Australia v Scotland, 17 June

GunsGermsV2 wrote:

Taylorman wrote:Well done Scotland, suppose there are some pluses from not getting too many Lions. Nice!

Well 3 of their best players were with the Lions including their captain and they still won in Sydney.

Take Folau and a couple of Australias top players out of their team and they would probably struggle

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:Horne starting at 10 for Fiji then!

Genia practically gave the game to the Scots being directly responsible for the first two tries

TJ wrote:

Genia practically gave the game to the Scots being directly responsible for the first two tries

.

Nope - the scots won them with their pressure.  Its no co incidence Scotland score a lot from turnovers, interceptions and chargedowns - we play for them

mikey_dragon wrote:

TJ wrote:

Genia practically gave the game to the Scots being directly responsible for the first two tries

.

Nope - the scots won them with their pressure.  Its no co incidence Scotland score a lot from turnovers, interceptions and chargedowns - we play for them

Scarlets were playing like that in the second half of the season, it did them some good.

GLove39 wrote:Now that was worth getting up for!!!

RDW_Scotland wrote:

GLove39 wrote:Now that was worth getting up for!!!

I trust there will be a celebration video uploaded soon?

tigertattie wrote:Hmmmmm

Having seen the highlights am I right in thinking we were rather lacklustre in attack? It wasn't until the bench came on that we seemed to get a bit creative.

Not wanting to put a dampener on things. Just want to make sure we kick on.

My question is this (now I've only seen the highlights which can deceive) but should we think about having Taylor at 12 and playing Matt Scott at 13? Dunbar is looking a bit blunt of late

TJ wrote:Scotland were a bit blunt in attack - we are less dangerous without Hogg, Seymour, Maitland and visser.  Most teams would suffer losing their 4 most potent attacking weapons and our dpth remains poor  Huges, tonks and Jones are just a way behind

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:Horne starting at 10 for Fiji then!

RDW_Scotland wrote:Dammit World Rugby just tweeted saying we're actually still in 5th place.

I'm assuming our win didn't actually count (they never do remember) for some reason - the wind blowing, Australia not playing well, Brexit etc...

RDW_Scotland wrote:The peculiarities of the world rankings - we beat a team ahead of us away from home and we get overtaken by a team beating a team below them at home!

Cyril wrote:After today's games (so far). Table formatting is a bit wonky!


[th]#[/th][th]Team[/th][th]Points[/th]

1		New Zealand	94.78
2		England	89.87
3	↑ (4)	Ireland	84.66
4	↓ (3)	Australia	84.63 (-1.72)
5	↑ (6)	Scotland	83.90 (+1.72)
6	↓ (5)	South Africa	83.63 (+0.76)
7		Wales	81.36
8		France	80.16 (-0.76)

Pete C (Kiwireddevil) wrote:<span id="sceditor-end-marker" class="sceditor-selection sceditor-ignore" style="line-height: 0; display: none;"></span><span id="sceditor-start-marker" class="sceditor-selection sceditor-ignore" style="line-height: 0; display: none;"></span>

Cyril wrote:After today's games (so far). Table formatting is a bit wonky!


[th]#[/th][th]Team[/th][th]Points[/th]

1		New Zealand	94.78
2		England	89.87
3	↑ (4)	Ireland	84.66
4	↓ (3)	Australia	84.63 (-1.72)
5	↑ (6)	Scotland	83.90 (+1.72)
6	↓ (5)	South Africa	83.63 (+0.76)
7		Wales	81.36
8		France	80.16 (-0.76)

Ireland are on 85.09 points - they gain a few for beating Japan

The rankings calculator here: https://rawling.github.io/wr-calc/ is really good

Cyril wrote:By the way, brilliant win for Scotland. Well played chaps

lostinwales wrote:

Cyril wrote:By the way, brilliant win for Scotland. Well played chaps

Seconded. Its been a good weekend for NH teams, male and female.

Robotic Wallabies left behind in last decade
Paul Cully

1. Let's address the idea suggested in Fox Sports commentary that the Scots lacked inventiveness and only kept with the Wallabies because of their doggedness. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you look carefully at the Wallabies attacking structure against Scotland on Saturday it was highly predictable - almost robotic.

The Wallabies like to attack the same way - a lot. For phase after phase they tend to sweep in behind No.9 Will Genia in the same direction, rarely then switching the point of attack or loading up on the short side.

This is in contrast to a lot of the top teams in the world and when the Scots had the ball they kept the Wallabies guessing by splitting their runners on either side of the ruck and backing their skills even in tighter spaces. And when they did decide to attack one side of the field, runners were often then stepping back in to straighten the attack or at least hold the defence.

The Wallabies have excellent, athletic outside backs but the attack was poorly coached on Saturday and predictable. And although the Scots were hanging a bit at the end, they were not that stressed over the 80 minutes.

2. The Wallabies just aren't fit enough. The Wallabies lost the last 25 minutes to Fiji last week and they lost the last 20 minutes to Scotland on Saturday. For so long conditioning was an area where Australia had an edge against teams but that is now long gone.

The Scots were still going strong at the end of the game, even though it is the end of a very long season for them.

This issue is not new – the Wallabies weren't fit enough last year – and you can frequently see in Super Rugby games that there are 20-minute periods when Australian teams just disappear out of the contest.

It's frustrating for the paying punter because it's fixable – look at the energy Eddie Jones' England – essentially a B team – played with in Argentina.    

3. Quade Cooper cameo broke up the monotony. The Reds No.10 almost won the game for the Wallabies with some nice attacking touches, including a terrific flat pass to Tevita Kuridrani and an offload to Bernard Foley.

Cooper has not been good for the Reds this year but he clearly understands the game and from his position on the bench must have known that the Wallabies simply weren't asking the Scots enough questions.

Others tried hard too. Michael Hooper tried to spark things but when you keep getting isolated and turned over it tells you that some teammates aren't working as hard as you are.

4. Finn Russell highlights Lions' folly. The Scotland No.10 was excellent in Sydney. Not only did he manipulate the Wallabies' defence with his sleight of hand and distribution skills but he pulled off a fantastic try-saving tackle on Israel Folau in the dying minutes.

It was a dominant display by the No.10 and although he has been called into the Lions squad to help out their midweek side against the Chiefs on Tuesday, it's a bit of a backhanded compliment. Warren Gatland erred in not taking him in the first place and Russell proved his point on Saturday.

The Lions were completely in control against an outclassed Maori tight five earlier on Saturday but for the second weekend in a row failed to create a try for their backs. Their lack of creativity will ultimately be their undoing.

5. Springboks wake from their slumber. It is still too early to talk about a Springboks renaissance but a second convincing win against France showcased their increasing cohesiveness and willingness to work for each other in defence.

Personnel-wise the Springboks aren't that much different from last year, although the investment in new captain Warren Whiteley seems to be paying off.

There is clearly a strong Lions influence running through the spine of the side but everyone appears to be buying into the new direction – No.12 Jan Serfontein just hurled himself into French bodies. They have definitely taken some positive steps.  

Team of the Week

1. Mako Vunipola (British and Irish Lions)

2. Jamie George (British and Irish Lions)

3. Tadhg Furlong (British and Irish Lions)

4. Brodie Retallick (New Zealand)

5. Maro Itoje (British and Irish Lions)

6. Jerome Kaino (New Zealand)

7. Siya Kolisi (South Africa)

8. Taulepe Faletau (British and Irish Lions)

9. Conor Murray (British and Irish Lions)

10. Finn Russell (Scotland)

11. Julia Savea (New Zealand)

12. Ben Te'o (British and Irish Lions)

13. Anton Lienert-Brown (New Zealand)

14. Israel Dagg (New Zealand)

15. Ben Smith (New Zealand)

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:Cheika absolutely roasted an unnamed Scottish rugby journalist :

Cheika snapped at a Scottish journalist who asked if the Wallabies coach was surprised at how well Scotland played given so few people gave them a chance of pulling off an upset win.

"The only people who are saying that Scotland aren't up to it is the Scottish media," Cheika said. "You keep putting yourself down and maybe it's so you can get up for the game. We think Scotland are a top team. We never said anything about that, you guys say it and then you perpetuate the story back through us somehow. I don't see our media saying that.

"We knew what we were going to be in for and we got exactly what we expected."

mikey_dragon wrote:

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:Cheika absolutely roasted an unnamed Scottish rugby journalist :

Cheika snapped at a Scottish journalist who asked if the Wallabies coach was surprised at how well Scotland played given so few people gave them a chance of pulling off an upset win.

"The only people who are saying that Scotland aren't up to it is the Scottish media," Cheika said. "You keep putting yourself down and maybe it's so you can get up for the game. We think Scotland are a top team. We never said anything about that, you guys say it and then you perpetuate the story back through us somehow. I don't see our media saying that.

"We knew what we were going to be in for and we got exactly what we expected."

That's great. I think it applies to the fans too, because when you talk about Finn Russell it's like watching a good cop-bad cop routine. We know Russell is often capable of the sublime or ridiculous and right now he's in good form, but next week he could do something bad and you'll all be saying he isn't an international player again...