2012 Rugby Championship thread

[NCC1701]

Average first half for the All Blacks on Saturday night, Argentina certainly brought their usual forwards-oriented game. The usual handling errors ended up giving Argentina a try which is lucky, considering that is all they scored all game. We did step it up in the second half at least, and when Argentina ran out of puff at around the hour mark it was like a repeat of the World Cup quarter final, 21-5 at full time. Nice to see Cruden slotting in as well as he did after only playing nine minutes in the last month. With Carter out for next week lets hope he steps it up a notch again. At least weather won't be a problem in Dunedin!

Sucks to see the Wallabies lose their third-choice captain, they're like our fly-halves last year! As Dingo Deans joked, perhaps they should stop naming captains?

[NCC1701]

Holy shit, the All Blacks were saved from losing against the Springboks by the penalty kicking gods it seems, the South Africans managed to fuck up every kick at goal except for two in a weatherless stadium, seems they had the same problem Wilkinson had for England the last world cup it seems. Apart from two brilliant induvidual efforts from Bryan Habana and Aaron Smith this match was another average game, which seems to be summing up how the whole competition is going really. The All Blacks winning ugly again at home will surely be the wake up call Steve Hansen needs to give his troops a kick up the ass for the games in Argentina and South Africa in a few weeks' time. We were lucky to win 21-11, not sure what the problem is with international teams kicking at Forsyth-Barr stadium seeing as during Super Rugby goals were scored fairly regularly there.

I see Australia managed to scrape home against Argentina 23-19, when will Dingo Deans realise Quade Cooper will lead to the demise of the Wallabies, after they lose in South Africa and Argentina, maybe?

[Orac Zen]

Haven't seen last night's game yet either (the sooner the league crap is over the better), but the maroon-eyed imbecile who masquerades as a rugby writer for the Australian prattled on about Cooper's "uncharacteristic" errors. They sounded pretty standard to me. Cooper is not a Test-level footballer. It's that simple. Anyone who reaches that level without being able to tackle is an indictment on every coach who's ever had anything to do with him.

Eh, I think you and Jono are well aware of my opinion of him by now. Hopefully I can find some time to watch the game today.

It also sounds like Argentina were unfortunate. With some more experience under their collective belts they're going to be a pretty decent side.

[Jono]

I thought we'd lost that game last night. Two quick fire tries to the Puma mid-way through the 2nd half, one thanks to a Cooper kick charge down and another just down to a great counter attack, though if the ref went to the video it would have been no try as the Puma winger had a foot on the line before he threw the final pass inside for the try.

Shipperley getting injured and Beale been crap probably saved Cooper from going to the bench early. He again threw a pass that got intercepted. I have not seen an flyhalf throw so many intercepted passes as Cooper has down in his short career. A lack of form from Beale and injuries are keeping Cooper in the team at the moment.

Phibbs was okay. He delivered fast and most on target balls and he did set up a try that got Australia into the lead. However, at a crucial moment when the Wallabies had a free kick at their 10 m, near the touchline he took the ball and booted it out on the full\t. The only saviour to that situation is that the Puma's made an error immediately from the lineout.

[Jono]

Disaster at Pretoria for the Wallabies is probably the best you can say about what just happened. 31 - 8, 5 tries to 1 and the Wallabies never looked in it. Add to a lackluster display was the terrible injury toll. They lost Barnes (chest injury) and AAC (concussion) before the end of the first half and then it got worse after the half time break. Samo (shoulder), Ioane (knee), Alexander (back complaint) and finally Polota-Nau (concussed) and the Wallabies ran out of allowable subs, which is a rule I didn't know. A team can only make 7 replacements and add to that list the prop rotation we've seen in this series, when Polota-Nau went off and they weren't allowed to replace him, so they had to play the last 9 minutes with 14 men. It didn't make much difference, the game was well gone, but it looked a shambles.

I forgot to mention that Slipper was sin binned in the second half as well, so the Wallabies played 19 mins with a man down and I'm pretty sure that the Boks 3 second half tries all came in this period. In the professional era you're no hope if you a man down for a 1/4 of the match. That said, the Wallabies didn't look in it when they had 15 on. You might think that with all that the margin wasn't that bad, but it was flattering. The Boks were let down by very poor goal kicking and had 3 line ball tries disallowed. Really they should have put 50 on the Wallabies.

Cooper will probably have a smile on his face at this result, if he bothered to watch the game and not go out clubbing. I really don't have the energy right now to go deeply into his antics in the last week, but to say that I'd be more willing to take his claims seriously if he at least displayed a modicum of personal accountability towards his play and form instead of saying its all the Wallabies' fault.

The question is now not if the Wallabies can beat the Pumas in Arg, but if they'll even be able to field a team...

[Orac Zen]

And again I haven't seen the game, but it sounds like I don't much want to either. Looks like my (somewhat facetious) remark above about fielding a side full of newbies will come true at this rate.

As for Cooper...just when I thought he couldn't possibly be a more complete waste of space, he manages to plumb new depths. Claims the Wallaby environment is "toxic" but when pressed for examples gibbers something about training facilities. Doesn't have the backbone to make his claims to anyone of relevance. Nothing is ever his fault, takes no responsibility whatever for his actions. Just a gutless attention whore more interested in self-promotion and lapping up praise from sycophants than making a genuine contribution to Australian rugby. I suppose Queensland will move heaven and earth to keep him and continue to indulge his every whim, and thus perpetuate his woe-is-me victim attitude. One can only hope he's at least serious about never playing for the Wallabies again; he doesn't deserve to and never did.

[Jono]

Wallabies just managed to win. They never looked safe and again had to play the final few minutes with 14 men, though it was due to sin bin. Both teams dropped a lot of ball and the Wallabies probably only caught a quarter of the high balls that came their way, a couple where there was no pressure. Again a lot of penalties by both sides and I saw some flak directed at the ref, but neither team did much to keep the whistle out of his mouth. If it were against SA or NZ and they didn't get a case of the fumbles (though with NZ I doubt it would matter) the Wallabies would have lost. Not the best game to end the RC, but a win is a win.

The game was plagued by one or two people in the crowd with laser pointers, which were used on the Wallabies goal kickers when they went for their kicks. It even made an appearance at the end where the person was shining it at the Puma's captain during his post match on-field interview. Apart from that the crowd was pretty good and they got behind their team, but the Pumas spent the whole game chasing so they were negated a touch.

Only one injury and it was a head knock, so it was pretty good on that front. Beale looked better at 10, but after from Ioane the poor handling didn't see the backs get much of a look in. Forwards did better, but the Pumas pack aren't quite the Boks or ABs. Two weeks until the next test, so there will be a few bodies back.

[NCC1701]

First game I've actually managed to watch in three weeks due to my daughter being born last week, that sorta interrupted rugby viewing a bit . All Blacks had another dominant game, 32-16 at full time, nice to see they can string two good games together in a row! SA started out dominant in the first half but really petered out in the second. Alain Rolland had another awful time with the whistle. why is that northern pansy still refereeing southern hemisphere matches? All in all a good platform to start the Northern tour and the final Bledisloe test on the 20th, and we're in a good position to equal the record of most matches won in a row, again

[Orac Zen]

^
Congratulations! (On the baby news. )


I was actually somewhat impressed with our performance today. With 25 or 30 or whatever ridiculous number of players out injured, many of whom would walk into the side if fit, it was a fair effort to hang on after being belted last week then facing a difficult travel schedule on top of yet more injuries from the SA game. There's a hell of a lot of room for improvement but given our very shallow player pool there's just no way we can lose that many players and turn on the sort of razzle-dazzle the frellwits in the media seem to think is obligatory for Wallaby sides in all circumstances.

It wasn't anything startling but it was a win. I'll take it. The less said about imbeciles who shine laser pointers into people's eyes, the better.

[NCC1701]

^ Thanks! Still trying to get used to the lack of sleeo at the moment, although we have a baby that is happy 95% of the time, which makes us very lucky I reckon!

Unlike this All Blacks team, who put together the worst performance this year against a supposedly third rate Wallabies team. To go from the win in Johannesburg to this colossal fuck-up is beyond my comprehension. I can't believe Carter was entrusted with the last-gasp drop goal attempt instead of going for the more trusty right boot of Cruden. Justin Marshal called it, our boys will need to learn to count from 0 again, fuck me.

[Jono]

I missed it unfortunately. Just got back from a Halloween party and they use their TV as an entertainment hub and it was on music duty. I would never have thought a draw. I was expecting at least a 9 point loss given that the Wallabies generally do quite well at Suncorp. Doesn't sound like either team were great, but that's nothing new for the Wallabies in this first RC.

[Orac Zen]

I conked out just before half time (it had been a really, really long day) and was pretty surprised we managed to secure a draw. Perhaps we should play all our games at Suncorp. I get the impression the game didn't reach any particular heights. Higgenbotham might be in a bit of strife after taking over Cooper's imbecilic anti-McCaw antics. The knee may have been accidental but it was hard to mistake the Liverpool kiss for anything other than what it was. Stupid stuff.

And so ends the first Rugby Championship and the southern hemisphere season. Just the European tours to go. I look forward to talking rugby with you blokes again either then or next year.

[Jono]

Higgs will miss 2 matches for his conduct. Against France and England if I'm remembering correctly.

On the hopefully more positive side Channel 10 has taken over the FTA right until 2015 from Ch9. No doubt 9 offloaded it as part of trying to get their costs under control, though Ch10 is hardly in a great financial position either at the moment. Hopefully there will be less delayed games and they seem to be leaning towards their own commentators. They seem to also be continuing the Super Rugby highlight show, which is good. Can't fault 9 on that aspect, their Super Rugby Extra Time show was well done if you didn't might staying up late on Monday to watch it.

[Jono]

Well, it was another of those performances that have been common in this season. Poor ball control, inaccurate passing, poor under the high ball, scrum faltering (even gave away a penalty try), one dimensional stuff in attack from the Wallabies. They never looked like the better side and got towelled.

If they don't pick up their game they'll be lucky to get out of the Spring Tour with a one win.

[Orac Zen]

That was rather painful viewing, wasn't it? Utter rubbish, and the notion that Beale is the answer at 10 proved to be yet another false dawn (not to mention quite laughable).

Agree that the tour's going to be a complete embarrassment unless a number of areas see very drastic improvement before next weekend.