Rugby Union World Cup 2011

[Orac Zen]

How the frell did we fluke that??

SA are entitled to feel robbed. They completely dominated that game, and somehow we contrived to win after playing as badly as I've ever seen a Wallaby side play. Unbelievable.

I may be able to say more when I've recovered from the dozen or so coronaries I've had in the last hour or so. Geez.

 

[Jono]

Take that SA, and now the two teams I like the least are gone. It went nuts at my house when Genia kicked it out. Thought it was lost with 20 mins to go and was screaming abuse at the TV, but it went the way I wanted and I'm glad.

You can't knock the defence. They made four times as many tackles yet held their line. The lineout was shattered to pieces. The scrum was okay, it leaked one penalty (which is good for a side that isn't noted for its scrumaging). The forwards stood up despite losing the set piece battle solidly.

The back were less impressive. Defensive they were good for the most part (quite a few missed tackles though), but other than that they looked scattered. Cooper did his best to lose the game...charge downs, he got isolated twice at least, kicked poorly, a number of poor passes, he made a very good tackle, but was brushed just about every other time. His form is still questionable.

Next week the set piece needs to pick up. The scrum was okay, but the lineout issues need to be fixed, you can't lose over half a dozen of your own throws. The backs also need to set up, because if they play like that and we face NZ it will be like travelling back in time to the early game against NZ at Eden Park in this years tri-nations.

Immediate injuries, McCabe second shoulder injury, I'd question if he makes it next week. Beale suffered another injury that looked similar to the one against the USA, but he was quite after the first 20 - 30 minutes. Samo might also be hurt, but we'll see what the wash up is in the next few days.

 

[Orac Zen]

Yeah, the defence was incredible, but the error rate was equally incredible. We apparently didn't string together more than five phases in the entire game. So many turnovers, dropped balls, stupid passes, lack of composure. The lineout...geez. Sharpe has got to play next week. I've never seen so much stupid, aimless, pointless kicking from so many different players. Cooper was utterly atrocious - he had an absolute hide to be swanning around smirking after the game when he played so badly and put everyone else under even more pressure than they were already facing. SA hammered him and he went to water. Anyone other than Deans would probably have hooked him.

There were some positives other than the defence. Pocock was unbelievable; there seemed to be about five of him out there. Elsom had the best game I can remember seeing from him. The rest of the forwards did indeed stand up and aside from that one horrible scrum in first half, we at least held our own there. O'Connor stood up to everything hurled at him and landed the pressure goal (although why he didn't ask to take that conversion again is beyond me).

I still don't understand how we did it, but I'll take it, and good riddance to SA. Whoever we play next week (and I'll be astounded if it isn't NZ) won't feel particularly intimidated, though.

Geez.

 

[Geck]

Wow, I kinda feel bad for the Springboks after that. No way they should have lost that game. Completely dominated the first 75 minutes....just couldn't score.

I fear NZ is gonna steamroll the Wallabies if they play like that again next weekend...

 

[Orac Zen]

^
How remiss of me not to have mentioned before now how cool it is that you're in our country - and supporting us. Excellent.

 

[Jono]

I doubt O'Connor would think he was entitled to ask for another kick. It's a pretty rare occasion where that rule is exercised. Really the ref/touch officials should be enforcing it.


Interestingly so far no team who topped their pool has won, will NZ break the run? With the way we played I'm glad we didn't top the pool because Wales have looked to have more points in them than SA.

 

[Orac Zen]

If not O'Connor, then surely Horwill should have said something. Relying on Lawrence to get anything right isn't a great idea, IMO; he came up with some...interesting decisions. Again.

Anyway. We have a lot to work on before next week.


Apparently Peter de Villiers has resigned as SA coach. The imbecile who writes about rugby for the SMH will be devastated; lampooning de Villiers provides most of his material during Test season. It'll be interesting to see who they go with next.

 

[Geck]

^
How remiss of me not to have mentioned before now how cool it is that you're in our country - and supporting us. Excellent.

Hahah, thanks I've been dating a rabidly intense Wallabies fan, so I'd get in trouble if I supported anyone else at this point. He humoured me and cheered along for Canada during the pool stage too.

Wasn't expecting any sort of upset tonight, but Argentina's still hanging in there decently right now...

 

[NCC1701]

Well, the Argentineans played the best game they've played the whole tournament, and we've played the worst game so far, at least the All Blacks are past the quarter finals now! Thank fuck for Weepu, without whom we would've been well lost for the first 3/4 of the game. Slade played another average game, another groin injury to another fly half might see Cruden start against the Wallabies next weekend, which I must say I'm fine with, that boy played his heart out tonight. I'm sure Muliana would've preferred a better game to be his 100th, but Argentina really stepped up this weekend, and we didn't. If we expect to see the final, we have to improve, big time. It'll be interesting to see the Four Nations next year, that's for sure.

I do wish we would be facing the Springboks instead of the Wallabies, but after giving up chance after chance at scoring a try against Australia, they effictively knocked themselves out of the quarter final. Sad to see Smit end his career in this way, and I'll surely miss de Villers' foot-in-mouth syndrome as well for the next four years.

 

[Orac Zen]

More injury blows for NZ today, with Muliaina and Slade confirmed non-starters for the remainder of the event. The former isn't the loss he would usually be, although as I recall Dagg's had injury concerns as well; the latter has ample cover. Dare I hope Donald will be given the nod ahead of Cruden and play like he did in Hong Kong last year?

Meanwhile we have three players in doubt. We simply cannot afford that.

I'm annoyed I missed the NZ-Argentina game yesterday; I hadn't realised it was being screened on one of Nine's secondary channels until it was much too late. Going on various reports, though, the new Four Nations will be something to look forward to next year. As a spectator, anyway.

 

[Evil Robert]

Well I have to say I had the crappiest results in my footy tipping comp yet. Only 1/4 for the Quarter Finals!

Oh well...

 

[NCC1701]

More injury blows for NZ today, with Muliaina and Slade confirmed non-starters for the remainder of the event. The former isn't the loss he would usually be, although as I recall Dagg's had injury concerns as well; the latter has ample cover. Dare I hope Donald will be given the nod ahead of Cruden and play like he did in Hong Kong last year?

Meanwhile we have three players in doubt. We simply cannot afford that.

Haha, yeah you wish, with any luck Cruden will be playing the entire 80 minutes on Sunday, Donald can fuck off as far as I'm concerned. Although with both Donald and Quade Cooper on the field, it'll be the battle of the idiot number 10s at least which could be entertaining

As for injured players, welcome to our world! There are a few bright spots at least, both Dagg and Kahui would appear to be on again for the semis

 

[Orac Zen]

Cooper and Donald can have an ineptitude contest in some Super 15 game, when I won't give a damn about the result. I agree that it could be quite comical.

Cooper can screw up for Queensland all he likes (although of course he wouldn't). He needs to get it right (for once) on Sunday, but whether he's capable of it is another matter entirely. If Beale isn't fit we might luck out and have Barnes at 10 - someone whose kicking game doesn't completely fall apart whenever someone runs at him. He made a big difference against SA when he came on.

As for injuries, we've had plenty, thanks.

 

[NCC1701]

And Wales have knocked themselves out of the semi-final, even with a man down they were all over the French but unfortunately they didn't have a kicker up to the task. The carding of Warburton was over the top in my opinion, a yellow card would have been more than fair. Looks like it's going to be an easy grand final victory for whoever wins tomorrow's semi.

 

[Shaytan]

I didn't watch the match, I was working but I heard how ugly it was. Ugly way to play, victory ? We became England without my knowledge or what ?

 

[Jono]

I was going for France, but only because I was countering someone who was going for Wales, but they were terrible. Their tactics were woeful and I'm glad they didn't get a try for persisting with them. The red card made it all up hill for the Welsh and their set piece crumbled, and credit to them for looking like the more likely to win for 95% of the game...not that it will make them feel any better.

 

[Orac Zen]

Very unfortunate for Wales all round. The send-off was excessive - Warburton didn't deliberately lift and drive the bloke, it was all momentum and there was nothing deliberate about it. Wales played all the rugby in the game, but goalkicking let them down. Why they didn't work for a drop goal in the last few minutes instead of bashing away and trying to force an error is beyond me; inexperience was probably a factor there. France were terrible, to put it as politely as possible, but like us last week they took the few opportunities they had.

I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to tonight or dreading it.

 

[Orac Zen]

I should have dreaded it. What a letdown. Not unexpected, but still a real letdown.

Terribly disappointing performance from the Wallabies. We didn't give a good account of ourselves at all, in keeping with our generally mediocre performances at this World Cup. Nothing worked for us, and yet again Cooper was a liability - a ridiculously basic error to start the game and it didn't get any better from there. He had plenty of mates, though.

Having expressed my disappointment at our...effort, I must give all possible credit to the ABs. They were switched on and smashed us from the start and didn't leave us any way back. Even by their standards it was a terrific performance.

France don't have a prayer if they play as badly as they did against Wales. Indeed, if NZ don't win by 30 or 40 (at least) next week it'll be a joke.

 

[Jono]

"Wallabies go down fighting" is the headline over at one site...they must have watched another game from me because they looked like they went down bumbling to me.

The AB dominated in every area of the game and were deserving of the victory. They should have won by double what they did given their superiority in all aspects of the game.

Australia at least has one game left with the play off for third. They have not shown the form that they deserve this bitter consolation prize. Whatever the result it is an improvement from 2007 at least, though I'm not convinced that the 2011 side has improved over the 2010 one and the centre pairings and defensive arrangements have not paid off as I'm sure Deans and Co would have hoped.

 

[Shaytan]

The AB are going to eat the little Frenchies raw with salt and pepper. I predict a massacre. Except if...you never know....