It’s a draw! The Wallabies and the Springboks couldn’t be separated at nib Stadium on Saturday, and a result like that always leaves us scratching our heads.
More Wallabies vs Springboks
» Match Report: It’s a draw!
» Five talking points
» What changes should the Wallabies make for Argentina?
The Wallabies weren’t good enough to get the win… but they weren’t bad enough to lose the match, either. Is it a respectable effort, or still a major disappointment?
Without being able to rule the team a success or a failure, we can instead look at the performance of individual players to see who made us proud, and who needs to lift.
And for that reason we’re opening up our DIY Player Ratings to you, Roarers. Have a vote and let us know what you thought of each player’s performance.
If you’ve not done our DIY player ratings before, it’s a simple enough process. Hit up the form below and rate each player from 1 to 10 based on their performance. We’ll keep track of the results and publish our findings tomorrow.
You’re free to rate players as you like with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest – or toss an NA on any player not worth rating – but if you’re looking for a bit more detail than that, our handy little guide might help you make your judgments…
1. Had he not played, the team would have been better off. Negatively affected the performance of the side. May God have mercy on his soul.
2. Anonymous. Was he even there?
3. Did some things that you expect a player to be able to do, but did a whole bunch of other things that sucked.
4. Was passable in patches, but not up to standard in a squad of such depth.
5. Performed his role without anything really noticeable happening.
6. Good.
7. Pretty good, actually.
8. Very good.
9. Excellent.
10. Might as well have been John Eales.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Rob Simmons didn't concede a single penalty...
ThugbyFan
Guest
G'day Toulouse, Luv your paintings but did HTL ever smile? As for Willy Genia, you nailed it. He was harassed by the SB backrowers and locks all night long and had to rush it. Accepting that M.Hooper is a gun even if he doesn't fulfil all the duties of an openside, then where was the #6 and #8 to protect the rucks and W.Genia? Oh that right, they were roadkill as the SB forwards burst through. In his quest for a speedy back row, M.Cheika has got this one wrong. It's like putting a boxer who can dance fast but has no punch and a glass jaw against Mohamed Ali or Mike Tyson. He may look pretty in the ring but sooner or later he's on the deck counting stars.
Toulouse Lautrec
Roar Rookie
Pretty much perfect assessment. It was a difficult night for Genia, there was no protection around the ruck. Bernard should have shown a bit more leadership but has definitely had to take a back seat in playmaking due to Beale.
ThugbyFan
Guest
1. Scott Sio 5 held up scrums, tackled well, hit rucks hard. 2. Tatafu Polota-Nau 5 Held his own against a solid scrum, tackled like a beast and got a meat pie. Whoot! 3. Sekope Kepu 5 Some forceful runs and big tackles. His worth was really shown as when he went off, the WB scrum was rubbish. 4. Rory Arnold 4 Seemed a bit slow but did his job. 5. Adam Coleman 6 Ran and defended for the whole 80 minutes. A lot of SB are going to wake up very sore tomorrow thanks to Big AC 6. Ned Hanigan 3 A little lost boy playing a man's game. Thank heavens he is a decent line-out merchant as the rest of his game is Shute shield level. Ineffectual in scrums and rucks, gets pushed off too many tackles and does nothing running the ball. How the hell does he get selected? 7. Michael Hooper 7 A great game, tackled well, saved tries, stole ball from rucks, was everywhere. 8. Sean McMahon 4 Even before he got injured he was getting bossed by the Saffer back row. Tried hard is all I can say. If only we could clone his heart and guts into a 6'5" monster. 9. Will Genia 5 and that's generous. His passing was below par, but defended well 10. Bernard Foley 5 as per W.Genia. The rush defence bothered him all night. Defence was fine. 100% Goal kicks. 11. Reece Hodge 6 His running lines were really good. Took over many line kicks off penalties giving the WB an extra 15-20 metres over same kicks from B.Foley. About Bl00dy time! 12. Kurtley Beale 7 Great in attack, scored a fine try. If Beale and M.Hooper weren't on the park, the SB would have won really easily. 13. Tevita Kuridrani 5 Ran hard at the SB all night and was a handful. Surprisingly missed a lot of tackles but often backtracked and caught his man. 14. Henry Speight 4 Tried hard but the game just didn't happen for him. 15. Israel Folau 5 Ran strongly at the defence, tackled ok, a rock under the high ball and a menace at kick starts. Reserves. As these players were only on for part of the game, I give marks out of 5 to make them more relative to the above scores: 16. Jordan Uelese 3 For a bloke on debut he looked really good. Huge running the ball, tackled well but his lineout throwing needs to be more accurate. Very impressed, this bloke can play and needs more game time. 17. Tom Robertson 1 Little tubby Tommy just doesn't cut the mustard as an international prop. Runs ok, tackles fine, so-so ruck work but a bit soft and his scrumwork is a disaster. 18. Allan Alaalatoa 3 Really good defence and mostly held his side of the scrum. 19. Rob Simmons 2 Lineout work was ok (his specialty) as were tackles. Gave away stupid critical penalties at the wrong time of the game. 20. Jack Dempsey 2 He trotted around the place, had fun showing the Saffer boys some grunt in tackles and rucks but seemed to pick his moments rather than go flat out for the 20 odd minutes he was on. Needs to put in more effort. 21. Nick Phipps 2 Ran around, put in a couple of tackles but ruined his game with a couple of typical N.Phipps rushed shocker passes. 22. Samu Kerevi 3 As soon as he came on, the SB defence looked shaky. The running of this bloke is fearsome. Against that he did let their centres run past him in a late attack, really needs to fix his defence alignments. 23. Curtis Rona 2 Like H.Speight the open runs just did not happen but I can't knock him. Tackled well, ran hard and fast at the defence and was a menace with few chances.