Japan vs Wallabies: See how Australia got home in tight battle with Brave Blossoms

Mug, Lethargy seems like an apt description and I was waiting for them to snap out of it but it only came in patches

Yes, a very NRL experience; if you don't turn up you will be beaten. Mind you a three week break, even with home time, might have been an opportunity to refresh conditioning. The lethargy really appeared to be across the team. Would certainly lead to some miracle passing; easy points and tries starts to look attractive if you are tired.

Must have covered the field with it

Mug, I thought the 9/10 axis were both out of sorts yesterday. Maybe SK would have helped when QC shuffled a nothing ball to him 5+ metres behind the gain line but I would hate to rely on that. SK would certainly have been something different for the Blossoms to handle but I think the problems went deeper than that. To borrow an NRL expression sometimes you just need to roll through your sets and get to the kick! Cheers

Mug, he looks robust in contact also, physically looks very strong.

Well my Dad was a halfback. I wish he was alive to see this proof that sometimes I may have listened to him. :shocked:

There should be some major uprising if not. Two super rugby teams to follow would be nice. You know, real ones, not a bunch of expats and drop-ins not required for their elite competition. The big problem is fitting SR in with the local competition, hopefully we can learn from each other there.

Probably the thing that has given me the most pleasure, his performance of the basic skills so consistently. The high ball has always been a lottery for him but he must have gone close to 100% this season, with some of them very difficult catches under pressure. Ditto tackling and a far less risky approach to using the ball we had. Really only the latter to complain about yesterday, and it probably morphed into a team problem as much as an individual failing.

If you were to label that a bad game for Quade, it would still be close to as good a showing as any other 10 since the RWC. The problem for me was that he set the standard, in the last four games, as well as this one. I can't find the comment now that I need to :crying: Someone noted that QC needed a crash baller to create options, and choices for the defence. The 2 Ks missing and after a short while, two new wings. Certainly placed some pressure on him, but would have preferred he played through the numbers a bit, rather than gambling on a special pass.

I play halfback and my observation was he looked to be keeping his arms lower and straighter, which means the ball doesn't fly out and tend upwards. In order to ensure that though, you need to be ripping it to provide the power for it to travel to the receiver over a longer distance - so not ill informed at all Mug!

I don't like to be too controversial :laughing:

This is a seriously ill-informed comment, but he looked to be getting a lot of wrist into his delivery, but that could be my imagination, or just had not noticed. Maybe because I am ill-informed?

I believe we are reacting to much the same thing Bourkos - I have long wondered about how incapable the Harmless Wallabies are at dealing with opponents who do not play as they expected them to play, about their inability to assess and respond to change (loss of an important player, for example). I know it is very last century but on field leadership was a fundamental characteristic of Wallaby teams as was an ability to craft solutions. We have had scrum half after scrum half running the cutter, a mid field stacked with proactive, creative ability - Ella, Slack, Horan, Stephen Larkham (followed by 14 years of nothing!). There have been a couple of World Cup moments which highlighted it - John Eales' well known "I have a plan" and Michael Lynagh's famous "just get the ball to me" - which all the players heard and trusted and obeyed. Even less well known players were able to step up rather than stand back looking puzzled - David Wilson, Matt Cockbain and Marty Roebuck had the confidence and ability and the well founded belief of their team mates. The All Blacks have it in spades - Buck Shelford, Whetton, Fitzpatrick, Todd Blackadder, Tana Umaga, Conrad Smith, Sir Richie and three of the four Whitelock brothers who have led at the highest levels in the game. Failure to teach young blokes about "response" and what constitutes leadership is yet another fault of Australian rugby. We have had several appalling captains after the excellent Farr-Jones and Eales departed two decades ago, after those 20 successful Wallaby years: Elsom (who seemed to prefer isolation in his own little world) and the monosyllabic Mortlock couldn't communicate to save their lives and this current bloke is much the same; Prince George somehow thought standing and staring at the ball and badgering referees was inspirational; Waugh, Sharpe, Horwill - aaarrrggghhh! They had nothing like the exceptional presence and authority of Shehadie, Loane or Thornett.

There is no doubt the other players are responsible. It just looked like they had planned to get more front foot ball and when it didn't happen they were confused with a plan b.

A fair point but at one stage it looked like Japan were ready to be dominated but we appeared to change tactics and the errors crept in and at this level against the top Teams it will lead to failure. Perhaps as you say expecting too much but it was far from the Wallabies best recent performance

I was there too. Great game, Japan had a cracker.

A hooker who can throw a lineout at all is as rare as rocking horse droppings in Australian rugby

Ireland just called, they want to cap him under the long lost grandma rule :silly:

His passing was much better I noted. No loopiness that cost us vs ABs for example, flat bullets to the receiver. Still picks up quite far but it’s something

scrum, 2 forward, 1 back.