Australia Vs New Zealand, Twickenham Stoop

[Chook Norris]

My player/team ratings..

Aus:

1. Billy Slater - 6 ...quiet
2. Brett Morris - 6 ...quiet
3. Greg Inglis - 8 ... Australia's best despite limited ball
4. Justin Hodges - 5 .. zzz
5. Jarryd Hayne - 5 ... zzz
6. Darren Lockyer - 6 .. was well controlled
7. Johnathan Thurston - 5.5 ,.. see above
8. Ben Hannant 6 (his work rate was high.. but was monstered on most occassions)
9. Cameron Smith - 7 .. solid, but average
10. Petero Civoniceva 6.5.. see hannant
11. Trent Waterhouse - 5 .. eh?
12. Ryan Hoffman - 5 .. limited impact
13. Anthony Watmough - 6.. limited impact

14. Brett White - 4.. zzz
15. Sam Thaiday - 6... a couple of good runs
16. Paul Gallen - 5.... .......
17. Kurt Gidley - 1 [if that, waste of space, might as well as put another forward]


NZ:

1. Lance Hohaia - 6.5.. not sure how he got MoM, was good in defence at times, but a couple of errors
2. Sam Perrett - 6.5 ... good defence
3. Steve Matai - 6.5 ... " "
4. Junior Sa'u - 8... one of his best performances, awesome effort on the try; bulldozed Gallen
5. Bryson Goodwin - 7 ... decent debut
6. Benji Marshall (capt) - 7.5 .. was good without being great, good ball to backs
7. Nathan Fien - 8 .. same as Marshall, Defence+
8. Jeff Lima - 8 ... strong
9. Issac Luke - 8 ... strong
10. Fuifui Moimoi - 7 [imo, could've done a lot better]
11. Bronson Harrison - 8... strong
12. Frank Pritchard - 8 .. strong
13. Adam Blair - 9 (mom).. t'was in everything, yes, everything

Thomas Leuluai - 7 .. good job
Frank-Paul Nuuausala - 7.5.. good try
Iosia Soliola - 8 ... put in some absolute bell ringers
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves - 8 ... same as above

 

[Pierced Soul]

did australia do any attacking drills at training? the game was played in the forwards which wa a mistake given the backline aus had. you cant blame the 3/4 lines for not having much impact, the ball never got out, didnt matter which wing hayne was on the ball didnt go to either wing or centres much

 

[Ridders]

Secondly, I get annoyed when there's someone with so much ball playing talent wasted standing on the sideline. I was literally screaming at Cameron Smith to go right during the first half.

Agreed. It was a massive waste of talent.

I'm hoping things will improve as the tournament progresses.

 

[Big Pete]

My player ratings:

Australia:
1. Billy Slater - 3 - Quiet game from Billy, wasn't really tested and was generally poor in defence.
2. Brett Morris - 2 - Poor game from Brett, came up with some silly mistakes and his try could've been scored by anybody. Easily the worst player on the night.
3. Greg Inglis - 7 - Good game by GI despite the lack of space and quality possesion. Set up two tries and bustled through a number of tackles.
4. Justin Hodges - 3 - Quiet, limited oppurtunities to show his mettle.
5. Jarryd Hayne - 3 - Extra quiet, made some nice kick returns and did extremely well to nearly get back into the field of play but received very little quality ball.
6. Darren Lockyer - 3 - Quiet game from the skipper who needed to combine with Thurston more to give space to his outside men.
7. Johnathan Thurston - 5 - Solid game from Thurston who's boot kept Australia in the game along with his quick thinking.
8. Ben Hannant - 5 - Another solid contributor, hit it up all day.
9. Cameron Smith - 5 - Scored the pivotal try to help Australia eclipse the Kiwi score and was involved in the B. Morris try. Solid
10. Petero Civoniceiva - 6 - Played consistently, did well for his first game back.
11. Trent Waterhouse - 3 - Quiet.
12. Ryan Hoffman - 3 - Quiet.
13. Anthony Watmough - 5 - Wasn't at his best but still came up with some great charges.

14. Brett White - 3 - Quiet
15. Sam Thaiday - 3 - Quiet, shouldn't be used as a prop.
16. Paul Gallen - 4 - Came up with some critical tackles.
17. Kurt Gidley - 3 - Limited game time hindered his performance.

New Zealand
Lance Hohaia - 3 - Scored a good try but came up with two costly errors.
Sam Perrett - 3 - Quiet, aside from his leap that help set up the Hohaia try was barely sighted.
Junior Sau - 6 - Scored a good try, reasonable performance considering it's his second international.
Steve Matai - 3 - Quiet.
Bryson Goodwin - 3 - Quiet, made a good kick return at one stage, can't remember much else.
Benji Marshall - 4 - Combined well with Fien to lead the Kiwi's around. Came up with some important plays as well.
Nathan Fien - 5 - Very solid from Fien, lead the Kiwi's around nicely.
Frank Paul - Nuuausala - 5 - Scored a great try and was solid through out the night.
Issac Luke - 5 - Threatened the Aussies on a number of occasions with his quick darts.
Fui Fui Moi Moi - 3 - Below his standard but came up with some decent charges.
Bronson Harrison - 4 - Injury hurt his score but he had a decent opening stanza.
Frank Pritchard - 4 - Scored a nice try, can't remember him doing much else.
Adam Blair - 8 - Was an absolute monster out there. Probably the most physical player in Rugby League.

Jeff Lima - 4 - Was good when he came on, unfortunately injury ruined his night.
Thomas Leuluai - 3 - Limited game time, was decent.
Iosia Soliola - 4 - Good in defence, can't remember much else.
Jared Warea Hargraves - 6 - Had a wonderful first stint and shocked the hell out of everyone good performance.

 

[Ridders]

It is amazing that Civoniceiva was arguably our best forward despite spending so much time out with injury.

 

[Hindyscrack]

Can't remember who it was on, but Gallen made an absolute try saver towards the end.

As opposed to being used as a speed bump on the Junior Sau try? Gallen was sh*te

 

[Ridders]

Gallen wasn't the only one that failed on the Junior Sau try.

*I'm looking at you Billy Slater*

 

[Hindyscrack]

righto f#ckhead, explain to me how that was an awesome game???

other than the tight result, what can you possibly enjoy from 20 odd penalties,ill discipline galore, a sh*t load of mistakes by both the refs and the players, poor ball control, and an australian team that has a pack of b!tches for forwards.

Inglis's pass to Smith was a mile forward, we should have lost.


Get a clue ya f@#king genius.

Was at the game last night... thought it was brutal at times, tight, but an aveverage game at best. The Poms are starved for decent football, and the way stevo and eddy blew their load over the game just shows how rubbish SL is.

Pass to smith was fine.

 

[Hindyscrack]

Gallen wasn't the only one that failed on the Junior Sau try.

*I'm looking at you Billy Slater*

slater should have had to been involved... gallens attempt was so poor that i thought it was lockyer from the southern end of the field.

 

[Ridders]

Fair enough, but like I said, numerous players failed in stopping Sau.

Even when he was over the try line there is no way he should have been able to put the ball down with 3 players on him.

 

[bobrock]

Thanks for the explanation. I feel a little better as you say it's quite uncommon to see a move like that. I've seen many matches on tv ( by stream actually ) lately, and I was afraid I had understood very little of the game when I saw the ref let it go. Thanks again

 

[St. Brett]

Can someone tell me if that was Gareth Ellis singing our Australian anthem the other night at that test match?

I know he played here for the Tigers this year but now he's singing our anthem? That's dedication.

The commentator called Thurston Justin there one stage the other night.
Justin Thurston.

Issac Luke looked like he was heavily medicated doing the Haka the other night too.
I bet when he watches the replay of that game and sees him rolling his eyes upward into the back of his skull like that he won't be doing it again any time soon.

Did anybody see the movie Varsity Blues?
Remember the sceen in the movie where they got on the piss and drank till 8am the next morning?
We, The Kangaroos, played like that the other night.
We looked like a bunch of dawdling slow-coaches.
Coach Sheens should be reprimanded for allowing the boys to turn up half pissed in training a little while back.
We had no direction whatsoever.
Where was our zip?

One month, 2 to 3 months off playing footy and we suddenly become sloppy and lose out fitness? Where was our sharp contrast like we display in the finals and semi finals? Where'd all that match peek fitness go in only a short period of time off?
We were dreadful.
There were 3 specialist fullbacks out there. Get rid of it.
Lockyer's tired. Gallen shouldn't be there. Petrol Civonerreceives-it is tired.


Oh, why were we awarded the penalty when Gallen KO'd Luke then dropped the forearm afterwards? Why'd we get the penalty?

Wanna know what I think? At $1:15 to win that game I think we just went into that game against the Kiwi's with no respect for them thinking that with names like Lockyer, Slater Inglis alone we'd blow 'em off the park.
Are we too big for our boots?

We need balance and once again there's too much talent on the field. (And too many egoes.)
I'm not a name-dropper but (Hayne) umm, what's his name (Hayne) is one of the (Hayne) problems in (Hayne) team.
Figure it out.

 

[hutch]

Luke would eat him alive in a cage.

haha, funniest thing ive read on here. luke would be lucky to beat lockyer!

 

[Fein]

haha, funniest thing ive read on here. luke would be lucky to beat lockyer!

:lol::lol:

You should watch a game sometime.

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

:lol::lol:

You should watch a game sometime.

Bro

Gallen would kill Luke in a genuine 1 on 1 fight.

 

[Fein]

Bro

Gallen would kill Luke in a genuine 1 on 1 fight.

Not a chance in hell my man, not a chance in hell. ;-)

 

[IanG]

The Kangaroos should all go out and buy themselves a few lottery tickets. They were lucky to get away with a draw. Kiwis were the better team on the night. And in all honesty I wouldn't be surprised if New Zealand win this Four Nations tournament. In fact it makes me wanna go down to the TAB and have a dash at the $5.50 they're offering

 

[Jono1987]

It's a good thing for Australia that one of the best second-rowers in the world, in Ben Creagh couldn't crack a spot in the squad and is sitting on some beach right now. It's good that the selectors continually select Gidley on the bench despite that being a waste of a spot and a talented foward utility in Luke Lewis is sitting on some beach right now.

In saying that I can't imagine many changes to the side to play England with the squad that was chosen. We'll be much better for the run. England are unlucky to get us now.

 

[Iafeta]

slater should have had to been involved... gallens attempt was so poor that i thought it was lockyer from the southern end of the field.

Slater's defence was horrific. Lance Hohaia was tackling Petero and Brett White (not that that's anything admittedly) one on one on his own line no problems at all. Easy as shelling peas. Billy Slater was like a one legged square dancer trying to imitate a defensive player.

 

[Archangel2]

Yet again by our great expert Roughie Spud Bender early in this thread...Quote
"...can't believe how close some of you think it'll be...or that even NZ will win :lol: australia are going to wallop em."
Where are you now in this thread Spudly lost interest in this one now?
Spuddie bend over and insert another Potatoe hahahahahahah!
Man the Convicts are going to rip your team a new one! Hahahahahaha