A match short of the AB's at this stage, though I would suggest some way behind them too.

6/10.

[slomo]

who was the MOM ?....

[force addict]

i thought O'Gara was because Kearnsy bought up all his statistics, but don't quote me on that

[slomo]

robert kearney was outstanding where was he at RWC07 ?......

[jono]

i was paying a lot of attention to burgess. Ha had a good game. but IMHO i think he needs to deliver quicker ball. with some work he will get there though.
will be interesting to see what changes are made for the next test.
crossy should get a run.
and hopefully trestle wont be there

[force addict]

i thought Burgess was fantastic but definitely could do with a little fine tuning

[BLR]

i was paying a lot of attention to burgess. Ha had a good game.

Burgess was outstanding, it doesn't do him any good when the forwards don't do thier jobs in the rucks....

[jazza93]

yea burgess had a good game, he just needs more help from the forwards they forgot about him.

The defence was really good, only one try let in which was almost impossible to stop.

Lote had a great game.

[BLR]

Lote had a great game.

First half I would agree, didn't do much in the second half, plays in the centres too much for my liking.

When he got that break along the wing and had a clear run to the line with one Irish player running in cover defence it was like he was running in slow motion, absolutely no pace what-so-ever....wingers need to be fast, I don't care how much work you do in the midfield....Tuituvake and Sivivatu would absolutely shred Tuqiri in every way.....