Are you talking about the stamp or the Aussie trying to play the ball on the ground? 🙂

@DezB the ref didn’t decide the game. Australia where on a charge when Biggs was sent off and those 10 mins either side of half time established a decent gap and set momentum. Home crowd is always going to cry forward pass but Wales had already given away a penalty and Australia had an advantage, whether it’s in the rule book those things make a difference in tight calls. The score line flattered Wales, it could have been more.

I honestly thought Wales would beat what is quite a poor Australian side but perhaps some of you are right, Wales cannot beat them. Massive physiological advantage now for Australia now heading into World Cup knowing they play Wales at a neutral venue.

anyway seeing as no one noticed Quades reaction

I would have done the same. No excuse for that, it’s a professional game.

Wonder what Spikey tastes of? AA yep he is like having an extra flanker but he should all his energy into his game not looking for aggro. Fair play both teams seemed to relish the physicality of the game.

that IS his game!!

a-a, was referring to the fact he was lucky not to have been carded for fighting etc, not that Gatland should have taken him off!

it didn’t progress beyond hand bags did it? I watched the game on fast forward as I missed the first half. Spikey has been excellent in recent years getting on the tits of the opposition, yesterday was the first time in ages I’ve seen him over stamp the mark. Quade really got to him.
Some massive tackles in that game by the welsh Phillips on Quade, North on Cummings and Hibbard on some poor ****. Quade and Lialifano got round the blitz brilliantly though.

I reckon a pro rugby player should be targeting the player very obviously making the major difference between the two teams. He just over stepped it

Great game Wales vs Aus with plenty of exciting moments and big hits throughout 😀

Aus thoroughly deserved the win as Wales barely had any territory or possession. There seemed to be a conscious decision to run everything even from the 22, which as much as it makes sense to not kick aimlessly to the Aus back 3, did mean Wales spent most of the time in their own half under pressure.

From an Aus point of view, I think that is the best performance I can remember seeing from the forwards. Did to Wales what Wales do to most other teams. Wales gave SA a fair battering so Aus definitely stepped it up. This gave them the quick ball for the backs to do pretty much whatever they fancied and it seemed they had a bit longer without someone like Jon Davies in the centres. The whole Aus team just clicked and at the end of the day they played the better rugby.

From a Wales point of view, yes they lost, but the score stayed close even with a lot of players missing and with such little territory and possession. Normally Wales manage to dominate a games against the SH and still lose, so not really being in the game and keeping the scores close is very un-Welsh! Also credit to them to keep going for the full 80 minutes after such a quick game and so many tackles! Biggar didn’t have the best game which perhaps didn’t help the territory side of things but ultimately I think the Aus forwards just shut everything down so fast it was always going to be tough for Wales. Wales also looked a lot less threatening for points with 1/2p passing on the kicking and he seemed to be struggling with something all game which is slightly worrying for the 6N.

It looked as though Barnes was trying to emulate Nigel Owens in making a free flowing game and while he didn’t stop the game every 2 seconds the things he did stop it for were very hit or miss. Bit weird for both sides. Phillips should be cited but I wonder what punishment a bite carries? No wonder Coppoer wasn’t rushing to the ref for the TMO 😆

Only other thing ref-wise that irked me was Aus screaming and hollering non-stop in the Welsh (and Barnes’s) face every time they got a penalty or something went their way. It was like watching NFL with how full of it they were. I know it is all gamesmanship but still 😉

Oh and Marshall and Williams were great in commentary- really loved the banter and passion all the way through 😀

Edit: Sorry for the long post!!!

Ooh yes agreed. Why not a uk wide premiership?

So there are too many clubs in the Heineken cup and relegation is causing English clubs currently in the premiership a lot of financial instability and uncertainty… so a solution is to combine both of these to an even greater degree within a domestic league? I’m sure the Irish will then join the Top 14, Italy will be happy to go back to domestic leagues and Scotland will cease to field any meaningful club sides. Hmmm…. a nice enough idea in principle but I don’t see this ever happening! Is Wray suggesting that the RFU support Welsh regions since the Welsh clubs currently struggle for funding from the WRU??? That either means the RFU cease to exist or less pennies to the English clubs. This sounds more like trying to cause friction ahead of sorting out the ERC mess…

Several of the championship teams have bigger budgets than the welsh provinces…and as stated,championship/lower prem sides are about as likely to support this as turkeys are to vote for xmas. Why did cooper bite him,couldn’t he reach spikeys balls with his free hand?

Because other than the big 3 Irish clubs they’d all end up in the championship.

But I could see a ring fenced 3/4/5 nations ‘league’ with 2 groups of say 16 teams, with the two coming together in a play off that actually means something. I think it’d be great to watch.
Nothing whatsoever to back this up though!

given similar funding levels I doubt it. Crowds would increase a great deal too at the welsh regions, playing Bath or Gloucester would pull a much bigger crowd than Connaught or Zebre

I almost sounds like a slightly revised Heineken cup! What everyone seems excited to propose is a European Cup which already exists. Sounds more like Wray still trying to stir up the ERC stuff and get a Wales/ England breakaway format

If they can get him playing for the Dragons won’t Phillips have a full house of Welsh Regions 😆 Has anyone played for all 4 regions I wonder???

On the stamp:

Interesting to know at what level a stamp or bite become worthy of sanction especially considering people like Ritchie Rees have been out for a while for things like eye gouging on far less convincing evidence!

AA it isn’t worth getting into a discussion with you on that topic 😆

I think the citing commissioner took the view that Cooper was as guilty for his retaliation. It was certainly a unpleasant, more of a squeeze than a stamp perhaps, arguably the bite was worse. I suppose we won’t hear so much about Horwell’s conduct know.

@DanW – no problem with long posts on a rugby thread. Wales where down 30-16 I recall, not close and Aussies missed a couple of sitters. All credit for coming back and I think the players missing did make a big difference but Aussies knew they had it won.