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The way we played in that shelter skelter style in the last 10 minutes shows why we just can't play "running rugby" all the time. We hardly broke the advantage line, and were often pushed back.
Let's face it, we just don't have the cattle. We played against a team where 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 were incumbent Wallabies, for goodness sake. And Polota Nau was on the bench with another couple of Wallabies in Palu and Mumm! How can we be expected to compete?
That's not the coach's fault, especially if our handling skills are not up to scratch... Can't make a silk pouch out of a sow's ear, etc, etc.....
Mind you, our attack is a bit 2 dimensional. We seem to have adopted a "second wave" attack, but the wave is so deep. and so easy to read, that we just shuffle the ball to the wing, who invariably runs out of room. Even the inside ball is sooo telegraphed...
Why can't we execute contestable kicks? And when the kick is contestable, why don't we CONTEST rather than just wait for them to catch it and then try to tackle?!
Again, up to the 60th minute, our rush defence served us well, but then they worked out how to bend the line, offload, and we didn't adapt, and paid the price.
To finish, wasn't McCalman bloody amazing. If he's not the Wallaby 8 (Poey can get back to 7, thank you), then Chieka s blind.