Autumn Internationals

[ayepatz]

Awesome stuff from our Scottish lads today, although we ultimately lost out. But if this is a sign of Townsend’s intentions as coach, then Scottish rugby could well be on to a good thing.

Hoggie outstanding, Barclay immense. As great an atmosphere as I’ve ever experienced at Murrayfield.

Looking forward to the Australia game next week. Back to the hotel for the English and Welsh highlights. And a warming dram. Or three.

[David88]

Scotland certainly put a big shift in today and can be proud of that performance. Wales on the other hand should be ashamed of how their game ended and how they failed to put away Georgia. Gatland may claim all of their props were injured but as Martyn Williams alluded to, that’s rather convenient for them. If wales are to move forward they need to ditch Gatland as soon as possible  

I thought the England Aus game was a very scrappy affair from both sides, the final score line doesn’t really reflect the game. I’m glad England won but some of those calls were pretty lucky!

[Akela3rd]

Scotland down and England up, both interesting games but I can't complain as I'm half English/half Scottish...

Thunder & Lightening '75 - '15

[JohnS]

I didn't catch the other game, and I agree that the final score was flattering, but the Wallabies can only blame themselves for their ill-discipline. Carrying on about refereeing decisions is no excuse....very disappointing to see.

[El Presidente]

Robbed. 

[Ken Gargett]

the concern is that it seemed all the line ball calls went against the wallabies but to be honest, i thought most of them should have. hooper's try? technical ruling which presumably followed the rules and so no try, or appalling lack of knowledge by the officials. i don't know the exact rules on that but someone must.

the no try for koribete. i thought 60/40 a try to us but i have no issue that it was not given.

the one that helped to turn the game was that ball touching the line and being ruled okay. that is either corrupt or monumentally incompetent but either way, a few people need to be ref'ing the under 8s for a year or two. it was a disgrace. BUT, our own fault. that dimwitted joke beale (thought he had one of his better halves in the first half till carded - and rightfully so, though i have always thought that a stupid rule - but a truly woeful 2nd half) dawdles along and makes no effort to cover it. serves us right. he is a really stupid player. if i coached under ten's and a kid did that, i would tear strips off him. and he'd be only playing the next week if we were short of numbers. no doubt our clown coach will defend his performance.

foley yet another shocker. first 20 minutes, he has put in poor kicks, thrown a forward pass, missed opportunities and knocked on and then missed an easy penalty (iceman my smelly arse). which then convinces hooper (wonderful player but not a captain's sock) to forgo going for the points - playing a good england side at twickenham in the rain. genius! and we stuff it up. no doubt our clown coach will defend him.

if hooper was a tenth the captain he is a player, he'd be brilliant. but our captain has been carded for the 2nd week in a row in a major international. who does he think he is? ritchie mccaw? that is simply dumb play and not acceptable. no doubt our clown coach will defend him.

i thought mcmahon was close to best on ground. genia down on last week. koribete is a star. kerevi played better than i thought he could. hodge again good. hannigan had yet another bog average outing. simmons makes the same errors after about 90 tests as he did in his first. our scrum was very good. kefu at top form. as for england, i thought that they had no real superstars but not a weak link among them. everyone did their job and did it well. played as a real team and good at every aspect. hard to beat that.

we can bitch all we like but we did not score a try. and we missed kicks. one shocking decision did not cost us that game.

[Ken Gargett]

i will add that the dismal effort - possibly a little harsh - was made so much more palatable by then sitting down and watching the glorious gunners thrash the sp*rs.

[Ken Gargett]

and prior to it, fiji thumping new zealand.

[JohnS]

As usual Ken, you summed it up very well. The problem I have with this performance is that the Wallabies will likely address their poor discipline and play better against Scotland next week. But, boy oh boy, it's frustrating because I really wanted them to put in a better effort for this England game.

[Ken Gargett]

17 minutes ago, JohnS said:

As usual Ken, you summed it up very well. The problem I have with this performance is that the Wallabies will likely address their poor discipline and play better against Scotland next week. But, boy oh boy, it's frustrating because I really wanted them to put in a better effort for this England game.

john, you nailed it with poor discipline.

our much-lauded captain is now the most yellow-carded player in test history. it equates to us playing an entire test with 14 men. might work against the Cook Islands but against england and NZ and so on?

 

[ayepatz]

Wow. One of the truly special days at Murrayfield.

Eight trys, and no Hoggie. Unbelievable.

One rush of blood to the head ruined the game for the Aussies. A shocker of a challenge.

Great performances from so many, but Barclay had another great day. Huge shout out to Maitland, who wasn’t even in the squad last week, and suddenly found himself starting at full-back after Hogg injured himself in the warm-up.

Sad that Stephen Moore retires from International Rugby on that result, but the standing ovation that he received from the whole stadium served as a salutory reminder of all that makes Union such a wonderful game.

All the talk in Edinburgh tonight is about next year’s Six Nations possibilities. Tomorrow will be time enough for more sober reflection, but, for tonight, I’m off to get sloshed.

Mon the Scotland!!!

 

[JohnS]

I'm happy for you @ayepatz but I can't bring myself to watch the replay. (I'm) just shaking my head here on the other side of the world!

[ayepatz]

2 minutes ago, JohnS said:

I'm happy for you @ayepatz but I can't bring myself to watch the replay. (I'm) just shaking my head here on the other side of the world!

Thanks mate. For what it’s worth, that’s been my reaction after most Scotland games for the last decade, too.

[Ken Gargett]

watched it without knowing the score. thoroughly deserved. yet another woeful performance from the wallabies. all this crap about a revival and being on the right track and what a dangerous side we are has been shown up for the bluster and rubbish it is. the wallabies are the emperor's new clothes of rugby. scotland was by far the better team, and i don't think we'd have got close with 16 men on the field, let alone what we had.

the wonderful revival year - 14 tests, i think? we beat fiji, italy, japan, argentina twice, wales and the all blacks once (lord knows how?). could not beat south africa, here or there, and lost twice to the all blacks - they'd be the games that counted - plus lost to england and scotland twice, both home and away. so a 50% winning rate and of those teams, only nz is top tier (and wales occasionally). and this has supposed to have been a good season?

so foley does two nice kicks for tries. he was also responsible for the first scottish try when he passed to ??? no one! no one near it and so it is toed through. then missed a tackle on the line for another try and his kicking. oh spare me, has an international side ever had such a dismal appalling kicker? missing those two early important kicks, especially the one from near in front early in the 2nd half, is unforgivable. that would have put us ahead. you can't stay in the team when you are so ordinary. unless you are cheika's pet dog. a while ago, i said to a mate that foley was the worst fly half we have ever had and was reminded of david knox and lloyd walker. fair enough, i thought. well now i feel that i was tough on knox and walker. foley is so god-awful. and cheika cannot see it. we do not even have a back-up.

beale does good things and then does dumb stupid absurd schoolboy errors. plus he makes campo look like ron coote. genia had a shocker.

interesting to hear hooper talking about it not being the way to send off several players - mentioned it twice. so who else is going other than moore? or perhaps hooper simply can't count to one.