James O'Connor: Impressive at 10
Australia registered an emphatic 60-11 win over the Barbarians in their Killik Cup clash at Twickenham on Saturday.
As expected, running rugby was the order of the day but in the end the Wallabies were more clinical in the execution of their moves and were rewarded with eight tries against the men in black and white hoops.
Leading the way for the Australians were wings Digby Ioane and Lachlan Turner as well as replacement lock James Horwill, who each crossed over for a brace of tries.
The Baa-Baas' solitary try came via rugby league sensation Sam Tomkins who crossed over for a consolation score in the dying seconds of the match.
Playing on the right wing, Tomkins got little opportunities to showcase his talents as the Wallabies had the bulk of the possession for most of the match.
The Tri-Nations champions' experiment of playing James O'Connor at fly-half proved a success and the 21-year-old rewarded the faith shown in him by Wallabies coach Robbie Deans by scoring 20 points via seven conversions, a penalty and a drop-goal.
As the scoreline suggests Australia dominated most facets of play, although poor discipline in the first half saw Adam Ashley Cooper and James Slipper spending time in the sin bin.
Ashley-Cooper received his marching orders for a deliberate knock-on after Robbie Fruean tried to get a pass away to Tomkins early in the half and Slipper was sent off for a late tackle on Danny Cipriani.
The Barbarians failed to capitalise on their numerical advantage and they were made to pay for this.
The Wallabies led 18-3 at half-time, after Ioane and Turner scored tries and turned on the style in the second half against their hapless opponents.
Australia's dominance was emphasised in the 51 st minute when Horwill crossed over for his first try.
The regular Wallabies captain, who started on the replacements bench, combined brilliantly with replacement hooker Stephen Moore from a lineout on the edge of the Baa-baas' 22 metre area and barged over the tryline mere minutes after he came on to the field.
The Barbarians gave a lacklustre performance from the start and several high-profile players in their ranks seemed disinterested for most of the match.
Their veterans Victor Matfield and Stirling Mortlock toiled manfully but without the support of their team-mates they were always going to struggle against a Wallabies side who gave an almost perfect display.
The scorers:
For Barbarians:
Try: Tomkins
Pens: Cipriani 2
For Australia:
Tries: Horwill 2, Turner 2, Ioane 2, Horne, Samo
Cons: O'Connor 7
Pen: O'Connor
Drop-goal: O'Connor
Barbarians: 15 Isaia Toeava, 14 Sam Tomkins, 13 Robbie Fruean, 12 Stirling Mortlock, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Danny Cipriani, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Adam Thomson, 7 Mauro Bergamasco, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Victor Matfield (c), 4 Simon Shaw, 3 Sylvain Marconnet, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Eusebio Guinazu.
Replacements: 16 Adriaan Strauss, 17 Salvatore Perugini, 18 Jason White, 19 Marco Bortolami, 20 Nemia Kenatale, 21 Richard Kahui, 22 Seru Rabeni.
Australia: 15 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 14 Lachie Turner, 13 Rob Horne, 12 Berrick Barnes, 11 Ioane Digby, 10 James O'Connor, 9 Will Genia, 8 Dave Dennis, 7 David Pocock (captain), 6 Scott Higginbotham, 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 Rob Simmons, 3 Salesi Ma'afu, 2 Tatafu Polota Nau, 1 James Slipper
Replacements: 16 Stephen Moore, 17 Ben Alexander, 18 James Horwill, 19 Radike Samo, 20 Matt Hodgson, 21 Nick Phipps, 22 Ben Tapuai.
Yellow card: Adam Ashley-Cooper (Australia - 14th minute), James Slipper (Australia - 30th minute)
Comments
sukkadoits says...
@objetive you are an idiot if you judge a coaches' career based on a Barbarians game
Posted 00:56 30th November 2011
dan73 says...
@exdigger What else could AAC do??? That's disgraceful: sounds like soccer! He should have allowed the try to be scored.
Posted 09:50 28th November 2011
sandal says...
I called this one wrong and have to hold my hand up to that.
This is a stunning performance, and the Wallabies have shown they mean business after their world cup disappointment. Look out Wales?
@ Trinats
I see you are back to your old ways, bragging about the Wallabies' future achievements. Sure, this is a good team. But all it takes is one victory and you are telling us how dominant they will be for the next eight years.
Still, good luck against Wales, just so that other braggart, Sean Edwards, is put in his place.
Posted 05:10 28th November 2011
hybrid187 says...
Ahhhh Trinats... as one sided as I know you are I still love you ! I love reading your posts ! You just cannot handle a country with 20 mill less people winning the biggest trophy in World Rugby !!
Posted 03:32 28th November 2011
objetive says...
All those who think Henry is a great coach...mmm
Posted 16:56 27th November 2011
7ton says...
Trinats
Yeah you were mouthing of before the WC about how Aus were going to win and failed.
Just more rubbish from you
Posted 14:19 27th November 2011
exdigger says...
It's going to be a great game next week but oz will have 'em I think. AAC was immense (other than the card but what could he do?) JOC brilliant too. Scrum not as bad as I expected. Go Wallabies! Ps nice hit on pocock by mortlock-good to see commitment...
Posted 11:56 27th November 2011
golden_statenba says...
I blame Paddy and the rfu
Posted 11:36 27th November 2011
usaBok says...
Ugh, that Baa-baa lineup is the worst I've seen. Individually, there are some good names there. But, they just don't combine well, at all. Freuen and Mortlock? That's got to be the strangest center combo I've ever seen. I didn't watch the game, but I know Cipriani must have run that backline completely out of space every time. Then, Mortlock probably took the hit...and Freuen and Habana got no space to move. See, I didn't even have to watch the game, but that's probably what happened.
Posted 04:48 27th November 2011
mjdebues92 says...
I think this game confirmed for many people that many of these players on the Baba's are over the hill or overrated. You can really understand why players like toeava or fruean can't nail down a place and why cipriani sucks.
Posted 04:37 27th November 2011
hybrid187 says...
These guys couldnt tackle at all ?? I only caught about half an hour of the game and I couldnt believe the amount of missed tackled I saw !
Posted 04:24 27th November 2011
minkusbc says...
We are seeing one of the finalists (Australia) in 2015 World Cup, and we will see the other finalist (Wales) next week.
Posted 22:35 26th November 2011
dodgypasser says...
Nightmare. Some of the greatest matches in the history of world rugby have involved the Barbarians with some entertaining and skillful play that has involved players at the top of their game playing without the fear of losing and enjoying the opportunity of showcasing their talent.
This was a total shocker of a performance by the Baabaa`s and a major disappointment with almost all of the players totally disinterested in the game and seemingly no commitment. A real disgrace for poeple who pay good money to see the reputation and history of the baabaas continue. A waste of money.
Sitting in the south stand it was totally clear that Australia held off tackles to allow the final try to give the score some level of acceptability. A great shame that so many players have finished their careers off on such a low note because collectively they couldn`t be bothered and that Danny Cipriani again demonstrated that he is a mercurial talented individual player but will not improve an England XV as he is not a team player. As a keen English supporter I do however have to give full credit to Australia who played really well. I fear for the Baabaas future if this type of performance is repeated as people won`t bother turning up to pay for such limited effort.
Posted 22:29 26th November 2011
J_HDK says...
Why do the babas still wear old style shirts. it makes it so much harder to break tackles. These small percentages on each phase add up and severely impede the how babas have for success against test sides
Posted 21:01 26th November 2011
dan73 says...
Mauro Bergamasco had a good match considering he's not playing!
Posted 20:51 26th November 2011
crunchfit says...
I dislike Poite very much as a referee, and I only watched the first half today, but he was very good. I was very happy to see the yellow cards early (he is quick with yellows, which I like). In any match, they should be given quickly to set the tone and even more so in a Barbarians match. Some unnecessary, cynical play from certain players.
The Australian backs looked very good, particularly O'Connor. The more he can get into the game, the better, and I'd pick him over Cooper. He can get the line moving better overall. He may not be able to do the jinky, runs that Cooper can do but he can bake great breaks and do his own style of breaking the defensive line open. Also, Ioane was class.If I were picking a World XV, him and Habana would be on the wings.
Barbarians were pretty poor. Some decent individual performances, but not great as a team or when the final pass came.
Fruean's running is brilliant. If he can get his passing / decision making up to par, he could be world class.
Isn't Tomkins more of a playmaker in league? Perhaps he was not a great choice after all. He was well covered all day. He did a good job for his only ever game of union, but he just isn't big enough or fast enough for a winger. Particularly against Ioane.
Posted 20:12 26th November 2011
SwiftyHuzzah says...
So much for those tipping a close match, and some even predicted a Barbarian win! No injury concerns either, which makes the game against Wales quite daunting for the Welsh.
Posted 17:33 26th November 2011