http://www.theroar.com.au/2007/09/25/your-photos-from-australia-v-fiji/

Cheers, Zac

I was happy enough with the performance. Palu is reminding more and more of Toti Kefu, and Elsom has come a long way . Together they allow Smith and on saturday Waugh, to avoid being used as battering rams and utilise their speed around the park to get to the breakdown and provide good cover for the inside backs. I actually think Gregan has played as well as he possibly can. His service is of course not as good as it was in 99, but he is much more involved with the attack and getting to the breakdown very smartly.

The pity with the RWC is that for half the tournament it is very difficult to get a gauge on the performance of top teams because there are very few contests between the elite nations. For the ABs they won’t run into a credible team until the QF and then its death or glory, likely as not against the French. Meanwhile, England can be pathetic, but if they put it all together on the day could upset Australia. Neither of these is likely given the way the four teams are playing but the RWC does tend to underreward strong performances in the pool games and over reward teams just doing enough to win through the QFs. The tournament would be much improved if there were 12 teams and pools of 4, with each nation playing each other twice (6 games) and then only the top team in the pool going straight to a SF. This would make all games more competitive and all results more important. It would add one week to the tournament but reduce the lopsided results. In return the weaker nations should have a separate qualifying tournament nations, for the two positions outside the 6 nations, and 4 southern hemsipheres teams.

He’ll sharpen up for the finals and put it all on the line for one last massive effort. He might even try and run at the line!

Overall we are travelling pretty well, good news on Staniforth’s injury not being tournament ending.

Oz had two tries scored against them in Wales. First was touch and go while second contained 2 knock ons and should have been brought back. So overall effort in defense was quite good. Wales only started looking really good when playing 13 men. Drew Mitchell having bombed 2 tries in as many minutes let his frustration show and his discipline got the better of him and was yellow carded. He is going to be a great winger when he learns to keep his frustrations to himself and concentrates on watching the ball into his hands instead of having a “bo peep” at the defense. He also needs to use a sliding kick and chase when confronted at the final line of defense. His speed shud see him regather and score more often than not.

In the Fiji game very poor defense by Tiquri let the Winger in before half time. He shud have put him in touch but this shows he is very suspect in defence. Early in the second half Fiji scored from a blatant crooked throw to the lineout which virtually ended up in the Half’s hand who fed short pass to their No. 7 who went through the gap all the way to the tryline. A wakeup call to the Wallabies to play the whistle. The Welsh referee Owen had a shocker and the linesmen were little better. Fiji were losing every straight lineout so reverted to throwing to the outside hands while interferring with the Wallaby jumpers at the same time. Such was the dominance of our lineout and scrum it appeared the laws were being flouted to “even” up the game. The try Fiji should haved scored was negated by their replacement inside centre having white line fever in second half. Late in second half with Cordingly and Huxley moving into space they looked very dangerous every time and good TEAM tries resulted. I was quite satisfied with the result – mindful one can only play within the parameters laid down by the game officials.

Although Tiquri played his best game todate he has a tendency to “over run” the ball carrier. Good players “position” themselves for the final pass and don’t put themselves into such a situation. Once his “timing” improves he will start scoring tries. He also must not let the kick off ball bounce, and team mates MUST let their nearest player know who should catch the high ball. Come the finals this weakness will be exploited.

I saw many positives and few negatives and believe the Wallabies are on course for a semi final spot probably against Les Bleau! yes les Bleau – PROVIDED the AB’s are made to adhere to the laws of the game.

GG – played well against the Welsh. In fact it was the best game that I have seen him play for a long while, but a week later he was absolutely crap. The habit of yapping (probably being captain) is annoying to see from a spectator’s point of view, even though it may be effective for the Wallabies at times. He talks so much to the point that his ball playing losses momentum. I shouted several times at the TV “get on with it already.” Totally frustrating. Slowed down the whole team’s attack. In my opinion he was the reason why the back line did not fire as it should. Too slow and too distracted to do a good job. What do we do with him?

LT – Even though he did not score, he intimidates the opponents. He does suck in the opposition’s defenders. No opposition would dare to ignore his presence – AB included. I would like to see the coaches giving him set moves so that he could be brought into the game a bit more. Another thing is that (this is my observation) those around him does not like him very much, and do not like passing to him.

DM – Even though he scores several tries in this comp, he appears very weak in the tackle and lacks strength and toughness to be a good test player. Seems to shy away from the hard and tough work (similarly my biggest problem with Huxley). This is where LT is so much more superior to DM. DM needs to toughen up mentally. I would rather see AAC plaing on the wing in DM position.

AAC – As can be seen in this game, is nowhere near SM standard. Play him in the wing instead of DM.

Defence in general – One thing that was amazing in the France Argentina game was the ability of the Argies to prevent tries being scored from 1 metre out. I am not sure if John Muggleton noticed that the Argies dip their head and shoulder right under the charging drives from the French attack at close range. They held out at least twenty of those low and hard drives by wedging their head and shoulders under the drives of the French at half a metre from the try line. Very committed and fearless defense. Really amazing how they did it without getting their heads knocked off, but it was very effective.
Against Wales, the Wallabies defence on the try line was weak compared to what the Argies did. I hope John Muggleton pick-up on the method the Argies defends. It would be useful to analyse this before the QF.

Cheers

Unfortunately, I must disagree with you on Lote – he is totally overrated bad news, the sooner you see the back of him the better. As for Gregan – this may be one WC too many.

It’s difficult too measure a team’s progress against the lesser teams, the aussies picked up maximum points, couldn’t ask for more. Same for the ABs and the Boks, although I am a bit concerned about the Boks, White did not show the Tongans enough respect who in turn played wonderful rugby.

Lets sum up LT’s performance.

* Set up the first try (yes, he didn’t outrun the Fijian winger, but they aren’t exactly slow!)
* Would have scored if Git’s wasn’t selfish/confidant/brilliant
* Would have scored it Latham would have popped it to him when he was brought down 3m out
* Set up Mitchells first try (maybe could have tried a step and gone himself, but chose the better, safer option)
* Had a big part in the final try

I’m pretty happen with that report card. I’ve said it before, and will say it again – LT is a tool, but he is still a decent player!

Reality check. Scotland are a 6N team albeit not a regular in the top slots, but a good journeyman team none the less. certainly a top 10 in the world team – and NZ held them scoreless while placing the pill on the crowd side of the Scottish ultimate defensive line on 6 occasions. Regardless of concentration lapses and white line fever, that, my friends, is a thrashing.

Fiji have been almost as much of a gift to this RWC as Tonga, refreshingly competative along with their usual sevens-style verve and pizzaz. While they have harldy been what you would call prime contentders for a QF spot, none the less they are no easy-beats, so a 37 point margin makes this, too, a thrashing.

Both the Wallabies and the ABs set enormously high standards for themselves, and their fans expect even higher, but sirs, expressing that either team did not play well in executing two thrashings early this morning is to serve them a rich injustice. In fact both games were even (relatively) entertaining because of the errors, and because of the fairly high work rates of all four teams involved.

Credit where it’s due.

Now, ont it – go the ABs, 100 points + over Romania, then smack the French clear into Algeria in the QF – 20 points would be OK, 30 would be justice. Hurl the Wallabies back to Australia in the semi and show SA up for the chest-beaters they are in the final.

I thought Palu looked like he was starting to regain some confidence, Giteau was sharp and I thought Mitchell read the game well. The forwards also looked better, but against a Fijian pack, I don’t think we can take too much away from that. The coach didn’t look happy at the end of the game. Hopefully, they can reignite the momentum next week against Canada and the following week against either England or Tonga, before they if their first major challenge of the tournament. Go the Wallabies.

Curl

The forwards went well and the scrum was strong. How good could Fiji ( and Tonga and Samoa) be if they had a serious coaching program with the same amount of time and money spent on them that the tier 1′s spend. Surely there is a strong case to devote some serious resources to bring the next 4 ( T, S, F, A) up to teir one level.

I thought Gregan had an average game. He was up to his usual trick of not picking up the ball, looking everywhere else except at the ball at the back of the ruck and giving up the turnover. His slowness in getting the ball away also led to a classic turnover when it was kicked out of his hand.

Tquiri has lost pace and struggles to get around or away from anyone now. He is busy, gets involved and contributes ,but it would be nice for him to score more tries ( or even one try) . Barnes continues to blossom – a real team player with all the skills. Compare his performances against say Kurtly Beale , who tends to play for himself rather than moving the team around the field. BB has had the experience and benefit of 2 S14 seasons and it shows.

I think we are still in it with a chance to win the whole thing. NZ must crying out for a hard game – they haven’t played a game in anger since the TN.

How good were Tonga – a great game and they almost got away with a draw or a win right on the bell.

An exercise in frustration best sums up the All Blacks performance against Scotland. Good points were an improved lineout, the scrum returning to its best form to date, Doug Howlett setting a new tryscoring record, improved defensive performance, no forward injuries although the jury is still out on Leon MacDonald and a man of the match performance by Chris Masoe. A lot of unforced handling errors, a below par goalkicking performance from Dan Carter, missed try scoring opportunities and general rustiness will give them plenty to work on for Romania and the quarterfinals.

On a weekend when all the Tri Nations teams were expected to put their opponents to the sword, neither team covered themselves with any glory.

I continue to like Berrick Barnes at 10. I’d like to see him take on the line a little more often but one big plus …. we do not seem to be missing Bernie, and do we actually want him back for the quarters?