Australia vs England

jamesgould

Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
Staff member
Admin
Tomorrow at AAMI Stadium - can England put Australia's finals chances in jeopardy? They last beat Australia in Sydney in 2006 and will be looking for a repeat of that performance.

Ok ok, that was GB, but nevertheless haha.
 
I think Australia will win and convincingly aswell. From what I know they will be keeping basically the same side that took the park against PNG.

I predict:

Australia - 46
England - 16
 
Slater has a great record in Melbourne playing for Australia. I can not see Australia losing this match. The game next week at Eden park is the one I am most looking forward to as it is going to be one of the greatest challenges an Australian team has faced in a long time.
 
It is exactly the same side as last week for Australia.

I am one of the few who didn't think England were too bad last week, their online defence took most of what the Kiwis threw at them. As long as they don't collapse like a pack of cards (which does happen fairly regularly when they play Australia) I do think it will be close.
 
Hopefully Sheens gives Gidley a decent go in an out of dummy half, not second row this time.

Gidley just has to play his natural game, when he starts running from dummy half that is when he is most dangerous. I'am expecting a big game from Cronk, I think being on home turf and against England it might all come together for him.
 
Pretty dissapointing second half by both teams, the attack seemed to go down the drain for the Aussies. Great first half, Lewis is a machine! He has to be a certainty for the backrow for NSW next season.

I thought Smith, Thaiday, Lewis and Tuquri we're the standouts for Australia and Burgess, Westerwood, Robinson and O Loughlin we're the best for the English. Gidley was solid enough, didn't get much oppurtunity but was good in defence.
 
Pretty dissapointing second half by both teams, the attack seemed to go down the drain for the Aussies. Great first half, Lewis is a machine! He has to be a certainty for the backrow for NSW next season.

I thought Smith, Thaiday, Lewis and Tuquri we're the standouts for Australia and Burgess, Westerwood, Robinson and O Loughlin we're the best for the English. Gidley was solid enough, didn't get much oppurtunity but was good in defence.
I definately had a close eye on Gidley, played well. He did stand up when Slater etc knocked on every set. O'Loughlin played great for England as well.
 
Gidley threw a hospital pass to Lockyer on a last tackle, apart from that I didn't really see him.

Poor England, they didn't get a look in thanks to incompetant and biased reffing by Archer and Clark. How a home team in a test gets a home ref and a home video ref is a mystery in itself, they should both be neutral.

These were the notable blunders I noticed:
* Tate knocks on going for a try, video ref notices an early tackle that doesn't exist, Australia given penalty and Lewis scores Australia's opening try off the next set.
* Cooper Cronk knocks on, Lewis forces the ball, try awarded by video ref.
* Tate knocks on trying to force the ball for a try, video ref awards try.
* England clean break called back by on-field ref for non-existant forward pass. Next play off scrum Slater throws a forward pass to Tuqiri which is not called.
* Lewis throws a pass at least two metres forward in Australia's final try.

It was bad enough to almost think they rigged it to ensure Australia made the final ... preventing a bad crowd for that game.

I don't think England would have won anyway, but they needed the bounce of the ball to go their way, and they could never compete with Australia being gifted all those points.

Neither side was great, and I really think NZ should win this tournament undefeated.
 
Thank god someone else noticed that forward pass to Tuqiri, they wouldn't replay any of that set of 6. That pass was so far forward it was just ridiculous that it wasn't called.

I agree, England would not have won but it was no where near as big a difference as what the scoreboard shows it to be.
 
Gidley threw a hospital pass to Lockyer on a last tackle, apart from that I didn't really see him.

Poor England, they didn't get a look in thanks to incompetant and biased reffing by Archer and Clark. How a home team in a test gets a home ref and a home video ref is a mystery in itself, they should both be neutral.

These were the notable blunders I noticed:
* Tate knocks on going for a try, video ref notices an early tackle that doesn't exist, Australia given penalty and Lewis scores Australia's opening try off the next set.
* Cooper Cronk knocks on, Lewis forces the ball, try awarded by video ref.
* Tate knocks on trying to force the ball for a try, video ref awards try.
* England clean break called back by on-field ref for non-existant forward pass. Next play off scrum Slater throws a forward pass to Tuqiri which is not called.
* Lewis throws a pass at least two metres forward in Australia's final try.

It was bad enough to almost think they rigged it to ensure Australia made the final ... preventing a bad crowd for that game.

I don't think England would have won anyway, but they needed the bounce of the ball to go their way, and they could never compete with Australia being gifted all those points.

Neither side was great, and I really think NZ should win this tournament undefeated.
I wouldn't be surprised if Tate was dropped. He played that bad and I'm sure Lawrence would be prepared to take the spot in a heartbeat.(especially with Sheens:lol:)
 
Thank god someone else noticed that forward pass to Tuqiri, they wouldn't replay any of that set of 6. That pass was so far forward it was just ridiculous that it wasn't called.

I agree, England would not have won but it was no where near as big a difference as what the scoreboard shows it to be.

The most baffling one for me was how the video ref missed the knock on by Cronk ... the ball was bouncing up, then it took a u-turn to start going directly down ... how did the think that happened? Psychic energy from somewhere?

Please someone tell me that wasn't the most obvious knock on of all time ... the commentators didn't seem to have a problem with it, am I going mad?!?!

I wouldn't be surprised if Tate was dropped. He played that bad and I'm sure Lawrence would be prepared to take the spot in a heartbeat.(especially with Sheens:lol:)

It'll be very interesting to see the side Australia names for next week. Do they try some new faces that possibly won't play the final ... or look for someone to come in and prove they should be in the top 17? Risking losing the game in the process? Or do they give these players more time to gel ahead of the final? Hmmm ... I wouldn't know what to do if I was Sheens.
 
Well for the Cronk knock-on, in slow motion everything looked fine to me & i was convinced it was a try, but when they showed it in normal motion it clearly was touched.

This is the side i would take in for Game 3

1. Boyd (rest Slater)
2. Morris
3. Tonga
4. Lawrence
5. Tate (rest Tuqiri)
6. Carney (rest Lockyer)
7. Cronk
8. Shillington (rest Myles)
9. Farah (rest Smith)
10. Civoniceva
11. Lewis
12. Thaiday
13. Bird (rest Gallen)

14. Gidley
15. Learoyd-Lahrs
16. Scott
17. Young (rest Watmough, have Young on as a backrower)
 
I would keep basically the same side for the third game, only change is Watmough out, he is really damn average. Got no idea how he even made the side actually, only really performs once every 10-15 rounds for Manly.

1. Slater
2. Morris
3. Tate
4. Tonga
5. Tuquri
6. Lockyer
7. Cronk
8. Myles
9. Smith
10. Civenoceva
11. Lewis
12. Thaiday
13. Gallen

14. Shillington
15. Learoyd Lahrs
16. Scott
17. Gidley
 
The most baffling one for me was how the video ref missed the knock on by Cronk ... the ball was bouncing up, then it took a u-turn to start going directly down ... how did the think that happened? Psychic energy from somewhere?

Please someone tell me that wasn't the most obvious knock on of all time ... the commentators didn't seem to have a problem with it, am I going mad?!?!

I seen it as well. I thought it was such a bad call. The nose of the ball changed direction mid way through the air.. unless I have a misunderstanding of how gravity and physics work, it really shouldn't do that. Why we didn't have neutral refs amazes me. I understand that outside of Australia and England refs are fairly average, but I would rather an average reffed game over a biased game.
 
lewis was going unreal till went off injured burgess had a shocker dropped in in the play the balll like 3 times...
thought cronk and tate tries could of went either way...
 
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