Australia vs Wales 2nd test - Teams and Live match thread

[Pete C (Kiwireddevil)]

First topic message reminder :

Australian playing 22:
Aussie team is:
15. Adam Ashley-Cooper (NSW Waratahs)
14. Cooper Vuna (Melbourne Rebels)
13. Rob Horne (NSW Waratahs)
12. Pat McCabe (Brumbies)
11. Digby Ioane (Queensland Reds)
10. Berrick Barnes (NSW Waratahs)
9. Will Genia (Queensland Reds)
8. Wycliff Palu (NSW Waratahs)
7. David Pocock (captain, Western Force)
6. Scott Higginbotham (Queensland Reds)
5. Nathan Sharpe (Western Force)
4. Rob Simmons (Queensland Reds)
3. Sekope Kepu* (NSW Waratahs)
2. Tatafu Polota Nau (NSW Waratahs)
1. Benn Robinson (NSW Waratahs)

Run on Reserves: 16. Stephen Moore (Brumbies), 17. Ben Alexander (Brumbies), 18. Dave Dennis (NSW Waratahs), 19. Michael Hooper (Brumbies), 20. Nic White (Brumbies), 21. Anthony Fainga’a (Queensland Reds), 22. Mike Harris (Queensland Reds)

Wales : Leigh Halfpenny (Blues); Alex Cuthbert (Blues), Jonathan Davies (Scarlets), Ashley Beck (Ospreys), George North (Scarlets); Rhys Priestland (Scarlets), Mike Phillips (Bayonne); Gethin Jenkins (Toulon), Matthew Rees (Scarlets), Adam Jones (Ospreys), Bradley Davies (Blues), Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys), Dan Lydiate (Dragons), Sam Warburton (Blues, capt), Ryan Jones (Ospreys).

Replacements : Matthew Rees (Scarlets), Paul James (Bath), Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys), Ryan Jones (Ospreys), Lloyd Williams (Blues), James Hook (Perpignan), Ashley Beck (Ospreys). Richard Hibbard, Paul James, Luke Charteris, Justin Tipuric, Rhys Webb, James Hook, Scott Williams. (BBC has the bench wrong)


Venue: Etihad Stadium, Melbourne. Capacity ~56,000
Weather: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2158177 - ~12 deg C, showery. But there is a roof.

Tour Previews:
http://www.v2journal.com/wales-summer-tour-preview.html
http://www.v2journal.com/australias-june-tests-preview.html

[thebluesmancometh]

Our lineout is giving the average Barnes 10 option huge confidence. If nothing on kick to touch and disrupt our throw!

[welshy6]

has he dislocated a finger again or something as rees throwing is terrible

[Guest]

why are people surprised we're losing lineout in their 22? it's been a welsh curse literally for YEARS now. I always expect it and in that way when we do mess it up, I'm not disappointed or too upset.

[Cadair Idris]

It's so frustrating as our defence is much improved. We just need some possession and territory but keep gifting them the ball

[Guest]

yes Mike and Rhys!!

That's how it's doen!!

good lineout and attacking from our own 22, great strenght by Mikey phill to break down the field, super Rhys support!



and how is that an aus pen?

[Guest]

hahah who did Rhys P hand off there? they should be a bit embarrassed anyway, Rhys never does that to anyone!

[welshy6]

what the heck, pocock hands in ruck but gets the penalty?
good run though

[rhonddasmackhead]

SH refs are a joke.

Phillips and Priestland having awesome game.

Lineouts probably cost us 10 points.

[thebluesmancometh]

We have to nullify Pocock, he is the Aus defence!!!

[Pal Joey]

wrong option Will...

[Pal Joey]

Try... bout time. !!!1

[thebluesmancometh]

Phillips is awfull!!!

All this wayward kicking / passing one break doesn't make him a good scrum half!

That game over! Unless we get Phillips/ Rees and Warbs off the pitch at half time!!!

[Guest]

well, that was a bit good from Australia.

Who bought the dummy from Barnes??


Beck mun ffs!

Still, good bit of play from Australia that.

[rhonddasmackhead]

Great box kick Phillips. Give possession away for no reason.

Australia haven't earned any possession. One of the stupidest Welsh performances in years.

[Pal Joey]

Lydiate fell for it I think

[Guest]

bit overly negative there bluesman, can't say I agree with you.

[Cadair Idris]

Oh

We had it coming though. Just making far too many basic errors.

[offload]

Poor poor defence. Simply not good enough.

[GavinDragon]

rees off, i still dont know why they dropped owens,

webb on for phillips

tipuric on for warburton who doesnt look fit

[Guest]

13 - 7 at HT.

i would say that reflects the game so far.

wales' defence is much MUCh better. lots for us to build from. Stop kicking away turnover and improve our line out, and I think we can go on to win.

Can't understand the overly negative comments on this thread really.

[rhonddasmackhead]

Great box kick Phillips. Give possession away for no reason.

Australia haven't earned any possession. One of the stupidest Welsh performances in years.

[thebluesmancometh]

We deserve to be behind. The tight five aren't in the game AT ALL. Scrum going backwards, lineout pathetic and Aus dominating at the breakdown.

Rees and Warbs are passengers right now, Phillips kicking is poor. Onced again too many mistakes and dull decisions from us.

[TycroesOsprey]

Weve really got to get our handss on the ball and keep it. Webb, Tipuric and Hibbard to come on at half time.

[GavinDragon]

dreamer i agree our defence is much better but australia look like there in second gear in terms of intensity and pace, question is, is that through choice or from our defence?

[Duty281]

Try for Aus! Get in!

[Guest]

If Australia are dominating at the breakdown, whey have they got so much slow ball to work with? Would say they aren't dominating, I think we've got parity there.

Our scrum isn't going backwards either.

The only real concern is our lineout.

[offload]

Big call now for Howley. Hope he has the bottle to do something because another fat L is looming.

[Guest]

Im amazed we are still in this game we haven't touched the ball, if we do get it phillips kicks it away!!

JD2 North and Cuthbert deserve some ball, they would run rampage if given the chance.

[rhonddasmackhead]

13 - 7 at HT.

i would say that reflects the game so far.

wales' defence is much MUCh better. lots for us to build from. Stop kicking away turnover and improve our line out, and I think we can go on to win.

Can't understand the overly negative comments on this thread really.

REALLY?

An international side loses 3 of their own lineouts in attacking 22 and you cant understand negative comments?

Since the try Wales have squandered ALL of their chances. Giving the game to oz is an understatement.

[thebluesmancometh]

Negativity is because no part of our performance has changed, in the slightest. Our tight 5 are still not at the races, Phillips is giving ball away, our chase for the kicking game is even worse than last week I think.

I put last week down as a fair few players being rusty, but now it's sadly obvious they are just lacking.

If we have no lineout we have no ball, if we have no kicking game we have no territory, if we have neither of these we have no chance.

I am waiting for a bit of a purple patch in the 2nd half, but it won't be enough.

[Guest]

Gav - I think its our defence. I think we all agreed last week was the wosrt it's been for absoultely ages. Today we are showing what good defence can do against Australia.

It's a shame we conceded a try before HT, but we're only 6 points behind, all to play for, sort our lineout and we'll come good. We've showed just as many good glimpses as Australia imo.

We often play games with less territory and possession so I'm not too worried that Aus are seeing more of the ball than us.

[Casartelli]

Gareth Llewellyn says on the radio;

"We're not losing the lineouts, we're just miscommunicating..."

Brilliant!

[Guest]

Blues, we've improved massively from last week. Still lots to work on, but I'm not feeling too downhearted.

Rhondda - we nearly always lose an attacking lineout in the 22, it's same old same old there, not sure why people are so surprised at it today? I don't like it, but I've come to expect it.

[Knowsit17]

That try's on Phillips.

Wales have looked in defensive mode since North's try. They're inviting the Aussies to bash away to their hearts' content. Need a massive improvement second half.

[Pal Joey]

So it's not the ref giving the game to Oz? Make up your mind, smackhead.

[thebluesmancometh]

We havn't got parity at the breakdown with 30% posession!!!!!!!

We have slowed some ball down, but we need to be putting Genia under so much more pressure!

[rhonddasmackhead]

We can't release our back 3 cuz we don't have any possession.

[Lord Sprey]

That was warburton at fault for that try, got beaten on the outside, hope Beck doesnt take the rap for this, hes had a good first half

[gowales]

Agree Sprey, Beck was covering the outside man, that was Warburton's tackle to make

[Guest]

Beck drifted out, Lord Sprey, Warbs was never going to have the pace to cover the gap. Both a bit at fault, but Beck more so for me.

[rhonddasmackhead]

Frustrating because when Wales do everything else wrong, they have perfect lineouts. Them tidy it's almost the opposite.

[thebluesmancometh]

You do not win games with 30% posession, or with 3 in 7 lineouts?

I have no doubt if we could even get that posession stat up to 40 - 50% we will score tries, Cuthbert, North, Davies and Beck will annhialate this Aus backline, but we need some ball.

The most worrying part of that half was our break out from our own 22, you can't do that at international level, it's risky. We are starting to panic when we do see some ball, thats whats worrying me.

[gowales]

The only time the lineout works is when Charteris plays, go figure...

[Biltong]

In my mind, Pocock has no equal as pilferer.

[offload]

We have been better at the breakdown, not brilliant but better. The two problems are no line out which has cost us a massive amount of possession, and poor kicking from Phillips. We have no chance of winning this without the ball.

[Cadair Idris]

Weve really got to get our handss on the ball and keep it. Webb, Tipuric and Hibbard to come on at half time.

Totally agree. Get these 3 on.

[Guest]

Hardly think we'll annhialate the Aus backline Bluesman but we can certainly cause them problems (as indeed we already have on a couple of occassions).

Just need to go through the phases a bit, maybe bring on Tips for Warbs as he doesn't look like he's recovered from his knock, and probs bring on Hibbs at the 60min mark and we'll be good to go. I believe in this team.

[gowales]

That's some big talk bluecoat, i haven't seen anything to suggest our backline would do

[thebluesmancometh]

Priestland starts well, 2 garbage kicks and a ball he watches go dead!

[offload]

Another crap kick...

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