Wallaby coach Michael Cheika will have mixed feelings about the 24-20 Rugby Championship win in injury time over the Boks at Suncorp last night.
The pluses
The Wallabies had a courageous captain in Stephen Moore, who chose to go for the win rather than the easy cop-out of a penalty in front for a draw.
With seven minutes to go the Wallabies were down 20-10, but converted tries to Michael Hooper and Tevita Kuridrani saw the men in gold home.
>>MATCH REPORT: Wallabies snatch victory with late Kuridrani try
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David Pocock made a huge difference off the bench, while Michael Hooper enjoyed an 80-minute blinder. Cheika must play them both all the time. Meanwhile Matt Giteau successfully returned to international rugby, despite a four-year absence.
The Wallaby scrum also held up against the powerful Bok pack.
The downsides
Halfback Will Genia limped off the field at half-time with a remedial ligament injury, and didn’t return.
Quade Cooper was unconvincing in his return to No.10, and missed three penalties from four. Goal-kicking is a genuine problem, which brings overlooked Bernard Foley back in contention with his reliable boot, and Matt Toomua for straightening the attack.
Add the three tries the Wallabies bombed and a possible 30 points were left on the paddock. Somehow, the Wallabies got away with it, but they won’t against the All Blacks.
Importantly, let’s have no more ‘no look’ passes, Cooper to Adam Ashley-Cooper worked, but Giteau’s to Israel Folau with the line wide open at 20-10 was bombed.
Behemoth lock Will Skleton was a bitter disappointment. With his 204-centimetre, 148-kilogram frame, he was expected to create carnage. It never happened.
To be fair, the big physical difference between Skelton and lock partner Rob Simmons is a disadvantage to both. It would be far more equitable if Rory Arnold, at 208 centimetres and 127 kilograms, was paired with Skelton.
The 37,633 crowd was also a disappointment, especially as 50,000-plus packed Suncorp for the Liverpool-Brisbane Roar clash the night before.
But for Cheika, his first game at home, and the Wallabies, it was a gutsy win against a team that was in command for most of the journey led by Schalk Burger, who was my man of the match.
Today the Wallabies fly out to Mendoza for the clash with the Pumas.
At the time of writing, the fitness of Genia and Giteau, who appeared to sustain a rib injury in the second half, are unknown.
Both are vital, and if they are lost against the Pumas the three-tries to two win over the strong Boks defence pattern will have lost a lot of the gloss.
But as Michael Cheika will tell you, adversity is there to overcome.
Birdy
Guest
So the 'gameplan' was to go 13 points behind with an additional 3 tries by the opposition bombed, hope that the opposition captain is injured after 15 minutes, and then 'run them ragged in the second half', making the winning score in the 83rd minute? As a pom, I hope Cheika keeps this plan for the RWC.
Birdy
Guest
I'm sorry; but anyone who believes Kuridrani was man of the match needs to upgrade to colour television.
Birdy
Guest
Just don't buy that, ZG. I thought 20-07 was a fair scoreline at the time and the Boks can claim to have butchered 3 tries by then as well. The WBs got themselves into some good positions in the 1st half but were invariably monstered at the breakdown and turned over.
Birdy
Guest
Refs have been told that when teams are running the clock out with recycled ball in ruck after ruck they are to be particularly strict on 'sealing off'. I've seen this happen in a number of games. Seems fair enough to me; otherwise any team winning with five minutes left simply has to put their head down and recycle until the whistle blows.
Martin English
Roar Rookie
The only contention was the timing; As a neutral (I'll admit a bias against most Australian commentary teams, but not the Wallabies themselves), it was a fair try, on the top of a 'refuse to loose' comeback. That attitude has been missing from the Wallabies since the Eales days. I criticized some aspects of Hooper's play above, but his commitment on the day couldn't be faulted, nor that of the team in general, especially in the last 10 or 15 minutes.
Martin English
Roar Rookie
Well, I saw Hooper meerkatting a few times when the Aussie scrum was going backwards. My concern is in the timing; i.e. Was the scrum going backwards, so he's popping up for a look, or did his lack of scrummaging effort contribute to the scrum going backwards ? More to the point, he needs to fulfill both roles - first to the break down PLUS scrummaging.
Martin English
Roar Rookie
Apologies - duplicate
soapit
Guest
yep, he had a fair bit of help with that one with his mates taking the top half and burger was just landing from having to jump to catch a pass but he did drive well. hopefully not relying on people having to jump to catch things to dominate them. the louw one was ok, again had plenty of help but played a good role. like i indicated above if tackling was all there was to being a rugby forward he'd be well making up for his lack of bulk through good skill and i wouldnt be noting a lack of physical dominance from him. unfortunately those couple of instances where he was able to use the situation well to get a good hit and drive doesnt cancel his no physical impact in his basic forward play.
Fraser
Roar Rookie
I didn't even know there was a game on this weekend. Received an email on Tuesday for half price tickets in the Gold Brigade, so snapped up seats behind the posts for $45 each.
Loosey
Guest
No that's rubbish, Queenslanders will watch a good game full stop, like anyone else, regardless of selection. The problem is Australian rugby doesn't consistently produce good quality games.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Despite the fact that the average openside is involved in 30 rucks, and that a game has about 240 rucks, with approximately 1.52 players involved per ruck, meaning there are approximately 360 player ruck involvements in a game. But the masses seem to think the ruck is the domain of a single player...
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Quade didn't dominate. Spot on assessment. Lacking of influence.
Ryan
Guest
The World XV are a collection of ex internationals who were thrown together last minute, you are being extremely naive to suggest they collectively were a good team Eagle. Samoa would have wiped the floor with that team. Why do people try to build up teams to be better than what they actually were?
Connor33
Guest
I agree, Sheek -- particularly against a rush defence.
Harry Jones
Expert
Reading the game better
jeznez
Roar Guru
Hand up from me as well. I thought he was done but he played well last night. Very pleasantly proven wrong.
jeznez
Roar Guru
Nick, that was Simmons behind Holmes, he switched across when Horwill came on.
jeznez
Roar Guru
SMI, Simmons's scrum is actually pretty good. Agree on his breakdown work though. A positive for me though was that he is carrying lower into contact so not getting knocked back as readily as he used to. Needs to work on his clean out. He neither knocks opponents off the ball nor wrestles them to deck and out of the contest. Must learn to do the second if he is incapable of doing the first.
jeznez
Roar Guru
I thought Owens seemed a bit fed up with Moore and wound up talking down to him. Great call by him going for the win, stoked that he did that.
jeznez
Roar Guru
Scrum penalty down in their corner, where we got done for not driving straight? I concur that Skelo was to blame there, he lacked the core strength to hold his position and buckled then came up as the weight came through. He was in a decent position but could not maintain it. Simmons then switched to the TH side when he got subbed for Horwill.