Wallabies v South Africa 8 July 2023

[chiraag]

Thanks all. Apparently varsity staying open until the end of the game also.

[palitu]

That was horrific.

The boys are good, but we never played any rugby until Gordon came on.

I stand by my comment on quade being a passenger. And potentially, Jones shit game plan

[palitu]

And quade also passenger in defence

[SNOB]

Think I’ll put a few $$ on Argentina.

[shasta]

My subconscious knows better than me and invoked the mercy rule at about 30 mins in. Fell asleep, woke up refreshed and watched the mini match on Stan. As bad as I expected.

[DazloT]

And quade also passenger in defence

Passenger is being generous, pebble under the wheel would be better.
I was disgusted by a lot of his “attempts” at tackling. Shouldn’t have been surprised since in the first few minutes it was obvious he was been hidden in defence when Wright was in the line and Cooper fell back to fullback.

The Saffa commentators said it right t 25 mins, half time and full time, “We haven’t said Coopers name at all this game and it shows what little effect he is having on the game”.

[WFDom]

That was shit

Many poor individual performances

Cooper’s played himself out of the starting line up, maybe the 23 if EJ takes a liking to Donaldson

[chibi]

At least now Eddie knows what he has to work with

[Burgs]

From about the 25 minute I was roaring at the telly for them to handle the ball and stop kicking it away.
Horan got on board around the 65 minute mark.
I cannot for the life of me understand why Australian players believe such a low percentage strategy as box kicking is so f'ing meritorious and I believe my television is going to be in peril for as long as White is #9 in teams I support

Slipper, Porecki, Alaalatoa, Frost- pass mark
Skelton- mostly underwhelming
Hooper T- promising with limited time. Hope he gets another crack, but probably off the bench next time
Hooper M- past his prime, but won't get dropped unless injured
Valetini- best of the Forwards by a fair way
White- grrr (see above re box kicks...)
Cooper- disappointing, particularly in "defence" (barely call it that...). I don't care how zen and reformed he is, was well off the standard required
Koroibete- you'd think it was his first match of the year, patches of glimpses of what we love, but well off at other times
Hodge- did little of interest
Ikitau- was he playing?
Vunivalu- have to stop using Test Caps to teach League converts how to play basic Union.
Wright- I swear, if he does another one of those throw down stab kicks I'm gunnaaaaaa!!!!
Uelese- soldiered manfully southbound to the Titanic
Gibbon, Nonggorr, Arnold- made up the numbers, doubt they'd rate their own performances
Samu- second best Forward
McDermott-earnt a start
Kerevi- should start having proven fitness
Gordon- (block your ears Rebels fans) must start. With his few minutes he was probably the best of the Backs.

[.X.]

I thought that the Saffas played a near-perfect game of ball retention. Whenever we got any ball the pressure that the Boks applied to us caused us to either kick the ball away or knock on in contact.

We played a bad game, but we never really had a chance to get started.

[GIGS20]

I've been wanting to rate Eddie's controversial selections (the ones everybody talked about) since the final whistle, but was busy yesterday. So here goes.

Firstly, who were they?
We'll everybody was talking about
Skelton
T Hooper
Hodge
Vunivalu
Uelese
Gordon

I'm also including Nonggor in this because, while I didn't see much press, it was certainly a left field choice.

So, on to the task at hand
Skelton, I didn't see when he was replaced, but let's say he was well short of an 80 minute run (yeah, I know. Nobody's surprised) for my money he didn't do anything massively wrong, having an ok game, made some big hits and seemed to get involved. Did he do enough to justify the loss of a lineout jumper and an unbalanced backrow? I say no but he was far from the worst.
T Hooper I think the injury makes this selection a poor one and he certainly wasn't the worst Hooper out there, but Tom, like Skelton didn't do enough to plug the holes this selection policy created. I know a good big 'un will beat a good little 'un, but we need to find the good big 'uns, and not just throw anyone big on the field. I don't think Hooper is available for Argentina, so it saves me the pain of having to decide whether he should get picked again.
Hodge - this was a disaster imho. Everything seemed to stop at 12 in attack, but he didn't make a mark in defence to point to and say he was a worthwhile pick. If he was selected for his kicking game.... 0 points and poor options in general play kinda kills that argument. Start next week? He'll be lucky if he isn't left on the veldt.
Vunivalu - I need to begin with mentioning, he did do some good stuff, looked like the high ball work was good. The errors though! My god, he made reads in defence that would have seen under 10s hooked for a stern talking to. We can't afford 2 tom weights in the back 3 and this bloke made tom wright look like a good decision maker. Start next week? No, but he would be ok to hold tackle bags and learn to play rugby, which should shut up the blokes who demand his selection to justify the decision of extending his contract.

Uelese (which, fittingly, my autocorrect wants to change to useless) didn't throw well and, when he came on, a scrum that was struggling, but holding started to fail. On the bright side, he didn't stand out around the field, He doesn't get in the 23 next week unless literally every other hooker in Australia is injured.
Gordon - finally some good news. He looked ready to play at this level and at least challenged defenders by running straight and passing late. Was his 5-odd minutes perfect? No, his first touch he tried to pull some of the shit he was getting away with at super rugby, completely ignoring any form of common sense and running into the teeth of the defence thinking "I'm good enough to get myself out of this hole" he wasn't, but he learned where the line was quickly and made those around him look good. He's the only one I'd start next week and one of only two who I'd accept being in the 23 (and the other is Skelton, so that's scary)

A special mention to Nonggor. Test debut, Loftus, a 60 year losing streak to turn around. You'd think the guy would look interested? What I saw, he either knew damn well he was gonna get towelled up or he was overconfident in his abilities (which wouldn't be hard, he showed no abilities) he was ministered in every facet of the game. The Springboks feasted on his carcass and it makes me wonder whether Sofa Amine would have been a better choice (and remember, I reckon Sofa isn't ready for more than a few minutes of Super Rugby) Nonggor was disappointing and we all hope Nela is fit for Argentina.

So, aside from the fact that a bunch of regulars didn't have good games either, I'd have to say that, overall, Eddie's left field "I'm smarter than you" selections were generally disastrous and I hope he gets better at this. Smash and Grab won't happen if he does this again, he doesn't have enough preparation games to do this a second time.

[bootsetal06]

Just a little aside to this thumping….. Big boy’s talk etc . Emmanuel Meafou ….. Australian brought up . His words . I was not given an opportunity in Australia and could not get a franchise contract but France gave me a chance ( that’s the gist ) 6 foot 8 and 145 kg . Would be in the French National team but for injury and eligibility ( France eligible at the end of 2023 .. they tried to get him in for the RWC)…..mmmmm

[Jules]

I’ve cleansed that awful performance by watching the under 20’s 5th place play off against NZ. Hope Eddie has a quick fix.

[andrewg]

From his post-game comments Eddie is obviously aware of the challenges ahead.
He needs stop-gap strategies for 2023 and rebuild for 2027 at home.

Can we stop torturing ourselves and just admit that we haven’t developed
the skills and talent to be genuine contenders for RWC2023.
Why would the shortfalls exposed in SRPac be any different on the global stage?

The game is nearly broke in Australia and is only afloat on World Rugby’s loan funds.
RAu needs to stop shuffling deckchairs, and retaining its Sydney-centric focus, and start
addressing the return to grassroots and rebuilding the great game in Australia.

Skelton has still not shown that he can bridge the gap between Tier 2 rugby and Test rugby.
Still too slow with limited skills. A bit like the bully at Primary School who was so easily exposed over time.

[Burgs]

From an NZ article- Making more than double the amount of tackles, they were always on the back foot with the forwards unable to lay any kind of platform for five-eighth Quade Cooper to orchestrate the attack.

They resorted to repeatedly kicking away possession which kept them under the pump in defence and a 17-5 half-time scoreline blew out with the Wallabies also giving up two penalty tries.

I don't believe you can include box kicks from the base of a ruck as the "Forwards unable to lay any kind of a platform". It is a. either a deliberate choice of the #9 or b. instructed by the #10. The very act is enabled by the Forwards laying a platform, including these ridiculous "caterpillars".
Even kicking, when done correctly, can be advantageous behind a dominated pack.
The choices &/or implementations were poor and instead of leading to Wallaby gain commenced Springbok attacks.