Today's game, Oz vs Scotland

Watch it this morning then had to go out, hence the late post.

Firstly congrats Scotland, absorbed all the toothless Wallabies attack, showed guts and passion, specially towards the end with the goal to win the game.

And now my views on the game, bearing in mind this will be from a passionate Wallabies supporter, so the comments are on the Wallabies side, but not one who claims to know the finer points of rugby nowadays very well. Welcome any comments and corrections on my points of view.

1) The aussie forwards. How did they go from more than holding their own for the 1st 70 minutes of the game to being like the days of Dunno and Baxter??? I thought the scrum was strong to start with, as their rucking, and even a good rolling maul or two from lineouts. But seems last 10 minutes either the Scots got very much stronger or the Wallabies just lost the art of scrummaging.

2) Tactics. Were the half backs playing to instructions or were they suddenly clueless as to how to spread the play wide when there were overlaps? Did the coach told them to just keep it tight? I know the weather was terrible, but when you've been bashing at the line for 10 minutes with up the jumper stuff, and getting penalized again and again thus losing ground, why not try getting the ball at least to the inside centre if not out to the wing? So what if we drop the ball a couple of times spinning it wide, it'll been a scrum but would've kept the Scottish defense on their toes instead of having them central all the time to snuff out our forwards.

3) The woeful drop goal attempt. This was probably because he was so rushed, with a couple of Scottish defense rushing up in his eyesight. If a drop was considered, could we not have waited till we've at least sealed off their defense a bit first by committing them fully in a ruck or scrum before firing the ball back for the attempt.

4) Forwards taking the ball up a bit wide and getting isolated. Reason for a few of our up the jumper stuff failing due to penalties. Why have a good backline if a forward goes wide and don’t use them? Is this due to bad coaching, the order being given in the changing room to not let the ball to the backs, or just blindness from the forwards.

5) Would a different number 10 have tried a grubber of chip over the advancing Scottish defense to get the bal behind them and make them turn? Same again, coaching rules or bad thought process?

6) Was our skipper lacking in inspirational chat and plans? Played well but that was his basic job, to be a number 7, buts as a skipper you must be able to lift the side when Plan A is not working and maybe suggest a Plan B/C/D…?

15 minutes into the second half I truly thought we would have won it, but after that could see the breakaway point coming. As in so many games, if Plan A does not work after 65 minutes and there has been no Plan B discussed before it is not unusual for the side that has been under the cosh to break out just the once and steal the game.

Take nothing away from Scotland, they could only play the toothless pussies in front of them, and deservedly take the win.

Now to Saturday and see if our coach can lift the side. Wallabies firing on all cylinders are a side so exciting to watch, but by jove/jingle/golly gosh I so wish we have a Plan B….

It will be ok Big Man. Its only Wales on Sat.

Wish I shared your optimism Gibson, though think you may have fired up a few Welsh supporters though.......

Hi OzT, commisserations on the loss mate, but I am happy for the scots for a number of reasons.

They have been copping flack in the word cup and also during the six nations, whereby other home nation supporters have summarily dismissed them and then get on their high horses when their own teams are dismissed.

So from that perspective these guys needed a win against a top three nation.

Scotland for some reason have developed real talent and depth in the back row and have real options there. These guys are as good as anyone in world Rugby. I would really like to see these guys play with a more complete team. Maybe soon?

OZT

I think perhaps only New Zealand are better than Scotland in conditions like that. They have proved over and over that in stormy,rainy windy conditions they can grind out a win. Had it been bright sunshine the result may have gone a different way

OzT, don't know what to say mate. On the one hand I'm genuinely happy for Scotland, on the other I'm absolutely filthy with the Wallabies.

The scrum was going well until Deans yanked Palmer off and put soft-guts Alexander on. That last 5 minutes happened in slow motion for me, oh the inevitability of it all! Scotland barely see our side of half way all half then all of a sudden scrum in front of our posts, cue deja vu....

I know the conditions were atrocious but they were atrocious for both teams. It's not like our guys have never experienced wind or rain before. Can we only play rugby on a hard, dry track on perfect days? As you say, after 300 pick and go-nowheres didn't anybody stop and think maybe we should try something else? The knives are going to be out for Dingo, he's accumulating an impressive list of failures with Australia.

I don't know what I'm angrier with, that insipid performance or the fact I've got tickets to see these guys on Saturday.

Well done Scotland though, just wish it wasn't at our expense.

FC, here are some exerpts from an article Campese did, it was mainly about Heyneke Meer and his selections, but he also spoke about combinations and OZ.

Yesterday, we saw the Wallabies lose (again) to Scotland.

It seems to me, the problem was that the Australian team had no combinations in the centres and at 8-9-10.

You need combinations at this level of rugby. You can’t just pick a bunch of talented individuals and expect them to do the job.

I am sure some will use the weather as an excuse but, sorry, not good enough. This is the ultimate level of rugby and there are no excuses.

In the past, the most successful teams have had great combinations in key positions: Farr-Jones/Ella, Farr-Jones/Lynagh, Hawker/O’Connor, Nonu/Smith, van der Westhuizen/Stransky, Gregan/Larkham, to name a few.

What is concerning me is the move towards creating all-round players and doing away with specialist players, which affects the team and the combinations.

Communicating and understanding each other comes through playing together consistently, which does not happen nowadays. Some would argue that Australia has not produced a successful combination at 10/12/13 since Horan and Little, some 12 years ago.


This is what happens when you get together as a new team, without any significant combinations in place.

Look at the Reds this season. Genia has struggled this year because, for much of it, he hasn’t had Cooper alongside of him in the backline. The more great players you have, the more pressure you put on the opposition.

But an even bigger problem in Australia is that we lack combinations in the centers, as we saw in the RWC2011.

Wouldn’t it be great to see a Horan/Little combo again? Stop the opposition and give the outside backs a chance to show how good they are.

I think your first point is overstated to be honest. The Aussie scrum was not dominant at any point in the game, the 4 penalties they gave away at scrum time shows that. Fundementally they were clever at the scrrum and twisted or went down rather than scrummaging straight. However the front row was an area where the scots had an edge throughout the match.

Other points such as the kicking and tactics were factors influenced by the weather.

The grubber is a fantastic ploy in the wet and it wasnt used bu either side. Both sides should have gone for a more hack and chase style given the conditions.

yip, got up this morning and have to say I feel a lot better. couldn't have happened to a nicer side, the Scots. after all the bagging they got last 6Ns good to see them come good, shame it is now twice in a row against us!

FullCredit, I am sure this weekend you'll see a better side, if not well it may be too late but can watch the end of Raiders Knights game at the Hunter stadium!

McKay1402, sad thing is no, I can't see that game going any other way other than the way it did. The entire side just seemed gripped by up the jumper stuff and see how many penalities we can give.

biltong, yip good to see the Scots win, and good on them. Can't begrudge them, pretty much my fav side up north, can't begrudge them as much as I couldn't begrudge O'Driscoll bursting thru our lines and scoring the winning touchdown for the Irish in the last minute on his 100th apperance. Can't begrudge them but heck there was a stab of pain!!!

I have always suspected the Scots are a much better rugby side then their results suggests, a bit like the French against the kiwis they grab a major scalp every now and then, against England for example when they were powerful, but often fall short in a few games.

And Campo wasn't saying anything anyone with even half a rugby brain would't been saying. Maybe in soccer a single player's brillance can turn the game, in rugby it's a bit hard cause you can always be brought down or just blanket covered.

Love to know what the mood is back home re Deans. He is making me wish we had Eddie Jones back still, he may have not a clue what forwards does in a game but by heck we ran some pretty pattens even when losing. when Eddie was in charge, last game in those last couple of minutes in our half I would have thought it possible we could have stolen the ball and ran 80 meters to score a try. Not yesterday.

Ok, rant over, forward looking now to Saturday. I'll be in Glasgow watching the game with a couple of aussie mates, at least we'll get a welcome up there after yesterday's game, and prob more than a few banter!!

TO, I think you're right. I was looking thru slightly tinted glasses. A couple of good scrums and I suddenly think we're world beaters!!! ( and I forget the bad ones )

What you can say is that they scrummaged cleverly and to a large extent nullified scottish dominance i that area. However against a different ref that penalty count could have been much higher.

Thanks Oz, I'm sure they will put in a better effort this weekend if only from the backlash.

Biltong, as far as Campo's comments go, did our centres even touch the ball all night? Obviously I'm joking a bit here but we could have put 10 blokes out on the field and got the same result. In the second half 8 men would have been sufficient. Poor old Tomane will remember his first cap as the night he got hypothermia.

I thought our scrum went pretty well while Palmer was on. I'll have to take Tycroes word on the 4 penalties at scrum time as I wasn't counting. I'm assuming you're including short-arms for early engagements etc because I don't really remember any full penalties other than the fateful one. I can't recall the last time I saw a game where a team didn't concede at least a couple of scrum penalties.

I felt Scotland had not used the wind to their advantage by half time and that the Wallabies were gonna steam roll Scotland in the 2nd half. But the Wallabies did bugger all!! They had a huge breeze and they barely used it. I reckon if they had tried maybe just 3-4 kick and chases they would have got a try. Hogg did one for Scotland and they were very unlucky not to get a try from Genia missing the mark. Diggers was on the case and saved the day.

There was definitely no plan B, as you say OzT. Both sides were dropping the ball, why didn't they just try and pass it? Its not as if Scotland were going to go very far if they got the scrum for a knock on. Box kicks/kicks to touch would have gone maybe 10m if that.

Also, Scotland kooked pretty much every lineout in the 2nd half. Why not use that to Aus advantage??? They should have been forcing Scotland to take a lineout deep in their own half and putting pressure on Ford to throw it straight, which he was finding impossible to do. Boom! Suddenly its a Wallabies Scrum deep in Scotland's half.

Andy Robinson must have had a huge grin on his face when Wallabies decided to go for those 50m penalty kicks instead of going for a lineout. That probably just gave Scotland more confidence as well, knowing that they are forcing the no.2 team in the world to try a challenging kick from halfway instead of a lineout, even though they have a huge advantage with the wind.

Today was a very tough day. I spent all day telling myself "it's only a game" and then replying to myself to "^%$#$ off!". I think in the end I did well not to get fired or charged with something.

Losing is part of sport, but gee it hurts.

Enjoy this weekend FC. I have my tickets to the Sydney game on the 23rd. 3pm game which should be brilliant (provided there isnt a spot of rain which appears to cause our spines to melt).

We know all about that hurt mate, but the next win takes some of the pain away.

I hope so BB. And it better be this weekend

biltong, we all hate losing, and thanx for saying those words. but seems for us Wallaby supporters too often we've had to bite the tongue and take it on the chin, and the English says. I know rugby's defo low down in priority sports back home, but surely we have more than just one side? Where's the back up? where are the young guys pushing for a spot? All drawn to the money and kudos of rules or league. We often win a couple, get back up in ranking, then spend the next 3 games or so wondering what happened.

We really really need an inspirational skipper. Mr Nobody's gone and maybe he's a one in a generation player, but other countries seems to have at least 2 respected skippers on the pitch every game, guys who could rouse the players when heads drop.

The next win sure does take the pain away, just we can't seem to always bank on 2 wins in a row!!!

But you can be sure Saturday I'll be up in Glasgow barracking for our guys.

by the way, are there any 606ers up in glasgow fancy catching up for a beer during the games? They start at something like 8 in the morning!!

Hell OZ, you may have a roller coaster ride now and then , but you are 1 win head to head, ahead of us in the pro era, the achievements OZ get on the rugby field is outstanding.

Now go take a cold shower and pull yourself together, this is a man's sport and we don't tolerate this kind of pessimism.

I hope that wasn't too harsh mate.

nope, you're right mate. Besides, a few snakebites always makes the day goes better!!!

Thanks Boomer, you enjoy yours too. It can only get better from here.