Wallabies beat Wales 24-18

Per ESPN Scrum (and apologies if I screw up these figures, but they're essentially correct), Phil Cox was Mark Ella's first test half, playing 6 of Ella's first 10 tests and another 4 later, to be his most frequent partner. John Hipwell and Ella only played together twice before Hipwell retired. Peter Carson (once) and Tony Parker (twice) played the odd game with Ella, with Dominic Vaughan playing 6 times. The one who partnered Ella most memorably though would have been Nick Farr-Jones, even though that was only for 4 tests - Ella's last 4 on the famous grand slam tour in 1984. Great though Hipwell was, I think it's hard to give him "orchestrating" rights on that basis. Maybe they properly belong to Ella himself!

Cooper on a wing? You sound like Spiro! I think I'll leave it at that if you think Cooper is a winger...

Gavin Fernie Australia's greatest ever half-back - John Hipwell - orchestrated Mark Ella.

Gavin, Bearfax, I agree. I'm very impressed with O'Connor's potential as a fly-half, and Cooper will have his work cut out. My impression is that JOC is mentally stronger than Cooper. I also agree that the Welsh forward have to be given due credit. They really did play well. This was very different to the barbarians game.

hahahahahaha if your a state of origin fan it is.

I'm from NSW, but I admire the talents of Quade Cooper, who is a natural play maker. But he relies very much on timing and the other players almost instinctively knowing what he's going to do. He also relies on some room which the Australian forwards were not giving him. Cooper was targetted during the World Cup because he was recognised as potentially the most dangerous player on the field. Other supporters recognised it also and that's why they gave him such a hard time to put him off his game. O'Connor is going great but opposition teams have yet to pick out his weaknesses. Cooper will learn from the experienced of being rushed in a similar way Lockyer, and years before Cliff Lyons in League learned how to counter that practise. Cooper will come back better after that experience.

Twilight can look a lot like the dawn. Just a question of how you look at it.

I thought that was the French?

Damo maybe it is who knows, or maybe you have gone political correctness overdrive mate.

Is 'queenslander' a racial category Johnno?

They're Welsh not Irish. I reckon we can all learn a great deal from the way Irish crowds behave.

Justin Have you forgotten Quade Cooper's dancing on the spot and going nowhere in the RWC 2011 Competition? In the modern game, the defences are so tight and come up so quickly, that even Daniel Carter has to be patient and move the ball along the backline, until a gap emerges. Test rugby is not Super 15 rugby. Cooper gets away, or perhaps one should asy, got away with a lot of room in 2011. He will find it somewhat different in 2012. I also love seeing him hop and skip his way through defences, but, sadly, as evidenced in RWC2011,when he is put under pressure, he is very fragile, and easily rattled. Everything in his game, incuding his kicking(tactical and touch) falls apart. I believe that he should be tried out on the wing. The fault lies far more directly with the Wallaby forwards, who, too often, fail to give Genia and the backline, front foot ball. Also, in yesterday's game, credit should be given to the Welsh forwards, who were fiery and climbed into the Wallaby pack with gusto. Warburton was tremendous at the breakdown, and the "new' Welsh lineout forwards were much better than the Wallaby jumpers. Gethin Jenkins(a truly world class player)murdered his opposition up front in the first half and played brilliantly in the loose and at the breakdown. I also thought that Priestland had a good game. The Welsh wee much better than theyallowed themselves to be. The whole Shane Williams 'thing' seemed to distract them at times. Thanks, Shane, for all your wonderful ebullience and brilliance on the rugby fiels, and for proving that one does not have to be a 110 kg brute to be good at rugby!

After two starts at Number 10 for the Wallabies, James O'Connor is clearly the right man for the position in the Wallaby plans going forward. It took Steven Larkham quite a while to settle into the position and he was one of the very best flyhalves Australia has produced. As in the case of all the very best Wallaby flyhalves, O'Connor is accompanied and complemented by the brilliance of his scrumhal; Genia in this case, Gregan in the case of Larkham, Nick-Farr-Jones in the case of 'Noddy' Lynagh;I honestly cannot recall who helped orchestrate Ella, but further back the genius of Kenny Catchpole complemented Phil Hawthorn. With Berrick Barnes at number 12, and the full potential of Beale at the back, Lachie Turner on the one wing, Digby Ioane on the other wing, and AAAC at 13, this Wallaby backline is capable of being one of the best Wallaby backline units in many years. Groundless criticism of their lack of thrust at times can only be attributed to the fact that it is not a complete unit at present(Drew Mitchell, Kurtley Beale and others, out due to injury), and the starting forward lineup for yesterday's test was weak at front row( the introduction of Alexander, Moore and Samo made all the difference), and on the day, Warburton had the better of Pocock at the breakdown. Also, the Wallaby lineout was ragged, and Horwill and Sharpe should be the starting locks. Slipper is slowly growing into his position, but the big worry for the Wallabies is the lack of depth at prop and hooker. All the triple barreled names from the other front row players, leave one with the impression of 'softies' at international level. This is clearly the biggest problem Deans has on his plate.

They didn't boo ( a few whistles while JOC was kicking) but neither did they seem to applaud good moves by the Wallabies. In the past crowds used to show their appreciation of good rugby, whichever side was involved.

Berrick Barnes is as Queenslander as you can get so will have no issues, fitting into the Reds cliche in the wallabies and linking with QLDER'S like Genia or Cooper.

I'm a great fan of Cooper, and think he is much better than his efforts at the World Cup. But O'Connors linking between Genia and Barnes s looking very good indeed and I suspect Cooper will struggle to get his place back if O'Connor continues to impress in that position.

1. A big thank you to Wales for bringing some hardness to last night's game. Their forwards in particular - no real counter-rucking, but in every other aspect they hit us hard. 2. In defence and rucks, the Welsh were very strong and exposed our forwards a few times 3. Between the two No 7s, overall I think Pocock is slightly better but I have to score last night to Warburton. A couple of really nice steals, and not because the Wallabies were particularly slow to get to the breakdown either. 4. I thought the Welsh commentators were some of the fairest I have heard in a long time. Particularly when halfpenny was binned, they were adamant that Wallabies should be awarded a penalty try!

A decent win by AUS and while they looked to be creating momentm prio to the sin bin of Half Penny they only scored tries with him off. There is a lack of creativity and strategy though and I fail to see much improvement in the backs as a unit. The backs often are just shuffling the ball along the line and JOC is not a 10 and nor is Barnes if you want a running game.

So much for the 'new dawn' in Welsh rugby. Mentally fragile.

Okay win. Enjoyed the commentary. It was obvious where their allegiance lay but when the Wallabies started to build a solid lead the commentators flipped into graciousness and made it about the game not just victory. The Cardiff crowd were similarly polite. Very refreshing after where the Wallabies have been recently.