Roar Forum: What changes should the Wallabies make for the second Test?

I was thinking the same thing, Eddie rattled on about bloody "Body Line" all week, & I kept on saying to myself 'Chieka has the perfect bunch of guys for instituting that style of game'. I agree with you too, bring in Taqele Naiyaravoro for Horne's next week match concussion or injury... He will run Riot!

I disagree with that last statement. The 6:2 split was a very wise decision knowing the Poms had promised a torrid battle in the piggies and as it happened it covered for the multiple injuries the WB suffered in the forwards. Having both starting locks off by the 60th minute and D.Pocock coming off injured would have been a total disaster except they had 3 forward reserves covering those positions. A 5:3 split would have had a midfielder or winger moving in as flanker or something as cover. However in hindsight, S.McMahon the energiser bunny, is just too small for an international forward and likely should be eased out for a strong ruck monkey with some beef as a reserve. Easy after the game as the plan was for McMahon to come on and run the tired Pom piggies off their feet. In reality he was pretty ineffective on the field.

Hi TM, the Oz didn't score tries running through the English forwards, they made minced meat of the English backline defenders after running their forwards all over the shop. My problem with big Will Skelton is he brings too many negatives to the side, it really hurts the scrums and lineouts when he is there. Sure he has his moments but generally he has been shown up as pretty pedestrian by the good Kiwi sides. At the Tahs he usually is replaced by 55 minutes. To my mind, if M.Cheika does go with Willy, it can only be as a reserve but then who does he drop? I think Neil and soapit are pretty on the money that wholesale changes shouldn't be made to a side, almost acclaimed as the greatest on planet Earth, and on Saturday won pretty much everywhere except on the penalties and scoreboard. A couple of tweaks in attitude and tactics would bring out a different side. I would be more inclined to bring in B.McCalman who is a true #8, as I just cannot see any benefit with replacing D.Pocock with another small running #7 such as L.Gill or S.McMahon. Losing Pocock means you are going to lose his breakdown dominance no matter who replaces him, so for my money bring in a fair dinkum #8 and tell S.Fardy and M.Hooper to spend a bit more time in the middle. A couple of brain implants to stop idiotic penalties in your own half wouldn't go astray also. LoL

Australian sides suffer slack attacks after every RWC. The boys didn't bring the battle mentality and let the Poms beat us in our own house. They didn't buckle down and focus on the job. They got suckered at the breakdown. AS far as Eddie whinging about how the Poms have been treated he needs to check his history. They deserve every thing they get, Australia has copped it forever from the Poms. THATS why loosing to them IS the worst any Aussie side can do, PERIOD!

Tamoua needs to brought in for his defence and playmaker role. He;s rattled more than few forwards. Poey never realy threatened the breakdown he had no support. We need the big fellas at the breakdown Jarred Butler filled Pococks position at the Brumbies and should be there. We need more power, accuracy and discipline. The breakdown killed us the Wallabies came up against a good battle hardened England and got a good kick up the arse. Australian sides slack off after every RWC and Cheika will be livid they lost focus.

Or Hooper could come in off his wing and help.....

Just another point regarding that incident. If the trial laws for this years NPC are adopted then what Haskell did will be illegal. All players including the tackler will be required to play the ball from their teams side of the tackle.

Foley missed 12 points - England only won by 11... You do the maths! ;)

yup. what you said

i thought he wore red headgear so we could all see where hooper wasnt? (and i thought only hookers were traditionally allowed to seagull on the wing, not fetchers?)

agree 100pc re folau and his lack. of cover defence arguably the best attacking winger in world rugby, for sure, but his defence, and cover defence specifically, is poor.. As is his kicking game Another reason to move him to center imho.

Imagine if Quade made those same errors FOLEY and FOLAU made. . OH MY WORD.. Folau MOTM hahaha..

PK what do you think about having your no 7 seagulling on the wing when his forward mates are getting beaten up through the middle? Cheika made some poor decisions with his bench selection as well as having players play out of position and also through the course of the game in not getting Sio off earlier. And who are the on feild leaders because they are doing a crap job I struggle to see a rugby brain amongst the lot of them oh well rant over Come On Wallabies win the next test

Oh, and one change the Wallabies should make is to put Nathan "I'm in my box!" Grey into an actual box and keep him there for the entirety of the 2nd test, that was a bad look.

Yeah, watching it again TPN would form a ruck. I would imagine either Poite didn't call a ruck cause he missed that (it was pretty quick) or he decided Hartley wasn't engaging (he didn't appear to be attempting to contest, he looked like he was going to fan out to his left) so not really in a contest for the ball. On balance, probably an error, I'll concede.

So Sio was poor at scrums during the Rugby World Cup? I can't support you on that. For the first time in a very long time the Wallabies Scrum was a weapon at the RWC which is why Chieka was so keen to have him on the paddock for the final. The backrow will be forced to change for the next test due to Pocock's eye socket injury. Personally, I would like to see 6. Fardy 7, McMahon 8. McCalman paired up. I'm not a Hooper Hater, I just think it is a case of horses for courses. We need more size and mongrel to combat the Pom pack. Having those extra jumpers in the back row also opens up the option to use Skelton off the pine as a ball carrier. It's clear that the Wallabies need a few bigger cattle against England to draw defenders in. England were fanning out a lot in defence because there were very few line attacks close to the breakdown.

I just put some hubris on our garden bed....but I'm in London which Ishtar confuse the issue.

What does 'positions on the ball 'mean?

Did try and warn you Aussies about stacking your team with Fijians - Fiji being not even in the top ten in world rugby...not that they don't have some of the greatest attacking players in world rugby... they are awesome individually but struggle as a cohesive unit

I have not read through the 300 odd comments. Especially since three quarter of those comments are filled with snipe from both ausies and english supporters at each other. And yield no productive insights other than their own biasedness. And yes. My spelling sucks. Get over it and grow up. This is an ausies rugby forum with this article focusing on the aus team. Stick to it or shut up. What amazed me about the english team was the abilty to absorb those 1st 15 mins and read the auz team dinamics. Spotting the chinks in the armour and hammering them at those chinks. The breakdown. Aus commited very few players to the breakdown in those 1st 15 mins. And they got away with it for two reasons. 1.Their mentality at the breakdown. They didnt let up and WANTED that BALL. 2.The English didnt really contest the breakdowns. All that changed round 20 mins and the English capitilized on that front. This is just one aspect of many. I would like to know from fellow Roarers: Instead of re-inventing the wheel and chucking chopping and changing the aus squad - What aspects in their game do they need to change and work on that the English and Eddy preyed on? And how has the Aus Team's mentality played a factor in securing a Victory for the English?