WATCH: The powerful scrum that won France the second Test against the Wallabies

Undercurrent interpretations it was a penalty. But I Agree in principal if a scrum is dominated they shouldn’t automatically be penalised. Penalty should be for dangerous play- which would probably include intentional collapsing. In a parallel universe I can imagine this being a penalty to Australia for dangerous play by the French in the same way a dominant tackle above the horizontal is penalised.

Think it may have been in one of NB’s articles, apparently Danty is a former backrower. He’s certainly a massive on ball threat in the middle of the park. Been very impressed by him.

How much "props" do you give the French back that packed down in the last scrum, jeznez? We all love to have a laugh at backs at scrum time (and there are lots of comedy gold), but should we not tip our hats to that French back? Especially considering it was not just any scrum, it was a game-winning scrum (and the opponents had the feed).

Exactly. You don’t get penalised for losing a lineout, or losing. Most scrum penalties are simply this, rather than deliberate infringements. Also example of the stupidity of having kicks at goal for these sorts of offences outside the 22.

Ta. Appreciated.

France are nicely aligned. Darcy has to basically leave Lonergan if Bell is angled out. He's basically in no-man's land angling out on his prop, separated from his partner and doing no good to anyone. Danty is nicely aligned but you can see him slip straight over his prop's backside as he tries to push, he's actually not delivering much power. What I missed on my first watch is how badly aligned Valetini is at that 8s mark before the feed, he hasn't squared to Alaalatoa's line and is not in good position. Hooper was actually the best positioned of our backrow in that scrum, just not powerful enough to make up for all the errors going on through all the rest of it. Would really like to see the side angle as well. Think Bell probably had an opportunity to try and stay lower - very hard with the lack of support he was getting though.

Look at what happened behind Bell. And for his difficult season at the Tahs, again think about what's pushing behind him.

Jez, the still shot before running the vid shows the French tight and aligned and Wallabies loose. How much harder is Swain's job with Bell being 6'4" and Lonergan 5'11"? Hooper's position is how I've always seen him, but doesn't seem to match how other top international flankers bind. Swain's clearly got things to work on but will replacing him make things right or just make it less bad? Also note the Fr. inside centre in scrum and blindside is at lock, and they still have better technique.

Agreed. As I indicated Toomua was off the mark in this game. When he left for the blood bin, Rennie could have asked him to stay on the sideline. But Rennie must have realized he was still crucial to have him still in the field to provide the link from Lolesio to the outside.

For real? Both the side and overhead have their value, they show different things. Overhead shows all the alignment. Massively valuable

Sorry mate, I've watched the video a few times now. Where was To'omua packing in this scrum?

Its true. He did not meet the requirements of the immigration conditions laid out in our immigration legislation. The law is the law… giving special exemptions to be made an Australian citizen would be a mockery of our laws. He holds NZ citizenship. It is different when giving PR status to aliens.

What's this I hear Quade Cooper has been DENIED Australian Citizenship.....Really.....must be fake news surely.

Hi Ken The ailments are among those you had mentioned very correctly. They are intera-related including the below par approach Rugby Australia oversee the franchise, which is one of the reasons for the lack of depth of players relatively on our side of the ditch. There is a gap as wide as the Pacific Ocean the way All Black players play and how they execute their tactical games and the way the Wallabies operate on the field. What was evident is that the Wallabies players carry forward many of their Super Rugby game habits ( and nothing to shout about them if we see our Aussie teams’ overall performance in the Trans Tasman competition.) As they say, it is insanity if you keep doing the same thing again and again and expect a different result. Dave Rennie is deeply familiar with the Kiwi’s approach to the game. As starters, perhaps make each Wallaby player in their free time to pour over and analyse to learn how their counterparts across the ditch play their respective positions. That goes for the Australian coaches too. Nothing embarrassing to learn a thing or two from our opponent who had beaten us comprehensively and had been claiming our underpants in the last two decades. They must have done something right or had found the right formula to be the numero uno by a country mile from all other teams on the planet. They are presently the gold standard. Dave Rennie has his work cut out with Australian players and it may take more than 5 years to chisel them to have some semblance of the level of the AllBlacks. This year’s Bledisloe will be about the score the AllBlacks can pile up. That is an inconvenient truth and pretty hard for me to swallow.

I wish they would get rid of the overhead view of the scrum...you can't see ANYTHING, it's ridiculous. Stop it now please.

Poor young Angus got absolutely obliterated.

Penalty for standing up, I think it was utterly fair.

Agreed Francis but “ whether (Rennie)had properly diagnosed the problems afflicted by Australian players over the years” begs the question - which of the problems? I would bet that the coaching team have triaged the ‘work ons’ and are PAINstakingly working their way down the list. ‘Proper diagnosis’ is one thing but the depth and number of ailments limits the response. Some of the core things neglected for 5 years are only just now being addressed. Developing a playmaking 10 just one case in point. There’s many more moles to whack in this ‘two steps forward one step back’ game. Rennie is going okay IMO.

I agree. Toomua made mistakes at critical moments and those mistakes very much out of character based on his experience at #10 for the Rebels. The French’s defence and their quick attacking line wee rock solid on the night and forced errors on the Wallabies. But I give credit to Toomua at # 12 for trying to dictate play especially when the French defence virtually rushed up to put Lolesio out of play when Wallabies had the ball. Toomua was #10 for Rebels and he played that role instinctively when he realised Lolesio was muted. During the game, both could have changed positions as situation demanded. Toomua has more experience with ball in hand than Lolesio. I could sense Toomua’s frustration as the game progessed when the Wallaby backline could not finished off the job after parking in the French’s 5-10 meter line so many times.

Sorry, but Matt To'omua was tripe. He threw two forward passes, one of which cost Marika a try. He threw several other rubbish balls. His defensive blunder let in the French try. He stone cold dropped it at one point. Not good enough.