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Australia have beaten The Barbarians by 31 to 28 points at Alliance Stadium in Sydney in a game that will perhaps be spoken about for the wrong reasons in the days to come.
The game itself stuttered along for most of the 80 minutes with neither side really able to get into their rhythm.
For the Wallabies this will be more concerning – while it wasn’t their first choice team they would have expected to be able to take better control of this match and not rely upon so many errors from opposition and yellow cards to help them out.
Much was spoken of this match as a trial of sorts for some to try and play their way into Cheika’s Spring Tour squad.
No one player really covered themselves in glory but Ben McCalman, Luke Jones and Lopeti Timani all had good games although with Jones being based in Europe for another year he won’t be eligible for a while.
From the Barbarian side Quade Cooper certainly caught the eye. His chip kick for the BaaBaas last try was perfectly executed but overall it still feels like Cheika doesn’t rate him enough to start ahead of Bernar Foley, and he’s not the future of the Wallabies so why include him?
Instead Duncan Paia’aua will be the understudy for Foley – he scored twice and had a pretty good game without having the full control that he would have ideally liked.
Perhaps with more of a chance than Cooper of making the Wallabies at some point is Tom Banks – he played well including scoring a try and assisting in Taqele Naiyaravoro’s second. He’s arguably not quite right for the wing but could offer a good option at No.15 with Folau not touring.
Speaking of the full back spot, Karmichael Hunt’s first game back in a Wallabies shirt wasn’t as good as he’d have hoped but he should still get plenty of game time over the coming weeks.
He never stopped running and it’ll be interesting to see how Foley and Kurtley Beale can bring him into the play with some nice inside balls as he comes in at pace.
On the flip side players like Ned Hanigan, Billy Meakes and Samu Kerevi didn’t play well. Hanigan’s effort never fades but his ability to make an impact continues to be missing in action. Kerevi’s misread of a pass led to a nice break from Naiyaravoro who then put Banks in for his try and showed his ongoing struggles to dominate at the upper levels.
Sadly for the Aussies the real bad news is that Jack Dempsey and Tui both went off with injuries that looked pretty bad – Dempsey couldn’t even walk and needed two medics to get him to the sideline. We await the official report on how long they are out for but it doesn’t look good.
Unfortunately the referee had far too much impact on the game today which is especially sad in a Barbarians game.
There were a lot of penalties especially against the touring side which slowed the game down but the real issue was when he pulled out two yellow cards late in the game that saw Naiyaravoro and Cooper go to the bin.
At that point the BaaBaas were actually ahead and it was building to a great finish. With a two-man advantage though the Wallabies were able to get the final score and the win.
Neither card was really needed and the boos from the crowd will ring in the ref’s ears for a while. Of course he has to keep the players safe but with 10 minutes to go it was not necessary to bin two Barbarians.
So that’s the last time we’ll see the Wallabies in Australia for a while and it was another win on the record which is important. But the game has thrown up a number of questions and challenges for Michael Cheika as he looks to firm up his touring side and he’ll be sweating on the news about Dempsey and Tui.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.