Australia change both props. Slipper & Kepu start, with Sio not even making the bench.
McMahon replaces injured Pocock.
Come on Wales!! 3 mins to go... 😯
ABs for 2nd Test:
1. Joe Moody, 2. Dane Coles , 3. Owen Franks, 4. Brodie Retallick , 5. Samuel Whitelock , 6. Jerome Kaino , 7. Sam Cane, 8. Kieran Read (c), 9. Aaron Smith , 10. Aaron Cruden , 11. Waisake Naholo, 12. Ryan Crotty , 13. Malakai Fekitoa , 14. Ben Smith , 15. Israel DaggReplacements : 16. Nathan Harris , 17. Wyatt Crockett , 18. Charlie Faumuina, 19. Patrick Tuipulotu , 20. Ardie Savea , 21. TJ Perenara , 22. Beauden Barrett , 23. Seta Tamanivalu
Dagg in for Savea with Ben Smith moving to the right wing and Whitelock in for Romano.
Argh! Pen on 79and a half mins... baby blacks nick it by 1 point 😥 (scored by Beauden Barrett's baby brother!)
Gutted! Just tuned in in time to see Wales lose.
Would've like to have seen NZ dumped out too.....
Takes something [i]very[/i] special to beat the Baby Blacks. 🙂
So the AB are out! Eng, Ire, Arg &SA in semis.
Wales team: Rhys Patchell,, Liam Williams, Jonathan Davies, Jamie Roberts, Hallam Amos, Dan Biggar, Rhys Webb, Gethin Jenkins, Ken Owens, Samson Lee, Luke Charteris, Alun Wyn Jones, Ross Moriarty, Sam Warburton (capt), Taulupe Faletau.Replacements: Scott Baldwin, Rob Evans, Tomas Francis, Bradley Davies, Ellis Jenkins, Gareth Davies, Rhys Priestland, Scott Williams.
New Zealand team: Israel Dagg; Ben Smith, Malakai Fekitoa, Ryan Crotty, Waisake Naholo; Aaron Cruden, Aaron Smith; Joe Moody, Dane Coles, Owen Franks, Brodie Retallick, Sam Whitelock, Jerome Kaino, Sam Cane, Kieran Read (capt).
Replacements: Nathan Harris; Wyatt Crockett, Charlie Faumuina, Patrick Tuipulotu, Ardie Savea, TJ Perenara, Beauden Barrett, Seta Tamanivalu.
They bring in Dagg we bring in Patchel. ****ing odd that Morgan keeps making squads but clearly isnt trusted. Patchel is a good player but his defence aint great.
They bring in Dagg we bring in Patchel. **** odd that Morgan keeps making squads but clearly isnt trusted
Yeah Dagg has been in excellent form for the Crusaders. Back to his best.
I thought Morgan looked pretty good against the Chiefs and Wales should be looking to attack NZ as much as possible - for which he'd be ideal.
Watching Saxons v SA A. Local ref is appalling. SA try from knock on, eng pinged for perfectly legal rucking, quick tap pen - tacklers no more than 1yd allowed to turnover. Cumulating in Wade being taken out off the ball as he crossed the line. Should have been yellow &PT, but just a pen.
Yep ^ one sided.
Yep ^ one sided.
Well England are 29-26 up after trailing 26-8!
EDIT:
Good win in the end. The Saffas didn't appear to have seen a rolling maul before.....
Note for Jamba - Cipriani controlled it all very well.
I think the comment above was aimed at the ref. The most shocking piece of incompetence was trying to retrospectively award a length-of-the-field try after blowing up for a foot in touch then changing his mindafter play had stopped but the SA player continued !! Luckily the TMO informed him he couldn't do that!!
[i] Local ref is appalling. SA try from knock on, eng pinged for perfectly legal rucking[/i]
Glad it wasn't just me seeing that. What about the maul from a lineout - player (16?) joins back of the ruck, binds, ref taps him on the back and penalises? for what? couldn't work it out!
But yeah, amazing to get a win out of that!
I don't see why 'A' games shouldn't have a competent, neutral ref??
Get in!!!!!
Good to see Wales well in the game. There's always a feeling NZ are about to have a purple 15 min patch.
Thought they were going to after their first try, but Wales have been excellent since then.
Prior to that, how good was Liam W's tackle on Naholo?! Oops they've just collided
Man, what a last couple of mins! Faletau dropped it - and NZ score. Fantastic rugby.
Sorry - wish I'd been wrong.
Liam Williams is awesome 🙂
Come on Wales!
Thought the ref had a decent game. Maybe a yellow for kiwi wing tackling LW in the air, but 50/50 call I think.
Brave stuff from Wales. What a hand off from Davies
Great game.
How Roberts kept going to make that last break.. he played against the Chiefs as well!
Best moment of the game though -
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Great game of rugby. Score was a pretty fair reflection of both teams and although Nadolo probably should have been binned it likely wouldn't change the outcome.
Shame it looked like half of the first team had already played this week but you can't fault the effort.
It would be nice if we could manufacture another Liam Williams. Patchell is a million times more use than Anscombe and looked good with ball in hand in the first half. Taking the ball a bit flatter and putting some pace in the attack was a noticeable difference at times. It could be interesting to see him come in at first receiver a bit and interchange with Biggar over time but I guess it is a moot point for when North/ Halfpenny come back. I think Sanjay's tenacity and "nastiness" make him the player he is and that is hard to replicate. Nice to see Mini Jiffy finding a bit of form too actually throwing some nice passes and finishing pretty damn well.
I'm not sure what you could change in the forwards. They seemed to do what you could realistically expect of them but were up against it with so little possession at the start of the second half. A bit of lineout practice and not putting the poor guys out midweek probably isn't a bad start for improvement
Patchel did well under the circumstances I thought. Gives us an extra footballer out wide which is a real positive. Liam Williams defies the laws of physics though, looks like a bandy legged skinny guy but goes into contact like Lomu it makes no sense.
Liam is actually quite a bit bigger *in real life* that his stats and skinny legs would suggest. I think the hard in to contact thing is mainly a blatant disregard for his own well being! Between that and his knackered knees the poor guy probably won't be playing at this level long
I think the hard in to contact thing is mainly a blatant disregard for his own well being!
Indeed, ar one point he took the ball and Naholo and Read were set and waiting for him and he still knocked them back.
Positives for Wales were some of the younger players like Patchel, Amos and Moriarty all holding their own. Faletau was once again brilliant and the game plan has moved forward. NZ just too good though.
What a dodgy pitch... not only the poor grass, but the shitty paint getting all over the players. Bloody ridiculous.
Pitch not fit imho. Grass not rooted into the soil
The novel thing about the pitch is it shows clear dominance in the scrum of England as it is immaculate on their side!
That's entertainment 🙂
Good first 30 minutes for England but undone a little by a poor last 10.
Fortunate to escape after a stupid play by B Vunipola handed the Aussies the ball in our 22 right at the end but a bit of heroic defence (and infringing) kept them out.
[i]poor last 10[/i] - yes, apart from that defence when the half should've been over! Glad it wasn't though, great piece of play followed.
Haskell seems to have got the preemptive biscuits in to the officials before the game too which helps 🙂
Joubert's random ref decision making generator isn't doing my blood pressure any good...
Still, Nick Phipp's random pass generator is certainly keeping England in the game....
Maybe if I was Australian I'd feel different, but I think Joubert's been doing a great job.
England's defence, wow.
Oh bloody bloody! Wwooooo!!
Lovely jubbly
One for the Farrell haters 😉
[i]One for the Farrell haters[/i]
World ****ing class 🙂
How can they pick a man of the match? they were all brilliant.
If you were Australian then I imagine you'd be screaming at the TV for them not kicking points, taking passes straight out of the James Haskell school of catching and chasing the game far more than they needed too rather than controlling a bit more. Joubert was a bit random but England came in with a plan and executed perfectly. Maybe the answer to England's attacking 10 conundrum is Jamie George? 🙂
How can they pick a man of the match?
Exclude Mike Brown and then share it out from there?* 🙂
* If we can't knock Farrell then our second favourite has to take the heat 🙂
That was bloody IMMENSE.
Quality performance, outstanding defence.
Quick thinking on the grubber kick from Jamie George, made that score along with the Lawes break.
