Jim05 wrote:Rubbish first half by Australia, should be down by 20
You must be unbearable to watch sport with.
Why is that? We were terrible. NZ dominated and we are lucky to be so close. Reckon we will only get a couple of chances in 2nd half and need to capitalize. Think we can still win but need to get a lot more of the ball
Might be time for Deans to go, he can take Cooper with him. We have gone backwards. An appearance in the final should have been the minimum required. If we cant beat Ireland there wasnt much hope of beating NZ
Don't think we've gone backwards, we lost the quarter final at the last World Cup and tonight we lost to probably the best team of all time and most of our players will be around for another couple of world cups. NZ really do deserve to win it, good luck to them. At least we have Friday night's game against the Welsh. Now to start saving up money for the trip in 4 years!
Armchair expert wrote:Such a great club are Geelong
A good effort to get past the quarter final last week. Tonight just went to show how much impact an referee's interpretation goes towards determining a result. Last week our most valuable player Pocock was allowed to do almost whatever he wanted, it was clear early on tonight that wasn't going to happen again. We couldn't place the all blacks under any sustained pressure and as a result our expansive players never had any room to work in. Beale's absence was also very noticeable.
cripple wrote:A good effort to get past the quarter final last week. Tonight just went to show how much impact an referee's interpretation goes towards determining a result. Last week our most valuable player Pocock was allowed to do almost whatever he wanted, it was clear early on tonight that wasn't going to happen again. We couldn't place the all blacks under any sustained pressure and as a result our expansive players never had any room to work in. Beale's absence was also very noticeable.
Good point about Kurtley, he has been our best player in the last 12 months.
Only good thing about a loss is hopefully Deans gives Sharpe a start next week so he can get his 100th test cap which will be well deserved, personally I would have had him in the side tonight (and would have had Barnes starting instead of Cooper or have Cooper at FB).
Armchair expert wrote:Such a great club are Geelong
Wedgie wrote:Don't think we've gone backwards, we lost the quarter final at the last World Cup and tonight we lost to probably the best team of all time and most of our players will be around for another couple of world cups. NZ really do deserve to win it, good luck to them. At least we have Friday night's game against the Welsh. Now to start saving up money for the trip in 4 years!
The draw was set up perfectly for us, we were in a soft pool an we were all set to play NZ in the final. The fact that we lost to to an Irish side that we should crush suggests to me we have gone backwards. We played a poor game against the Saffers last week and only got through that match because of some real grit and determination. Our second half tonight was not too bad but the first half was very ordinary. Their try was set up due to a poor kickoff at the start, it put us under immense pressure and gave them impetus very early on. Did feel the ref was pretty harsh on us aswell but in the end NZ were just too good and had Weepu taken all his chances the score would have been ugly
cripple wrote:A good effort to get past the quarter final last week. Tonight just went to show how much impact an referee's interpretation goes towards determining a result. Last week our most valuable player Pocock was allowed to do almost whatever he wanted, it was clear early on tonight that wasn't going to happen again. We couldn't place the all blacks under any sustained pressure and as a result our expansive players never had any room to work in. Beale's absence was also very noticeable.
Good point about Kurtley, he has been our best player in the last 12 months.
Only good thing about a loss is hopefully Deans gives Sharpe a start next week so he can get his 100th test cap which will be well deserved, personally I would have had him in the side tonight (and would have had Barnes starting instead of Cooper or have Cooper at FB).
Huge loss. As for Quade Cooper, i hope he doesnt get a game for the Wallabies for a while, was really shown up this tournament, he needs to get back to the Reds and really work on his decision making as he seems to have the talent but some of his brain fades were horrendous
Unfortunately Deanes loves Cooper and Cooper always plays well at Super 15s as he has a lot more time to do things and doesn't second guess himself so I'm not sure if anything will change for a while there.
Armchair expert wrote:Such a great club are Geelong
Wedgie wrote:Unfortunately Deanes loves Cooper and Cooper always plays well at Super 15s as he has a lot more time to do things and doesn't second guess himself so I'm not sure if anything will change for a while there.
The guy has all the skill in the world but i reckon your right, he has that little bit extra time at Super 15's level. A couple of times tonight he showed some good moves but he made probably the worst 3 mistakes in the first half. No excuse for kicking out on the full from the start, it gave the All Blacks a scrum in the middle and have them early territory and led to the only try of the game. The chip kick was just embarrasing and a very poor choice. Maybe Deans needs to get him to go back to basics. We were smashed in the scrums tonight and that really needs to be addressed if we are to move forward
Wedgie wrote:Unfortunately Deanes loves Cooper and Cooper always plays well at Super 15s as he has a lot more time to do things and doesn't second guess himself so I'm not sure if anything will change for a while there.
Cooper seems to be a bit of a 'flat track bully', he really seems to struggle when the pressure is on (both skills and decision making)
