Dunning and his MOM performance

[gotheforce]

I thought Dunning had an awesome game as well. The wallabies held the boks in the scrums and did fairly well in the line-outs (good job Sharpie and Vicks). It looks like the Australian front row are, dare i say, starting to look good for the RWC. But i say, bring back Jeremy Paul or maybe even Tai McIsaac. Moore had an average game and Freier was just the same.

Bring back Shepherd though. Huxley made some critical mistakes and his kicking under pressure wasn't consistant. He doesn't give the same running game and tackling as Latham or Sheps.

I also thought Tuquiri was very average. He got his hands on the ball a couple of times, but failed to make anything out of it. He still seems slow compared to the other wingers. And I reckon Stanniforth should have been given a spot rather than Ashley-Cooper.

But it was a promising match for the Wallabies. I look forward to the next meeting.

And the All Blacks thumped Canada! Anyone watched it? Daniel Carter had a killer of a game. And just 2 days ago, someone wrote a column saying Dan Carter has lost his form and Nick Evans and Stephen Donald should be given the No.10 spot. Carter really made the journalist eat his words in the match.

[Jess]

Carter did have a blinder...

But I think the highlight of the game was that at half time the points difference between the 2 teams was only 9!

Way to go Canada!

[Burgs]

Dunning finally comes of age

By Wayne Smith
June 18, 2007

SOMEHOW John Connolly just could not stop himself from naming names.

The Wallabies coach arrived at the post-match press conference at Newlands Stadium determined not to single out any of his players, so proud was he of the performance of his entire team. But try as he might, he just couldn't rein himself in.

"I thought Matt Dunning came of age today, very strongly," Connolly said. "And I'm very happy with Guy Shepherdson. In saying that, I mentioned two names but I could probably name the lot of the forwards for their effort. I didn't really want to single those guys out but I did."

He sure did, to widespread delight. And he needed to, because if any two players warranted special mention, it was the two often-derided Australian props. Dismissed, along with hooker Stephen Moore, as being no better than "an average Currie Cup front row" in the build-up to this Test, they scrummaged the Springboks to a standstill.

Dunning, 28, was so exhausted, it was all he could do to get the corners of his mouth to turn up just enough to produce the requisite grin when told of Connolly's "coming of age" comment.

"Takes some blokes longer than others," he quipped.

Dunning now has 29 caps to his credit, five more than most critics suggested he would ever win after he was monstered by England in the scrums at Twickenham in 2005. But Dunning turned what could have been the worst experience of his career into the best learning experience and has re-emerged, older and wiser.

It's doubtful he learned too much at Newlands. Or if he did, he immediately forgot it. "All I remember is tackle, tackle, tackle," he said. "I haven't felt more tired after 80 minutes of football in my life."

Connolly afterwards expressed the view that the Australian scrum, ridiculed as it has been, could yet become the best in the game. (Easy Knuckles...)

Just how much Moore contributed to the Australian effort became evident when he was forced off just on the hour with a sternum injury that should not keep him out of the Bledisloe Cup match with the All Blacks in Melbourne on June 30.

Until his departure, the Australians shared the honours with the peerless Springboks lineout. With the introduction of Adam Freier, however, the Wallabies immediately conceded three crucial set-piece turnovers just when they most needed the ball.

Freier will wear the blame for his errant throwing but Nathan Sharpe could hardly have made it more difficult for him, calling for long throws to the hotly contested tail of the lineout before his hooker even had the chance to settle into the game and find his range. (Ahh, small point. Didn't Moore have to start the match with a successful throw to the very back???)

[The EnForcer]

As I said before in another thread, Dunning was one of the standouts for me. I hope he continues to impress and as for that comment on Freir being hard done by Sharpie's long throw decisions, FFS this is professional rugby and that is not an excuse!

As I said before in another thread, Dunning was one of the standouts for me. I hope he continues to impress and as for that comment on Freir being hard done by by Sharpie's long throw decisions, FFS this is professional rugby and that is not an excuse!

[Burgs]

Hayman's next on my list - Dunning

Rupert Guinness
Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Wallaby Matt Dunning barely had his feet back on Australian soil yesterday before declaring he is desperate to take on the world's top-rated prop, All Blacks tight-head Carl Hayman, in the first Bledisloe Cup clash in Melbourne on Saturday week.

After producing his finest Test performance in the Wallabies' 22-19 Tri Nations loss to the Springboks at Cape Town on Saturday, Dunning immediately turned his attention to Hayman. Dunning recognised he "played well" against South Africa in a Wallabies front row that had been dismissed beforehand as "an average Currie Cup front row".

But the once-maligned loose-head was yesterday quick to state that he has much more to offer and would relish the opportunity of taking on Hayman.

"I am just watching tapes now of Carl Hayman because if I get picked for the game in Melbourne he will be the next challenge," Dunning said. "He is world-class. He is the best. So we will be able to see how good [I am] after that, I guess."

Dunning agreed the challenge stands as the possible hallmark of his 29-cap Test career, especially as he has never started in a Test against Hayman.

"I haven't played a lot against him. I have been on the bench mainly when I've played the All Blacks. But I'm under no illusion as to how good he is," he said. "I just have to work really hard in the next two weeks, just the little technical things of my own that I can work on and hopefully do well against him."

Dunning agreed that his 80-minute performance against the Springboks was his best in the Wallabies strip.

"I think it would have been," he said. "It was the first 80 minutes I have played at first-class level … maybe since 2005. The last 20 was pretty tiring though."

And while he said there was "still much I can improve on", he was quick to credit the Wallabies coaching staff for their role in his development.

"I still have a lot of improvement to do and sometimes that is harder when you are older because you have more bad habits to break," Dunning said.

"It's mental, too. This year I have had a different outlook on football generally. And I think it is working."

But Dunning admitted the barbs directed at him, Wallabies tight-head Al Baxter and hooker Stephen Moore had helped.

"I read one paper in South Africa that said the Australian side is world-class, but the front row is an average Currie Cup [South Africa's provincial competition] front row," Dunning said. "So yeah … I took a bit of motivation from that. I wasn't angry or bitter. But it helped to motivate."

Meanwhile, Wallabies attack coach Scott Johnson said Julian Huxley deserved another crack at the fullback slot - as is likely until Chris Latham returns.

Asked about Latham, who is due to resume training with the Reds this week after recovering from a knee reconstruction he had before the Super 14, Johnson said: "I call him a banker. I just put him on the back cage and say I can bank on him later when I need him.

"I don't need to worry about him. He is well banked. He is getting good interest. But Julian has done really well in the first three Tests. The reality is that he is a late developer. He is old for age but not old for experience.

"What you have to do now is give him a bit of confidence and continuity in position. We are trying to develop a Test footy player and I think he has done well and should be rewarded."

However, Johnson also said the South Africa Test showed the Wallabies' kicking game needed work. "It put us under enormous pressure to work ourselves out of," he said. "It's [about] getting balance to make sure our kicking is an attacking option rather than just a negative option."


Matt's big Test yet to come

By Jon Geddes
June 19, 2007

AUSTRALIA prop Matt Dunning is primed for his ultimate challenge against "the million dollar man" in Saturday week's Bledisloe Cup showdown against New Zealand in Melbourne.

After his most impressive Wallabies performance against the monstrous South Africa pack, Dunning knows his head-to-head confrontation with New Zealand's Carl Hayman is shaping up as a career benchmark.

"He is world class, he is the best, so we will be able to see how good I am after that l guess," Dunning said yesterday after flying in to Sydney with the Wallabies.

Dunning has started watching tapes of the player he calls the "million dollar man" after the huge deal he got to join English club Newcastle after the World Cup.

A bonus is that he did a good job against Hayman when New South Wales played the Highlanders. "I did take a little bit of confidence from that game, but that is Super 14 - the All Blacks are the best scrum in world rugby at the moment," he said.