The Rugby Championship

[nc6000]

I'm surprised there wasn't a thread on this already.

Australia v NZ finished 12 all earlier, if NZ won it would have been a new world record of 18 wins in a row. I thought Australia might nick the win at the end.

[ichabodscrane]

Australia were very wasteful in front of the whitewash, the main difference between the two teams was New Zealand never panicked and I think the wallabies did. McCaw had an awful game, he was at his cynical best but so were most of the All Blacks. Read was very quiet, I was impressed with McCabe on the wing, Kepu, Fardy and Beale wasn't bad at 10.

[simonokeeffe]

big difference when NZ get a strict ref, Peyper was much stricter than usual SH refs

[nc6000]

Even Stuart Barnes in Twitter is saying it hasn't been great so far....

https://twitter.com/StuBarnesRugby/stat ... 5764293632

[ichabodscrane]

I enjoyed the first game, I don't think it was a snore fest like Barnes says. Weather played a huge part in today's games, the conditions were dreadful in South Africa.

What is the story with South African locks looking like kids? Big massive blokes with baby faves.

The Argentinian scrum was impressive and Lobbe was superb as usual. I really like willie leroux, and it was a brave call picking Pollard.

[simonokeeffe]

Wallabies got tonked, albeit was the all too rare sight of Rutchie getting deservedly carded

Ray of hope for Wallabies re world cup is the amount of players to potentially be recalled from injury, overseasness, lalaland, loss of form etc

Moore, Polata Nau, Pocock, Genia, Bieber, Cummins, Lealiifano and theyve a lot of short term injuries in backs especially back three

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I'd say the good news for Oz is that they don't have to play NZ again soon! NZ were incredible. The pace they played at and and the accuracy were a sight to behold. The variety they have in their play must be an absolute nightmare to defend against. So much power off the bench too, it's relentless.

Don't mean to take away from their performance because they would still have won at a canter but thought Poite could have penalised them more at the breakdown and missing the high tackle on Folau in the lead up to Savea's try was a big moment. At one stage in the second half McCaw quite literally jumped through a ruck around his own 22 and got away with it. Should have been another yellow although regardless of it being McCaw I can understand why the ref would be reluctant to give someone a red for that.

Two tries and a yellow conceded from mauls as well as a penalty try from a scrum, don't think it's hard to see what Australia need to work on over the next few weeks. With SA and Argentina being strong there too I would imagine that Australia will come out of this tournament in a much better place. They really need to ditch Beale from ten, I'm very surprised that McKenzie is persisting with it. They were uncharacteristically wasteful with the ball too, lost count of how many times they lost the ball in contact or threw poor passes under very little pressure.

SA are well set up to take on NZ and disrupt their platform but they have so much variety and such strength in depth that I wouldn't be at all surprised if they went unbeaten again this year, maybe even until the World Cup. No Woodock, Kaino, Carter, or Nonu today and they still put 50 points on Australia....yikes.

[Donny B.]

http://www.superxv.com/video/new-zealan ... 81e8b.html

Highlight for anyone that missed it. AB pack did a fair old number on them

[hugonaut]

I'd say the good news for Oz is that they don't have to play NZ again soon! NZ were incredible. The pace they played at and and the accuracy were a sight to behold. The variety they have in their play must be an absolute nightmare to defend against. So much power off the bench too, it's relentless.

Don't mean to take away from their performance because they would still have won at a canter but thought Poite could have penalised them more at the breakdown and missing the high tackle on Folau in the lead up to Savea's try was a big moment. At one stage in the second half McCaw quite literally jumped through a ruck around his own 22 and got away with it. Should have been another yellow although regardless of it being McCaw I can understand why the ref would be reluctant to give someone a red for that.

Two tries and a yellow conceded from mauls as well as a penalty try from a scrum, don't think it's hard to see what Australia need to work on over the next few weeks. With SA and Argentina being strong there too I would imagine that Australia will come out of this tournament in a much better place. They really need to ditch Beale from ten, I'm very surprised that McKenzie is persisting with it. They were uncharacteristically wasteful with the ball too, lost count of how many times they lost the ball in contact or threw poor passes under very little pressure.

SA are well set up to take on NZ and disrupt their platform but they have so much variety and such strength in depth that I wouldn't be at all surprised if they went unbeaten again this year, maybe even until the World Cup. No Woodock, Kaino, Carter, or Nonu today and they still put 50 points on Australia....yikes.

I've been a little bit surprised with McKenzie's selections. Picking McCabe and Horne on the wings [in terms of international rugby, a decent No12 and an average enough No13] is really reductive, especially for an Australian team. Neither have winger's pace, neither have particularly good footwork, neither are particularly good in the air or particularly big.

When Australia have the ball in attacking, those selections make them pretty toothless. Adam Ashley Cooper's effectiveness is curtailed, because the threats outside him are negligible [again, speaking in terms of test rugby], which means that the All Blacks defence isn't particularly worried about what's outside him and can concentrate on shutting him down. Folau is obviously a massive threat, but again, there's not a lot of other threats drawing attention from him.

The All Blacks under performed last week, and to a large extent, the Australian pack performed very well. I thought that the Sydney game was the best performance I've ever seen from Kepu, for example, and Nathan Charles was obviously fired up for his first Wallaby start. This time out, they were far more ordinary. Wycliffe Palu is quite one dimensional, and when you can't get him on the ball often going forward, he has a negligible impact on the game for such an experienced player [50+ test caps] – he had his hands on the ball 15 times last week, and just 5 times this week.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Yeah I can't understand the wing selection either. I was wondering if they picked McCabe so that he could tackle Savea out of the game? He's just not quick enough to get anywhere near him though. Horne was totally at sea at one stage in the first half, was like someone making his pro debut.

I'd like to think Kepu will keep improving. He puts in a serious shift in fairness to him. At one stage it was him who managed to clean up a loose ball that both Ashley Cooper and Savea were chasing, showed great pace, and never stopped trying even though he obviously struggled at his most important job.

[Donny B.]

Early days of course, but Argentina playing very well here

[Amz]

Yeah, very well. Their scrum is very strong. Unlucky not to at least go in level at half time.

Aaaand they've just regained the lead.

[Donny B.]

Get in!

[Donny B.]

Argentina playing all the rugby, Saffers offering nothing in attack and their only try was just from a lucky kick ahead.

Just hope those missed kicks don't come back to haunt them

[Amz]

South Africa failing to hold on to possession too. Argentina looking good here. SA don't look like they can change things up I enough.

[nc6000]

I was really hoping Argentina would get the win there.

[Amz]

Yeah, would have been sweet.

[Donny B.]

Fecking deja vu all over again!

[simonokeeffe]

isnt/wasnt every Australian winger injured or overseas? but AAC couldve played on the wing with say Kuidrani at 13. Beale at 10 is puzzling for sure

[JB1973]

isnt/wasnt every Australian winger injured or overseas? but AAC couldve played on the wing with say Kuidrani at 13. Beale at 10 is puzzling for sure

Might be time to bite the bullet and select some of the non aussie based players?

At the very least they should pick the "honey badger" just for his post match interviews