Australia V France

[shasta]

Losing faith already with half a team unavailable ATM? - including Pocock, Moore and Dennis. When you think about it there have not been a lot of options for the armband considering you want the skipper to play 80 mins and if you're not gonna start Hodgo. I'll give it time, for now.

[Rex Messup]

Luckily the messiah is in charge now

I wouldn't want to be an Australian forward this week. They will get flogged

Ben Alexander should have played his last test. With 2 mins on the clock and Australia looking likely to snatch a win from the jaws of defeat he took the ball half hearted into contact and got belted as he flopped and dropped the ball. Game over. The French were out on their feet. I thought we were going to score. Again poor game execution. The ball should have been going to Cooper, Kuridrani or Folau instead of forward flopping half hearted "drives". There were more holes than a French building in WWII

The messiah will sort this mess out. He has all the ammo he needs now to broom the joint.

[GIGS20]

There is no individual that can fix that performance.

The French played a very simple defensive plan, ignore the breakdown and fill the line. I think the contested about 5 rucks in the last 20 minutes, but for the entire game, we had nothing to cause them to reconsider that strategy. They rushed out at our second pass off the ruck all day and we kept running it from their , behind the ad line for a ridiculous amount of time.

Blind Freddie knows there are some simple ways to break down a defense which doesn't contest the ruck and rushes up in defense.
We can employ a power game, with lots of pick n drive and maul, forcing the big boys to stay close to the ruck and opening some spaces out wider.
We can use the offload game to break up the game, speed up the play and catch their defenders on the slow reset
We can use inside balls to take advantage of the slower runners either side of their arrowhead
Or we can use a couple of short kicks and an intelligent general kicking game to make them think twice about carrying so much line speed

Whilst the Wallabies stumbled across two of these tactics, both leading to tries, they failed to realize what they were on to and spent 81 minutes of rugby completely clueless about how to break down the opposition defense.

I thought, since the messiah was going to have ten minutes to sort things out at half time, that the second half would demonstrate our superior fitness rolling over the top of a team of large men playing a high speed strategy. What did they go with.

Let's do more of the same, but do it less effectively

Yeah that'll work.

Commentators will spend the next week doing two things.
Perpetrating the myth that the Wallabies handling errors were the cause of their demise, when they were only a symptom of the fact that we didn't have a clue how to break a simple defensive strategy
And pleading the case of several underperforming superstars such as Michael Hooper (can't waits to see Andrew's ruck stats, because I can't remember seeing Hooper involved in a ruck which he didn't carry the ball into. Will Skelton, who was obviously still tired from the five minutes of good work he put in a week ago. Bernard Foley who had an (uncharateristically) atrocious game. Christian Lealiifano who couldn't wait to charge out of the line, leaving massive gaps.

If it keeps going like this, I can't wait until Cheika picks his floozy to appoint in an unspecified role which she is unqualified for only to have her argue with one of the golden children of Waratahs rugby and get him sacked........on to the next chapter in the saga.


One day this shit will be fixed, but not until we can find a coach who will pick on form, without any regard for the powers that maintain the status quo....Chieka is not that man, and he won't be any more successful than Deans or McKenzie.

[Rex Messup]

Cheika won the super 15 with a team it took 12 months to fix. The tahs were mid table first season. It does take a littletime gigs you belter when you are named coach wed and fly out Friday with someone else's team. You can't change everything in 2 weeks or you lose respect of everybody. If a coach loses the dressing room....well, you know the rest. The messiah will not be happy with this forward pack. He has canned carter. The bloke has to deal with the group he has on tour. No point flying forwards in that haven't played for 2 months. Lealifano got hooked early for shocking defence. Beale may come into 12. He has been under the watchful eye of the tah conditioners with the expectation he would be fit to play test rugby if called upon..this is different to a prop who has been on holidays and is expecting to start a bit of road work in Dec. Cheika will be having some honest conversations with a few in the group. Cheika does not like forwards that can't deliver physicality. He doesn't like playing behind the advantage line. The forwards will be getting a gob full and will be playing for their career the next 2 weeks.

[chibi]

Same old, same old from the Wallabies, it's gonna take more than a couple of weeks at the helm to break down this decade-long culture of unintelligent one-out repetitive play

[andrewg]

+ France deserved to win as they maintained their pressure for most of the game.
+ Wallabies had 62% Possession & Territory so always looked like they could steal the game.
+ BUT….too many handling errors, conceded 17 turnovers (made only 9) and 17 missed tackles (tackling success rate only 84%).
+ France dominated the breakdown ALL game. Hard to get turnovers when the Wallabies didn’t even contest 22 of 57 rucks in Defence.
+ France took full advantage of home town/crowd advantage and pushed the envelope re off-side and in laying on cheap shots after the whistle. Essentially uncontrolled by the officials.
+Wallabies showed little aggression for most of the match:
o No plan B for responding to France pressure/pushing envelope.
o Failed to get over the gain line on most occasions.
o No memorable cleanouts.
o No dominant tackles.
+ Wallabies looked stale for the first 20 minutes. Overtrained? For many it's been a very loooong season.
+ Cheika used his bench poorly (esp. Skelton on too early and Hodgson way too late).
+ Alexander, Robinson, Hanson and Skelton were all below Test standard in all aspects of game.

Mainly looking at ruck involvement from the forwards (to see who was at least turning up at rucks on a regular basis):

+ Hooper (80mins) made 36 rucks, 29 early (80%) and 25 with impact (69%).
(9 runs for 10m, 11 tackles/2 missed, 1 lineout, 2 penalties)
+ McMahon (69 mins) made 31 rucks, 24 early (75%) and 25 with impact (78%).
(5 runs for 3m, 7 tackles, 4 lineouts, 2 penalties)
+ Fainga’a (69 mins) made 29 rucks, 18 early (62%) and 21 with impact (72%).
(3 runs for 0m, 5 tackles/2 missed, 1 penalty)
+ Kepu (65 mins) made 28 rucks, 20 early (80%) and 16 with impact (64%).
(3 runs for 1m, 5 tackles, 1 lineout, 1 penalty)
+ McCalman (80 mins) made 26 rucks, 19 early (70%) and 18 with impact (67%).
(14 runs for 34m, 8 tackles/1 missed, 2 lineouts)
+ Simmons (80 mins) made 23 rucks, 18 early (78%) and 13 with impact (57%).
(12 runs for 21m, 4 tackles/1 missed, 1 try)
+ Horwill (49 mins) made 21 rucks, 17 early (81%) and 14 with impact (67%).
(6 runs for 2m, 7 tackles/1 missed)
+ Slipper (61 mins) made 18 rucks, 14 early (78%), and 13 with impact (72%).
(4 runs for 4m, 14 tackles/1 missed, 1 penalty)
Off the bench
+ Skelton (31 mins) made 17 rucks, 10 early (59%) and 15 with impact (88%).
(5 runs for 11m, 2 tackles, 1 lineout, 1 penalty)
+ Robinson (19 mins) made 5 rucks, 3 early (60%) and 2 with impact (40%).
(5 runs for 7m, o tackles, 1 lineout)
+ Alexander (15 mins) made 10 rucks, 9 early (90%) and 9 with impact (90%).
(2 runs for 1m, 1 tackle)
+ Hodgson (11 mins) made 6 rucks, 5 early (83%) and 5 with impact (83%).
(3 runs for 0m, 0 tackles)
+ Hanson (11 mins) made 7 rucks, 7 early (100%) and 4 with impact (58%).
(1 run for 0m, 0 tackles)

Significant ruck contributions by Backs as follows:
AAC – 13, Foley – 10, Kuridrani – 9, Folau – 8, Horne – 8.

Comments:
+ Early engagement = 1st or 2nd to ruck.
+ Impact = active engagement, strong physical contact, changed shape of ruck, clean-out, etc.
(more than hand on someone's bum or playing statues.)
+Impact doesn't mean that the player was "menacing" at the ruck. (For GIGS, as Hooper NEVER troubled France at ruck time)
+Rucks stats gathered while watching replays of the game. Other stats from ESPN Scrum.

Attachment 3583

[andrewg]

Ben Alexander should have played his last test. With 2 mins on the clock and Australia looking likely to snatch a win from the jaws of defeat he took the ball half hearted into contact and got belted as he flopped and dropped the ball.

Sadly Alexander has done this when coming off the bench in almost every Test this year!

[andrewg]

You may never see this again......
Green & Gold Rugby have a Player Ranking Tool after every Test.
It's a simple "Thumbs Up" or "Thumbs Down".
I'm not a big fan as it seems that everybody who uses it has a different interpretation of how to use it.
It can often be a Reds vs Tahs battlefield (but is generally pro Tahs). Rebs & WF considered upstarts. Brumbies - tolerated.
I give "Thumbs Up" if I rate that that player performed OK or better in his position and vice versa.
It seems that others want to set their best player on top of the ranking (very hard to do) or in some order of performance.
Note: It is not compulsory to rank all players.

However, have a look at the screen grab below which was at 1900hrs (EST) on Sunday, 16 November.
At this time there were ~500 rankings. There was a total of ~1,000 rankings after the Wales game.

Attachment 3552

Waratahs players hold 4 of the 6 lowest ranked players with "Thumbs Up" rankings as follows:

Phipps - 35%

Folau - 24%

Foley - 23%

Hooper - 20%

Ben McCalman is sitting on a reasonably fair 85% .

[GIGS20]

Rex, yes it will take weeks, possibly months to fix a poorly conceived list filled with ineffectual prima donnas, however that wasn't the point I was making.

They were shitcanned, all game. And whilst you can't fix everything in one game, I expected an attempt at 1/2 time...... Nothing. You say Cheika won't be happy with the pack, I respectfully disagree, if he was unhappy, he would have made changes..... Frankly he didn't, apart from ripping Simmons off too early for skeleton to make any difference at all.

Cheika is making the same rookie errors which has crippled this team for ten years.

[Buddha Handy]

We need 2 quality props on the bench and at least 2 world class second rowers and that would fix most of our problems and the backs would take care of themselves. The problem is the World Cup is fast approaching and these players don't seem to be on the horizon.

[valzc]

Rex, yes it will take weeks, possibly months to fix a poorly conceived list filled with ineffectual prima donnas, however that wasn't the point I was making.

They were shitcanned, all game. And whilst you can't fix everything in one game, I expected an attempt at 1/2 time...... Nothing. You say Cheika won't be happy with the pack, I respectfully disagree, if he was unhappy, he would have made changes..... Frankly he didn't, apart from ripping Simmons off too early for skeleton to make any difference at all.

Cheika is making the same rookie errors which has crippled this team for ten years.

Have to agree. Unfortunately I reckon Cheika is out of his depth. Admittedly yes only had a team to work with for a couple of weeks but FFS they're professional Rugby players, how hard is it to get the game plan working. Surely they've had enough time together now to sort it despite a different coach. Just got the feeling in that game that game that they were shellshocked by France in they Firet half, and yes obviously sweet FA got sorted out at the half time chat! It's like they were all waiting for the crusading bench to save them which of course was way too late as usual. For gods sake get Hooper off the field at 60 minute mark he just gets thrown about like a rag doll no effect whatsoever.

[Sheikh]

... For gods sake get Hooper off the field at 60 minute mark he just gets thrown about like a rag doll no effect whatsoever.

Given the named team (ie, one back rower on the bench), I'd have left Hooper on but pulled McMahon off at half-time for Hodgo. Give him more than 10 minutes to change the game. I'd have Tet on the bench, too, rather than the Bens - neither are worth f.ck all at this level anymore.

[jono]

Have to agree. Unfortunately I reckon Cheika is out of his depth. Admittedly yes only had a team to work with for a couple of weeks but FFS they're professional Rugby players, how hard is it to get the game plan working. Surely they've had enough time together now to sort it despite a different coach. Just got the feeling in that game that game that they were shellshocked by France in they Firet half, and yes obviously sweet FA got sorted out at the half time chat! It's like they were all waiting for the crusading bench to save them which of course was way too late as usual. For gods sake get Hooper off the field at 60 minute mark he just gets thrown about like a rag doll no effect whatsoever.

After 3 games you're calling it ready? Come off it
Unbelievable.

[valzc]

Don't believe I wrote "they're ready" - if you'd tried reading my post properly. The point I'm making is that as professional players it shouldn't be that hard to follow instructions from coaching staff and just do what you've been training for the past months. Yes - Believe it.

[GIGS20]

After 3 games you're calling it ready? Come off it
Unbelievable.

Jono, I have to say, I'm siding with Val on this one. It's not that we would have expected the team to be firing on all cylinders by now, it's not that we would have expected selection erros which have been perpetuated for years to be overturned on the morning of the flight, it's that they were DESTROYED in the first half and not a single thing was done about it, either in the halftime chat or for the remaining 40 minutes of the match. They (and by extension the coach) meekly rolled over and accepted the fact that the French were better than them.

There's not even a broken window or an abused cameraman to indicate that Cheika even knew they lost.