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I've just watched the game and I must say I'm not overly impressed!
Scrums iffy, against England and Wales we will be under pressure. Some things don't change!
Line outs without Simmons a big worry again against better opposition maybe a bit flaky!
Basic ball hanl skills not that impressive.
Rugby smarts not very good! Why the hell didn't we try for a try when we had the chance? If we don't go through because of a bonus point someone's head should roll!
Defence good.
May the FORCE be with you!
I'm not disappointed, a win is a win. Defence was very good and we looked very sharp in attack for the first 30. After that we have to remember we weren't playing a lowly rugby nation, Fiji are OK.
Yes, worried about the line out after Simmonds left, but they should be able to fix that. Task from here is straightforward (although not simple) win every game we play!
PS Poey was brilliant!
scrums are still crapola
Very interesting how quickly the Japanese were able to rake the ball back to No 8 after it was fed in the match against the Boks - effective in nullifying the Boks scrum dominance. We need to do the same against Wales and England if they have the ascendancy at the scrum.
I have said the b4 The teams need to watch the refs who is officiating them in the next game how they handled their last and that is 50% of winning.. Jaco paper did it one way... Glen Jackon another and Craig Joubert different again... So in training The wallabies need vifeo time and hard on field practise....
As said above lots of tweaks required ... Why take a injured player on a RWC tour in the way of Wycliff Palau... Well all it means is more game time for Big dog...
As mentioned above not taking the lineout and trying for a try shows we did not have a mature enuff caption on the field at the time.. Hooper should just concentrate on being a good player and poss Gits or Poey the VC
These are my thoughts
Wests Scarborough 1st Grade juggernaut has played finals rugby each and every year since its inception and continues this remarkable feat yet again this season and unbelievably it's still rolling on and as an added little circle jerk for the masses Wests actually hold the record for the current longest unbroken finals record.
Indeed, it still annoys me that the coaches aren't working on a quick-strike in-and-out option for the Wallaby scrum. It's a tactic that needs to be available to us, knowing of our scrum's "reputation," especially if the referee is refereeing according to that reputation.
Japan and the Pacific Islands for Aussie Super 9's!
Let's have one of these in WA! Click this link: Saitama Super Arena - New Perth Stadium?
I replayed this aspect of the game several times and I can only put it down to the reaction time of the Saffas. Think everyone has wised up.
Wests Scarborough 1st Grade juggernaut has played finals rugby each and every year since its inception and continues this remarkable feat yet again this season and unbelievably it's still rolling on and as an added little circle jerk for the masses Wests actually hold the record for the current longest unbroken finals record.
I think England sucked less against Fiji, the only possibility of us entering the England game with any confidence would be
A I think we played further from our best than England did, they didn't look like they had much improving to do, whereas we really played like crap in some areas.
Fiji might have improved after a tough hit out like the England game, but I think it more likely that they were weakened by the short turn around.
Much work to do!
C'mon the
Got to say I was pretty underwhelmed by the Australian backline as a whole. That would certainly be my biggest worry, closely followed by running into a ref that actually looks at the maul and calls it based on the laws.
Hot of the press and before I write something for G&GR on this rucks data.
I'm not going to do the Fijians at this stage as my interest is who did the ruck work for the Wallabies (rather than a head-to-head comparison).
It was good to get the 28:13 win behind us. I was more impressed by the Fijiian effort than ours.
We need to show some real improvement across the board to be real contenders.
Remember:
1. Early means 1st or 2nd of player’s team AFTER the ball carrier has been tackled and brought to ground.
2. Impact means active engagement: strong physical contact, changed shape of ruck, clean-out, protecting ball etc. (more than hand on someone’s bum or arriving after the hard work has been done). Yes it’s subjective - but as I collect all data at least it’s consistent.
3. Impact DOES NOT equate to Effectiveness. I’ve concluded that coming up with an effectiveness measure is just too hard in the time that I have available – but open to suggestions.
Comments:
1. These numbers indicate just how well Pocock played. 20 more ruck involvements than Fardy and 27 more than Hooper.
2. ESPN tells me that Hooper had: 19 Tackles/2 missed (90% - very good), 3 Line Out Wins, 5 runs for 13m. Vodacom says 0 Turnovers won.
3. ESPN tells me that Pocock had: 14 Tackles/1 missed (93% - also very good, 7 runs for 21m. Vodacom says 3 TOW.
4. Pocock had 34% of the Forward's def Ruck involvements. Fardy had 19%. Hooper had 8%.
5. How lucky were the Wallabies to have these 3 players as after them the involvement drops right off.
6. I think that Hooper's performance understandably dropped right off after the big hit on him at around 26 minutes.
7. The Wallaby Backs has 25% of the teams Total and defensive ruck involvements.
8. Please recall my comments about how much the ABs Front Row get involved in Rucks (almost 40% of the total by Forwards). The Wallaby Front Row had only 27% of the Total Ruck involvements of our Forwards.
9. The Locks had only 22% of Total rucks by Forwards. The ABs Locks usually around 29%.
10. The Wallaby Back Row had a massive 51% of the Total Ruck involvement by Forwards and 66% of the Def Rucks by Forwards.
11. Some Ruck Involvement efforts were well below SXV 2015 performances where: Simmons averaged 30 per game, Sio av 20, Moore av 24, Skelton av 25, Hooper av 29. Pocock av 44 and Fardy av 29 in SXV - so real close to standard perf..
12. Apart from Greg Holmes, the bench players offered little in this match.
13. The rucks per 10 minutes show that Pocock and Fardy were the real standout efforts. Pocock increased his ruck involvements by 35% in the 2nd half. Fardy increased his by 70%! Signifdicant lift in effort for the 10 minutes after the break but then a drop off.
14. Douglas put in a commendable ruck performance but did little else around the park. (8 tackles/3 missed, 4 runs for 3m, 2LOW)
15. Some Backs, esp Kuridrani and AAC, put in some big rucking efforts. AAC earned 2 TOW and Kuridrani 1 TOW. How good was Folou's TOW. No other Forwards were credited with TOW.
16. ESPN tells me that:
+Wallabies won 61 of 64 rucks (95%); Fiji 72 from 79 rucks (91%)
+Wallabies made 122 tackles/missed 18 tackles (87%); Fiji 83/15 (85%)
+Wallabies conceded 12 Turnovers; Fiji 15 TOC.
+Wallabies won 18 LO/lost 4 (79%); Fiji 17/2 (90%). I thought it was 4 in a row.
+Wallabies gave only 2 Offloads; Fiji 13
+Wallabies had only 43% of Possession and 39% of Territory in the 2nd half. Pretty unimpressive - especially as so much has been made of the squad's fitness level. Sio cramping at 51 minutes of concern.
17. There was a real effort to put pressure on the Fijiian ball carriers. Def Ruck involvement by Forwards were 35% of the Total. We haven't seen this level since TRC 2014.
Does anybody really need to see the Fiji ruck stats?
If you want to see the benefit of these numbers compare them against those for the ABs against the Pumas.
Looking forward to who's in the mix for the game against Uruguay.
Last edited by andrewg; 25-09-15 at 00:15.