Bledisloe Cup

Wallabies coach Dave Rennie says a good portion of his squad is “pretty angry” at the behaviour of winger Marika Koroibete, back-rower Isi Naisarani and prop Pone Fa’amausili after a late night drinking session resulted in the trio being stood down for Saturday’s Bledisloe Cup opener against the All Blacks.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-union/three-wallabies-dropped-from-bledisloe-opener-after-drinking-session-20210804-p58fw0.html

I know professionalism and all jazz, but I have to laugh

BamBam wrote:I know professionalism and all jazz, but I have to laugh

I'll drink to that.

Looks as if they've put out a decent team, but they'll miss Koroibete for sure. This definitely isn't on Sky Sports, anyone know where it'll be?

Good news. Sky just confirmed they have it on.

If I had to listen to Cowboy Dave the Laughing coach every day of my working life I might take the occassional glass of Barley wine.

Lack of respect from the Kiwi fans, Mexican wave whilst Oz kick at goal.

All Kiwi Ref team including the TMO.

Great finish from the Wallabies! Not going to be easy to beat when they tour in the Autumn.

Might the Wallabies have pinched that if they didn’t miss so many kicks?

A good couple of no look passes for the zoomer kids to enjoy

How many penalties did New Zealand give away and they still scored over 30 points. Proves that giving away or not giving away penalties isn't the be all and end all some think it is.

A good game to watch as both teams look to move the ball.

Kiwis gave away lots of consecutive penalties in the red zone, should have perhaps been carded at some point.

But the penalty count can be misleading as three penalties in succession doesn’t mean three opportunities to score three points.

It is an old trait of NZ to rahter get penalised than concede a try.

NZ took their foot off the pedal in that last quarter. Match was basically sown up by 60 minutes.

If Australia had kicked their goals, would have been a different story.

I pretty much figured the Wallabies would lose when their fullback tried to catch that punt with his face in the first half.

Classic headbutt

Still a lot of raw talent in that Wallabies squad. Lolesio willl take a few years to become a safer pair of hands for the Wallabies and the 2023 RWC may be just be too soon for that. I'd expect him to be hitting his best form for the next Lions tour if he continues to get regular game time. Probably worth sticking with him, he may have thrown an long intercept pass and missed a lot of kicks but his distribution and instinctive play is very good. A sharp player off the ball as well.

Rugby Fan wrote:

Wallabies coach Dave Rennie says a good portion of his squad is “pretty angry” at the behaviour of winger Marika Koroibete, back-rower Isi Naisarani and prop Pone Fa’amausili after a late night drinking session resulted in the trio being stood down for Saturday’s Bledisloe Cup opener against the All Blacks.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-union/three-wallabies-dropped-from-bledisloe-opener-after-drinking-session-20210804-p58fw0.html

To be fair it wasn't the drinking that they were annoyed about but the breaking of curfew. To stay out drinking for two hours after everyone else has headed back doesn't show a great deal of respect. Also where's the lost art of sneaking in?

formerly known as Sam wrote:

Rugby Fan wrote:

Wallabies coach Dave Rennie says a good portion of his squad is “pretty angry” at the behaviour of winger Marika Koroibete, back-rower Isi Naisarani and prop Pone Fa’amausili after a late night drinking session resulted in the trio being stood down for Saturday’s Bledisloe Cup opener against the All Blacks.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-union/three-wallabies-dropped-from-bledisloe-opener-after-drinking-session-20210804-p58fw0.html

To be fair it wasn't the drinking that they were annoyed about but the breaking of curfew. To stay out drinking for two hours after everyone else has headed back doesn't show a great deal of respect. Also where's the lost art of sneaking in?

That is so true, back in the day in New Zealand when we went out of town on Rugby trips we often stayed in those cheap old pubs that had the old exterior fire escapes....ah the memories.

bsando wrote:Still a lot of raw talent in that Wallabies squad. Lolesio willl take a few years to become a safer pair of hands for the Wallabies and the 2023 RWC may be just be too soon for that. I'd expect him to be hitting his best form for the next Lions tour if he continues to get regular game time. Probably worth sticking with him, he may have thrown an long intercept pass and missed a lot of kicks but his distribution and instinctive play is very good. A sharp player off the ball as well.

What may not have been apparent to viewers was that there was a difficult squally wind in the stadium, yes he missed some kicks which he will not miss in the future. It was a young Wallaby team but they will develop, I watched the young Warratahs team about a month ago play the Blues and some of those players are only just past 1st xv level, they are the future and definitely not afraid of the big time. watch this space.

Game 2 about to kick off. Can see a similar game to last week TBH - cagey at the start, ABs pull away then Australia get a few late tries back.

Australia clearly not learning from last week - a really good setup then throw a wild pass easy for interception!

I think everyone except the passer saw the inevitability of that interception.

Great response Australia

That kick was reminiscent of how Finn Russell looked to put Adams away last week.

Rugby Fan wrote:That kick was reminiscent of how Finn Russell looked to put Adams away last week.

Copycats!

I think McKenzie could have done better - he completely over commited

This is basically a different sport from the Lions games!

Terrible exit from the Aussies leading up to the 3rd kiwi try.

There's a time and a place for a box kick and that was it!

That should be a yellow

Clear yellow for the ABs 7 -on their line

There doesn't alway need to be a warning first!

I’m glad Australia have been rewarded from that initial penalty.

Huge try - game on!

Australia back in it at the break.
Nothing against the all blacks, hoping Australia can turn it around.
Been a decent first half.
Enjoyed last weeks game also.

Does feel like Australia are having to work hard for every point. I feel like Australia have been much the better team but they're 6 points behind!

That interception is the big difference

Aussies are still very naive in the way they play.

They are so eagre to entrtain that they keep makiing basic mistakes.

You must pull defences in first before going wide, that’s why they threw an intercept try.

You must kick into touch against Nz, that’s why they concede a try.

NZ up to their old antics, rather concede three than five/seven

RDW wrote:Clear yellow for the ABs 7 -on their line

There doesn't alway need to be a warning first!

Yep, than having been given the warning the Kiwis infringed at the immediate scrum, but the referee didn't go for his pocket. Very poor, but Australia still in it. A game of good attacking play v suspect defence.

Duty281 wrote:

RDW wrote:Clear yellow for the ABs 7 -on their line

There doesn't alway need to be a warning first!

Yep, than having been given the warning the Kiwis infringed at the immediate scrum, but the referee didn't go for his pocket. Very poor, but Australia still in it. A game of good attacking play v suspect defence.

TBF that was for a scrum offense so probably correct. If there'd been a live play penalty it should have been a yellow.

Good on the ref for keeping the tally going from the first half. Often you see a ref reset the count which I don't think is right.

Finally the yellow

But messed up lineout! Incredibly frustrating

Poor decision from Paisame to get tackled into touch instead of an easy 2 on 1 pass.

And ABs score!

You can't make these poor decisions against the ABs

Well that's probably the game. Huge momentum swing from.the yellow then botched lineout.

Shame as it would have been an exciting game if Aus had scored at that point.

Good little run from Koroibete. Love seeing him have a good run.
Like the look of McDermot and Kellaway.

That’s that then.

This has been a dreadful 10 minutes from Australia. When will they learn on the intercepts!

Coaches will be so frustrated

Silly Australia, they didn't learn from the first half. 14 points conceded v NZ from interceptions is unforgivable.

Duty281 wrote:Silly Australia, they didn't learn from the first half. 14 points conceded v NZ from interceptions is unforgivable.

4 tries straight from Australian bad choices

Australia have completely collapsed.

This could get messy!

Getting stuffed now, typical Aussie implosion.

Australia need a little more control and a little less touch rugby

Absolute massacre!

There was a lot to like in the wallabies performance for the first 41 minutes but that has got to be one of the worst 2nd half collapses on top flight rugby in a long time. The momentum shift was brutal and Australia just fell apart.

ABs never really had to get out of 2nd gear really. Will be interesting to see how they get on against teams that don't make those basic mistakes.

Loved seeing the intensity in NZ's defence even when they were 30-odd in front. Australia hit the 'off' switch immediately after that mangled line-out when the Kiwis had just been brought down to 14.

SA/Argentina should be closer later today.