how did we get out of that? and a truly great lusi.

[Ken Gargett]

have absolutely no idea how we beat the boks. brilliant defence and an unbelievable game by pocock. what a great bunch of flankers in world rugby at the moment but none better than pocock. cooper played his worst game ever. surely can't do that again? hopefully barnes starts ahead of mccabe next week. sadly, i'm stuck somewhere in spain or on a train or something so will miss it.

watched it with a magnificent old lusi. only thing that kept me sane. not sure what it was as no band and had got mixed up with others but as soon as i started, knew it was one of the last 97s. what a truly stunning smoke.

[coblos]

Lucky for the Wallabies highest score wins. If it was measured on possession, territory and time in oppositions 22 we were slaughtered. Great game! and if that wasn't enough to keep on the edge of my seat I was trying to watch the Bathurst 1000 at the same time, so lucky Lowndes didn't take him on that last lap.

[sv_ontour]

Yeah we won that on luck....I haven't been a fan of Cooper at all, a lot of people have said he could win us the WC I believe the opposite I think he will lose it for us. Anyway BRING ON ABs!!! Let's just hope we show up.

[Ken Gargett]

Yeah we won that on luck....I haven't been a fan of Cooper at all, a lot of people have said he could win us the WC I believe the opposite I think he will lose it for us. Anyway BRING ON ABs!!! Let's just hope we show up.

cooper is an enigma. i've seen a great deal of him in recent years, especially this year's super 15. he has done some stuff i have never seen anyone else, not even campo, manage. but can unravel. possible the continued hatred of him in nz is getting to him (a player like wally lweis would have sucked this up and been even better but cooper might be different - used to people fawning over him); possibly he doesn't mesh with what deans wants (still think deans couldn't coach a clock to tell time); possibly just a form lapse or loss of confidence; super 15 different to test rugby but he has done some terrific stuff at test level as well. but it is not working at the moment. that said, i'm not sure we can beat the kiwis without him (not sure we can beat them, period). if mccabe out, hopefully barnes comes in. surely too late to switch barnes in to 5/8 and set up a completely untried combo between him and genia. faingaa is similar to mccabe but he won't ever make a line break on his own - his form for the reds was based on cooper.

every team needs matchwinners. he is one. higgers is another potentially but obviously the kiwi plant doesn't like him.

is it me or does the scrum look better every time slipper is on?

[El Presidente]

cooper is an enigma. i've seen a great deal of him in recent years, especially this year's super 15. he has done some stuff i have never seen anyone else, not even campo, manage. but can unravel. possible the continued hatred of him in nz is getting to him (a player like wally lweis would have sucked this up and been even better but cooper might be different - used to people fawning over him); possibly he doesn't mesh with what deans wants (still think deans couldn't coach a clock to tell time); possibly just a form lapse or loss of confidence; super 15 different to test rugby but he has done some terrific stuff at test level as well. but it is not working at the moment. that said, i'm not sure we can beat the kiwis without him (not sure we can beat them, period). if mccabe out, hopefully barnes comes in. surely too late to switch barnes in to 5/8 and set up a completely untried combo between him and genia. faingaa is similar to mccabe but he won't ever make a line break on his own - his form for the reds was based on cooper.

every team needs matchwinners. he is one. higgers is another potentially but obviously the kiwi plant doesn't like him.

is it me or does the scrum look better every time slipper is on?

Cooper is out of self belief and form. What a great game to rediscover it or forever be remembered as the Carlos Spencer of Australian Test Rugby.

I would be more concerned if the All Blacks weren't so damn ordinary tonight. Should be a classic game!

[Ken Gargett]

Cooper is out of self belief and form. What a great game to rediscover it or forever be remembered as the Carlos Spencer of Australian Test Rugby.

I would be more concerned if the All Blacks weren't so damn ordinary tonight. Should be a classic game!

in many respects, shame we didn't play the kiwis on the weekend.

worth noting that a few years ago, had heard massive raps on cooper. went to see him in one of his earliest starts for qld (not the first as we missed those couple as in cuba) and i will never forget - a shocker. made yesterday look like lynagh at his most composed. he had seven, and i promise i am not exxagerating this, seven, knock ons by half time. it was excruitiating. and yet some of his handling since then has been exquisite. imagine mark waugh only better.

we just hope that is the cooper that fronts this weekend.

[frenchkiwi]

never fear... you may have the Trojan Horse from Tokoroa but we are running out of first fives - period.

i offered to donate my groin to Carter but sadly it was deemed Too Big. Slade is gone but i'm not offering my groin to him - his injury may be a blessing. Cruden is in but only last weekend he was drinking and skateboarding and watching the ABs game from his couch. Steve "the Mighty Duck" Donald is drafted into the squad but i don't think they will even let him near the halftime oranges - Wayne Smith will sub himself in before he lets Donald near the ball. But of course that depends on further injuries!

Mccaw Read and Thorn look like creaking zombies out there, squeezing the last juice out of ageing/injured bodies. Woodcock is an old style prop who can scrum but that's about it - any player worth his salt can run round him. ABs have their own weaknesses.

anyway Cooper's brain always freezes in situations where he is faced with a wall of advancing defenders. As a touch rugby player his first instinct is to step and jink not kick the ball away - even when on his own tryline (as we saw again). But surely even he might listen if the coaches made an iron rule - in your own half, get as deep as you can, wait for the pass and kick the ball. When in doubt - kick it out. His instincts can't be trusted in no-mistakes WC footy. And yet Deans says we trust him, we back his instincts, we don't want to shackle his natural game (no doubt behind the scenes he is looking at brainwashing and reprogramming the boy)

May the team who plays the best win (...unlike on sunday perhaps?). And win well.

[Ken Gargett]

never fear... you may have the Trojan Horse from Tokoroa but we are running out of first fives - period.

i offered to donate my groin to Carter but sadly it was deemed Too Big. Slade is gone but i'm not offering my groin to him - his injury may be a blessing. Cruden is in but only last weekend he was drinking and skateboarding and watching the ABs game from his couch. Steve "the Mighty Duck" Donald is drafted into the squad but i don't think they will even let him near the halftime oranges - Wayne Smith will sub himself in before he lets Donald near the ball. But of course that depends on further injuries!

Mccaw Read and Thorn look like creaking zombies out there, squeezing the last juice out of ageing/injured bodies. Woodcock is an old style prop who can scrum but that's about it - any player worth his salt can run round him. ABs have their own weaknesses.

anyway Cooper's brain always freezes in situations where he is faced with a wall of advancing defenders. As a touch rugby player his first instinct is to step and jink not kick the ball away - even when on his own tryline (as we saw again). But surely even he might listen if the coaches made an iron rule - in your own half, get as deep as you can, wait for the pass and kick the ball. When in doubt - kick it out. His instincts can't be trusted in no-mistakes WC footy. And yet Deans says we trust him, we back his instincts, we don't want to shackle his natural game (no doubt behind the scenes he is looking at brainwashing and reprogramming the boy)

May the team who plays the best win (...unlike on sunday perhaps?). And win well.

i still don't think that deans can coach a clock to tell time.

i don't know about the brain freeze thing - rather not sure it ever gets into normal activity. very much like campo - it just happens. it can be brilliant or custard. there were super 15 games (and yes, completely agree that tests a different thing) when he was last line confronted by advancing defenders (competent defenders from safrican and kiwi teams) and got through and there were times when it seemed impossible. it is just instinctive. when it fails, like campo's pass to greg martin v the lions, it can be horrendous but when it works, and plenty of campo examples, it wins games.

he can kick, not that you would know it at the moment, as we saw v the stormers when his kicking game was superb and won it. i think he is so used to trustimng himself that the first action is that he'll try and beat defenders, because he so often does. he produces one or two of those plays this weekend and last week will be very quickly forgotten.

i do suspectr that the endless bile from the kiwis is wearing him down.

just horrified i might miss it.

[frenchkiwi]

ken - this is a Big game.

you need to cancel all concurrent travel plans and prioritise finding a bar/hotel with a channel that's showing it.

otherwise i can give you tips on finding internet streams that will show it live.

but surely, if there's one game you can't miss, it's this one!!!!

[frenchkiwi]

i still don't think that deans can coach a clock to tell time.

i don't know about the brain freeze thing - rather not sure it ever gets into normal activity. very much like campo - it just happens. it can be brilliant or custard. there were super 15 games (and yes, completely agree that tests a different thing) when he was last line confronted by advancing defenders (competent defenders from safrican and kiwi teams) and got through and there were times when it seemed impossible. it is just instinctive. when it fails, like campo's pass to greg martin v the lions, it can be horrendous but when it works, and plenty of campo examples, it wins games.

he can kick, not that you would know it at the moment, as we saw v the stormers when his kicking game was superb and won it. i think he is so used to trustimng himself that the first action is that he'll try and beat defenders, because he so often does. he produces one or two of those plays this weekend and last week will be very quickly forgotten.

i do suspectr that the endless bile from the kiwis is wearing him down.

just horrified i might miss it.

Cooper has one of the best passing games in the world and a good if not extraordinary boot - in tight test rugby he should focus on using those. As a marked man there will be space around him but for (e.g.)Ioane hitting the line not for himself!

QC, despite being called the next Carlos Spencer or Campese, is nowhere near either of those players yet, who won tight test after tight test for their country (and lost a few as well). Genia has adjusted his game to step up to test level, QC has not yet shown anything in that league, still a liability, but maybe this weekend he could show some maturity in his decisionmaking?

[sv_ontour]

Some great insightful comments above, I'm certainly far from being an expert on this awesome game but from my observations QC plays as an individual and not part of the entire team, I hope for the sake of the group he steps it up a notch and realises it's not just about him.

Big game today and another awesome chapter to be written about one of the best sporting rivalries around, it's been four years in the making with the tally board definitely weighted on the side of the ABs.

Good luck to all, I hope we see a fair, hard out and well adjudicated game of rugby. Carn the Wallabies!!