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Wallabies v All Blacks - Sydney

ozbash

Referee
Messages
26,922
No I am not, Cross sets up more tries than Mortlock through ball playing ability. Mortlock starves the winger next to him of the ball. Has Mortlock ever passed the ball?

thats just plain dumb locky, mortlock is one of aussies best.
 

ozbash

Referee
Messages
26,922
Australia: Adam Ashley-Cooper, Peter Hynes, Ryan Cross, Berrick Barnes, Lote Tuqiri, Matt Giteau, Luke Burgess, Wycliff Palu, George Smith (captain), Rocky Elsom, Nathan Sharpe, James Horwill, Al Baxter, Stephen Moore, Benn Robinson. Reserves: Tatafu Polota-Nau, Matt Dunning, Dan Vickerman, Phil Waugh, Sam Cordingley, Timana Tahu, Drew Mitchell.
 
Messages
2,477
Since the last world cup I just don't have any faith in Mortlock as a captain.

One of the better ball runners in the game and loves an intercept, so I'll be interested to see
how we perform with out him.
 

Rovelli

Bench
Messages
4,384
Mortlock has been a thorn in our side.

Could Ma'a Nonu and Richard Kahui be too much for Berrick Barnes and Ryan Cross on attack?

Braid is not world-class, but better than what we had against SA in Dunedin, where we had no flankers.

Thorn and Williams are back, which is a big boost for us. Somerville back too is a good move. 'Resting' him for Afoa against SA in Dunedin is probably the first selection blunder made in 2008.

Should be a good one; All Blacks by 2.
 

Parra

Referee
Messages
24,897
Could Ma'a Nonu and Richard Kahui be too much for Berrick Barnes and Ryan Cross on attack?

No.


Thorn is a serious addition to the side - he 'silenced' Beale in the S14 final & Giteau will not want to get caught on the ground when Thorn is around. Not many things uglier that a QLD/NZ cross.
 
Messages
17,822
No I am not, Cross sets up more tries than Mortlock through ball playing ability. Mortlock starves the winger next to him of the ball. Has Mortlock ever passed the ball?

No idea mate...Mortlock has murdered the kiwi centres over the past few years.
 

Alehana

Juniors
Messages
1,692
as an all black fan, i am very nervous for this game, i even tipped aus to win, it just has the makings of one of those rare aus games where al the luck goes their way and when it seems like some luck is going for all blacks the ref does some stupid call which in turn goes to aus, probablly come down to a kick from the corner if its for australia they will get it, if its for nz, i'll hold my breath, not very confident for this game at all.
 

Alehana

Juniors
Messages
1,692
half time, wannabies up by 5, usually the team winning at half time wins the match, so far my prediction much to my dissapointment is wannabies winning, and will win, all blacks have played stupidly, taking a quick tap when they had a penalty in 22, dropping the ball, turnovers at rucks, ellis is SH!T, WTF did henry pick him, cowan is still average but still better, protection for ruck and mauls for ellis is sh*t as well

some things that are reaffirmend, deans going to wannabies is a big mistake, aus have the sh*ttest coaches in world rugby, and they will get no where from their domestic supply, so why nzru gave them that leg up i have no idea, sure gh has a good record, but when it counts, robbie has proven himself in super 14, the commentators are as baised towards wannabies as any aus supporter and they are not afraid to let every1 hear it, i hope they get fired and some balanced commentry comes in, as they are meant to call the game, not give us their opinions, if i wanted their opinion i would have given it to them
if we had real commentry then aus wouldn't be half as good as they are made out to be, especially the likes of their scrum, front row, james horwill, luke burges, berrick barnes (tho due to his credit he has defended well), ryan cross, peter hynes, lote tuquiri, cooper, who if they wern't playing for wallabies wouldn't sound half as good as these baised commentators are made out to be, f*ck the wannabies are cheaters at the breakdown, just lying all over the ball, hands in their, offside, cant believe the ref isn't pulling them up for it, tho the wannabies have played well, the bounce of the ball has gone their way, and so has the ref, but it comes down to the coach, they have a similar team to last yr (bar gregan and larkham, but giteau is still as good, so reeally only a halfback), but a different coach, well done nzru, however i still dont rate them highly, nz has a weak team compared to other years, so wannabies arn't good, its nz r sh!t and playing that way on a bad night for them, wankers like john eales comming out syaing their not invincible, go suck some dick, its pretty obvious we dont, we lost half our team to europe so its highly likely that we will not be as good as last year, but that seams to be the cycle, especially for all blacks coz with players who are the best in the world, of course the markets in europe will be craving their services, so we get raped and this is the result, however look for talent to come thru, as 2011 nears, all blacks will get better and will win more and more, so the future is good, if i was a wannabie supporter i would be doing all the celebrating i can now, but not for long, i think wannabies have a good chance of getting the bledisloe cup back this yr, but next yr they will lose it (provided they win it this yr) if not definately the yr after, this is the best wannabie team they can get for a couple more years, maybe 1 or 2 new players may come in next few years, but this will be a similar team to next couple of years, so they can improve, but it will get predictable, in comparrison to all blacks, they r a work in progress, we will look for a second rower, number 8, halfback, centres, those r our weeknesses, and once we get them right, which shouldn't take long, we will grow back to the best we've been. but credit to wannabies, not as good as commentators make u out to be, but i'll give u this match, and this year, as ur yr, soak it up, only comes 1 time every 10 years, must be an 08 thing, but watch out next yr, and next few years, coz a storm is brewing. btw i'm not watching any more, gotta go to work, but i'd put 100 on aus to win at this stage
 
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Messages
17,822
Well done to Aus for a good win...I am a staunch AB's fan and from what I saw tonight, they are going to struggle in the tri-nations big time.

Their ball handling skills were horrible; and the loosies were outplayed in the breakdowns - Braid has played his last game in my view. Obviously McCaw is extremely hard to replace with a player of his calibre but Braid was too slow and took too long to match the intensity required.

Sooialo was not much better - definitely not a leader and this was a major factor in the team not having the urgency at the start of the game.

The backline stumbled it's way around the field. Sivivatu was brilliant as was Muliaina but Nonu and Kahui in particular were very average.

Whilst I hate to say this...I cannot see NZ getting close to Aus next week.
 

byrne_rovelli_fan82

First Grade
Messages
7,477
One thing I'm scratching my head over...was that near try we almost scored but didn't no thanks to one of the AB's being tackled without the ball. According to our very lovely Aussie commentators that is legal, but I'm pretty sure you can't tackle the player without the ball esp if you are denying them an oppertunity to score the try.

So Sivi has hacked the ball ahead and is chasing it, well within his rights. FIrstly he is not impended even though Cross was chasing him, and there was a brief shoulder-to-shoulder contact, then Cross decides to tackle him, but Sivi was NO WHERE near the ball and didn't have a fair play at the ball, not even close. He got tackled before hand, and he touched nothing. Denied a chance to even do a thing. I'm not entirely sure on the ruling with penalty trys but that should have been a peanlty, at the least because you just can't do what Cross did.

I hope Cowan's injury isnt' too serious, but I thought Ellis played alot better tonight then he did against the Boks. But I was a little bemused at swapping them so early in the 2nd half, even though I think Cowan is the better halfback.

The ref was quite decent I thought. Missed a few little things but over all he controlled things well. But what annoys me is when the players try to be the ref and tell him what to call and not to call.

Our trys were good though had great lead up work, and scored very well. Just the odd occassion defense let us down a tiny bit, gotta fix that. And perhaps a few more better attacking raids.

Special mention: Dan Carter. Yes, he is the man! A couple of excellent line breaks. You'd think Robbie would know how to counter him but good 'ol Dan made them look stupid in their missed tackles!! lol. Go Dan the man!

Just a few other thoughts:
Although Nonu didn't have the type of impact he's known for, tonight, he should start next week along side Smith. Yes Richie to be back, perhaps Thorn to the bench, then I'm not sure if I'd keep Lauaki on the bench or start maybe leave him on the bench. And the rest of the reserves should stay the same. If Cowan's allright, like I said he needs to start.

I mentioned the defense needs to be fixed a bit, lineouts perhaps, although we've always had issues with that but I don't think we competed enough on the opposition throw, scrums were decent.

All in all, a rather disappointing effort, could have done alot better, ten times better actually. But some lessons were learnt tonight and that will only do us alot of good going into next week.

BRING ON GAME TWO!!
 

JB

Juniors
Messages
863
Dumb. f**king dumb display of rugby by the ABs. I realize they like to play a running game, but for fecks sake sometimes you actually have to kick the ball! Especially in your own 20. Couldn't beleive we were trying to move the ball almost everytime in our own half instead of playing for a bit territory now and then. Sure enough we'd cough the ball up sooner or later in prime position for the Aussies to attack. The brains trust is surely lacking. Well done Wallabies and Deans, deserved the win, but f**k, the ABs need to grow a brain!
 

African Monkey

First Grade
Messages
8,671
Well done to Aus for a good win...I am a staunch AB's fan and from what I saw tonight, they are going to struggle in the tri-nations big time.

Their ball handling skills were horrible; and the loosies were outplayed in the breakdowns - Braid has played his last game in my view. Obviously McCaw is extremely hard to replace with a player of his calibre but Braid was too slow and took too long to match the intensity required.

Sooialo was not much better - definitely not a leader and this was a major factor in the team not having the urgency at the start of the game.

The backline stumbled it's way around the field. Sivivatu was brilliant as was Muliaina but Nonu and Kahui in particular were very average.

Whilst I hate to say this...I cannot see NZ getting close to Aus next week.
I do agree to a certain point regarding Braid but to bring on Lauaki with no specialist openside was just plain stupid and hopefully Lauaki never sees another test jersey again.
 

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