McKenzie's mistake cost the Wallabies

I agree with most of your choice except that Folau should be on the bench. Over the last half dozen games he has played, he has shown that he is nothing but 'a high paid show pony' who doesn't have the heart, intuition, love and commitment to the game that a good rugby union player needs. He seems to not commit himself to the attack in a way which a player of his ability and size should. I believe the ARU has picked the wrong person to be the face of Rugby Union in Australia. An example of his uselessness, was the way he took the ball into space with few NZ defenders, did not draw them properly, and then passed a no-baller over the head of Beale who would have scored a try easily should the ball have been passed to him properly. Folau has shown he is only there as a "show pony- look at me syndrome".

Given all the hysteria over Quade Cooper's supposed defensive weaknesses, I am staggered at the unblushing acceptance that Beale apparently suffers the same malady. Apparently he too has to be hidden in defence at fullback to field attacking high balls. How about that!

Wow I am really getting sick of reading all of your posts in defence of Beale but if you are now going to use your "replays" to try and prove that Foley was no better, then its just starting to get too ridiculous. Are you his mother or brother or something? where do you find the time? sure he did not crab as much as usual, but he played way too deep and continually shovelled the ball off to the next closest player without drawing any defence or even getting close to the advantage line. sure he popped some nice inside balls, but this is nowhere near enough. when he was on the field, the whole attack looked disjointed, unorganised and rushed; he may be individually brilliant, but a general he certainly is not. Now please, don't go looking for some stats from your replays to twist into some kind of Beale defence as we have heard it all a dozen times already and believe it or not we watched the game as well.

EM made a mistake and he knows it!! The selection of KB amazed everyone including the whole of NZ, I was in AKL on Wed and watched the test with a room full of Kiwis, the consensus was why would you guys drop Foley for KB, Foley is considered a danger man across the Tasman as opposed to KB who everyone knows is a great player but not a playmaker. Why can we not recognize a good thing when we have it, a bit like Nadolo who is now the toast of the Crusaders and plays Test rugby for Fiji. EM got it wrong and I was blown away that such a powerful rugby man of his elk would have been seduced in this way, perhaps he is not as capable of identifying talent and those in form as he continues to make out, perhaps this selection of KB is revealing to us that he is indeed waiting for QC to return. That would be another mistake as we have the 10 we want in the form of Foley, how different it could have been!! I assumed EM was going to be a once in a generation coach with some brave decisions but the selection of KB confirms that yes he is truly just another Aussie coach with no rugby acumen when it comes to identifying the right back combinations.

Good game from the Aussies team conditions werent perfect but I'd give Beale another go if they can get close or eeven win at eden park i'd back them to win at Suncorp i hope not cause I'llbe there as normal with my black shirt on cheering on my team good luck

Hahaha, No Cooper! That is so funny.

Beale is an experienced test player, and in form. The next one is Toomua. The selection is whether a Beale-Toomua combo the best over Foley-Beale or Foley-Toomua. The answer was clear last Saturday night. Beale-Toomua was best. Over time, Foley will grow, yes, over time.

I have a dream.... From number 8 back.... Palu Phipps Speight - wing Foley Toomua AAC Folau - wing Beale - fullback Think about it.

Yes the conditions didnt suit attacking rugby and the only flyhalf that played really well this week was Sanchez for Arg and Beale was arguably the 2nd best of the 4 starters.

Exactly how did it prove to be a mistake? It didnt but its clear people want to see it that way. He selected Horne as wing because Horne played wing all year and has been in great form there and was good on sat. One of Australias best backs. Not an experiment selecting a player in the position hes played all season. Beale was not an experiment at 10 and this was his 9th test as starting flyhalf, a position he has played for the majority of his career and a position he played for the Tahs for the final 3rd of the Super comp when the Tahs were awesome. He did not wear 10 this year but like Beale and Toomua did on sat, Beale and Foley shared the flyhalf role with both Foley and Toomua doing most of the kicking but Beale doing most of the distribution. It did not fail and this is ridiculous. It will be exactly the same team next week except for Sio on the bench.

Oh yes, Foley was amazing for 9 mins. He did nothing at all until thr 76th minute when the ball was tapped and passed to him shortly before he was absolutely smashed. He then just passed it on twice before running accross field. Then the ball was offloaded by Skelton to Foley who ran accross field before straightening. Then off the scrum he ran accross field and dropped it off on the inside. Foley ran more than he passed and ran accross field in 2 of his 4 runs. He had 7 touches, passed straight away 2 times, ran accross field twice and ran into contact twice. I just watched it. Believe what you want to but you are imagining stuff. People are so predictable. About 10 people have said Beale crabbed when Foley ran accross field just as much in 4 mins as Beale did in 70.

Not sure why Beale wasn't relegated to the bench given the conditions.

Very surprised Rob Horne hasn't attracted more praise. Made a genuine impact, complemented a fairly lose first and second five. Genuinely stood up. In stark contrast to McCabe...

At least we can field the real Wallabies team next week now White and Beale were off.

Woah woah woah...no Horne? Definitely outplayed McCabe in this match

I know they're not the no. 1 go to men....but both Hooper and Palu jump for the waratahs don't they? You're probably right though perhaps someone needs to make way for a Higginbotham / Dennis / Fardy / Horwill...I just really don't rate Simmons!

Rugby was the winner on the night...

Wallabies played far straighter when Foley cam on...

....can't wait for Speight

Good call Tippo. There was a couple of options I think Ewen should have gone for... 1. Stick with the combo that has just won you a white wash of France in three tests. The point about building combinations is extremely important, and other than through injury, you do not see the ABs chopping and changing. 2. The Waratahs have an enormously strong back-line. These combinations could have also worked to the favour of the Wallabies. But instead of these logical choices that provide some consistency and reliability going into the first Beldisloe, Ewen has tried to get a bit tricky.Perhaps he thought he was going to get a tactical advantage by fielding a team that would catch the ABs off guard. But I find this to be strange, if not ludicrous approach to the toughest test series on our calendar. I have to believe that Ewen had his reasons, but I can't say I understand the decision. For the record, here was my selections: 1. Slipper 2. Charles (Hanson on bench) 3. Kepu (Cowan on bench) 4. Simmons 5. Carter (Skelton on bench) 6. Fardy (Higgers on bench) 7. Hooper 8. Palu 9. Phipps (White on bench) 10. Foley 11. Horne 12. Beale (Toomua on bench) 13. AAC 14. Kurindrani (McCabe on bench) 15. Folau