My takeaway is that it should be a great contest to watch.
Bookies will favor NZ but the Irish are still a genuine chance.

Thought experiment:
If Ireland win, what does that do for the final predictions?
England SA Final?
Unless of course Japan beat the Boks in the quarters – an unlikely outcome but not outside the realm of possibility.

I think we need to take a moment to give Georgia some credit.
Their forward pack and defense is formidable. Sprinkle a few more players with attacking flair and they will be hard to beat. Watch out for them over the next few years.

Australia…..
If you can’t say anything nice….
Defensive pattern is a sieve for any team prepared to counter ruck.
Skills, Skills, Skills. Learn to catch and pass the balls used in this world cup.
Learn to tackle.

Hoops won the same medal a bunch of times, and I see the same unbalanced performances from him too.
Brilliant in some areas, deficient in others.
When you speak to players off the record, neither player gets a glowing reference, Sure great at what they do, but they are sick and tired of cleaning up after what they don’t.
Makes you wonder if there is administrative pressure on how to vote.

No win for Georgia but I saw more of the same sieve defense.

With the exception of ball security, all valid points. But at no point have you mentioned defense.
After watching japan last night making almost all of their critical try stopping tackles to secure a win, I couldn’y imaging Folau either being in the correct position to make the tackle, nor executing them.
There is so much more to the game than making the highlights reel. I will take DHP or Banks any day if it means the opposition aren’t peppering an empty backfield and scoring without a hand put on them.

Peek behind the curtain, These awards have been devalued, Player of the match is determined by the sponsor and always given to one of their high profile ambassadors.

I will take a win over a loss any day of the week.

Toulouse,
I think the point was that Beale’s Kicking game is superior.
His defense is a different conversation but the same problem as Folau – the search for a complete player continues.
Many start the question: Who in the squad……
But it is the Wrong question – Which In-Form player is the best for the position.
Tom Banks is my pick.
DHP from the available squad. I suspect that he is being rested for the quarters, so I am happy to see Beale doing some tours of duty.

Wallabies 2015-2019

This may be true, but that doesn’t mean that players aren’t available.
The current squad may be second class.
But put away your straw man, that makes Folau’s game third class.

You are right about Beale and Quade as well, it just made the problem bigger, but since everything is in motion anyway, scalable.

The Chiefs did a bit of this with Cruden and now Mackenzie at 10. But there is a difference. Both Cruden and D-Mac have great Rugby brains and perform a valuable service at 15, they were not hiding. Jono Lance and Hegharty function similarly for the Reds.

If Folau wasn’t wearing his Wallaby Jersey in his social media profile pic and his inflated follower numbers wasn’t because of his association with Australian rugby, I doubt if anyone would have noticed, let alone cared about what he said. I doubt the internet trolls would have bothered taking the time to provoke him.
But he was speaking from a platform built on his fame as a sportsman representing his country, what he said mattered.

I want the best available, in form player in each position.
I believe that Rugby is a game requiring a balance of well rounded skills in both attack and defense.
I respect Folau’s specialized skills but he was never that guy and should never have worn the wallaby 15 jersey, no matter how much his wife advocated for it.
14, maybe, but if you run through each of the positions, you find someone better or the speed that is lacking.
13 – TK, Samu K, Rona, 14 Luke Moz, Sefa N., 14/15 Hodge, Maddocks, DHP, Banks

Look at the costs and the players that went overseas, frustrated with automatic first picked, part time performers.

Have an off the record chat with some of the players and get their opinions, they are polar opposites of the love fest that he gets here. Good to get that Dan Carter tidbit from Drew.

But Hey, it’s your article, I have been tilting at this windmill for years.

All that is left to solve why the Australian front line feels like 6 months in a leaky boat. Few of the guys tasked to defend it are actually showing up. White and CLLF are often left holding the bag hanging on for grim death trying to prevent a turnover without a forward even in the same postcode. Doesn’t seem matter who is on the field, the outcome is the same.
After the Georgian forwards destroy us tonight, I expect 5,000 words on the subject turned in by COB Monday . 😛 🏉 …….

The reality is that he wore the 15 Jersey, but that was where the similarities to a fullback ended.
He was tasked to the 13/14/15 duties that he was able to do, with the 11,13 and 14 picking up the slack. Hoops helping out defending the in the 12 channel.
The gaping hole left in the backfield was left for the opposition to run through and score multiple tries.

Worst Win/Loss on record.
Please, go on.

Quade is the same sort of player as Folau.
Brilliant in a narrow set of skills, average to woeful in others.
Listen to the Posdcast with Anthony F’a’i’e’n’g’a he describes Quade as playing a quarterback role, expecting the rest of the team to do the rest of the work.
Anthony alludes to Quade’s “reduced” defense as a contributor to his career ending CTE as he had to do double the work in the 10/12 channel.

Like it or not, the great teams start with a solid defense, attacking when they can, rather than starting with an attack, defending because they have to.

I agree,
Marika is improving but is not quite there yet.
His development should be done in Rebels colors, not in the Green and Gold.
A fit Super Sefa has it all. Speed, Tackle, positional awareness, Kick and can play 13 if needed.
Scored 2 Tries n the same game that Folau did, mad 4 times the tackles played 55 minutes and barely got a mention.

How long before Dougunu is eligible????

Dave,
He may have been the highest try scorer, but when you are the only try scorer in the losing team, it makes you stop and think……
Problem with the player, the plan, or both.

Look at the great sides – their tries are scattered across positions.
If the defensive team doesn’t know where the threats are coming from, they need to defend the whole front and back line.

When the game plan is “Give it to Izzy” it makes it so much easier.

Nic got this right, read the bit about Drew Mitchell, the burden on other players is immense, Chieka had a revolving door trying to find players that were able to handle the extra workload and back fill the deficiencies, Niavalu, Hodge, Swoop, DHP, Mitchell, Horne, Rona, when all he had to do was to address the root cause and remove the tumor. Pick a wing on the wing, a fullback at fullback and a wing on the wing.

Folau was never Australia’s best player.
He was the best under the highball and best in an open midfield.
That is about 10% of the requirements of a role of a fullback.
Top at 10% of his duties, bottom 50% for the rest of it.

You may as well put Usain Bolt on the wing because he can run fast.
It wouldn’t matter if he can’t pass. tackle or go into contact, as long as he ticks the box for the sponsors o the highlights reel.

Glad he is gone, there are much better players for those positions.
Now, if only we could get rid of the guy that put him there…….After all, Folau didn’t select himself.

Kdog,
I said pretty much the same thing to the guys I was with.

In the “Good-ole days” players were less likely to infringe for fear of “rough justice”
Roll away or get smashed.

There is a famous bit of footage where Ritchie was sitting on his backside hands in the side of a ruck where the ref couldn’t see. A Bok player came flying over the the top forearm first hitting him in the face.
Cost him a red card, but the initial infringement was a McCaw special.

I think that the short answer is that players need to be more like half backs.
Instead of diving in, they need to be whiny little b’s like AB halfbacks waiving their arms like spider monkey’s, pointing at a player infringing.

Forwards don’t tend to have the luxury of standing around, hoping the Ref blows the whistle. Their job is to clear the ruck so his half can get the ball to the next phase quickly. Their coach would have told them to “get in there”, not wait for a whistle.

Sounds like we are talking 2 completely different incidents here.

I have no Idea, this is a Pandora’s box full of angry bees being chased by a hungry bear.
Perhaps all players need to be fitted with bright orange handles and a SWL weight so that the tackler can decide if the player is too heavy to attempt a tackle on….

My opinion will be controversial,

Apart from the tempo of the games being slowed to a crawl, I have been reasonably happy with the decisions.
Flip the conversation and if Garces had ruled some of those forward passes were OK or the touchie (Poite?) had made the wrong call in or out, we would have been baying for their blood instead.

Owens’s’s Fijian pancake flip was adjudicated according to the laws, Landed on his back……
The commentators should probably shut their mouths and set a good example to accept the referee’s decision. When the kids play on the weekend, they think it is OK to badmouth the Ref.
I think it is up to the judiciary to decide if further sanctions are required for the nature of the tackle, hold your poison arrows until we find out if that is taken further.
Hodge got 3 games for an incident that was a penalty only from memory.

I have to give them credit, instead of blowing the pea out of the whistle and stopping the game immediately, they are letting the game go on and then “Back Checking” to see if anything was missed.

I suspect that there are a number of nervous kiwi’s and Poms out there,
The yellow card for no arms in the ruck cleanout will mean that a number of forwards will need to tweak their technique. The “Flat” passes may become a little more backward in future too.

My original post was to seed a discussion, I didn’t say he he was at fault, I said that there was scope for conversation about it. I still contend that if it was 2 seconds later, Farrel would have been penalized.

I quoted the laws to refute your understanding of them and to support my assertion that play, for all intents and purposes was over the moment Farrel regained possession of the ball.

If the opposition doesn’t have the ball, there is no clear advantage. The direct quote I supplied uses specific clarifying language ruling out the scenario that you have provided.

If Dempsey earns a spot in the side, he would displace one of the 7’s, not Pocock specifically.

With a different coach, it wouldn’t Be Poey that would be feeling nervous.

On a side note, I have noticed that the Wallaby Rucks have gone largely undefended with 9’s and 10′ mucking in at the last minute trying to avert disaster.

Doesn’t seem to matter which forwards are on the field, so my usual “Hoops Tirade” is not Valid here. My vitriol is aimed at Chieka.
My observation has been that most of the finals contenders have been slowing down rucks by committing large numbers of Lazy forwards to the Breakdown, turning over ball where not defended. The Wallabies doing very little to combating this, instead stacking the wings with seagulls.

Assuming that we don’t get a flying Fijian Miracle against Wales, we are going to face England’s Maro Itogo sticking his tentacles through the ruck, taking treasure wherever he pleases. Add Farrell’s boot and the Wallabies are going to be under pressure in their own half for most of the game. Ball security and Lineout Wins are going to be key to success.
This is going to take enforcers: Dempsey, Isi, Lukan, Coleman to make it happen and the front Rowers to get it done in the dark places. There is no place for part time forwards. Opensides will need to focus their efforts on moving bodies, not snaking balls, there will be 4 white shirts failing to roll away from every ruck.

RO,
Not sure if you are being facetious or not.
I had similar thoughts but recognized the difficulties of implementation.
I am more of the opinion that if you lower your head height as you go into contact, and it makes contact, it is a free pass to the tackler in case of head contact.
There would be some common sense that if the tackle starts high, there is no way out.

I was informed recently that they aren’t allowed to describe scrum caps as providing head protection.
The Logic is that the head is like a goldfish in a bowl.
You can cover it with bubble wrap but bash into it, the goldfish is still going to get shaken up.