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Wallabies player ratings vs All Blacks | Rugby Championship

Pete Samu. (Photo by Kelly Defina/Getty Images)

The Wallabies have fallen to a sizeable loss at Eden Park, suffering a 40-14 defeat at the hands of their arch-rivals, the All Blacks.

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Although it took some time for the home side to get their engines running, the Wallabies weren’t able to prevent NZ from banking two first-half tries – and things only got worse from there.

Australia were able to strike twice late in the game through replacements Folau Fainga’a and Jordan Petaia but never threatened to grab victory from the jaws of defeat.

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While the backs did most of the damage for the All Blacks, the Wallabies’ forward pack in general also got taken apart at the set-piece. Pack went for a bold attempt to spin the All Blacks maul but ended up costing a penalty try, two maul tries conceded in the second and issues all night with conceding penalties at the scrum.

Who were the Wallabies best performers on the night?

1. James Slipper – 4/10
Condeded penalty advantages at the first two scrums and was under pressure from the All Blacks front row often. Made a good read and rush tackle in the first half. Penalised for a low chop tackle which led to a penalty try from the ensuing maul. Off at halftime.

2. David Porecki – 4
First big throw of the night was tipped and nearly stolen. Took the yellow card for the penalty try from the collapsed maul. Off in 57th.

3. Allan Alaalatoa – 6
First scrum under pressure wheeling on tighthead side and overall shaky set piece at scrum time. Although he put in a solid defensive load, toiled hard all night with 11 tackles and zero missed.

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4. Jed Holloway – 5
Made an early line break in the first minute but a dangerous clean-out moments later on Dalton Papali’i resulted in a yellow card. Pinched a key lineout midway through first half. Showed some nice hands to set up Marika Koroibete on a would-be try. Had some deft backdoor passes in Wallabies attack at times. Had 8 carries, the most of any Australian forward. A mixed bag.

5. Cadeyrn Neville – 3
Solid lineout target and industrious work around the tough stuff. Some sloppy moments though, not rolling away in 46th minute gifted the All Blacks a penalty right in front. Had two turnovers conceded.

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6. Rob Valetini – 5
Strong defence up the middle. Carried hard but not as effective as usual. Plenty of effort but not his night.

7. Pete Samu – 7
A loose ball turnover from an erratic Richie Mo’unga pass gave Wallabies a chance for their first try. Penalised a few times at the breakdown but brought plenty of intensity, although some calls went against him. Nearly scored off a trick lineout play after filling in as the thrower. Had a critical steal late in first half after a Will Jordan break. Moved to No 8 in second half, had an opportunist try assist for the Wallabies’ first touch down. The Wallabies’ best in a losing side.

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8. Harry Wilson – 5
Solid defence in close channels and good work rate. Had a few execution errors, spilled a key flat pass from Len Ikitau with attack threatening in the first half. Absolutely ripped in off a goal-line drop out like an Origin prop charging into the defence. Off at 48th.

9. Jake Gordon – 5
Huge defensive effort on the night. Made a key cover tackle on Jordie Barrett in the first half and had a good one-on-one strip on Caleb Clarke defending from five out. Defensively caused some problems, but penalised for not rolling away once. Attack was a little off the pace with Gordon’s slight pause before every pass. Box kicks were well placed, just no contest. Off for Nic White in 48th.

10. Bernard Foley – 3
Heckled early by the Eden Park faithful on all his touch finders. Quiet first half until he pulled an intercept but didn’t have the legs, needed more time to beat the All Blacks rush defence. Big heart on defence, didn’t shy away from contact. Got popped on a set-piece play late in the half around halfway and coughed up the ball. Overall just a lack of ball to attack with. Off in 75th.

11. Marika Koroibete – 5
Had his typical brilliant moments on defence. Saved the day early covering a Beauden Barrett chip kick that Caleb Clarke otherwise might have nabbed for a try. Recovered his own chip on a nice piece of counterattack. Unfortunately bombed a walk-over try with a foot in touch. Made a key tackle on Jordan early in the second half and covered a spilled Andrew Kellaway high ball to save another potential try.

12. Lalakai Foketi – N/A
Left the field after 20 minutes with an injury and was replaced by Jordan Petaia.

13. Len Ikitau – 4
Missed an early tackle with over-pursuing on Beauden Barrett leading to a break. Forced into 12 after Foketi injury in the reshuffle. A big cover tackle in the backfield on Ioane saved a potential try, but overall not many chances to get involved in attack.

14. Tom Wright – 3
Some good moments in defence. Took a big risk with a quick tap from a midfield penalty and grubbered through, All Blacks countered quickly with a huge Rieko Ioane break that could have been more. Put under pressure by White on his goal line and dropped it cold trying to evade the defence.

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15. Andrew Kellaway – 4
Some good clean-up moments at the back covering kicks in the first half, including a nice mark to spoil a set-piece kick play. Dropped a contestable with the All Blacks coming out of their own end in the second half, and another later in the half that had to be cleaned up by Koroibete after a counterattack and kick ahead by Rieko Ioane. Subbed directly after that spill in the 68th, but back on for Foley with five mins to go.

Reserves:

16. Folau Fainga’a – 5
On in 57th. Scored with his first two touches with a burst following a charged-down exit kick. Had a nice pass and took the return ball backing up.

17. Angus Bell
On at halftime for Slipper, was pushed back on Whitelock’s barge over try. Couldn’t help the scrum issues with another pen conceded early. One strong carry and a turnover penalty won at the ruck.

18. Pone Fa’amausili
On in 66th. Some strong carries and plenty of energy.

19. Nick Frost
A charge-down effort led to Wallabies’ first try.

20. Fraser McReight
On in 48th. Got a holding-on penalty to relieve some pressure late.

21. Nic White
On in 48th. Got involved in the niggle and chirp, but not much else. Put his winger under pressure with a pass on the goal line from a backpedalling scrum.

22. Reece Hodge – N/A
On in 68th.

23. Jordan Petaia
On in the 20th minute. Had a rough introduction to the midfield when Will Jordan beat him for pace for the game’s opening try. Was ripped of possession on his first carry and was hit hard by Jordie Barrett on a set-piece carry running it straight. Spilled a ball cold when Wallabies tries to run it out of their 22 after the first try which summed up his night. Scored on the last play of the game but overall a tough night and will bounce back.

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Comments

3 Comments
P
Peter 788 days ago

Jed Holloway gets a 5 when he should have got a Red Card in the first minute.

E
Etic 788 days ago

You are completely hopeless, not giving ratingd for ALL players including replacements.

P
Paul 788 days ago

Looked like the ABs were more determined to make up for last week's debacle that we were. If only Rugby League had real scrums, we could pinch some genuinely tough forwards. Probably why the French can beat them.

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JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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