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2012 Rugby Championship thread

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.
 
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.
 
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 :p. 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 :techman:
 
^
Congratulations! :D (On the baby news. :p :D)


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. :rolleyes:
 
^ 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.
 
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.
 
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. :lol: 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. :bolian:
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
Another average game for the All Blacks, only managed to watch the first 60-odd minutes as I had work but 51-22 at full time is a pretty poor effort considering we were playing Scotland. At least it proved a nice training ground for new combinations, looking forward to seeing Keiran Read taking over the captaincy for the Italy match.

And I'm not sure to laugh or be afraid of the score of the Australia-France game, considering we drew with the Wallabies a few short weeks ago :eek:
 
Not a complete turnaround but enough of one to win out 20 - 16 against the "Old Enemy". The most pleasing aspect was the scrum and how much better it looked with the two Bens and Timani in there. There was even the rarest of sightings: a win against the feed against an English scrum. The lineouts went through a rough patch but Polatu-Nau has always been a bit shaky with his throws, though it did come after a head knock, so that probably had an impact.

Good defence by the team with the only English try off a quick tap from around the 10 m on Australia's side and even then the try was a whisker from been saved. Cummins got the Wallabies' only try and it came off what appeared to be a forward pass as well, so both sides had unconvincing tries and they also both had one disallowed a piece.

Barnes in the side adds more options and seemed to take the pressure off Beale and Barnes kicking game was pretty solid as well as his efforts under the high ball. Ioane was back, but the attack was favouring Cummins' wing so he didn't feature much. Mitchell also came on for the last 10, but I don't think he touched the ball. Timani looked good as well returning...and I think that's all the injury returns, oh Ben Alexander was solid in the scrum and around the park.

England was a bit poor, they had some aimless kicking and their decision making was questionable. They didn't score in the second half, partly thanks to good defence, but also because they decided against at least 3 get able kicks within the first 20 - 25 minutes. They were also a bit like the Wallabies last weekend with their attack breaking down due to poor passing and ball control.

If the side can keep this form and even improve on it they should account for Italy, especially if the scrum holds up. Two years ago they came close to losing against Italy with the Wallaby pack faltering, but then again the next week they towelled France by 50 points, so as an Wallabies supporter knows the Wallabies can go from okay/pretty good to terrible within the space of a week.

On the sidelines Campese has again attacked the Wallabies. Sometimes I think the only way Campo will be happy is if he is cloned so he can play 1 to 15, be the coach and take every position in the ARU. It is probably down to media beat up which focuses hard on his negative comments, but he does come across as the most negative former Wallaby in the media, not to say that he never has a point, but I'm getting to the point where I'm about to put my fingers in my ears whenever I hear anyone say "former Wallaby David Campese has said..."
 
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Campese is the Neil Harvey of Australian rugby. Absolutely everything was better in his day, and absolutely everything about the current day is crap. About the only difference between the two is that Campese has an even bigger ego (Harvey's nauseating deification of Bradman isn't something Campo would ever offer about anyone he played with). The media go to them when they want a controversial comment or fifty and despite their utter irrelevance, they always deliver.

If coaching is as easy as Campese reckons it is, one wonders why he's never given it a go. Enough said, really.


Haven't seen the game yet but even after I do, I probably won't feel any more optimistic about things than I have been. Why is it that we can only seem to perform at even a half-decent standard when the knives are out and it's backs-to-the-wall? All year it's been a step or two forward followed by four or five steps back. It's getting tedious and the ludicrous injury toll aside (two more blokes ruled out during the week in addition to the ridiculous suspension Simmons copped), it's well past time some of these blokes learned to play at a consistent standard.

The snippets on the news did reveal one thing, though - possibly the most hideous strip ever worn by an international sporting team. England looked vile. As one smartarse in the comments of a Guardian blog put it, "The All Plums, sponsored by Ribena" (while another commenter reckoned they were "dressed up to look like Barney" :lol:). Craptastic.

Elsewhere, predictable wins for NZ and SA, while Samoa defeated Wales. Wouldn't it be good if the IRB decided to stop fawning over the so-called "home" nations and started looking after countries like Samoa... Eh, hell will freeze over first.
 
The Wallabies continued their fine recent history of playing poorly in Italy sneaking home with a 22 - 19 win. They scored ZERO points in the 2nd half...Z-E-R-O.:sigh:

Only one try a piece. Cummins bagged the Wallabies and Italy got theirs off poor handling by Timani in the 22. In fact Timani had a poor game. His decision making out wide was poor either throwing a one handed pass to no one or getting isolated.

Main issue was the scrum was poor. The track was soft, but they still got handed a lesson.

Another injury as well with Sheenan having to go off after 30 with a leg injury. The Wallabies looked a bit lost and all over the place in attack for most of the game.

A win is a win I guess.

Next it is Wales who will be on a 6 match losing streak (3 of those to the Wallabies in June/July). In recent years Wales and the Wallabies have played quite close games, the mid-year games were won by Aust by 8, 2, and then 1. Hopefully it will be a good game and that both sides won't be trying to out bumble the other to defeat.
 
I'll hopefully find some time to watch the game at some stage (still haven't managed to watch the Italy match, though I don't think I've missed a great deal there), but from all accounts it wasn't anything special and we got out of gaol at (literally) the last minute. Unfortunate for Wales but I'm glad Nathan Sharpe leaves the game a winner. He's been a great and greatly underrated servant of Australian rugby and he'll be both missed and very, very difficult to replace.

England beating the All Blacks...geez, we'll be hearing about that for the next decade or so.


Well, according to that great authority on everything, Campese, "girls" shouldn't write about rugby so on that basis I should stop participating in these threads. Fortunately I don't give a crap about him or his opinions, so see you next year. :bolian:
 
Given that in the mid-year games the results were Wallabies by 8, 2, and then 1, I was expecting a draw, though with about 5 to go I thought the Wallabies had lost.

Pretty much a mirror of what happened 6 months ago in the second test. Wales had the lead and a minute or so to go they get the ball, kick it away and lose the game at the death. You give the ball to the opposition, you no longer control your fate.

Very surprised by the All Blacks/England result, though I guess they had to actually lose a game sometime...just thought that it was going to be to the Boks in SA next year.

The 2015 RWC draw is on Monday and the Wallabies have avoided what some were dreading, slipping into the second tier for the draw. So they will avoid the ABs, SA and France in the pools. Seems weird to be thinking about this already.

Orac Zen said:
Well, according to that great authority on everything, Campese, "girls" shouldn't write about rugby so on that basis I should stop participating in these threads. Fortunately I don't give a crap about him or his opinions, so see you next year. :bolian:
Click to expand...

To be fair, he did clarify with his apology that was not what he meant. He meant all female journalists lack the testicular fortitude to be writing about any sports, not just rugby. Good clarification there.
 
It's been so long that I haven't even commented on the NZ-Wales game yet, quite a good performance there, probably one of the best of the All Blacks this year. Which is exactly what the game against England wasn't, we got schooled there from start to finish. Carter especially looked like he was rushed back, he really shouldn't have been on the field at all, and not a good way to send McCaw off on his sabattical. Oh well, at least we're still number one in the world for the RWC 2015 draw on Monday, you can't win them all.

Nice to see the Wallabies sneak past Wales again, good way to send Nathan Sharpe to retirement. I liked his conversion attempt at the end of the game. And Pocock finally snuck his way back into the squad, well past time the Wallabies got some injured players back into the game!

That about wraps it up for rugby in the southern hemisphere for this year. Guess I'll see you guys around these parts for Super Rugby in February :techman:
 
Seventh White Boomer said:
To be fair, he did clarify with his apology that was not what he meant. He meant all female journalists lack the testicular fortitude to be writing about any sports, not just rugby. Good clarification there.
Click to expand...
Indeed. Almost as inane, sexist and classless as the initial remark itself. I hadn't thought it possible that he could sink any lower than the depths he'd already plumbed in life, but apparently anything really is possible.
 
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