Wallabies edge sterile sideshow
21 Oct 2011
RYAN VREDE watched Australia stutter to an uninspiring 21-18 victory over Wales in the World Cup bronze medal match at Eden Park.
Naturally this contest lacked the intensity and compelling appeal of a match where the result was meaningful. Consequently it descended into a structureless, error-strewn and utterly unpalatable sideshow to Sunday’s final.
It would have been more bearable if either side had earned the right to play expansively by showing some appreciation for building a platform. Instead the strike runners in either pack were rarely deployed often enough to achieve this, with the showmen in the back division asked to enthral and entertain the 60 000 poor souls who paid to be punished.
Handling errors abound and Australia’s lethargy in sending cleaners into rucks often resulted in turnovers in the Welsh 22m. Their troubles were compounded and cause undermined when key play makers Kurtley Beale and Quade Cooper were injured before 25 minutes had elapsed. The latter, did, however, craft a try for Berrick Barnes with a deft offload, before his exit.
Australia looked a better side than the impotent Welsh, whose struggles were rooted in their inability to impose themselves at the gainline. They also missed suspended captain Sam Warburton’s ability to stifle the opposition’s attacking flow through his breakdown work. Indeed Warren Gatland’s side played with the verve, accuracy and innovation that suggested they’d had spent their week working their way through Auckland’s pubs and nightclubs.
Wales missed three goalkicks but still trailed by just four points (7-3) with with 30 minutes to play, before scoring courtesy of a clear forward pass. On the evidence of that incorrect decision, it appeared referee Wayne Barnes and his assistant had been lulled into a slumber themselves.
James O’Connor kicked two penalties to regain the lead for the Wallabies before Barnes took the Wallabies eight points ahead with a drop goal. Stephen Jones set up a tense final 10 minutes with a three pointer.
Adam Ashley-Cooper should have sealed the result with six minutes to play, but he grassed the ball in a tackle a metre for the goal line. Ben McCalman, however, made no mistake shortly thereafter. Wales would score after the siren had sounded, but were undeserving of victory.
The Wallabies thus finish in third place, which is much like almost bagging the hottest girl at the party, then having to settle for her ugly friend.
649 Comments
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21 Oct 2011, 15:47 pm
@Transformation(Transformation)-387: New bok coach allister Coetzee’s approach to transform the boks.
21 Oct 2011, 15:49 pm
@DocNZ(DocNZ)-448:
Ohhhh….so you are staying in capetown….going to most Stormers games as Crusader or NZ supporter…makes sense now!
21 Oct 2011, 15:49 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-447: Susie, she must be a new one was that for 99 or 07 as the one you all rely on for 95 was Suzie!! Oh well you’ll try again I am sure
21 Oct 2011, 15:49 pm
@bluealligator(bluealligator)-449: LMFAO..
keep crying boy, it makes me feel so warm and fuzzy inside..
nice to see your hurt all over these pages… has made my weekend..
what now? more insults and use of a language I dont understand because youre so brave? bwahahahahahaha
21 Oct 2011, 15:49 pm
@Transfornication-415:
Not one substantive response at all today even to 405 now.
Again you read and do not understand.
Is there any reference there to your ” how am i related to the ANC “? Can an organization be your relative(mockingly)
All those, if presented honestly by you, are a big poke at your ETHNIC AGENDA you have demonstrated(my wife question) and earned the tag of in your time of distorting historical facts, twisting notions, nonsensical questions about people unknown to me and blatantly lying about many things merely to pander to other FAKES, like WPTID.
He even admitted to lying(and apologised) about non-racism (Howa and cricket) and was found out and exposed on other levels e.g. alcohol in blood, white economy cannot mean non-racial SA and such like, so he and you must proudly wear your medals of dishonour.
To me it sounds you are now crying like a baby. “Hardenthefuck-up” please as you are a 6′ plus giant, not so?
21 Oct 2011, 15:50 pm
@DocNZ(DocNZ)-448: You want to suck my what? You dirty swine.
21 Oct 2011, 15:50 pm
@rossoneri(rossoneri)-439: I support the underdog… simple. Unlike cowardly Caped Crusaders…
And sometimes the underdog wins… It would take a miracle for the surrendermonkey underdogs to win against the extremely brave Kiwis… but imagine if they managed to pull off the impossible… I mean the brave Kiwis are already celebrating…. Ticker tape parades and all
But just imagine….
21 Oct 2011, 15:50 pm
@bluealligator(bluealligator)-453: isnt Susie Bryce’s daughter?
glad he got the jarpies, with specimens like yourself I think his euthanasia was the kindest act possible…
21 Oct 2011, 15:52 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-457: really, do you have proof of this ticker tape parade? when did it happen? what streets were involved? how many people turned up?
21 Oct 2011, 15:52 pm
Watched Reunion last night.
My farking word. Like him as a coach or not, Jake White knows what he’s talking about when it comes to rugby. He is about as technically astuted as you will ever find in a rugby coach.
Something which has been blatanly lacking in the last 4 years.
So much so that when listening to White, you remember again what a coach is actually there for.
21 Oct 2011, 15:52 pm
…technically astute…
21 Oct 2011, 15:52 pm
8/1 underdogs winning the Rigged World Cup…
Come off it…
It can never happen, can it…
Never, ever.
21 Oct 2011, 15:53 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-454: Hey I answered in a language you engaged with the word mampara (for future refererence that is how it is spelt). Merely following your lead wifebeater but hey it it is a little tough for you sissy just let me know and I will stop wouldn’t want to hurt your feelings. I am not hurting I am really looking forward to a great weekend of rugby on Saturday and cricket on Sunday with a decent braai to boot.
21 Oct 2011, 15:53 pm
all you Kiwi’s are obviously loving the current situation but know this, the way your are going on now, rubbing it in our faces, the schadenfreude on display, only serves to demonstrate your own ungracious nature in victory, rather than how badly we take defeat. yes we take defeat badly, just as you do, and some people might have given you the same treatment when you were knocked out in 2007, but instead of being better people, you’ve just dived straight down to that level yourselves, congratulations i guess.
21 Oct 2011, 15:54 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-462: it can happen, and has in the past… we wont find out until this sunday, but thats sport… not the be all and end all in the big scheme of things…
21 Oct 2011, 15:55 pm
@Hoops(Hoops)-452: You must be of the P Divvy school of logic , all AB’s supporters come from CPT …. LOL!! Epic fail of note .
21 Oct 2011, 15:55 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-459: Well Bryce had too didn’t he cos mcwhore, sally jill and the headbutter wouldn’t have managed
21 Oct 2011, 15:56 pm
@fantasticbarnsmell(fantasticbarnsmell)-464: hey, shame you werent like that for the last four years when all and sundry had their digs, ad nauseam…. would you after 4 years sit back and not enjoy the moment? dont think so..
@bluealligator(bluealligator)-463: wifebeater? again? how very sad… still, enjoy the cricket on the weekend, and the braai, whats for dinner? dead springbok?
21 Oct 2011, 15:56 pm
@John Galt(John Galt)-460:
Good to hear, why has nobody offered him a job until now though I would have thought a WC winning coach with have been inundated with job offers?
21 Oct 2011, 15:58 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-450: I’m sure that’s true, but do not assume that those represent me and all on site. No problem in the banter – we just love this game. I am just worried some get way beyond the issue.
21 Oct 2011, 16:00 pm
@John Galt(John Galt)-460: I am also a fan and had the priviledge of chatting to him. A good, intelligent, realistic coach
21 Oct 2011, 16:00 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-429:
Your “ethnic black” guy now is crying like a baby as I exposed him, like you, by my focus on your not so subtle references to ethnicity. It is and was all there in black and white (not ever grey) on my page.
His “is his wife a coloured lady?” is the equivalent of your ” Are you ethnic black?”
I nakedly expose that and now I become the ethnic guy? More like I am the ethnic cleanser by eradicating fools like you.
21 Oct 2011, 16:00 pm
The utter humiliation…
Should the 8/1 underdogs ever happen to win come Sunday…
Cant happen can it…?
We know Kiwis can’t win a WC away from home, but not being able to win your own WC…
Against the cheese eating surrendermonkeys…?
Embarrassing
But it can never ever happen…
The ABs are “relaxed” and Kiwis are celebrating already… Drastic Ticker tape shortage
21 Oct 2011, 16:00 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-468: all i’m saying is that you’re on the verge of winning the world cup, is that not enjoyment enough? there’s a endless idiots to argue with here if that’s what you want, just if i were you i’d rather enjoy the win and not get involved with the petty arguments that go on here…
21 Oct 2011, 16:01 pm
@NZINCHINA(NZINCHINA)-469: Many offers that he turned down. Has 4-year committment with Brumbies
21 Oct 2011, 16:01 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-468: Sad maybe but true, and hey springbok on the braai will always be better than wet just shagged by a kiwi nz sheep!!!!
21 Oct 2011, 16:02 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-473:
This has been going on for days now, are you ok buddy, serious question.
21 Oct 2011, 16:02 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-473: so no proof of a ticker tape parade already occurring? not even going to answer the questions? thought so, all mouth no substance..
21 Oct 2011, 16:03 pm
@Bismarck Burger(Bismarck Burger)-475:
Yer I know about the Brumbies deal, was just wondering why he had taken so long to get back into coaching.
21 Oct 2011, 16:04 pm
@bluealligator(bluealligator)-476: sheep jokes? seriously?
wow, the level of intelligence youve portrayed is truly remarkable..
keep grinding that organ, your handler must be sooooooo proud..
21 Oct 2011, 16:04 pm
@ET.(ET.)-472: Mr Grey, the Cape Crusading Freedom Fighter of “Tokoza”…
Walking the streets with his very own manyathelas…
Shouting from the rooftops his ethnic cleanliness… (okay maybe not shouting… maybe lisping)
21 Oct 2011, 16:05 pm
@mpundulu(mpundulu)-451: HAHAHAHA i’m not an authority on AC, far from it.
21 Oct 2011, 16:06 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-473:
You place all these nooses around your necks(8/1 France) and then you have to run off to France or Transfornication to Swaziland to live it down in utter shame.
No wisdom at all in your agendas.
Follow truth, even if only perceived truth. You are safer for that.
21 Oct 2011, 16:06 pm
@NZINCHINA(NZINCHINA)-479: I will tell you that the man was drained and really draggfed through the streets by the SARU truck of fatcats by 2006. I reckon he just wanted to disappear from the scene. Money was not going to be a problem with the book and the bonus.
But he was taking biiiig strain.
21 Oct 2011, 16:06 pm
@fantasticbarnsmell(fantasticbarnsmell)-474: we’ve won nothing yet, not getting ahead of anything this kiwi… IF we end the game on the right side of the scoreboard then I’ll celebrate, not before… in the meantime, I know guys like bluepussy and Hg are hurting, so much so that it is a sight to behold… couldnt happen to more deserving blokes actually…
21 Oct 2011, 16:07 pm
@fantasticbarnsmell(fantasticbarnsmell)-464: Now would be the best time for a bok supporter to attempt to take the moral high ground as they are no longer in the compitition. How well were we treated 2007 after Cardiff?
We have been reminded of it almost everyday for the last 4 years. Even when some of us have offered our best wishes to the boks during all their games. Yet now it seems that they are not capable of looking at their own poor performance and being honest about it.
Turn the tables and imagine it was the blacks that lost the QF in place of the boks, I for one would look at how my team messed up so much possesion and territory. Instead it is just easier to put it all on the ref. That way the boks deny the failure to turn possesion and territory into points.
Bryce did not have a wonderful game, but you guys as 2007 champs should have been able to put points on the board with drop goals. Everyone is saying the is a **** world cup cos the boks should have played the blacks in the semi’s only then would it have given any credance to this event, rewind to 2007 nothing mentioned about the boks not playing the wallabies or the blacks , because it does not serve your needs.
Chin up old boy. It is just a game , and even after the loss to the wallabies, the sun still rose the next day.
21 Oct 2011, 16:08 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-480: who’s joking? You are right I have displayed a small challenge in intelligence today I engaged you in a battle of wits and that is not really fair you being unarmed and all!!!
21 Oct 2011, 16:08 pm
still no answer to the questions HG?
21 Oct 2011, 16:09 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-485:
HG is a little scary to be honest repeating himself now for days on end is not a good sign.
21 Oct 2011, 16:09 pm
@Transformation(Transformation)-482:
Should you not be that authority as he is likely to be my “gatgabba”, by you way of thinking, especially being, like those others, also from eBhayi?
21 Oct 2011, 16:09 pm
@NZINCHINA(NZINCHINA)-477: I am 100% Looking forward to definitely not seeing the cheese eating cowardly surrendermonkeys from beating the brave All Blacks…
The cowardly French rabble vs the brave, relaxed ABs…
The biggest mismatch in the history of the WC, and I look forward to seeing it happen…
Dont believe those Kiwi papers who say the French are “brutal”… Naah, they be pussycats…
They are waving their white flags already…
(I reckon one or two of them have even joined one or two of the ticker tape parades already… just to experience the winning atmosphere
)
21 Oct 2011, 16:10 pm
@bluealligator(bluealligator)-487: another cliche… cmon blue, surely you can engage the neurons and be original? not too much to ask surely?
21 Oct 2011, 16:10 pm
@DocNZ(DocNZ)-486: I said we would have been glad to play them both because in 2007 we would have beaten them both.
21 Oct 2011, 16:10 pm
@Bismarck Burger(Bismarck Burger)-484:
He won the biggest prize there is so he must be a good coach, average record outside of the WC though.
21 Oct 2011, 16:12 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-491:
Ok well thats good to know.
21 Oct 2011, 16:12 pm
@NZINCHINA(NZINCHINA)-489: of course, but then it is HG… I see hes avoided answering the questions about where this supposed tickertape parade was? again, hes just mouthing off to hide his own disappointment that Cirque de Springbok couldnt perform under the big top..
but the clown was and always will be the funniest part of the show
21 Oct 2011, 16:12 pm
@ET.(ET.)-455: why should i dignify your convoluted rubbish with answers?
everyday you come and posture here to be a know-it-all is further confirmation to all and sundry of how feeble-minded and obsessed with ethnicity you are.
21 Oct 2011, 16:12 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-492: This from you who has never had an original thought in his life tut tut. I must say you are winning me over I feel more sympathy from you with every inane comment you type, I trust you are typing them yourself?
21 Oct 2011, 16:12 pm
@ET.(ET.)-483: It gets a bit easy placing the noose around yours all the time, ExtraThuvi…
“Tokoza” Freedom Fighters deserve more respect…
21 Oct 2011, 16:13 pm
@bluealligator(bluealligator)-493: like you beat us straight after at newlands in 2008 with your WC winning side?
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