Australia v Wales 3rd Test: Teams and Build-Up

First topic message reminder :

Saturday 23rd June, 2012
15:00 EST, 06:00 BMT
Allianz Stadium (SFS), Moore Park, Capacity: 45,500
Current forecast for Saturday: Fine, 7-15 deg. C
Sydney Radar (The ground is halfway between .Sydney and .Randwick on the diagonal)

Australia:
15 Kurtley Beale
14 Adam Ashley-Cooper
13 Rob Horne
12 Pat McCabe
11 Digby Ioane
10 Berrick Barnes
9 Will Genia
8 Wycliff Palu
7 David Pocock (capt.)
6 Scott Higginbotham
5 Nathan Sharpe
4 Sitaleki Timani
3 Sekope Kepu
2 Tatafu Polota Nau
1 Benn Robinson

Reserves:
16 Stephen Moore, 17 Ben Alexander, 18 Rob Simmons, 19 Dave Dennis, 20 Michael Hooper, 21 Nic White, 22 Anthony Fainga'a.

Wales:
15 Leigh Halfpenny
14 Alex Cuthbert
13 Jonathan Davies
12 Ashley Beck
11 George North
10 Rhys Priestland
9 Mike Phillips
8 Ryan Jones
7 Sam Warburton (capt.)
6 Dan Lydiate
5 Alun Wyn Jones
4 Bradley Davies
3 Adam Jones
2 Matthew Rees
1 Gethin Jenkins

Reserves:
16 Ken Owens, 17 Paul James, 18 Luke Charteris, 19 Justin Tipuric, 20 Rhys Webb, 21 James Hook, 22 Scott Williams.

Anyway, enjoy the game LB, sounds like it should be a top day out. You'll no doubt meet plenty of fantastic Welsh supporters as I did.

Full Credit wrote:Anyway, enjoy the game LB, sounds like it should be a top day out. You'll no doubt meet plenty of fantastic Welsh supporters as I did.

ALL Welsh supporters are fantastic!!!

we certainly are always friendly and we know when we been beaten fair and square

I can't wait. Got up half an hour ago. Blydi freezing.

We'll be out-sung in the anthems for sure but I'm hoping for a fast paced match and the Wallabies stepping up a gear. Wales will too no doubt!
We haven't had rain for a week now... it's perfect clear skies outside.

...and go Black Caviar in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes. That impressive nag has never lost a race.

I think the wallabies are going to fire today, I reckon they will take it by 2 scores.

Missed the match, BB. Set alarm for 2:35am but slept through.

I heard SA won.... just about to check the thread.

biltongbek wrote:I think the wallabies are going to fire today,

It'll be all the sweeter for a Welsh win then.... and a monkey well and truly evicted!

Can't see us winning , same squad same dumb mistakes, neither of the games so far have even felt like test matches to me Wales just look so nervous and seem afraid to get physical.

Over all im very disappointed at the lack of urgency around the squad.

What Wales need to do is play with intensity; they always play their best rugby in the final 3rd because the game opens up. They need to create that broken play in the first half and rely on their fitness to carry them through. So all that and a marked reduction in unforced errors, better decsion making, a working lineout, subs whose sole contribution aren't to let a maul get into penalty range before pulling it down and someone other than Jamie Roberts to get them over the gainline.

Well, I wish all the Wales fans the best of luck today.

If you win at least it will end the tour on a high note and that 43 y.o. monkey will be off your back. However, just like all teams... there will always be more work to be done leading into the AIs.

(it really should be 1-1 going into this match)

[quote="mowgli"]What Wales need to do is play with intensity;quote]

Agree completely Mowgli..
They need to take a leaf from Ireland last week and look to win ugly. That means getting up in their faces all match, cutting off the runners immediately, suffocate the inside backs. Thats what Ireland did, the Baby boks did this morning and in both the opposition conceded far to many errors and mistakes, and couldnt get going.

Fact is they dont have better backs than Oz in terms of creating opportunities. Intensity is the key. Front up to them all match and the holes, or cracks in the armour, just might appear.

I think this series has highlighted just how much we miss Roberts. People said during the 6N that it was an obvious game plan, but it was unbelievably effective. It got us over the gain line, committed tacklers allowing our forwards to clear out and give us quick ball. This unleashed people like North and Cuthbert when coming in field and also opened up space for JD2. Just reading that back, it shows how big a part of our success comes from him. After all, he wasn't named man of the series for the Lions for nothing.

Wales need to, like Mowgli said, play with intensity, something we haven't seen surprisingly this series, well that said, perhaps in phases and ironically led to the tries we have scored. The intensity comes from playing with ball in hand and putting together meaningful phase play and creating space out wide. You need to earn the right to go out wide by straightening the line and getting quick ball. Its been very frustrating to watch due to us aimlessly kicking possession away, and in the last test for me the worst kicking during the game was during that 10 mins Vuna was in the bin. Whenever a NH side goes down to 14 men, the SH team tends to make us pay. We haven't shown that clinical edge to our game yet.

I'm hoping for a win tomorrow, but if we adopt the same tactics as we have seen, which I wouldn't be surprised if we did see them again, we will lose I have no doubt about that.

Cheers martyr, Gatland has taken Wales away from the off load style they used to favour, tonight's game needs to see Wales employ as much of that as possible. it shigh risk but potentially high reward and i would like to see Hook in the mix...they have nowt to lose but their munkey

Kick off in 6.5 hours. 8:30am here.

Agree with most of what you say, martyr... especially the first paragraph. Wales are so strong with that Roberts-North combination and I think Australia has done well to keep them (without Roberts) at bay... yet North still managed to crash over beside the posts in that last game. Second try was a bit of a case of the Wallabies going to sleep and Wales punished.

Just glad we have Beale back. Our back three looks much more balanced and potent this weekend. Big things expected of KB - they've talked him up so much in the last 2 days.

Linebreaker wrote:Kick off in 6.5 hours. 8:30am here.

.

Oops, time to get to bed...

I still find it funny the time difference, already match day in Aus and us welsh are going to bed with the usual butterflies haha

What's up Aussies?

Match starting soon. Still think NH are going to win one tonight. Will this be it?
Am looking forward to watching Beale again. One of my favourite players to watch. Immense talent.

I think the NH win might already have happened...good on the scots for closing out another very tight game, lets hope the welsh can find another gear

Morning all the early birds, me thinks we are going to have a cracker.

Still gutted to have missed last weekends fixtures. I can only hope that this weekend makes up for that (by that I mean a Wales win, and an Ireland one) .

Afternoon gents (it's 3pm here )

Good luck to all.

I have just had a 5 minute hug with my dog so i don't feel so bad when i kick him in 80 minutes

mowgli wrote:I have just had a 5 minute hug with my dog so i don't feel so bad when i kick him in 80 minutes

You're lucky Grey Ghost isn't around, I did that last year and he sent the SPCA after me, now I kick a stuffed dog around.

anyone have a link for the match

Why not find a stuffed grey ghost to kick around? (you don't have to be watching sport to do it).

bore da/good morning all.

Good luck to Australia, but Ymlaen Cymru! I appear to have Russian commentary this morning, so this game will be nothing if not interesting....

Not nearly the same thing morg, would prefer to hear the squeals

Ieuan you have a pm

I feel sick already

Why didn't he stop for Halfpenny when the ball went out? He still has a crocked arm.

Ifandorbut wrote:Ieuan you have a pm

cheers!

I am bricking it, dogs been walked (and apologised to for what I'm about to do to her) breakfast made, now We have to do the biz!!

bad start from wales again, how often has that been said

Absolute murder of 1/2p there, then clever Aus play to exploit the injured player!

wales appear to have forgotten they had a game today...

Morning!!!

Reporting for duty...bleary eyed and yawning...

What have I missed?

Jeez, you people are cruel to animals, and you're so open about it!

1/2p's kikcing was key last week, he now gets clattered in the first minute, Ive seen penalties for the same thing!

Someone needs to hit Beales shoulder...

nice to see some offloading going on

Is it me, or when Wales have had any ball in all 3 tests thay have gone over and broken the gameline so easily?!

its you not wales!!

Thats about right... cheap points!

very cheap

Talk about cheap, up steps RP!!!!

wow, good to see RP getting the basics right

OK got a stream sorted. Disappointed that 1/2p went to a Lady Gaga gig...thought he'd have had taste

Another stupid penalty...

ah Rhys mun, steady now, your re-starts were pin point last week. You can do better than that.

In his defence it was an awkward bounce, it bounced a touch higher than he was expecting I think!

Robinson no attempt to bind at all, or scrummage!!