Rugby Championship week 1

Couldn't see a thread for this so thought I'd stick one up

Date: Saturday, August 20
Venue: ANZ Stadium, Sydney
Kick-off: 20:05 local (10:05 GMT)
Referee: Jaco Peyper (South Africa)
Assistant Referees: Romain Poite (France), Federico Anselmi (Argentina)
TMO: Shaun Veldsman (South Africa)

Australia: 15 Israel Folau, 14 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 13 Tevita Kuridrani, 12 Matt Giteau, 11 Dane Haylett-Petty, 10 Bernard Foley, 9 Will Genia, 8 David Pocock, 7 Michael Hooper, 6 Ben McCalman, 5 Rob Simmons, 4 Kane Douglas, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Scott Sio
Replacements: 16 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 17 James Slipper, 18 Allan Alaalatoa, 19 Dean Mumm, 20 Scott Fardy, 21 Nick Phipps, 22 Matt Toomua, 23 Rob Horne

New Zealand: 15 Israel Dagg, 14 Ben Smith, 13 Malakai Fekitoa, 12 Ryan Crotty, 11 Waisake Naholo, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 Aaron Smith, 8 Kieran Read (c), 7 Sam Cane, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Sam Whitelock, 4 Brodie Retallick, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Wyatt Crockett
Replacements: 16 Dane Coles, 17 Kane Hames, 18 Charlie Faumuina, 19 Liam Squire, 20 Ardie Savea, 21 TJ Perenara, 22 Aaron Cruden, 23 Julian Savea


Date: Saturday, August 20
Venue: Mbombela Stadium, Nelspruit
Kick-off: 17:05 local (15:05 GMT)
Referee: Glen Jackson (New Zealand)
Assistant Referees: Jérôme Garcès (France), Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand)
TMO: George Ayoub (Australia)

South Africa: 15 Johan Goosen, 14 Ruan Combrinck, 13 Lionel Mapoe, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Elton Jantjies, Faf de Klerk, 8 Warren Whiteley, 7 Teboho Mohoje, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Julian Redelinghuys, 2 Adriaan Strauss (c) , Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 20 Jaco Kriel, 21 Rudy Paige, 22 Juan de Jongh, 23 Jesse Kriel.

Argentina: 15 Joaquín Tuculet, 14 Santiago Cordero, 13 Matías Orlando, 12 Juan Martín Hernández, 11 Manuel Montero, 10 Nicolás Sánchez, 9 Martín Landajo, 8 Facundo Isa, 7 Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Tomas Lavanini, 4 Matías Alemanno, 3 Ramiro Herrera, 2 Agustín Creevy, 1 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro.
Replacements: 16 Julián Montoya, 17 Felipe Arregui, 18 Enrique Pieretto, 19 Guido Petti, 20 Javier Ortega Desio, 21 Tomás Cubelli, 22 Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias, 23 Ramiro Moyano.

New Zealand and South Africa to win, IMO.

Is this game televised in the UK? It's normally on Sky, but can't see it

SP5 mate.

Good start from Aus.

Spoke too soon....Crotty try.

Some lovely play by NZ sees them 3-20 ahead. Australia on the ropes.

Wow. NZ are blowing them away.

It's a rout. 3-32 lead st half time for NZ. Injuries on both sides. All Black hooker and Naholo off while Australia have lost Giteau, Toomua and Horne. That leaves the Wallaby back line in poor shape for the rest of the match.

Well this is a walloping. It will certainly ground England. It was great to nil Aussie but this is a stuffing and we can see the gap to NZ from the rest of us.

What a joy seeing Beauden Barrett show his skills. He's a bit like how you imagine Farrell might be if he had Ford's vision and May's pace.

NZ are awesome. Aus have looked really poor so far this year - strange turn of events when you consider the impact Chieka had in the early days.

Rugby Fan wrote:What a joy seeing Beauden Barrett show his skills. He's a bit like how you imagine Farrell might be if he had Ford's vision and May's pace.

He's always been a special talent but seems to have added real control to his game, some player.

Barrett could hardly get a look-in at 10 last year and was in danger of becoming the super sub. He has certainly come a long way since and might even be better than Carter if he continues at this rate.

NZ have made a mess of Australia's lineouts. That's one area I don't think England really exploited, despite telling ourselves we had the edge.

A fifth NZ try, and another with it's origin in a Wallaby error.

Aus used Fardy against us and he's a great jumper. Read/Whitelock are as good as defensive jumpers as you'll get and Retallick is no no mug. It's basically 3v2 in NZ favour.

Really liking the Barrett/Cruden axis.

Savea makes it six tries (and his own 40th) with over 20 minutes still left to play.

That's now 42 unanswered points for NZ.

I wish Coles would stop standing on the wing.

Fardy is on but NZ win another Wallaby lineout. That's five in the match.

Read is binned. 15-14 for rest of the match.

New Zealand should be able to win the match now.

Finally a second score for Australia. 8-42 with less than five minutes to go. NZ with 14 for the rest of the match.

Some excellent scores from the Blecks.


The poor Aussies look a mess. They've a lot of players with a lot of mileage on the clock.

8-42 is the final score.

Quite telling that the game ended with 14-man NZ pressing for a final try.

I was hugely impressed with England's results against Austrailia this summer but I suppose this result puts a rather different perspective on it. It also gives Wales some comfort following their performances in staying with the All Blacks until the closing stages of the first two tests.

Lovely try by Argentina, while a man down, puts them ahead. South Africa have just missed a penalty chance to draw level. 10-13 the score.

The hotel bugging seems to have worked.........

Boks denied a try in a decision the commentators say would have been OK two weeks ago. Apparently, there's now a ruling that if a try scorer looks like he's lost control of the ball in any way, then it's ruled out.

The SA player definitely started losing the ball but he hadn't lost touch with it before he fell on it. so it was a tight call,

Bryan Habana has just picked up the first yellow card of his career (for a lifting tackle).

Jantjies just kicked a clearance straight into the face of his hooker Strauss. Fair play to Strauss, who looked unruffled.

Habana back on just as the Boks square it up at 13-13. 55 minutes gone.

Seagultaf wrote:I was hugely impressed with England's results against Austrailia this summer but I suppose this result puts a rather different perspective on it. It also gives Wales some comfort following their performances in staying with the All Blacks until the closing stages of the first two tests.

Wow great loser talk...

Wonderful play again by the Pumas. Ran the ball out under pressure, and ended it with a dink over the defence for a try.

13-23 with 70 minutes gone.

Points have been hard to come by but South Africa hit straight back with a try. 20-23.

All square 23-23.

Two dreadful restarts for Argentina. That was an unlucky penalty but the Pumas look freaked out that their 10 point advantage evaporated so quickly.

C'mon Argentina!! Not been impressed with Jantjies at all.

Lucky buggers

Look like the Boks have done it. A try at the end takes them to 30-23 with 20 seconds left.

That's a great comeback. From 13-23 down, to 30-23 in ten minutes.

Seagultaf wrote:I was hugely impressed with England's results against Austrailia this summer but I suppose this result puts a rather different perspective on it. It also gives Wales some comfort following their performances in staying with the All Blacks until the closing stages of the first two tests.

I think Oz played more poorly today than they against England - for example over 30 missed tackles - you can't do that against the AB's and not get hammered.

Heaf wrote:

Seagultaf wrote:I was hugely impressed with England's results against Austrailia this summer but I suppose this result puts a rather different perspective on it. It also gives Wales some comfort following their performances in staying with the All Blacks until the closing stages of the first two tests.

I think Oz played more poorly today than they against England - for example over 30 missed tackles - you can't do that against the AB's and not get hammered.

Yeah. I agree I think Aus was terrible today and NZ played much better than they did against Wales. They looked like they really wanted to win big today.

Seagultaf wrote:I was hugely impressed with England's results against Austrailia this summer but I suppose this result puts a rather different perspective on it. It also gives Wales some comfort following their performances in staying with the All Blacks until the closing stages of the first two tests.

I did not see the game but your comments I agree with also Australia fielded a stronger team against the AB's.

glamorganalun wrote:I did not see the game but your comments I agree with also Australia fielded a stronger team against the AB's.

I thought they would be stronger but that point seems arguable now. Analyst Nick Turnbull expected the incoming players to improve Australia's exit strategies but they continued to be dreadful. They missed 38 tackles, and lost at least five lineouts.

There were a lot of things the All Blacks did which England can only dream of doing but it's hard to gauge the standard of the opposition on that showing alone.

NZ are clearly a step up, but a big NZ win doesn't take anything away from a very impressive series from England.

Aus were high on confidence after a very strong WC showing, they went in as favourites for the Summer. The stuffing from England has clearly knocked them and they've took a real hammering from NZ, things are not improving.

Yeah agree with those points Sgt_Pooly. England's impressive whitewash and Australia's probable ongoing mental scars from it. The ABs don't mind twisting the knife on an old foe over and over again. It may not last forever so we'll enjoy it while we can.

Allty wrote:The hotel bugging seems to have worked.........

Without it, It would have been a cricket score.

Stating the obvious the Australian plan was to target the NZ midfield
which was perceived to be weak.
Injuries to a team which has probably less depth than most can upset
any game plan.
NZ have there own problems and mid field options and hooker look
thin.
Fekitoa looked to be back to near his best,Australia will be better
but NZ at home in Wellington especially if it`s wet is a huge ask.

Allty wrote:The hotel bugging seems to have worked.........

Lucky we bugged them.  It could of gotten messy otherwise.

[quote="aucklandlaurie"][quote="Allty"]The hotel bugging seems to have worked.........[/quote]

Without it,  It would have been a cricket score.[/quote]




Yep

Haven't seen the game yet, however that's not gonna stop me.....

But seriously, congratulations to the NZ All Blacks and commiserations etc. to Ozy.

Just a finger in the air, and I'm in no way ignoring accepted trends and norms here, but I think a note of caution should be given to the 'one off' nature of this game which by its score line alone reminds me of the last time we slaughtered those nasty men in black , which in itself was nothing more than an indication of the game on the day and not a harbinger of english world domination (for that is only gestating now - does this forum allow two emoticons in one post?)