r/rugbyunion • u/ConscriptReports Australia • 11h ago
Tasman bros, we both lost away this weekend to the hosts after blowing them away the starting weekend. Which loss performnace would you rather have your team put out? The Aussie one or the Kiwi one?
Personally I think the Wallabies loss may be a better one simply for how in the competition we felt until the JOC collapse in the final minutes of the game but then again we had massive injuries early in that game. The All Blacks loss felt to me abit like how the Boks lost last weekend, just sheer disbelief that it was happening and then had no solutions to try rip it back. But the scorelines do read that the ABs lost at a smaller margin than the Wallabies did. So which loss performance would you rather have your team dish up if you had to accept a loss?
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u/night_dude Hurricanes 11h ago
I didn't even see the Wallabies game but I'm picking that one because there were zero redeeming qualities in how the ABs played
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u/ConscriptReports Australia 11h ago
Christie looked quite decent for how terrible people have made him out to be imo
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u/night_dude Hurricanes 11h ago
Christie had his best ABs game in years. Proctor had a good game too. It's a shame that they had to pick this game, where everyone else (except maybe the Barrett brothers) shat the bed to show something.
If Ratima's injury is serious Christie may well be our starting 9 vs the Boks so by god I hope he keeps it up.
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u/Lflan123 New Zealand 10h ago
Makes me wonder how roigard is progressing
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u/Ndanuddaone Australia 10h ago
On the whole I don't think there was too much wrong with the Australian performance. Most players played well, no calamitous errors in defence, we were pretty clinical in attack but definitely room for improvement. Big thing was we were completely second best at the kicking game, but if we were 10% sharper we probably could have won the game. We should have had the LBP at least but for a few poor misses off the tee.
Still think we can and need to play better than we did for the remaining games, but it was still a mostly good performance
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u/subbassgivesmewood 8h ago
That dropped pass inside the 22 was a bit of a stinker
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u/Ndanuddaone Australia 6h ago
Yeah that was bad, but at least it was a simple error in a bad place rather than the defensive system being completely torn apart on first phase or players badly out of position in the line
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u/Born-Instance7379 4h ago
The good thing with the wallabies rn now is there is some genuine class, heart and optimism which hasn't existed for the last few years....well certainly not to this level.
The last 4 tests they've played, they have played well against superior teams in terms of pure talent (and you could even argue in front of crowds were the majority were supporting the opposition for all 4) and been right in the hunt for the entire game in every one.
2-2 record against The Lions and Boks with the 2 losses being single digit figures and the 2 wins being double digit figures is something most Aussie rugby fans would have broken the hand off of who was offering that at the start of the year.
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u/Whit135 10h ago
Would rather not lose at all tbh. A better loss is still a loss.
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u/ConscriptReports Australia 10h ago
sometimes in life you'll have to take a loss, its how you handle that situation that shows the worth of a team imo. its easy when everythings going good but when shit hits the fan thats where real worth comes out
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u/Whit135 9h ago
💯 agree, mate, but I'd still rather win as im sure u would.
I think from your description above that the answer is the all blacks loss. A loss like they suffered is gonna get more of a reaction.
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u/ConscriptReports Australia 9h ago
interesting perspective, perhaps theres more to learn from a loss where your team felt completely outclassed rather than one where you just got nudged out of the competition close to the end. perhaps the one loss will galvanize a team to be greater and the other to think that they were good enough and just did not have the luck of spin on their side that night.
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u/Ok_Educator_2120 New Zealand 10h ago
I'd say the loss last year to Argentina was a worse performance than this loss. So maybe we are on the up lol
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u/Lflan123 New Zealand 10h ago edited 8h ago
Mate, I remember the try the pumas scored when whoever was playing half back just threw an absolutely awful pass to Noone out the back that just put us under pressure leading to a turnover and maybe even a yellow card
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u/Unlucky-Instance-313 6h ago
Na that Sam Darry try was a thing of beauty, that automatically makes it a better performance than yesterdays loss 😂
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u/cynic__96 Overly Optimistic Wallabies Fan 10h ago
Our loss did expose that there is still plenty of work to do before we are a consistent top tier team again, yet still a lot of positives to come out of it.
JOC was really erratic in attack and really should have played more direct as we were actually causing the Boks a lot of problems with Valetini, Ikitau and Bell consistently getting over the advantage line.
Kicking in general play is also an issue. So many times we got no purchase on kicks, giving the SA back 3 a lot of room to move and launch an attack unimpeded. Also, base fundamentals like turning down easy shots for goal and going for the lineout in the first half backfired as we got nowhere near the 5 metre line to try to maul it over. A 10 with a quality boot is something we haven't had since prime Foley, and think it will prevent us from consistently challenging the top teams.
That being said Joe will have an interesting decision to make when Wilson is fit again. He's clearly our best Captain, but the Hooper, Mcreight and Valetini combo could be the best balanced backrow going around right now. Valetini just adds an extra dimension in getting post-contact metres in situations where Wilson normally gets folded, and I there were times where he really exposed the Boks not having a specialist 8 to counter his dominant carries.
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u/ConscriptReports Australia 9h ago
I think Hooper on the bench is the answer tbh, Wilsons general work rate outside of carrying the ball is what allows the other two backrowers to do star plays. McWreight couldn't jackle on Sunday morning as he had to share the insane amount of work Wilso normally gets through with Hooper. Hooper also has the ability to be an impact bench substitution player like Tate if managed correctly. Plus, the inspiration that Wilso gives to the team to play higher and harder can not be quantified, but it can also not be ignored when considering selections. I dont care if Wilso gets over the gainline less than the other options because that's not his role in this specific wallabies team at the moment. People should go back and watch his games, at least the Ellis Park one, and see how much off the ball work he gets through that enables us to be as baller as we want to be.
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u/StorminaHalfPint Brok the Barbarian 4h ago
So exposed! I was nervous, but Aus really showed the flaws in our game and I loved it. Rassie loves to tinker and sometimes he just tries too much at the expense of cohesion.
Just on the past year I don't think there is any hyperbole in saying Aus rugby has risen again. I do think you'll miss Wright in the Bled games, he is so class.
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u/Born-Instance7379 11h ago edited 10h ago
On performance Id say the wallabies one.
In the scheme of trying to win the comp though obvs the All Blacks as they got a point out of it.
O'Connor missed 3 kicks which would've totalled 8 points, so there's your difference between the 2 sides on the scoreboard.
Whilst I think the Springboks were the better side on the day, looking at the two matches the gap between Argentina and the All Blacks in terms performance was larger than the gap between the boks and wallabies, even if the final margin was slightly smaller...but even that was only because of a penalty after the hooter to salvage said bonus point.