The diamonds have always been there with Wright, it’s just the brain fades that have held him back. Has all the skills, hopefully he matures a bit like Quade Cooper did.

I think Andy is versatile and punches well for his weight but I think he and Toole are compete if for the same wing spot and they need that wing that can bend the line in the middle of the field on the other wing. On early form and pure game breaking speed it’s hard to choose Andy. Wright just does my head in, one of these days you feel he should click but it just won’t seem to come. So much talent, but a lot of brain fades. I actually think if he had a better rugby brain he would be better suited to 10 than 15.

I think the Brumbies lack of front foot ball potentially lies somewhat outside the pack. In the modern game it’s unusual to not have a centre or wing who has that line bending ability. I really like Toole and Muirhead but I don’t think the dual small wingers works. Need that built tough centre or wing who can break contact and bruise defenders off line outs and inside balls. Ollie Sapsford is a solid player but once again, he does not really penetrate the line.

Len Ikatau is class but in 2 games has been very quiet in attack, lack of front foot ball perhaps. He is not a true crash ball 13 like Mortlock either.. Most times brumbies went wide was through cutout pass’s to the back three to beat the rush defence.

The pack looked badly beaten but in the modern game most teams carry a forward who disguises themselves as a back!

Brumbies were never in it, the chiefs pace just had them beaten. Not enough disruption to slow it down. In the first 20 minutes the brumbies copped some really bad calls, chiefs converted on the opportunities and it let them set a front running pace. I hate being that guy but there were some terrible and inconsistent calls.

The caterpillar box kick penalty I was fine with even though the first use it call was made when the ball had barely been placed. But the 5 seconds blew out to 8 when chiefs were warned.

Brums were never going to win that with that performance but it seemed rough. Tom hooper for mine needs to be sent to club rugby until he gets some abrasiveness about him. Big frame but seems soft, bumped by dmac in the first half. Bobby V can not be the only go forward man, frost is great but he is not a line bender.

As for wallaby 10 chat and speculation after 2 rounds who knows, plenty of people already know our best 10 from 2 rounds though 😂

It’s funny, 20 years ago I would back a NZ team over the tahs and possibly even the reds, the hate was deep! It’s amazing how such a downturn in the wallabies game bonds us together 😂

If you mean best in Aus I’d argue the brumbies have had the most consistent backrow in the last 3 years. Pistol Pete, Rob and brown, Reimer and a few others. With the way Cale played on Friday, they potentially still have the best backrow. I don’t think either reds or brumbies have the best back row in super though.

#1 I was optimistic when Eddie was appointed, he was never going to be a silver bullet. However in the past he had done well by the brumbies and came up ever so short in 2003 for the wallabies.

#2 I can forgive leaving Quade and hooper out. I cannot forgive leaving Len Ikatau out despite being fit late and Pete Samu who is the most versatile impactful backrow forward in the worlds out.

Club rugby being true grass roots or Shute shield? My home towns club was founded in 1878. Last year I believe was the first time that they did not field a team. They did come back with a single team this year.

Meanwhile the town of 7000 odd people now has a thriving league, soccer and AFL club. The latter 2 only having a senior men’s team for the first time post 2000.

Now tell me that grass roots are not dying?

It’s not just kiwis coaches, Chieka copped the same, we do not discriminate! Last 3 years kiwis have been blaming Foster too, it’s the nature of the game, if the results don’t come the coach cops it. I will give you that there are a very small % of the public who demand the national coach must be Australian.

I actually don’t think Rennie would be, the man has too much honour and dignity. I think he would be saddened.

For once the roar crowd is in agreement with SBW’s commentary 😂

Slipper has more caps than the rest of the pack combined….

I remember an interview on canberra radio with (I think) nick white back when the brumbies toppled the Lions when they toured. I believe Fardy was captain that day and white commented that he knew they would win with the speech Fardy gave before they ran back out at halftime. This was a brumbies team that was probably missing 10 or so wallabies players and Fardy lead them to victory over the Lions.
Edit: Peter Kimlin was captain but it was definitely a Fardy speech that was spoken of.

Super rugby should see if they can get a 2 for 1 at the engravers and etch them onto the trophy for 2024 as well. 😛

By the same token every 10 has more opportunities to create try assists. Still comparing apples to oranges though. Tom overall had a good season, it just dropped off at the wrong time.

He does somewhat remind me of young Quade who copped similar criticism from Aus public. Now a lot of that crowd seem to think he is our only hope at 10. I just hope he can mature like Quade has.

I thought the same, very out of character.

That was in the 77th minute, most likely in a test he would play 60-70 minutes then pistol Pete the super sun would enter. Or perhaps a more mobile traditional 7.

Interesting data on turnovers, but to dive deeper I wonder if the day is skewed. On average in a test there may be more turnovers in the last 1/4 than any other 1/4 on average? Turnovers from backs I’d consider an outlier in data and not a reflection of the back row. One of the foketi turnovers was only made possible because of a Samu chase effort to prevent a pass and most likely a try.

Turnovers aside, I wonder how Carrie’s past the advantage line and even post contact meters faired with forward Carrie’s when compared to having hooper/McReight at 7.

What really amazes me about Samu is he looks out on his feet after 20 minutes yet time and time again still makes big plays in the last 10 minutes.

We have enough lock depth to leave swain out I feel. Foley played better than Noah has recently but I’d argue that it was behind a bulkier forward pack going forward more often than what Noah has had to work off.

Samu must stay at 7. He and valentini complement each other well. Just need to get valentini a fellow bash bro at 6. As for Tom Wright, did he actually have a major brain fade this game? I feel they are becoming far less common.

Stopping the clock this often could mean a game goes on for 3 hours. We already have supposed shot clocks for conversion and penalty attempts. TMO or time keeper should be in the refs ear when time lapses. Blow the whistle and other team gets a free kick. Line outs and scrums should have a shot clock (30 seconds?) Once one of the 2 teams has 8 members present. Means the other team has to keep up with the pace that is set. Same goes for the current dilemma. 30 seconds to kick for touch, if you are slow free kick. The problem on Thursday night is that it is at the ref’s discrediting of what is ‘too slow’ if foley took 39 seconds to kick in the 5th minute it would not be blown up. But because 39 seconds is such a large chunk of 90 remaining seconds it does. Make it black and white, 30 seconds or turn it over.

Now it’s all good and well to have a list of time limits but they actually need to be enforced, not like the current places kick timers. This should come down to a behind the scenes official as the 3 on the field have enough to deal with.

Foley gave good direction, defence is still suspect and just kick the ball out! I do wonder if having a more dynamic back row gave him better front foot ball than the likes of Noah has seen?

Pete Samu may just be key to our world cup. He has been world class for so long but stuck on the pine, I hope this is his turning point. He is an all round player with power, skill and accuracy at the breakdown. The fact he was still able to be a major part in the dying stages shows he can truly play open side with the best. For me it’s hooper or mrcreight off the bench and either shift Samu to 6 or give him a rest with 20 to go. Just need a second bash bro at 6 to take some load off Valentini.

Foketi and Ikatau are the next best combo if Kerevi is out. I feel like they seem to gel better than Hunter and Ikatau. Foketi in particular had a massive game.

For me Darcy Swain is not worth the risk, his game and skill set is decent but he cannot keep his head together. I’d like to think he did not intentionally try and injure but boy that looked ugly and unnecessary. Given the depth of current second row stocks I don’t think I would risk taking him forward unless he has a very clean super rugby season in 23.

Slipper is a war horse. To play 30 minutes that well with a dodgy calf is outstanding. I like his calmness as skipper too. I hope he is fit come the WC.

Jake Gordon had an okay game, stopped a certain try, his box kicking was more accurate than recent games. but the wallabies game speed seemed to ramp up once White came on, everything seemed more crisp. Everyone criticises Nic for box kicking too much but I think tonight confirmed it’s more a Rennie game plan. Hardly a box kick once he came on.

It’s a shame we are all talking about this. I probably have unconscious bias but I was curious and went back over every conversion and penalty kick. RM was over the 60 second time for penalty and 90 second time for a conversion every kick. Foley was slow on some and just under on others. This is the simplest time a ref can time manage yet he failed to all game. To wait until the last 90 seconds to cut down on time wasting is absurd. He could have just called the time off and started the clock once the ball was out.

On the other foot, what was foley thinking? Once he blew time off you put that ball out. By the time everyone jogged to the line out took the line out then maybe 1 more ruck and ball out for the win. It’s a shame because he was pretty solid steering the team around, missed some tackles but decent game.

Milking is here to stay, it happens every game. When players and coaches are paid so much and are expected to win and pressured so heavily by fans they will find ways to make sure they have an edge. Nic white got hit in the head, it’s against rugby laws and he was entitled to the referee seeing the incident and dealing with it.
In the England series a player reacted to being harassed and ended up with a red card, which probably would have gone unnoticed itself if Hill had not pointed it out to the touch judge. If Darcy Swain had of done the same as Nic when he was struck in the head, hill goes off for a yellow, possibly red instead of warming the line himself.

Milking does not stop at dangerous contact either. Seems like every second ruck has an attacking player on the bottom of the ruck preventing the tackler from rolling away.

No it’s not ‘manly’ to do and I don’t encourage it but I do see why Nic took a knee.

I agree Campbell deserves a shot. Do I think he will better than JP, Kellaway or Wright? Not really, but happy to be proven wrong.

I think if JP and Wright are to be test fullbacks they need to make better decisions and need a full season at super there to settle in.

Kellaway for me is ready now. Less excitement than the other two but has a calmness about him and makes safe correct decisions. For me that is a massive plus.

In regards to the high ball the advantage is usually with the kicking team, players are coming forward with momentum into the jump (for some reason Australia has been poor when chasing or perhaps other teams are blocking better) I think the biggest failure on the weekend was poor legal blocking.

To the people who are saying ‘it’s a specialist’ roll, that is less and less the case these days. Wings have to be able to play fullback to a certain degree as they spend half their time filling in whilst fullback chases kicks or is out of play, in reality MK is a freak but he does not display the full back traits so the other wing needs that skill set.