Rugby - Advantage Over!

[finbar]

Originally posted by Tamerlin
Poor France, obviously Finbar has not left France's bandwagon in spite of his written agreement:

Argentina 33 - France 32



... and a ridiculously lenient referee... especially with the Pumas.

Obviously you didn't pass on the message to Les Bleus that I was off the bandwagon!

I also thought they were playing tonight. How odd.

Anyway, who was the ref?

[ravagon]

Originally posted by Tamerlin

Argentina 33 - France 32

Oy. My sympathies. That scoreline does make it sound interesting though?

... and a ridiculously lenient referee... especially with the Pumas.

Oh, sorry Tamerlin. Almost didn't see you there.


On a side note: Joy! After a hideous few weeks of hectic work I will finally get the chance to see the England-Australia match this afternoon!
Oh for the days when the name weekend actually meant what it says ...

[Caligastia]

Originally posted by Havak


Don’t you find losing to the Wallabies worse? It always bother me more than losing to the ABs.

Yeah, I do actually. I support two teams - The All Blacks, and any team playing the aussies. That's only because I perceived them as the biggest threat to NZ though. England are starting to win a few, but I don't feel they need to be taken down a peg or two quite as badly as the Wallabies just at the moment. After the '95 RWC it was the South Africans who I most wanted to see brought down to earth - bastards. The All Blacks got their revenge in '96, however, by winning their first test series in South Africa. By an amazing coincidence () it was also their first test series in South Africa refereed by a non-south african referee - fancy that! Bloody amazing eh? Who would've thought it?



Basically, ever since Australia won the RWC in '99 I found myself wearing out a set of Wallaby voodoo dolls every day when previously they would have lasted a week. Now that England have won a couple I'm back to every two days, but that could change if aussie beats a team that just beat us.

By the way...I have to wait till tuesday again to see The England/Aussie game so I will have to avoid this place till then unfortunately.

[NeoStar]

G'Day all!

If anyone is still around, what's this I hear tonights game will be a farce? Are the Wallabies purposely weaker or is that media hype? I hope not. Why do that against perhaps the most in form team in the world today??

Nevertheless - I hope we crunch them But I won't be too upset if it goes the other way, Wilkonson and co. can be great to watch. As long as it's a close game...

[FrustratedPoet]

73rd Minute.
All Blacks - 55
Wales - 3



It's taking 3 Welsh players to tackle a single AB right now - and they still get dragged for a couple of metres before they bring him down. Men against boys.

[finbar]

Fulltime:

All Blacks 55
Wales 3

Turned into an exhibition match. The ABs did to them what we couldn't do to them last week.

[FrustratedPoet]

Time of first English penalty = 1 minute 14 seconds.

[FrustratedPoet]

Time of first English try = 4 minutes 48 seconds.

[FrustratedPoet]

What a finish! It's brown-trousers time over here.

Josh Lewsey might have just killed Rogers. The poor guy is flat on his back and twitching in a worrying manner.

Only a few seconds left...

/edit: 25-14 victory for England (3 tries to 1 too ). A much better performance than against NZ, although clearly still not perfect. Well done lads!

[LDiCesare]

The XV de France is depressing these days...
That and the fact my last match of the season will not happen because of strikes from the stadium personnel...

[finbar]

Gee, LDiCesare, you're really doing it tough.

[Solly]

Hello Horse.

Still, not the proper form of rugby anyway.

[finbar]

England 25
Wallabies 14

Pretty much as I expected, England too big and too strong up front. A great match, though. Monstrous tackling. Poor old Matt Rogers didn't see it coming. We are always going to struggle until we get a front row that can compete against top front rows. Trouble is, that one was about the best we have. The alternatives are all on a par. OTOH, our defence stood up - when doesn't it? - and there were some good signs: David Lyons, a 22 year old giant with all the skills, continues to improve match by match. And, I have to say, Wendell showed a lot more rugby nouse than I've seen before. Maybe he does have a future. And Nathan Gray did probably more than expected of him at #10.

Nathan Sharpe shouldn't have taken the field. Bad decision to start him. And I'm afraid to say Morgan Turunui isn't yet ready for the big time. One season of S12 isn't a good enough grounding, particularly in the centres.

The strange thing was that, in the second half, we had England struggling and we had our chances. Chris Latham, unfortunately, had one of his horror matches. He can have them. It leads people to say that he struggles under pressure.

All in all, I saw promising signs. This wasn't the same team that went in circles against the Welsh. But then that is, unfortunately, typical of the Wallabies. P*ss it away against the lesser teams, lift for the big ones. With all our players back, we could beat England - if we had a front row.

And England's rolling maul in the first half was one of the great pieces of rugby I've seen in years. Classic stuff.

[Havak]

Hop away and start a crappy L***** thread then and see how long it survives If you can stop mourning over Beckham long enough.



well done England!

Yes totally self indulgent to gloat like that – but I’ve been waiting for this a long time and I really enjoyed it.

Australia really stepped up to the plate as expected – by far their best showing in this series of games Finbar?

West hooked before Thompson. O2 are a mobile phone company. Oh and yes the ABs didn’t play well either. But why should I give them an inch? And why am I the only stick in the mud when Tamerlin seems to think every referee hates France? I’m stuck on my crappy dial up so will answer anything else I missed when I’m back on works connection.

Mind you as the spirit of the thread with the new blood is no longer just the enjoyable SH-NH ‘one eyed’ banter let me offer some serious observations for you.

Firstly our line out worked rather well I think – and the Aussies struggled there hugely early doors – and even a little after Paul was exchanged? We use rolling mauls to great effect and the Wallabies do struggle to defend them. It was a shame Wilko made that terrible cross kick call after that awesome maul in the first half?

What about that Cohen try as well – and the hands in the lead up to Tindall scoring. Of course England can’t win from set play ball can they Eddie?

And can you remember a game where Wilko had so few pots at goal? The Wallabies really kept their discipline well.

On the Australian side Waughy had a super game, wrapping himself around the ball and generally being a pain in the butt. Roff showed the talent he is given a fraction of space or time to work with. Lyons made some great breaks, Kefu played very well, particularly in the second half (his biggest minus missing Robinson running between him and Latham in the 1st half?).

And the real surprise? Sailor. He may, just may, make a Union player yet. Yes Dallaglio screwed up by not stepping forward the way he had all game, and yes a gold shirt very effectively got ahead of the ball carrier and blocked the second up tackler – but the eye for the space and the power and pace in a very individual and honestly brilliant score shows that there is promise there – and also a brain.

But the fly half experiment? Don’t think it will be repeated? Nathan really is very direct and one dimensional isn’t he? And Sharpe – well he wasn’t fit to play really was he – I think the set pieces improved greatly when the bok came on?

Don’t tell me Cohen should have been carded in the first half – it’s redundant as of course he should have been. I also thought it disappointing that Jonno, who had another towering game, felt compelled in the second half to step on someone and leak a penalty rather than the put in at the scrum. Not to mention that fairly deliberate Jonno knock on McHugh missed on 69 mins eh Finbar? Lewsey was silly to hold Rogers’ shirt – but Rogers was highly stupid to swing punches there as well. All in all a very clean game though?

I am disappointed we didn’t pressure Latham’s kicking more – he looked suspect and also seems far too slow off the mark for a fullback – he was exposed several times form a standing start.

Some interesting stuff post match. A shame most of the Melbourne crowd left promptly as when Jonno took the mike the first thing he did was thank ‘George and the boys’ for a great Test and recognised they were ‘missing some boys’ and looked forward to another meeting later in the year. Only then did he thank our fans and his team.

Michael Lynagh, summarising for Sky in the studio, proved a traitorous streak as after praising the Wallabies for giving it a damn good go, and expressing his bafflement at Jones for the misguided Flatley scenario, praising Sailor for his vision and pace – then promptly proved with video footage that Wendell was well in touch before he grounded. If we had lost I’d be making more of that after all the ‘Luger’ business.

Woodward, calm and happy, kept his comments carefully respectful and cautious but he did express his pleasure at the fact that England were running the ball more and their opponents kicking at the sticks more.

Greenwood talked modestly in the changing room but couldn’t resist a little dig at Kefu junior who apparently in the week had said he was looking forward to a crack at ‘dad’s army’. After the game Will went looking for him to do his Corporal Jones impression – “they don’t like it up ‘em” – but the young lad had sensibly disappeared.

Eddie very graciously gave an interview directly to the English Sky team (so we didn’t get it second hand via 7) and for Eddie was very polite. But he was asked if he wished Campo would shut up pre game to which he said “we don’t comment on David’s comments”. The interviewer pushed the point though and Eddie did say – “well it’s very disappointing when someone is constantly negative about the game”. I find myself agreeing with Eddie on something!

Switching games one has to give it to the Kiwis – they hammered poor Wales. I do feel sorry for the celts – the Kiwis were always going to be looking for blood and Wales just aren’t equipped in any way to deal with that kind of barrage. I do hope that the ABs don’t do what I suggested last week though and think this sets everything right. Wales are not serious opposition and the Wallabies had to play really badly not to sweep them away last week.

Still we have to accept the ABs are bookies favourites for the World Cup. England are clear at the top if the rankings – four in a row against the Wallabies and Boks, two against the ABs and having won 13 in a row and 27of the last 29 now I think. But strangely I’m happy the bookies don’t have them as favourites to be honest.

And lastly (phew!) the next time an antipodean fan tells me in November that they are touring ‘out of season’ I will vigoursly point out that June is out of season for us too.

[Havak]

Classic England as well Finbar - in that after that awesome maul the girlies messed it up!