Top post.

Others have suggested that Foley isn't good enough in defence to be a centre? Does that sound right? I don't know much about rugby.

So what you're saying is that Giteau can operate almost like a fly-half, as long as Foley can get the pass to him quickly and in a good position?

Also, can never trust QC losing his head and doing something incredibly stupid. Cannot afford for that to happen at Twickenham. When there's more pressure, he's almost worse, it seems.

Essentially yes, he plays like a New Zealand style "second five-eight." In Australia most of the creative duties are given to the 10 due to the preference for big sweeping backline moves but I'm a fan of this system. It allows a lot of the gaps to open in the outside channels and gives the outside backs like Folau more opportunity to get into dangerous line break options. It also means your fly half doesn't have to think to much beyond a kick/pass read.

Predictions?

It seems like England are running scared. Had a read of the The Telegraph where they interviewed a whole heap of English ex-players and pundits. They all said England would win but they said it was because of their hunger and all that stuff. They didn't really refer to strengths England will have.

Having said that Owen Farrell is one of the best kicks in the world. If England's forward pack operates well, then we're gonna face a huge battle.

Talk is that England's front row, specifically Marler, scrummage illegally. They say the referee, Roman Poite, will likely be awake to this and penalise them.

I think Australia have all the individual components of their game to win. It will all depend on where they are mentally and how they gel.

Our scrum is doing far better now than it has done in the past. Plus Hooper and Pocock (or "Pooper" ) should be great at the breakdown. Hopefully we can get some turn overs.

Really wanna see Issy Folau run riot over them.

Edited by quickflick: 2/10/2015 06:44:00 PM

Australia are running riot, didn't pick this.

I thought it was going to be 50 50 with 3 points in it. This was a very good win.

Also nice to see our scrum finally holdit's own. Even with the ref favouring the brits.

Edited by lolitsbigmic: 4/10/2015 07:57:22 AM

Fuck yeah. Watched the reply as I was watching the football at the time. I think England shot themselves in the head. Then we ran riot. Can't believe an English player won motm. Must have made someone very rich.

Catch ya wankers.

The booing of Foley when he was kicking was utterly disgraceful (not that Australian crowds are that much better behaved).

Heard the TV audience vote for MOTM.

That match still had some hairy moments. Moments I suspect the ABs will not fail to punish. I'm not downplaying a brilliant performance, but there are areas that need improvement if they plan on winning the thing.

Nice to see Aus do well at rugby again. Fun to get one over England, especially after all the rubbish they've been saying lately and the levels of triumphalism from some English quarters during the Ashes.

As regards the Australia-England rivalry in general...

If we somehow play them and beat them in the FIFA World Cup that would really top it off.

That's more likely than Australia overtaking GB in the medal tally at the Olympics (such is the amount of money the pour into elite sport in the UK compared to in Australia).

When Australia produce a couple more solid batsmen, they should win the Ashes again. There are a few in the Shield.

When Kyrgios and Kokkinakis start to fire more consistently and Murray tires a bit, we should be comfortably ahead in tennis.

It's just booing ffs. They had every right to their team wasn't doing anything to stop us.

Even better when it had zero affect whatsoever.

Clearly left at HT :lol:

Not frightfully English though, is it?

I was brought up to look upon booing as disrespectful and as a reflection of ill-mannered, uncivilised people. You respect your opponent. If you can't respect your opponent, you can't respect yourself. It's not quite in the same ballpark as directing laserpointers at Ante Covic in the Asian Cup Final. But really poor form, nevertheless. This is what a good many English people thing, anyway.

Other sports i'd agree completely however Rugby, especially in Europe, has a very strong tradition of not booing the kicker. Go to a game in Ireland or Wales and the ground goes unnervingly quiet for both sides goal kickers. Imo it actually puts you under more pressure than being booed. The English usually respect this, especially at club level, and for them to change this is an extremely bad look.

The southern hemisphere as usual has to be different and Australian Rugby fans think they are above this and think the concept is daft, largely because they are ignorant bores and their culture of support is influenced by other sports.

Edited by melbourne_terrace: 4/10/2015 08:13:52 PM

Seeing the English scrum going backwards at Twickenham was amazing. If we don't win another game, I'll still feel dumping the English out of their own RWC was worth it.

If we do beat Wales we should be on the right side of the draw for a clean run to the final, then an all-timer against the ABs.

Get around this Scotland-Samoa game. 23 all after 32 minutes. Absolutely insane

Not sure if this shit is serious or you think the English are a genuinely classy bunch.

good game, now leggo Aus

Tight first half. Gotta win this one Wallabies

ughhh 2 men down

oh my god defending for our lives

that defence

Possibly the best Wallabies win I've ever seen. That was 100% guts, and the exact type of application that wins world cups

Haven't seen the game. Were Australia actually any good?

I remember the QF against South Africa from the last WC that was also a "gutsy" defensive display but in reality AU played really poorly and were smashed by NZ in the next game.

Watched the game live. One of the best defensive displays from the wallabies in many years I think.

For almost 10 minutes they were 2 men down and camped within 10 metres of their line for the majority of it and didn't concede a point !

Can you not tell I was being somewhat tongue-in-cheek in saying it's not frightfully English behaviour? Although, I admit I am still somewhat disappointed by the booing.

English (predominantly but not exclusively) upper/upper-middle class tradition prizes sportsmanship, gallantry, humility and selflessness. Traditionally, those sort of things are thought of as English traits. So you know you'd have heard sayings like 'it's not cricket', 'soldier on', etc.

Now, as we know that's all well and good in theory, but the English (especially the upper and upper-middle classes) haven't always practised what they preach. Look at what the British upper classes did to the Irish, the Indians, the Zulus (tommy gun vs spears). Look at how they have treated the poor in their own country. The works of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens do a terrific job at critiquing the double standards. In sport, Douglas Jardine was certainly a product of the upper-classes.

In fact, even today, there's a kind of Holier Than Thou attitude in many (but not all) upper-middle English people because they think they'e been the best exponents of those wonderful traits, they struggle to see where they do wrong and they think others aren't as principled as they are. This isn't true of all English people, plenty have a good grasp of their countrymen, but it's definitely a trend, in my experience

Personally, I don't think nationality or class has anything to do with whether or not a person is good person. I don't think people should think Afrikaner South African=racist or American=stupid or whatever. Unfortunately, so many people do generalise in that way.

However these English ideas of sportsmanship, gallantry, etc. are nonetheless wonderful. It would be nice to see them upheld (not just by the English but) by all. There is also a basis of truth in them that some English people really are that way. As evidenced by melbourne terrace's point that Northern Hemisphere team traditionally don't boo the kicker. So it's a real shame when you see these values rubbished.

It was an amazing defensive job by the Wallabies. I've not seen much like it.

It also showed why rugby union is such an amazing sport. They were hanging on for dear life trying to shore up their defence two men down. It sort of makes you (or me at least) think of trench warfare. One side is outnumbering the other and charges yet the other side manages to hold them off. Riveting stuff.

But I reckon if they meet the ABs and play like that, they'll get beaten. If Australia are are down to 13 against the ABs, they unlike Wales, will be savvy enough to realise that using the speed and skill of the backs to stretch them wide will results in scoring tries. The ABs would have punished Australia there.

Also, against both Wales and England, there were a number of occasions when one of the backs passed the ball to nobody at all. It could easily result in the opposition scoring a try. I suspect the ABs would punish that too. Everybody says the backs were amazing against England. And the play from the backs that led to the tries were amazing. But there was also some big mistakes from the backs.

I think Cheika will keep them grounded and tell them that there were too many mistakes in this game and the last which must be eradicated if they're serious about winning the RWC.

Carn Argentina.

Chelo is watching \:d/

https://twitter.com/chelocarrusca/status/655715766004682752

what tha fuck Ireland