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Oh, bravo...........![]()
"Bloody oath we did!"
Nathan Sharpe, Legend.
The game starts in about an hour. Is anyone going to be in chat while it's on?
Sorry mate, I'm about to do a little drive out to el Grippage's house to watch so will be back tomorrow to discuss.
Fingers crossed that Wednesday's wake up call and Larry's birthday mojo will be enough to see a Wallaby victory.
"Bloody oath we did!"
Nathan Sharpe, Legend.
Well here's a decent omen if ever there was such a thing, just pulled the Bear from the stash as I head out and who should be featured on the bottle?
"Nobody" himself!!!!
Having festered nicely since 2003 it is sure to help me comiserate or celebrate in fine style and with Big John on our side I am feeling a little more confident of a celebration![]()
"Bloody oath we did!"
Nathan Sharpe, Legend.
For those that can't stay up in Perth: Channel 10 Replay on at 12:30pm Sunday 5th November
ONYA 10Letters of appreciation could be good?
Dear Lord, if you give us back Johnny Cash, we'll give you Justin Bieber.
how good is it to see the wallabies call for a scrum!!!
c'mon boys regroup and get another
HALFTIME: good come back by wales... sloppy by us!
Last edited by Happy; 04-11-06 at 23:18.
Chuck Norris has the greatest Poker-Face of all time. He won the 1983 World Series of Poker, despite holding only a Joker, a Get out of Jail Free Monopoly card, a 2 of clubs, 7 of spades and a green #4 card from the game Uno.
No letters of thanks to Channel 10 for me......30mins of guff instead of showing the game LIVE!!!!
CHEERLEADERS ROCK!!!
shit a draw!!! shoutld have put some coin on that!!
Chuck Norris has the greatest Poker-Face of all time. He won the 1983 World Series of Poker, despite holding only a Joker, a Get out of Jail Free Monopoly card, a 2 of clubs, 7 of spades and a green #4 card from the game Uno.
Can somebody please take Baxter and Hoiles outside and shoot them!
Great match! Latham....what a player!! Rogers was invisible at 10 and don't think the starting 10, 12, 13 set up worked at all. Well done to all theboys for helping Australia scrape to a draw.
CHEERLEADERS ROCK!!!
URGH........
Well, at least it wasn't a loss
1 Al Baxter, you aren't a Tighthead, you aren't a Loosehead either. Go hide under a rock, you are not and never have been a worthy Test Prop. Oh, if only Benny Darwin didn't bugger his neck.....
2 Tai McIsaac, not too bad a 39 minutes. Hopefully not injured too badly.
3 Rodney Blake, I'm happy enough, he is a project and needs to be persisted with. I have a good feeling about him long term.
4 Nathan Sharpe, first Test in a long time that I personally have been impressed to see more than a plodder display. Minimised mistakes and ran some great support, welcome back Sharpey.
5 Dan Vickerman, great as (almost) always.
6 Rocky Elsom, fantastic to see a "controlled aggression" match from Rocky for a change. If he can continue that facet of his play then I am a supporter.
7 Phil Waugh (c), must join a very select group of Captains to debut with a draw! Still believe he needs to be working in tandem with Smith, playing out the first fifty as a battering ram before injecting Smith's superior lose game against tired legs.
8 Wycliff Palu, generally good, a couple of fifty fifty decisions perhaps he'd like to revisit but had good drive and defence.
9 Matt Giteau, well, I'm almost a convert. Had some brilliant moments and must have been very close to being man of the match. Generally plays out matches so a genuine Coaches dream to have this extra string to his bow. Needs another run there to really show his potential. Fourteen points is hard to fault.
10 Mat Rogers, Knuckles, it's over! Be grateful you have a magnificent bench player who can cover six positions if required, but please please stop toying with our Test record by trying to make him into a starting #10!
11 Cameron Shepherd, impressive match having gained selection on the back of the mid week match. Would be amongst Australia's best four and should be delighted in scoring a double.
12 Stephen Larkham, made the best of a no win situation. He is most unlikely to ever play there long term (especially with the danger to his shoulder in defence). Some superb passes which highlighted how "plain" Rogers' efforts where in comparison. Deserves to be #10 and injury permitting I'm confident he'll be back there sooner than latter.
13 Lote Tuqiri, some great some average. Has no reliability in his boot and more often than not dies with the ball. Some great tackles.
14 Clyde Rathbone, 70 minutes worth of "Who?" but amongst it 10 minutes of good running and strong support play. Should be a little nervous for his spot next week with Mortlock coming back to push Tuqiri out one, Shep on a roll and Gerrard chomping at the bit.
15 Chris Latham, as always. Man of Match and rightly so.
16 Brendan Cannon, great to have you back old fella but I don't like your chances of making France without a deep injury list.
17 Benn Robinson, as far as I know he didn't play. Should have subbed for Baxter around the two minute mark.
18 Mark Chisholm, he is a great Lock who happens to have two better ones in front of him. Should be seeing decent match time before the end of the tour.
19 Stephen Hoiles, not quite as "passionate" about Hoiles as TLH however I can't see him being there next week. Surely Lyons will be looking for a bench selection soon?
20 Josh Valentine, certainly staked a claim for further selection. Had a pretty tough act to follow but had some strong passes and good leadership.
21 Mark Gerrard, I don't think he made the field did he?
22 Adam Ashley-Cooper, ditto?
Generally, when the Australians were able to off-load in the tackle they had awesome field position and really had the Welshmen on roller skates.
As soon as they reverted to Tri Nations mentality they looked very very ordinary.
Much was made of the "superior" match fitness of the red men so it has to be said that they duded themselves of the chance of getting a win over the Wallabies. I doubt anyone in the Home Change rooms will be happy with a draw tonight.
With Ireland and Scotland just around the corner, I would use the chance to retry a couple of the better left field trials (with Giteau and Shepherd) and also bring forward some of the Squad members for the Italy fixture.
Burgs Wallabies v Italy:
1 Benn Robinson
2 Tai McIsaac
3 Rodney Blake
4 Mark Chisholm
5 Nathan Sharpe
6 Rocky Elsom
7 Phil Waugh (vc)
8 Wycliff Palu
9 Matt Giteau
10 Stephen Larkham
11 Cameron Shepherd
12 Adam Ashley-Cooper
13 Stirling Mortlock ©
14 Lote Tuqiri
15 Chris Latham
16 Guy Shepherdson
17 Tatafu Polota-Nau
18 James Horwill
19 Hugh McMeniman
20 Josh Valentine
21 Scott Staniforth
22 Mark Gerrard
"Bloody oath we did!"
Nathan Sharpe, Legend.
Very entertaining game, some fantastic rugby played but a lot of areas still to be sorted........in general an improvement for the Wallabies.
As Burgs said, Wales will be dissapointed with the result but I reckon they showed strength in coming back from a very shaky start and should be pleased with their development.
And, what about Latham....just amazing.
Finally, I can't wait to see what our backline will be like in Feb, we could be in for a veritable feast of fantastic running rugby. Bring it on!
Just happy to be here
A tale of 2 Half-Backs
The start of the match saw Gitts firing and damn if it wasnt pretty to watch. But as the pressure from the Welsh pack became greater the effectiveness of Gitteau was soon lost and we paid the penalty for 5 players out of position by allowing the Welsh team back in the game.
With the injury of Larkham (again) Gitteau to 12 and Valentine on at Scrum Halves there was a slight improvement, but either Valentine was overwhelmed by the occasion, or he was lost. Not an impressive start by the youngster but he did improve towards the end of the match.
On another position entirely; Al Baxter, feel free to retire anytime now.
Exile
Port Macquarie
"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! Now if you know what you’re worth then go out and get what you’re worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain’t you! You’re better than that!" - Rocky Balboa
For mine, Valentine suffered from the crap ball that was coming to him and was basically making a silk purse out of a sows ear.
The current pack does not have eighty minutes between the twelve of them and this must be of great concern to Knuckles.
Forgot to also say above (it was late) that Rogers cost us greatly with firstly discipline and then offsides throughout the match. The offsides may be debatable but the punch he threw was not only pathetic in its application but totally against the discipline that has been drummed into the Squad under Knuckles.
On Refereeing, only two incidents perplexed me.
Firstly the Touch Judge on the far side rightly said the Welshman went out with the ball from a Latham kick and chase (top right of screen) then gave them the throw in and the Ref didn't over-rule. This was an awesome attacking position that was robbed of us.
Secondly his call in centre field (shades of '05 again) in the final minute of the match of obstruction was proven incorrect by their own commentators!
Overall though I was happy enough with his match.
"Bloody oath we did!"
Nathan Sharpe, Legend.
My slant on the game.
1 Al Baxter, now to be fair I think the slippery ground didnt help much....but damm boy..get your back straight...they will drop you down every time if you keep up that stance.
2 Tai McIsaac, great throwing at the line out. Was involved in some great ruck work and Mitch would be proud.
3 Rodney Blake, solid enough, I would have been tempted to shift him to the other side of the scrum.
4 Nathan Sharpe, excellent display, some great runs and good line out calls. I think we stole 5 of their lineouts
5 Dan Vickerman, very committed.
6 Rocky Elsom, as above.
7 Phil Waugh (c), solid game but didnt seem to have the ball stripping power of George Smith
8 Wycliff Palu, I liked his game. Some good breaks and kept the back of the scrum fairly solid when we were going backwards
9 Matt Giteau, in a word, GREAT...that sneaky try was lined up from the sideline and he went for it. Have a look at the replay and you could see what he was thinking from way out....except for Wales.
10 Mat Rogers, --- Hook him.....Not very penetrating, and then that indiscretion of face massaging a Wales player when we were on a roll and 5m out from their line only to concede the penalty was worthy of a instant drag. In the dying minutes when we had the scrum and he was looking to line up a drop goal he looked like he had razor blades in his bowels. I believe that even if we won the scrum and the ball came to him he was so demoralised and under pressure that he would have missed.
11 Cameron Shepherd, 2 meat pies...what more could you want. His tackling, always a concern was spot on and got himself in to some great field position to score the tries
12 Stephen Larkham, sorely missed as the playmaker and with his injury shows why we need to come up with another of his calibre.
13 Lote Tuqiri, ....mate...you been bangin on about giving you a chance with the ball in the hand and all that promise turned to pufffff. That great tackle late in the first half was not your man and it opening up the line for a try. PS...dont KICK...
14 Clyde Rathbone, missing in action. Bring on Stanners!!!!!!!!!!!!!
15 Chris Latham, typical excellent display.
16 Brendan Cannon, nice to see him back....pretty solid.
18 Mark Chisholm, did nothing to either impress or depress
19 Stephen Hoiles, ooopsssss......did I miss that ball?? Bad luck..it coast us a try.
20 Josh Valentine, not a bad performance....
I was very excited in the first 20 minutes as the experiment looked to have been the most brilliant tactical display by a coach of all time. I still think the idea has merit as the changing lines that we were running are not the "normal" stuff that we have done for 6 years and all the teams know where we are running to and from.
Some minor shuffling next week to take out Rogers, Rathbone and Baxter...and maybe even drop Lote to the bench for a reality check.