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Thread: Another loss for Wallabies is not all bad

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    Another loss for Wallabies is not all bad

    Another loss for Wallabies is not all bad







    THE best thing that could happen to the Wallabies in Hong Kong is to lose another Test to the All Blacks.

    Before you accuse me of being stark, raving mad, consider this:
    The All Blacks are always knocked out of the World Cup by the threat they do not see coming.
    Sure, the Wallabies achieved a breakthrough victory over them in New Zealand in 1990 and went on to beat the Kiwis in the semi-final of the 1991 World Cup on the way to defeating England in the final.
    But the Wallabies were almost knocked out of the event by Ireland in the quarter-final. No one expected them to beat the invincible All Blacks, not least the All Blacks.
    In 1995, the All Blacks trampled over everyone until the underdog South Africa figured out how to negate the Kiwis' main tactic of "throw the ball to Jonah", winning The Webb Ellis Cup for Nelson Mandela's Rainbow Nation.


    The All Blacks still complain about how Suzy the waitress gave them food-poisoning. How else could they have lost?
    The Wallabies won four of their last five Tests against the All Blacks before the 1999 World Cup, but it was rank outsider France that sunk the New Zealanders in the semi-final.
    Maybe if the All Blacks were playing the Wallabies they would not have switched off the way they did against France after establishing what they thought was a match-winning lead.
    The All Blacks beat the Wallabies twice in the 2003 Tri-Nations before they were bundled out of the World Cup semi-final in Sydney by an Australian team given no hope.
    And Les Bleus upset a seemingly unstoppable All Blacks side in the quarter-final of the 2007 tournament in France.
    There is no better All Black team to meet in a World Cup knock-out match than one that thinks it cannot lose.
    Imagine, the All Blacks entering the World Cup next year on home soil as unbackable favourites with the weight of expectation of four million Kiwis on their shoulders.
    So what is really at stake in this dead rubber in Hong Kong?
    After 10 straight wins, the All Blacks will be looking to maintain their psychological advantage over the Wallabies, while Australia is desperate to end the losing streak.
    To be sure, a win against the All Blacks would be good for the Wallabies in a lot of ways.
    It would boost their self-confidence and self-esteem, but it would guarantee nothing in Auckland next year should the Wallabies meet New Zealand in the final.
    Every Test, whether it is part of a series or a tournament, is a separate entity.
    The road to New Zealand could be paved with gold or pot-holed. It's what you do when you get there that matters.
    In the meantime, if the Wallabies beat the All Blacks tonight, they should celebrate the win for what it is - a wonderful achievement in a moment in time.
    What it could mean is that the Wallabies - a work in progress since Robbie Deans took over as coach in 2008 - may have finally turned the corner.
    There have been glimpses of this talented Wallabies fulfilling their great promise. The win against the All Blacks in Sydney, victory over the Springboks in Durban and Bloemfontein and a win on the road against England.
    But there have been inexplicable upsets along the way, too.
    The Wallabies need to become more consistent if they are to develop into a truly formidable power.
    But if they lose tonight it will not be the end of the world, at least as far as the World Cup is concerned.
    It will, however, be extremely disappointing. Painful even.
    This Test is all about winning a particular game of rugby for its own sake.
    Nothing else matters, at least for now.


    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1225945357738

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    Must admit, a similar logic has occured to me at times.
    You learn far more from your losses and the longer the AB's go on winning the longer it is until they "learn more".
    The choke is on in 2012.

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    Veteran TOCC's Avatar
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    You can learn a lot from losses, however at some point the Wallabies need to learn how to effectively close out the tight matches as well.
    In the past 12months, the Wallabies have lost tight matches against Ireland, Scotland, England, New Zealand and South Africa...

    They did win one tight match against South Africa, however they need the discipline and mature to do it more often
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    For sure, I was focusing more on the continued AB's winning more than the flipside of Wallaby losses.
    However, if the Wallabies had a close loss in HK today and then went undefeated through the NH I would be happier than if they got up today and then dropped a match on the rest of the tour against lesser (ranked) teams.
    You posted in the SBW thread about teams getting up for the occasional big match, I think the same principle applies in the NZ-Aus relationship in all but a couple of seasons in the Bledisloe history.

    But don't worry, I will be pretty stoked with a win regardless!

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    Champion Contributor jazza93's Avatar
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    The result wont teach us anything whether we win or lose (it hardly ever does). We will learn from our performance. If the ABs turn up to play and we hold our own defense, break the kiwi defense while crossing for a few tries. The scoreboard doesn't matter, we played well. If the ABs play crap, and we struggle to hold them out or take advantage to score 4+ tries, it doesn't matter whether we win or lose. We know we need desperate improvements.

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    Veteran TOCC's Avatar
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    I wouldn't underestimate the power of a winning culture, or even the negativity which a losing culture can breed, there are only so many times you can say "we lost, but at least they played well" before it starts to have ramifications on the culture of the side.
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    and once again the En Zids seemed to have peaked 12 months too early!!! hahahaha

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    Champion Contributor jazza93's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TOCC View Post
    I wouldn't underestimate the power of a winning culture, or even the negativity which a losing culture can breed, there are only so many times you can say "we lost, but at least they played well" before it starts to have ramifications on the culture of the side.
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    It does, i guess its a mix between results and performance is probably the key.

    Anyway, we dominated NZ (in terms of territory) and were pretty much all over them in most aspects tonight. But we really need to improve the defense, and get used to kicking in new stadiums.

    I like Barnes coming on in the last 20, and i think Giteau should then be told to work like crazy for the first 60 if its going to happen every game.

    Good result for a good performance.

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    Legend Contributor brokendown gunfighter's Avatar
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    wasnt sure if it was going to be giteau or cooper to come off in the last 20
    barnes made a difference though

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    Quote Originally Posted by brokendown gunfighter View Post
    wasnt sure if it was going to be giteau or cooper to come off in the last 20
    barnes made a difference though
    Spot on. For all his flashiness Cooper can be a liability. Deans calls him a point of difference player - sometimes the point of difference is a negative for us.

    On the flipside, Deansy has shown great vision to persist with Beale, O'Connor and Mitchell. They are now playing with confidence, and making fewer errors....

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    Good game for the world to see that one.

    Pity we had to endure another ref that takes long pauses in the scrum routine.

    I'd be pretty sure the Wales game is about 1.30 am on Sunday morning not 14.30 as it's down for on the home page.

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    I thought it was a 11:30 kick-off (pm Perth time).

    Re: Cooper- Yeah he can be a liability- that Nonu try the case and point as Cooper didn't bring down McCaw before hand. But his tackling will get better. He can't hide in test matches. Better to have him and miss tackles that not have him and play boring/not break the AB defence. Compare the two games Cooper played against the ABs this year with an aggregate of a 1 point win. In the games he didn't play we have an aggregate 15 point loss.

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    Legend Contributor brokendown gunfighter's Avatar
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    with stats like that james,you should be in parliament!

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    Quote Originally Posted by James View Post
    I thought it was a 11:30 kick-off (pm Perth time).
    I can't check the Foxtel time slot until tomorrow. It'll only go so far into next week. On their website it's got it down as the 1.30 am time slot on the Sunday morning and I presume that is the east coast start time.

    I can find out in the morning and update.

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    Pretty sure that the 1.30am start time is ESDT

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