Wallabies select sixth-string hooker

[jargan83]

The tireless Fardy was among Australia's best that day, and he also starred against the Boks on Saturday, pulling off 19 tackles, two pilfers and 10 runs.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sp...-to-argentina/

[GIGS20]

I'm just a little disappointed by the last sentence or two in that article. I begrudgingly accepted the rhetorice when they were saying that the All Blacks were a class above and that they had played well with little to show for it, not happy that they seem to be going into games not expecting to win, but realistic that they were assessing the capabilities of the blik fairly accurately. To now justify a loss in the last ten minutes of a test match which we should have sewn up........some soul searching would be nice

[Alison]

He's not the only one to have spun that kind of line recently. Must be what the PR people are telling them to say. Very misguided if you ask me. As you say GIGS, some soul-searching and some contrition would win them a lot more support. At the moment they sound arrogant and petulant. To me anyway.

[palitu]

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sp...-to-argentina/

point taken - edited

[Rex Messup]

It was a cruel end. We were actually magnificent for the first 60 minutes, even for the next ten but were blown off the park in the last ten minutes. It was a frustrating finish since they hammered the bokke in defence for the first 70 minutes, scrummed like demons, carried the ball over the advantage line as well as I've seen in a tri nations match in the last decade and the lineout was very good against the best unit in the world. It was a really great performance. Sadly the effort, commitment and guts was lost in an inglorious last ten minutes. The bokke were coming second for most of the game.

I thought our backline wasted too much good ball with stupid farking grubbers and chip kicks. It is infuriating to be building good phase pressure and move into an attacking phase with space and momentum and watch one of those useless farkheads from 9-15 do a stupid farking grubber. One of the forwards should have gone and snotted their nose across their face to end the rot.

The turning point was the appearance of Schaulk Burger. The guy wound back the clock 6-8 years to when he was one of the hardest and most influential forwards in world rugby. The guy was just magnificent. His ball carries, bone crushing hits and turnovers turned the game.

Link has opted for a "hard working pack" and to be fair they are grafters who keep turning up but they just lack the impact to turn a game with a big hit or a line break. I think test rugby requires a big aerobic capability and a high work rate but you do need players who can change a game with sheer physicality. Australia just has not had these types of players in the last ten years.

A look at the allblack backrow is enlightening.........kaino brings massive pain with bone crushing hits that rattle back teeth and make people genuinely afraid of being maimed.....mixed with a massive workrate. Kieren Reid is possibly the best rugby player on the planet at the moment. The bloke has a massive workrate but he hits hard in defence and when he runs the ball, he is damaging. It's like trying to tackle a locomotive. The Aussies run and flop to avoid getting turned over. This has been our mentality for ten years+. It just doesn't work at international level against the allblacks or bokke or poms. You need hard hitting mean mutha farkers who would eat their own young. Ditto McCaw........he isn't quite the player he was but his workrate is phenomenal and he has massive impact on the game with incredible turnover ability which frequently launches allblack counter attack.

I felt for the wallabies. The defensive commitment was awesome. They tackled like demons. The bench just didn't bring anything to the game but to be fair, they have been having an impact.

Sport sometimes just has a momentum that is hard to break. If it turns against you, sometimes it is just hard to stop it.

I think we are overlooking just how good the bokkes were in the last 20 minutes. It was pretty impressive rugby. They also stretched the allblacks in NZ and only lost by a few points. They are a good team and are always hard to beat in Africa. Next weeks game against the blicks will be a beauty.

Australia is getting better. We drew with the allblacks this year and beat the springboks. This time last year we were heading to Argentina with an injury hit team that had lost 4 games and barely beat the Argies...........and we put 50 on them. We have come a long way in the last 12 months.

The team is on the rise. We have some great players to come back and I'm excited about getting Henry Speight on the end of our backline with his stable mate Kuridrani and Folau running counter attack. I'd like to see Ioane come back on the other wing. We would really have a back 3 that could unlock games.

Dare I suggest James O'Connor. The lad can play and he is an attacking threat on the wing. He isn't a ten's @sshole

I don't really get the Tomane thing. I hope he has a lot of improvement in him. He has been pretty ordinary for mine

I thought Toomua was great at 12 last year and against the Frogs but he has been disappointing in the rugby championship.

Beale is an enigma wrapped in a riddle. He is sometimes an attacking spark of genius that cuts defences to ribbons and sometimes a farking liability.

We were outbenched.

Burger was the difference. He turned the game on its head. The bokke finished full of running.

It's an 80 minute game. We were the best team for 70 minutes but we lost 3 games in the last ten

[andrewg]

Excellent match review & comments RM.

The best short summary of the game seems to be by Scot Allen in today's article in The Roar:

"The Wallabies only had 39 per cent possession in the match (97 rucks to the Springboks 168). They also had to attempt 284 tackles compared to only 173 for the Springboks. Give any team that much possession in a match and they should win. Ask any team to do that much defence and they will probably not be able to play at the intensity required for 80 minutes."

and

"Combine the poor kicks and penalties conceded with crucial errors made by the Wallabies when they were in really good attacking positions and they gifted the Springboks too much possession to be able to hold on for 80 minutes."

http://www.theroar.com.au/2014/10/01...offering-hope/

[valzc]

So apparently Kurtley's been at it again. Being investigated by ARU for abusing an ARU official in front of team & passengers in a alcohol related incident while travelling from Cape Town. It was only a matter of time I guess!

[palitu]

Every where I look fard is getting praise... Even to the point of picked at 6 for championship team of the week
:-/