Genia, Horne drop out of Wallabies squad

Cooper is garbage...missed the kick in front of the posts and seems to have to force everything he does. In my opinion, I wouldn't have him on my Super Rugby team let alone starting on my test squad. He may be effective off the bench, but the more minutes he plays, the higher the instance of him blowing the game for everyone. Foley is the clear pick. I will give him a hats off for the inside no look pass he gave to AAC for the first Wallaby try of the game. Having Pocock and Hooper on the field at the same time was massive. When Poey came on the field, the scrum tightened up and the breakdown seemed to cycle a lot quicker. It's tough to pick a starting squad, but I know who I would leave out. Cooper hopefully won't make the trip and it disappoints me to see Beale's name on the list. I put him in the same catergory as Cooper. He can provide that one magnificent play, that X factor everyone always talks about, but he spends the rest of the game making bonehead passes to no one and missing tackles. Both Cooper and Beale aren't worth the risk.

Dont forget that slick world class x factor kick right in front cooper missed . So what he had a crap night . Nothing a little hype cant fix

You watched a different game to me, his kicking was way off mark except for one touch finder early in the first half.

Gee people are so reactive after every single match, usually along their state alliances. If you're not a stand out, calls for your head are instant. Try giving them a few matches to perform, I'm sure the coaches will be and reviewing what needs to be done after each match. But to keep chopping and changing is ridiculous. The Wallabies won and know what they have to work on. Give them a break and get behind your side. Also, not reading too much into it, but how convenient that the two replacements required were already in the States. I suspect this may have given the Badge the edge over Tomane, however Badge plays similarly to Rob..

Perhaps not soundly beaten. But the Aussie pack were absolutely abysmal at securing their own ruck ball for the vast majority of the game.

Is that 1 penalty forced by Skelton or conceded? For conceded I counted at least two. The first for offside at the ruck that gave the Springboks their first shot at goal, another later for not rolling away at the breakdown and another kickable penalty.

Looking forward to seeing him get some game time.

Tomane is in the squad

Part of the reason the bench were strong was because the wrong people were on it. Pocock shouldn't have been and Skelton should have been for starters. Good to see a Cheika selection faux pas turned into a bench positive though.

The Ausie pack was not soundly beaten. Thats nonsense.

The Wallabies were fragile, but lucky. The bench seems to have saved us; fragility turned to almost flair. On the other side of the Wallabies 'luck and bench' equation was the Springboks' (now established) ambiguous quality of play... else, it could have got ugly! Phipps lacks composure, Cooper lacks confidence. Did Cheika say he just wanted the supporters to be proud of the team? Well (we won) and I was proud of the team.

That's just nuts

Surprised they haven't brought an extra half as well.

Foleys goal kicking has not been very good recently unfortunately. I am very surprised that Cheika has brought in Cummins. I love the guy, but Tomane was the in form winger after Horne I thought. Guy must be feel very hard done by.

Coopers attacking kicking was great, nothing pointless about it. There was a time where I felt the Wallabies lost faith in the game plan and started kicking, but that was by no means just cooper, the whole back 3 went into pointless kicking mode.

I reckon we're looking at the game wrong in terms of selection. Frankly, David Pocock is not only the best openside in the country, he's the best openside flanker in the world. And Hooper is too good to NOT play. Both are considerable strengths of the Wallabies. To me, we should be looking at pushing forward our strengths as much as possible whilst doing whatever's necessary to cover needs. Playing David Pocock for only20-30 minutes of a test is not getting that done. Likewise Hooper only getting 20-30. We should be trying to get both on the park from the opening whistle, covering the needs that would traditionally come about from trying to go with two openside flankers (mainly the lineout) and selecting around that. Fardy to second row (or Simmons), Pocock at openside, Hooper at blind/number 8 splitting duties with Higginbotham. I'm not surprised by McCalman's lack of selection, and it shouldn't be because of form... but rather because of Higginbotham's versatility. Opensides have been a strength of the Wallabies for years... and we keep on producing guys who are lock/blindside options (like Fardy and Mumm). Should be using it to try and get the most out of what we do best.

Couldn't agree more. His decision making under pressure is the worst of all the halfbacks available. Genia is consistent in his game which is what you need in a tournament halfback. The difference in their good and bad games is what makes me worried about having the two Nics as Wallabies halfbacks.

Exactly. Phipps didn't look any better, or provide any quicker ball than Genia did over the first ten minutes when he was playing behind the same dominated platform. It wasn't until the Bokkies started to bench their tight 5 and Cheika subbed Pocock on that quicker ball started to flow. Genia was solid. Phipps was solid, just had more opportunities that presented themselves to provide better service in that second half.

Moore also praised Hooper, and he didn't have to say as much as he did.

bl00dy spell check...