Autumn Internationals results update - Nov 6th 2010

First !

Thought Ireland had that.

The SA v ireland match was horrendous... Knock on after knock on after knock on. It's a shame Sexton hasn't stepped up as a classy fly half and he's not reliable at all at controlling a game. And Tommy Boew had a really odd game.

Anyway, good to see the great Juan Smith playing. What a guy.

Frustrating day to be a Welsh fan, got to hand it to the aussies though what a backline!

Words of V.Matfield (or there abouts): 'it was a wet game so we knew the forwards had to be dominant'

Admitting that wet conditions doesnt generally = fast paced running rugby...

In the words of P.de Villiers: 'the games not over until the 90mins is up'

NINETY MINUTES?!?!?!? WTF....

Fantastic game, was gutted the irish didnt pull it back..

SA deserved the win though...

if ireland want to win these test matches then eoin reddan should be put down. every 3rd pass seemed to be the wrong decision. he passed to mick o driscoll at one stage when he wanted to or SHOULD have passed to sexton. mick didnt know what was happening.
stringer shouldve started and boss on the bench(from what ive seen this season boss has completely outplayed reddan) and casey should have partnered DOC. ogara shouldve been on WAY before he was put on and why he didnt fire on cronin is beyond me. hes not a better lineout thrower but that wouldnt have made a difference at all the way the lineout was. and how nervous was lambie when he came on.. serious talent for the future though

what happened to RD, but well done on RD getting the deal and coming soo far

what did you guys think of sony bill at 13 for ABs??

imo it coulda been better, as he still threw some very dodgy offloads, which might work in NPC but shoud aussies get these balls and NZ could pay the price

but then i think he can probably only improve

England look like being the best home nations team this Nov and towards WCup, will beat SA and push AUS all the way. Wales are missing too many top players and they're next few games will be a repeat of Aus match and Ireland were truelly awful.

I don't care how wet it is, there's no excuse with all those unforced errors (oh they were getting used to the structures you say, am, it was 7/8 Leinster backs 1st team, with a better right wing), NZ play the same no matter what the conditions. Heaslip would be shot if he was a 3N player for not passing to Fitzgearld near end, and people say he's Ire captain material (he also gave away needless pen at death to kill game for Ire). D'arcy, M O'Driscoll, D Wallace, Reddan and Kearney need to be dropped. Completely agree with above's opinion on Reddan.

George Hook may be OTT when speaking but he's spot on RE: Kearney. Good GAA skills over shadow his lack of attacking skills, he's Stephen Donald to Geordan Murphy and Luke Fitzgearld's Dan Carter if you know what I mean.

Sexton flatters to deceive (completely wrong player for this type of game) but start him again with 9 Stringer, 11 Trimble, 12 Earls, 13 BOD, 14 Bowe and 15 Fitzgearld. Thats an attack minded back line, that given the chance v Samoa can do some damage v NZ (obvious NZ fans, I don't mean we'll win, just a better chance).

Appos for the length of rant, but covering bases for posters to shoot me down.

Carter looked magicial again.

Australia were deadly on attack but their scrum is a joke. God help their front row against the italians

agree with DJ,i've said that reddan shouldn't be playing from the start.average passer,bad defender,useless organiser.at least with stringer you know that he will make the right choices and give a good quick pass.ffs,there was one ruck where i could have driven to lansdowne and passed the ball myself in the time it took reddan to pass it.

on a different note,keith earls at fullback anyone?not blaming kearney,but the man simply cannot run with the ball in hand.he can't do it.he simply can't.earls brings some pace that ireland badly need.
on that note,can you imagine any juan smith running 80 metres untouched against any other international side?against new zealand,he would have been chased down by sonny bill,muliaina,or toeva,against Aus by o'connor or beale,against wales by williams.pace is badly needed

don't know why i said any juan smith.obviously juan smith of the boks

Southerners are as usual far better and i fear for the french team who has an long list of injuries (Servat,Trin-Duc,Swarzeski,Pap...)

To above; French will be way better than Irl. I was embarressed by the coach and by the half full stadium.
As people above have said, Reddan was shit, he's a second choice provincial at best and Boss has looked so much better in the last two months. We can't blame darce, Drico, Bowe - they did what they could. I'd replace Kearney with Earls (I'm a proud Leinster man).
Bottom line, demolished up front, well done SA, don't know what else to say. I'm prob talking shite anyway because i'm pissed right now, not happy though, load of shit management if you ask me.. which nobody did.... all credit to the boks

Ireland were shit for 65 minutes. Mistake after mistake. When ROG and Stringer came on it went a much better. Brilliant crossfield for Bowe.

I don't see what the benefit of Reddan is. He is just a slower version of stringer.

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England vs. NZ was much better. Game should have been closer to be honest.

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I know people think the game is being overpoliced nowadays, but I really think referees should step up and give cards or penalty tries where they are due. NZ should have received more cards last week against Australia and they should have had a penalty try awarded against them this week (somewhat more debatable). Also, in front of the SA try line at the end of the match, Nigel Owens gave about three penalty advantages to Ireland (offsides I think) in about the space of two minutes. As soon as advantage ended, SA infringed again. Why was a yellow card not given on that occasion (I am aware Habana got one later)?

That said, NZ did deserved the win today and SA too, although swifter penalising may have changed swung the match in Ireland's favour, even if they did play like shit.

QUOTE: Southerners are as usual far better and i fear for the french team who has an long list of injuries (Servat,Trin-Duc,Swarzeski,Pap...)

I wouldn't say far better. the new zealand match could have gone much worse for new zealand with a better referee, it would have been a closer match, maybe even a win. they certainly werent far better today.

as for south africa, they werent at full strength but ireland played abysmally and gifted the boks 7 points and missed their own penalties and conversions. one of the worst lineout displays and open play displays (at least for the first 3 quarters) ive seen in ages.

i havent seen the aus wales match yet but a good aussie team which beat the all blacks against a half wales team, 25 - 16 aint bad.


i think the southern hemi has much more depth but when it comes to match day, the gap in quality isnt as great as it is made out to be.

The injuries killed the welsh backline. Hook was wasted at fullback.

Man for some reason there are just some teams we (NZ) can't seem to put to the sword. These teams being England, Argentina, France and the like. I don't know if it's psychology or what but for once I would just like to see a good old fashioned Blow-out against england at Twickenham. We could have cut up. We didn't. Ah well.

On a positive note though England are looking much better. So come RWC I'd expect Eng and France to be up there. Just heard Japan smoked Russia, I hope Japan is on the upward curve.

You can't expect any team to just be walked over, much less England at their home turf.

Though I do feel that the All Blacks seems to have shifted down a gear after the 2 tries in the first half.

Congratulations to all the teams that won. I was worried that the Irish and the South africans would be having a go at each other again like last year. Then again its still early and RD still have to put up the video high-lights. How can someone say the southerners were the better teams as usual, cant you remeber as far back as last year SA had a disastrous end of year tour. The SA Ireland game could have gone anyway. Judging by the coments on here P Divvy isnt the only coach that like to make life difficult for himself.

Anon said: "I wouldn't say far better. the new zealand match could have gone much worse for new zealand with a better referee, it would have been a closer match."

I think the opposite, better refereeing would've ended with much less points for England. The Eng chaser was 2 metres offside for the try and even under the new laws it was a double movement as well. Even the home commentators called both those things but Eng got the 7pts anyway. There were other debatable incidents too. I'm not saying Eng didn't deserve to be quite close and I think they played much better than they did for their win in Australia. I'm just disputing your comment about the refereeing.

I'm quite concerned. Have England peaked too soon? They only lost to the New Zealanders by 10 points and there is a real danger that arrogance and complacency will set in. Coach Martin Johnson must be worried and I hope he doesn't hit the panic button. If only the referee hadn't awarded us that very doubtful try then we would have been much more obviously outclassed and I would be breathing much easier vis-a-vis our WC chances.
Go England ... I mean, don't go England!

All the Irish substitutions worked well -0 but esp the front row and stringer. Not sure if O Gara made _as much_ of a difference as ppl have been saying (in gen, not necessarily here)

Stringer is fast with the passes as everyone says, but also, crucially, accurate. And, a good decision maker (esp with wallace on the pitch for a bit of round the scrum sniping)
Ireland picked a dry weather team for a v wet day - Healy and Buckley in the front row, MOD at lock - none of these worked.

At least subs went well. In the v end, an upright divided the teams, which is mad, as SA should have won easily.

haha Ireland, you lost to a 2nd string bok side missing 13 players.

Agree with Ferdinand totally -- a better refereed game and England loses by a lot more than 10. I'm neither an England nor AB supporter, but that England try should never have been allowed, had a clear offside penalty plus a double move by Hartley. Also, not sure I agree with how the scrums were handled in that game.

Warren Gatland is an idiot. When has James Hook had his best moments? Certainly not at fullback. I realize that with Byrne out, you're left with a thumb up your ass, but Hook creates opportunities when he's at 12 or 13, not 15. And Wales needed someone to create opportunities...Shanklin and Hook pairing would've been a great opportunity since Giteau never looked strong on the tackle. But hey, I'm no rugby coach...so what do I know.

On the All Blacks website, Hosea Gear's try was given to Rico Gear. This is misleading and I wish it to be fixed.

Some very charitable ref treatment toward England, both in the try and in the scrums. The All Blacks managed their own scrums fine, yet every English scrum seemed to result in a penalty to England.

I understand there are different conditions up north, but fuck it is boring to watch these slow slippery dour games.

Gustav, England's scrum was stuffing the All Blacks, don't be stupid.

Anyone else see Keven Mealamu's head-butt / shoulder-charge-leading-with-the-noggin on Lewis Moody? It got replayed four or five times on the Kiwi Sky TV feed to the now-to-be expected absolute silence from the world's most one-eyed commentators. Honestly, reckon they'd have been as quiet if it was Bakkies Botha or Jamie Heaslip?!

England let that match slip for sure and other teams (notable Aussie) would have buried the ABs in the last 10 minutes when, at last, the ref had seen enough blatant cheating to fondle his pocket. Kudos to the Poms for trying to force the pace, but you could still see some of the fatties (Steve Thompson ehem!!!) breathing hard as they plodded to the next lineout, almost yearning for the laws to be wound back to 2002.

As for the Wales - Shackledraggers game, same old same old! It's almost identical scorelines every year with these to and Gatland still trots out the same bollocks about "having the next big win just around the corner". Idiot.

Boks - Ireland. What can you say? Horrible game, horrible weather (surprise, surprise it is Dublin) and horrible substitutions from the world's worst rugby coach almost costing SA the game. Still, Sideshow Bob did well at 13 and that show-pony Spies at least tried to make one tackle. Pat Lambie is a kid for the future though!

Overall I'd say this weekend's shown that the gulf between the hemispheres isn't quite what it was and I reckon by the time Sep 2011 comes round, the rest of the world will have caught up with NZ's conniving ways.

@ anonymous: Strange how the All Blacks managed to get the ball out of their own scrums without too much issue.

I guess the Poms might be able to have a fair whinge (as is their want) about Toeava's "tackle" to stop Hape's try. No arms in that tackle...if it had been the Trinations it might have been a yellow card, red card or life ban, depending on which week and ref it had been. Awesome impersonation of a missle to knock Hape out of play though.

"conniving" must be the Afrikaans word for"winning"....

Nope Anon, i think you'll find it it's an English word meaning: "conspiring to do something considered immoral, illegal, or harmful", and something that I think most other nations will agree is fairly typical of the way the All Blacks approach the tackle area. it doesn't matter, however, as I'm sure the Karma Shark is cruising somewhere off Auckland waiting to bite a certain Mr McCaw in the arse next spring..

I used to think Kidney was a good coach, but what was with the unwillingness to put on fresh legs? Why wait until you're 14 points down and only 15 minutes left? O'Gara should've been on a hell of a lot sooner as Sexton was incredibly lackluster.

Cian Healy looks like he went and ate Ricky Januarie.

Frustrating weekend to say the least...

Tommo said...
Nope Anon, i think you'll find it it's an English word meaning: "conspiring to do something considered immoral, illegal, or harmful", and something that I think most other nations will agree is fairly typical of the way the All Blacks approach the tackle area.

Rubbish. Very impressive how you can speak for most other nations, but do you ever watch how those other nations "approach the tackle area"? Go back to your dictionary and look up "hypocrisy".

the lineout from Ireland was sub-standard to be polite...or complete shite as we like to say in Ireland.
Re heaslip non-pass to Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald passed him out and cut off the option.
I like Kearney, he makes some great covering tackles and for me can be quite dangerous if included in a decent backline move...something that only the SA's put together yesterday.
Ireland really have to learn how to be favourites for a game. For me they didn't have their heads in the right place. As for playing conditions, they're the same for both teams.
Habana was dissapointing for the SA's I thought. Would like to see Earls for Darcey and Boss for Redden who seemed to be trying to send some guys to hospital with his passing yesterday (maybe a tactic to hold down his place??)

Anyway MOM = the ref

re Kidney, I agree with leaving Sexton on until the last minute. The Object of test matches is just that..test.
Ireland need to try new combinations and new players, not win every game. Winning counts in 6ns and WC finals. We managed to whip the SA's before they won the world cup and we went out at the group stages, let's look beyond our nose this time.
Would like to see big changes for NZ, and maybe even the courage to start without BOD. No point getting him injured now is there? He's in his 30's now so not really one for the future even if he is our strongest back for now.
NEW BLOOD PLEASE DECLAN!

Can't remember when I last saw the ABs drop so many balls at crucial moments. Their worst game this year and the best I've seen England play for a while but there were still ten points in it and could easily have been more.

stadiums were not full because according to BBC 2 the tickets were being sold not as singles but as groups ie 4 tickets for all the internationals at the Aviva with a cost of around 320 euros!

wales have a lot of positives to take out the game, our tight 5 were amazing and should take us through the wc, we did pretty well considering our injury list and makeshift backline , lydiate and warburton look very good for the future! with faletau at 8 that good be a quality back row for the future!

Really, as I was watching the Eng vs AB game, one word sums it up... SHOCKING! Besides for the try that shouldn't have been awarded,the refs were nothing unusual. I am neither a Eng or AB fan, but the bias against the English was crystal clear. The ABs were really boring and I think Eng with all the odds against them played a better game, despite the frantic lack of discipline towards the end. That one line out call by Stu Dickenson, shocking, laughable... Andrew Jennings, I wish you could investigate rugby refs starting from the top down for us... it will be a great favour. Seeing that every single ref in the world is afraid to blow the whistle against the ABs, I don't calculate them in anymore as no 1 ranking. That is until they receive penalties against them, where penalties are due. It would have a definite effect on their ranking, like everyone elses. With their performance yesterday they are also not contenders for the WC.

Same goes for the ref in the SA vs Ireland game!!

Some shocking decisions...

Nothing too great from the first day of games. For mine we've got too many international games these days. I can't say I'd be too bothered if the end of year tours were stopped.

They'd still be the Tri-Nations and Six Nations every year. You'd still have the WC every four years. Ditto the Lions tour. OR, if end of year tours do stay, I'd much rather see B/C level nations coming to play us. Japan, Russia, Georgia, Namibia, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga etc. I'd love to see these teams given more proper fixtures against the bigger nations.

From where I'm sitting these internationals don't matter. So if we're going to have needless end of year touring I'd much rather see fixtures that are more productive in improving the international game. They'd be blow outs every year but the experience would help the 'minnow' nations immensely.

I don't see what the top European nations taking on the top SH nations year after year does for the international game. Other than the obvious, creating money.

None of the emerging nations have any experience playing intense rugby at the highest level though. If we want them competing, or atleast holding respectable scorelines in the world cup(s), surely we need to be giving them the experience of top level rugby. Teams getting a 100 points put on them in a WC doesn't reflect well on the game.

Or maybe play the big SH nations 1 year, and emerging nations the next. Rinse and repeat.

Rather watch the Wellington Hurricanes or Sale Sharks play than watch these tours tbh.

Agree with the Anon about the refs flavoring Nz, it's a complete joke and no, not English either.

Suppose the IRB love them though, after all they're exotic and such loving people, are the Polynesians. LOL. (they aren't really)

Anonymous said...
"Agree with the Anon about the refs flavoring Nz, it's a complete joke and no, not English either."

aaaaahahahahahahahahhaaa! funniest comment so far.

"Suppose the IRB love them though, after all they're exotic and such loving people, are the Polynesians. LOL. (they aren't really)"

most racist comment so far
hhmmm I wonder where this "rugby fan" comes from?

"haha Ireland, you lost to a 2nd string bok side missing 13 players."

Second string? Aplon, JdV, Habana, M. Steyn, Juan Smith, Matfield, Botha, Spies, Du Plessis... OK anonymous. Keep telling yourself it was a second string side if it eases the pain of just beating a shite Irish team.

@Gustav, I agree. I don't understand all the ridiculous starting/stopping with scrums these days, and the French referee in the England-AB game was no different. You're right on their own ball the ABs were fine, but on Pom ball the ref was always blowing his whistle.

This game got ugly no doubt, and Mealamu got caught with a cheap move. But don't forget Hartley was just as bad if not worse, dropping an elbow on McCaw's throat when he was on the deck. It was pretty hilarious to watch what happened after -- on the live Sky TV feed, all of a sudden you see Hartley literally go flying through the air out of nowhere. Then it rewinds, after successfully dropping an elbow on McCaw, Hartley gets up, only Brad Thorn saw the whole thing and responded pretty quickly.

GIVE FIONN CARR A RUN FOR IRELAND!!

"re Kidney, I agree with leaving Sexton on until the last minute. The Object of test matches is just that..test."

Then why put O'Gara in the 22 at all then? Sexton was, and has been, bland and uninspiring in most matches recently. He didn't deserve to be on the pitch after halftime.

You want "new blood" in there? Fine, bring on Niall O'Connor or Ian Keatley then.

I agree with the last comment, too, though. Given the sad state Ireland were playing in the other night, you may as well give Fionn Carr a shot - it certainly wouldn't hurt.

I presume he brought O'Gara in as Sexton was going from bad to worse. He's no doubt a talent and when he hits form he's a dangerous 10. Seems to be weak pscyologically, can't pick himself up.
You're right though, would have been better to see a new 10 in instead of the tried and trusted O'Gara.
Would love to see more new caps for the test matches. Too many supporters put too much weight on test results. Probably ends up as pressure on Kidney and basically every coach who went before him.

Did someone say Habana was sin binned!!!!

For deliberate knock on before Kearney's try possibly!! I know Ire had advantage, thats why O'Gara threw a 50/50 pass, but the commentators didn't mention it at all.

2nd string boks, ah, I think you'll find that du Plessis is better than Smit, and as someone pointed out, all the Bulls, Smith, JdV, Habana, etc.

Since ye've mentioned the Mealamu and Hartley incidents, the hookers must've been drinking some fucked up shit, because du Plessis also stamped all over Tony Buckley and directly led to him having to go off. If you get to see it, Buckley was lying prone on ground. du Plessis walks blindly on him (getting to the ruck), then, when he looks down and sees Buckley he clearly lands his right foot on Buckley's leg. Buckley reacts but was in too much discomfort to get up. I like du Plessis as a player, but he is a certified scumbag.

Buckley got hammered in the scrum all game, is that not why he went off?

It wasn't a second string team, but the backs were a mess and there was a wing at fullback, a fullback at center, and three debutants on the bench, all forced because of injury/player unavailability. Schalk Burger, Jaque Fourie, Fourie Du Preez, JP Pietersen, Francois Steyn, John Smit, Gurthro Steenkamp.. they were all missing.

Anyway, poor game overall. Bit of excitement with Smith's great try, and O'Gara and Stringer were exciting when they came on.

@KG That team isnt full strength so second string would be the best way to describe them. No reason to gloat about that win though. Keep in mind the coach put a sub par fullback on as a centre. This after selecting a even worse center for the tour squad. Why select Adi Jacobs a guy a one legged horse can out run if he has no intension of using him. Think the IRB should do something about PdV he doesnt choose the best players, but then again who am I kidding the IRB doesnt care about Rugby.

SH - 3
NH - 0

More of the same next week?

I thought in all three games the refs favoured the home teams, particularly in the England game.
The ball is allowed to be slowed down up north, they let the tackler play the ball.
It makes for a slower, more dour (boring) game.
But still the SH teams won, so it didn't matter in the end.

KG, let me list the missing players from South Africa

Frans Steyn, Guthro, Bekker, Fourie du Preez, Jaque Fourie, Juan de Jongh, John Smit, JP Pietersen... to name a few. 13 injured/unav players.

This was a 2nd string SA side, don't try and deny it. Bok side with about 6 new caps and a quota playing centre beating Ireland's top side at home makes me lol.

ChinUp said...
SH - 3
NH - 0
More of the same next week.

Probably, ChinUp. It's surprising considering how pathetic that SH defence is supposed to be. :-)

The Ire vs SA game got really interesting when O'Gara came on, that's the type of rugby one enjoys the Irish to play.

@Huh!! The 3rd, I didn't notice what du Plessis did to Tony Buckley, but I do recall the same being done to the Springboks in the same game. I don't agree with it at all, but it seems these men become like little boys when they in the game...