Scotland down woeful Wallabies
21 Nov 2009
Matt Giteau missed a last-minute conversion in Australia’s 9-8 defeat to Scotland at Murrayfield.
Australia scored with the last move of the game – 20-phases of desperate attack finally culminating in Ryan Cross reducing the deficit to one point. But Giteau, who sunk just one of four attempts at goal, pushed the crucial kick, which saw Scotland break a 16-Test losing streak against the Wallabies.
It was a victory built on the bravest defensive display of any Test match this season. Perhaps one of the best in history. This report won’t reflect the exact number of tackles Scotland executed, but there is absolutely no doubt it was triple that of Australia.
Australia entered Scotland’s 22m area 43 times, but it was testament to the hosts’ immense defensive effort that they took 80 minutes to breach them.
Their physical, patient defence often forced the Wallabies to go lateral in their attacks. In addition, their strong ruck contest meant the visitors never got any flow and momentum into their attack, which aided their defensive task.
This was an awful performance from Robbie Deans’s charges – marked by fundamental handling errors, poor decision making and tactical naivety.
Australia seemed stuck between an expansive and pragmatic style, and the hybrid was an ugly, ineffective one.
They became even more disjointed when rain began to pelt down on the famous ground. In light of the testing conditions, they reverted to a kick-chase strategy, which failed to yield the desired results due to the poor execution of those punts.
When they did enter the Scottish red zone they looked devoid of creativity and conspired to botch a number of scoring opportunities, the worst offender being Stephen Moore, who, in the first half, broke through the midfield defence, but had neither the pace nor power to cross the tryline.
Giteau had earlier kicked a penalty to give his side the lead, but the pivot then missed the most elementary goal attempt and later skewed a drop goal from in front of the posts and under no pressure.
Scottish flyhalf Phil Godman’s penalty meant the sides went into half-time level at three all, despite the Wallabies having absolutely dominated possession and territory.
Giteau failed to shake his kicking woes, and missed his first pot at the posts in the second half. Scotland then turned over possession thrice in as many minutes on their five metre line, underlining Australia’s inability to capitalise on excellent scoring opportunities.
Scotland’s first real chance at five points came when they isolated Will Genia close to his tryline. Godman failed to convert the resultant penalty, but made no mistake with the next one, which unbelievably took his side into the lead.
Quade Cooper then butchered a superb scoring chance by opting to spin a pass wide to Drew Mitchell when he should have taken the simple option of offloading to Peter Hynes, who would have cantered in for the try.
Even so, one wondered how long the Scots could sustain their defensive effort and they answered that question emphatically by refusing to allow anyone in a gold shirt to make a metre – that until Cross ignited hope of victory with his late score. But Giteau didn’t even get his kick close to breaking Scottish hearts.
By Ryan Vrede
114 Comments
Pages: « 1 [2] 3 » Show All
21 Nov 2009, 21:17 pm
49-0
21 Nov 2009, 21:19 pm
#51 coherence: 53-8 you doos.
21 Nov 2009, 21:20 pm
#50 SodaJoe: Feel great for them Joe. First time the Scots beat Oz in 27 years. Had some mates at the game. Just sent them a sms. They will party the whole night…….LOL.
21 Nov 2009, 21:21 pm
wow i enjoyed that. Deans in trouble i reckon! haha, love seeing the cons lose!
21 Nov 2009, 21:21 pm
#51 coherence: 53-8
21 Nov 2009, 21:22 pm
#54 WP_: Loved it WP. I have many Scottish mates. So feel brilliant for them.
It did put my Superbru out but who cares…….hehee.
Cheers all out of here now.
Well done Scotland.
21 Nov 2009, 21:23 pm
Poor old Deans must be tearing his hair out.With all
the territory and possession his troop were unable to break
down the Scottish defence.Matt Giteau’s worst kicking display
in a long time.
Just shows you cannot rely on one kickers ability only.
I hope PDV has learned this lesson as well.
21 Nov 2009, 21:24 pm
Well done Scotland!
21 Nov 2009, 21:24 pm
#52 Veltie:
Does that mean you think PDV is going to win the World Cup?
21 Nov 2009, 21:24 pm
#51 coherence: Scotland 9 Convicts 8
21 Nov 2009, 21:25 pm
Absolutely pathetic.
Wallabies once again show how to grab defeat from the jaws of victory.
70% possession at one point, yet chose to keep kicking away the f**king ball at every opportunity.
Backline is a joke. Burgess proved beyond a doubt that he’s not a halfback’s arsehole, and Giteau once again choked when the pressure was on.
21 Nov 2009, 21:26 pm
Poor tackler
21 Nov 2009, 21:27 pm
The whole world is wearing mustaches! Pretoria is everywhere!
21 Nov 2009, 21:27 pm
i am of the opinion that i Barnes was on tour Aus would not have lost a game yet.
21 Nov 2009, 21:27 pm
Wow 6:30am here now, I can’t believe I stayed up all night to watch this sh*t…
21 Nov 2009, 21:27 pm
IF Barnes was on tour, i mean…
21 Nov 2009, 21:29 pm
#61 DonutDunning: You can point the finger at Giteau for his kicking, Cooper for his stupid skip pass that went forward and cost Mitchell an easy try and Moore who butchered a try in the first half when he was held up. But what about that Scots defence!? Awesome I reckon.
21 Nov 2009, 21:29 pm
#59 coherence: no. but his players will. loss to scotland….oy.
21 Nov 2009, 21:30 pm
Giteau was on the take this game, betting syndicates have gotten to him, go check his bank account. How you miss every kick at goal including the winning conversion and pop a couple iffy passes and let Scotland win. Certainly a back hand deal going down somewhere. Australia were so on top of Scotland and still lose. Something seriously wrong should have put 30 points on them. Giteau missed about 6 kicks couple drops and few passes went awry. No I reckon he’s on the take gotta be something fishy in this.
21 Nov 2009, 21:31 pm
Bad luck donut! Crappy performance from your boys, no one likes seeing that…
Loved it too Puma, so sprited! Deserving win on that defence! Brilliant stuff!
21 Nov 2009, 21:32 pm
#1 TheTackler: Shows what you know – doos.
21 Nov 2009, 21:34 pm
#59 coherence: Use that wooden spoon for something other than stirring!
#44 Puma: Leave the wine for later, have a good old schotch on Scots!
21 Nov 2009, 21:35 pm
There are few things so satisfying as a Wallaby loss. Really nice. Because they are so damn hard to beat.
21 Nov 2009, 21:36 pm
#67 jonnymain: Hats off to the Scots.
They basically only had 3 opportunities all game, and came away with 3 points from each one.
Then they defended like madmen to hold on.
But they should have been completely outclassed.
Instead the Wallabies pissed away 5 or 6 tryscoring chances.
I was pulling my hair out when Cooper threw that stupid forward pass when Cross was unmarked right next to him.
21 Nov 2009, 21:37 pm
I’ve always rated Deans; I even wanted him to come to the Bulls when Meyer left! I just can’t understand how he can do so well wiyh the Crusaders, and be so average with the Wallabies! Maybe he is getting paid by Australia AND New Zealand!
21 Nov 2009, 21:40 pm
Didn’t see the game, unbelievable result. Reminds me of our last attempt at the Grand Slam. They will be back!…
21 Nov 2009, 21:44 pm
Very dull game, as always with Scotland. But awesome that they won. Thought it was all over when Cross scored that try after fulltime. Maybe Gits was on the take.
21 Nov 2009, 21:47 pm
#68 Veltie:
If that’s the case, then what do you think about Robbie Deans?
21 Nov 2009, 21:47 pm
Well done to the Scots! Great defensive effort.
I do hope this signals the end of all Australians commenting on Bok performances…
21 Nov 2009, 21:51 pm
#78 coherence: i think robbie is an amazing coach. probably one of the top 5 world wide. Cannot blame him for the sh*t raw material he has to work with
21 Nov 2009, 21:57 pm
Congrats, Scots, despite ruining my little shiny superbru.
21 Nov 2009, 22:00 pm
Have a real soft spot for the Jocks. Perennial bridesmaids, but never the bride. Nonetheless, a courageous performance by them. Deans should now be talking to MJ to get some tips on how he should handle the negative “press tsunami” about to head his way.He has gambled away his limited resources and lost. He has run out of aces. A grand slam was in the offing at the start of the EOYT now the best they can hope for is to take it on the chin and move on.
21 Nov 2009, 22:05 pm
I think Aus is in for a tuff night at Cardiff next week. Wales is going to fancy their chances and is a musch better attacking unit than the Scots. It’s going to be a ripper, because the Dragons has been eyeing a SH scalp some time now.
The way the Aus senior players cracked under pressure today, next week is going to be fun to watch.
21 Nov 2009, 22:09 pm
Giteau chucked this game go check again how he coughed this game up to Scotland on a plate. Am sure there’s a side bet on the offing. No one misses that many kicks and plays so poorly to give an underdog side a win unless its on purpose
21 Nov 2009, 22:10 pm
Great result for the Scots. Congratulations to them.
Maybe Deans is just another Buchanan(former Aus cricket coach). Only looks great as a coach when they work with exceptionally talented players.
Just look at what PdV did with the raw material that he has to work with.
21 Nov 2009, 22:10 pm
#84 skopskiet: maybe he just has the mental toughness of a marshmellow…me thinks you have been watching too many pakistan cricket games…
21 Nov 2009, 22:14 pm
#84 skopskiet: for once i garee with you , not even ruan pienaar could miss that many kicks including a sitter right in front of the posts
21 Nov 2009, 22:34 pm
#69 skopskiet: so credit to Scotland then? Stodders will have your guts for gar…actually no he supports the ABs
Giteau kicked 1 from 4 but the conditions were terrible
21 Nov 2009, 22:36 pm
Well done scotts, great defense, once again poor finishing from us despite territory, possession etc.
21 Nov 2009, 22:38 pm
#74 DonutDunning: Take heart mate, despite the score line, they played pretty well. Gits and kicking is a real worry, another one we should have won easily
21 Nov 2009, 22:46 pm
#85 nama1:
with respect, pdv saw his arse when he introduced “raw talent”
but don’t worry, i am still a fan
21 Nov 2009, 22:52 pm
#1 TheTackler:
Feeling a bit silly now are you ??
21 Nov 2009, 22:55 pm
#87 mbaxman93:
Don’t put money on it
21 Nov 2009, 23:18 pm
Scotland the Brave . . . things are looking good for them under their new coach, i wonder how they’ll go in the 6 nations
21 Nov 2009, 23:22 pm
jockbok,
if you are still compus mentis after this historic win – well done to your boys
21 Nov 2009, 23:30 pm
That’s an upset of Titanic dimensions, bur well done, Scotland!
21 Nov 2009, 23:50 pm
#96 TheTackler: was ‘bur’ an imitation of the harsh Scottish brogue or just another mistake from you tackles?
22 Nov 2009, 00:43 am
poor old robbie deans, he’s prob not looking so hot in aussie eyes anymore, they;ve been pretty unlucky, but its the results that count – well done Scotland – not band for a wee old country.
22 Nov 2009, 01:27 am
#97 Big Hit: Bur, I’ll have tae gi that one a wee thawkis… Or maybe I shanna.
22 Nov 2009, 01:37 am
#95 charo: Charo, my friend, just been out on the town and sunk a few Glenfiddich to celebrate. Absolutely chuffed to bits mate, we tackled like mad and I am the first to say Aus lost it more than we won it. But it’s the result that counts and the Argies game next week takes on a whole new significance now. If we can win and take this confidence onto the 6N, then who knows, hopefully the backs might even start to have the same self belief the forwards have shown.
Puma – What did I say this morning? Haha, brilliant stuff. I bet your mates are having a great old time along Rose Street. A great night for us and because these moments don’t come along very often, we know how to enjoy them when they do. Cheers!
#96 TheTackler: You know what Tackles, you should actually try and watch some games rather than looking at the results and assuming what’s going to happen next. You won’t make yourself look like such a t!t.
Anyway. Here’s tae us. Wha’s like us? Damn few an’ they’re aw deid!
Pages: « 1 [2] 3 » Show All
Have your say
You must be logged in to post a comment.