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Round 9 2008 GPS Rugby Fixtures ADDED SUNDAY 03/08/08
I travelled nowhere this particular week just gone, almost a rugby free weekend you might say. Thanks again very much to the contributors though, for keeping the site ticking over. 1. It is not the end of the world for the Wallabies, far from it. They got a lesson last night in rugby, and will no doubt learn from that. 2. Key areas of destruction were the breakdown, 15 turnovers by halftime from Australia, one from NZ, the Waugh/Smith gamble didn't work, I would have hooked Waugh much earlier and introduced the much more physical Hugh "madness" McMeniman, adding a key lineout option. 3. A bath at the lineouts that got considerably worse when Polota Nau came on. He could earn himself a stint in club footy learning to throw. If he hasn't got it now though, it is unlikely he will. 4. The scrum, Baxter found that when he wasn't allowed to go to ground and the game play on, that Woodcock actually physically demolished him and the Australian scrum, putting the backs under pressure, lots and lots of it. 5. The All Blacks were awesome, incredibly physical at the tackle and breakdown, making the correct decisions about which channels to flood when. 6. Nonu was much better in attack, not so many loose carries and some dominant ones as well. I still think NZ miss a second ball player in the 12 shirt. 7. Carter was special again, but in a different way, plugging the corners, as my loungeroom counterparts commented, playing boring rugby, but it was test rugby, in the wet, and in a wind. Field position under any law set is very important as was proved last night. 8. Richie McCaw is just one very special human being, probably more influential than Carter last night. The things he does and the places he gets to, the decisions he makes are just so good. Then there are the subtle things he gets away with, the one that fascinates me is his occasional binding in as an extra front rower in some scrums. 20 years ago someone like Rodriguez or a Tony Shaw would have sorted that out with a couple of quick smacks around the mouth. I was always taught though, it is only cheating if you get caught. At this level of the game you must find what the ref is reffing, and play on the edge of that. 9. The All Blacks were hard on the advantage line and offside line all night, applying choking pressure to the Aussie backline, that ran out of ideas, and we didn't seem to have any answers from a close running perspective last night either. 10. On the Ashley Cooper foot over the touchline incident, not sure of the law, would need to look it up, but would it have made any difference to the game, Aussie lineout was in tatters in any case, so I think no. |
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WE DON'T STOP PLAYING BECAUSE WE GROW OLD, WE GROW OLD BECAUSE WE STOP PLAYING. |
