Australia V France

[palitu]

pity Tets missed out.

Didn't get too much of a chance to show what he can do. Oh well.

[Buddha Handy]

Speight must still be underdone. Easily the best winger in Aus, we have waited all this time for him to be eligible and now he has been injured and won't get picked, pretty frustrating! I guess the other problem is that he has to start or nothing because Horne offers a lot more versatility from the bench.

[hertryk]

Matt on bloody bench AGAIN! Gee! I hope he wins the award!!

[valzc]

Don't tell me Ben letstakeiteasy Robinson has scored a spot again! This bloody Deja-vu shit is really starting to fester. Deans Ewen Cheika - what's the diff? They're all as bad as each other. Wish Michael Foley would send through a word of advice on the srum and how to set them. And let's hope Cheika has the sense to bring Hodgo on earlier in the piece for more impact.

[GIGS20]

Don't tell me Ben letstakeiteasy Robinson has scored a spot again!

would you prefer Ben Alexander?

[Tonkar]

Don't tell me Ben letstakeiteasy Robinson has scored a spot again! This bloody Deja-vu shit is really starting to fester. Deans Ewen Cheika - what's the diff? They're all as bad as each other. Wish Michael Foley would send through a word of advice on the srum and how to set them. And let's hope Cheika has the sense to bring Hodgo on earlier in the piece for more impact.

I agree Valzc Flankers should play for 60 mins at 150 % then replaced even if you are the Captain

[andrewg]

Looking at the starting packs for Wallabies and France it's likely that we can continue to have the upper hand.
French Back Row very inexperienced (apart from Dusutoir).
Wallabies Front Row more experienced.

Front Row: W 345kg - F 323kg (+22kg)
2nd Row: W 232kg - F 234kg
Back Row: W 304kg - F 327kg (-23kg)
TOTAL: W 881kg - F 884kg

Test Caps: W Av 41 - F Av 30

+ France appears to have 1 extra jumper (Le Roux).

+ Report from the Captain's Run is that the pitch is soggy, chops up very easily (slabbing) and still raining.
+ Fog forecast Sat am - no drying.

+ Expect bench to be used earlier than Wales.

+ French Backs also very inexperienced (Av 9 Tests) versus Wallabies (Av 30 Tests)

+ Wallabies Team av 36 Tests versus French Team av 20 Tests.

[WFDom]

Just watched th 1st half. Real hard physical battle. Benny Mac's had a great 1st half.

Both teams playing out a good hard test match. The benches are gonna be important..... Hodgo's gonna have a role to play

[Timbo]

Had our chances!

Use of the bench again questionable - Hodgo too late, Rex's mate too early - and the Ben-props are excess baggage

[Rex Messup]

I get tired of watching the stupidity of Australian teams. We were absolutely blown off the park at the breakdown and hardly made the advantage line all game which is why the backs were ineffective........except one time in the first half they picked the ball up off the deck and marched the frogs about 20 minutes with a perfectly executed driving maul which the backs score a great try on the back of..........and they didn't do it again in the whole farking match despite getting outplayed at the breakdown. Why they wouldn't do it again displays a remarkable lack of adaptability to a game. The game plan was ruck and run so the French put numbers into the breakdown and had their hands all over it and slowed down the release and made Phipps have to fight to get the ball clear. No pick and go. One driving maul with great effect (didn't think to do it again). No attacking short kicks. It gets frustrating watching a team getting hammered and seeing them go through the motions of executing the same play when they are getting slaughtered.

This was a really poor performance. Dropped pill all over the shop. We were frequently losing ground in attack. Despite such a poor performance we could have won it. The wallaby IQ is really low. This may be a reflection of a 22 year old captain. I'm not sure.

When the backs got some front foot ball they looked really damaging.

We won't start winning consistently with a pop gun pack. We just don't have enough size, grunt, mongrel and go forward.

This French team is a poor one. They were willing but the skill set was nothing to be in awe of. Their scrum wasn't particularly effective. The French lineout didn't cause too many problems on our throw. Apart from a few moments of individual brilliance from their 9 and winger, they dead set had nothing. Their pack spoiled our ball but didn't threaten. They did dominate us at the breakdown and made us play on scrappy back foot ball but we lacked the imagination to find a solution.........even though they worked it out on the 30 minute mark seemingly by accident...but despite the 20m easy territorial gain and a well executed try on the back of the front foot ball, that play was put back in the cupboard. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Ben Alexander should treasure his last wallaby jerseys as should Ben Robinson. They bring nothing to the game off the bench and we'd be better persisting with fatigued starting props than introduce them to the game. Skelton was rubbish tonight. No argument. He turned the game against Wales but did nothing against France. He was poor. He should watch the tape of his firt 10 minutes against Wales when he did many rampaging carries and snotted a few Welsh forwards with big hits. He was ineffective last night. He gets put on early because our pack is ineffective and has no go forward.

Our backline showed glimpses of attacking brilliance when they get ball on the front foot. They were poor under the high ball again. Folau seems to have forgotten how to catch the high kicks as well which is an indication of how infrequently they practice this skill. It shows in test matches. When he came over from the gAyFL he would catch the ball on the fly and run 20 metres sparking a counter attack. Now he drops it, stands flat footed with his eyes closed or on occasions against France let it bounce........he has lost confidence and has been affected by the wallaby curse of dropsy. They clearly don't practise this enough.

Another frustrating effort of mediocrity mixed with periods of lack of urgency, an inability to adapt to the match situation and tactics from the opposition and a mistake riddled performance.

Despite the sh1te the wallabies dished up, they still should have won. France has hardly won a game in 2 years. They were rubbish

[boof1050]

Agree Rex the attack was so one dimensional. No one smart enough to change up the attack. That should come from innovative 9's & 10's. Hooper is useless we may as well have 7 forwards instead of him. As for skelton its no coincidence when he comes on the field the scrum goes to garbage.In both of the game on this tour the scrum has gone backwards on his side costing us a penalty try and penalty goals. If Jones can't do better than skelton i'll give it away.

[Rex Messup]

Jones is too pretty. He is an athlete no doubt but he doesn't bring the physicality, fear, hurt and c.u.n tea that makes for a fearsome pack. Australia needs a Bakkies Botha or two........just hard bastards who hurt you and don't take a backward step ever but are also worthy of selection for their skill set. We are seriously thin for world class locks. We badly need Sitelaki Timane back as well as Kane Douglass. When we are playing European teams, we should also consider playing Horwill at 6 for more size and grunt. We need more speed to play the allblacks and bokke but horses for courses. The Frogs, Irish and English will flood our breakdown and spoil our ball knowing we will then beat ourselves with mistakes, penalties from frustration and a complete lack of ability to change our tactics. It is predictable as Gunny having a beer on game day.............yet we never have a plan B. We arrogantly assume we will play ruck and run whilst the oppositioon stands there and lets us have the ball. We'll struggle to beat Ireland and England. You can expect rain next week in Ireland. We're proper f.ucked

[andrewg]

Cheika has a plan B......Beale is going to fix everything!!!

[Cowboy]

How is the Messiah going today?

[SNOB]

I wonder if now Cheika is going WTF! That was pretty damn pathetic but entirely predictable.
A real leader/captain is needed to pull the team together and to think out on the pitch which at this moment we haven't got. If Cheika thinks Beale is the answer the Messiah is going to be in for a rough ride.
If your planning on going to the WC I'd start thinking about who will be your second team to follow after the pool stage!!