Argentina v Wallabies Game 1 Review - Rugby Championship 2024

Australia get a win in the rugby Championship folks will wonders never cease 20 points to 19 last minute kick to win it from Ben Donaldson after winning themselves a penalty at the breakdown where Argentina conceding one heartbreak for August in crvy no fairy tale win for him at La Plata in the Rain the Aussies they can't take a restart to save their lives but boy their scrum was better and their work at the breakdown was phenomenal the kicking from hand could use a bit of work the Argentinian certainly had the better of the kicking game uh finding space behind the um the Australians but they conceded a lot of turnovers the the pmer boys they will be particularly frustrated they're in the wet we'll go through some key events and some stats and you guys can let us know your thoughts but South African fans are probably the one celebrating because there was a potential for a kind of bok Puma Showdown if the the if the Pumas had won both their games against the Aussies but not to be at the minute so they are big time favorites of the South Africans as I mentioned very wet a lot of rain led to handling errors in the first minute rubiolo ended up going off for hia and he didn't return because he got smashed uh early on and um yeah Argentina lost their first line out um the kicking from hand as I mentioned left a little bit to be desired from um from lso in particular but uh just kind of generally at times they did win a scrum penalty which was encouraging the Aussies the first scrum of the game tupo on gajo manages to win a scrum maybe that was a real area of weakness against the Box much improved here and then the Aussies went 27 phases not going a heck of a lot of territory forward and in fact at times going backwards a wee bit lso's dink through was a little bit too big but the Puma not so big that it went dead Puma's had a uh a goal line Dropout and then from the next kind of wave of W's attack when the Pumas got their hands on the ball like Malia showed how you kick from ham with a huge kick to send the Aussies back where they came from then from a resulting line out Frost ends up G giving a penalty way at line out time and Santio Keras punishes so three points to nil early to the pumers despite the fact that they've had to make a ton of tackles and the Wes haven't had to do a hick of a lot of Defending um first shot at a pummer 5 meter moall remember the Aussies have not been able to defend uh lineup malls against Wales they haven't been able to defend them against South Africa now they had a chance to defend one against Argentina did not go well for the Aussies they ended up uh conceding their only try of the game uh through jutin Gonzalez he's able to mle that one over it never really looked like missing I guess uh the kicking game from the Puma sets up the territory a breakdown penalty sets up the chance to go for touch they set up the mall why wouldn't you take it with with what you've seen from the Aussies against the other sides 10 points to nil this is looking like going to the script and the script is the Aussies are going to come here and get a hiding uh especially when they they couldn't escape their own half I mean they did win a couple of turnovers Tano who was impressive got one of them at least to kind of get them out of Dodge and then they did manage to get a little bit of momentum gajo concedes a penalty get the breakdown this is something the pumers will be looking back on um whether they feel like they're hard done by it the break down kind of reminiscent of the earlier game I won't spoil anything but we saw a lot of penalties at the breakdown in that game as well but you need to kind of play to the ref and how the ref is doing it uh sealing off and um yeah the Aussies op for touch which was a kind of ball call opting not to go for three they went through seven phases they got themselves advantage and then we saw a nice we play between Gordon to iow back inside ball to Tom Wright and the W's able to pop it from the deck to Gordon who's able to go over for the first try of the game for the Australians um there's a little bit of a question mark about the final pass but TMO checked it and the TMO cleared it as all good so Aussie's back in the game 10 points to seven certainly the best Aussie attacking player of the game up until that point it had kind of looked a little bit lackluster but they managed to get the kind of skills get like they've been able to go through phases before but un aable to really kind of get that that X Factor punch through uh 31 minutes it was the argentinians turn to to go through 10 phases after of course the Aussies had mucked up the restart after just scoring this is path for the course apparently with the side at the minute it is very frustrating but it's certainly something they'll be working on uh eventually the Aussies ConEd a penalty so the argentinians decided to opt for three and we had an interesting moment where the ref kept telling everyone the shot clock is wrong and again from the previous game we saw a moment where um people don't seem to realize the clock you're seeing on the screen is not the official Tim Keepers clock so sometimes you might think oh full time is up and they've kicked it out there needs to be a restart or he's used all the shot clock so that kick needs to be you know chalked off because time was up no the the the the refereeing team has their own Tim keeper who keeps the time so uh despite the fact that the ref told everyone the shot clock was incorrect the Aussie players saw the shot clock had expired and started to interfere with the kicker so the ref had to kind of slow the play Down he had already kicked that K us but he made him kick it again because he had already blown the whistle to tell the Aussie guys to bugger off and the clock was incorrect be nice if they could find a way to syn the two clocks up for the benefit of fans at home and for the players at the stadium but it is what it is uh 13 points to seven Pumas extend their lead then Argentina's turn to concede a few penalties to the breakdown lso's got a chance to chalk off the three which the argentinians have just got the crowd is jering him for all their Worth to try and put him off his kick and it must work because he misses that one Loo's probably got at least one solid Miss in him by which I mean a kick that he should be getting that he doesn't get pretty much every game maybe I'm being a bit harsh but U yeah he missed it which was a the commentary team mentioned as well a little bit kind of reminiscent of that last game where they played against the spring box where they had a chance to take the lead at halim this one they had a chance to bring it back to three points at halftime but he misses a very kickable one so they go into the sheds of that 13-7 deficit it's pretty even possessions even 5050 territory is slightly edged in favor of Australia although have spent a Hunker time down their own half at one period R meters is 132 144 to Australia but Australia's had 76 carries to 47 so in terms of how much go forward they're getting per carry that's obviously in the argentinians favor they have one two turnovers though To None the Aussies and they've made the Pumas make 107 tackles to only 44 so um yeah there's a uh a big difference in how many kind of guys are having to commit themselves on defense there but the pum is tackling rate to be is a bit higher second half starts with frost knocking on a restart of course because they can't catch the ball seemingly from kickoffs but their defense is able to hold 10 plus phases the oie so at least that kind of gets them out of Dodge then they got a 43 minute scrum in Aussie territory the Aussies get ped at scrum time Mata is absolutely loving that he celebrates like they've just won the game um some players do that it's good way to kind of get pumped up I guess argentinians opt for a three so they extend the lead at 16 points to S it was an interesting one I guess it makes sense in the conditions to keep knocking the the the penalties over and keep extending that lead rather than go for the tries but given how vulnerable Australia have been at M time in hindsight it's easy for me to say this but maybe they should have been a little bit more ambitious uh 46 minutes we see Bell put a huge tackle in on defense Tano wins another turnover they're able to get some wide attack uh the Aussies and then Malia uh who's having to kind of sweep back gets driven back by corbidi after he's kind of carried it back into his own goal area Malia so it's a 5 meter scrum what can the Aussies do uh Wilson goes Blindside from the back of the scrum and gets driven into touch so I was like pretty sure at that moment that the Aussies weren't going to win because I was thinking that's a golden opportunity and you've kind of fluffed it I'm not sure you'll get many better opportunities than that one but to be fair they scored a couple of minutes later to actually uh proved me dead wrong which is happen something quite quite often um maybe the most attacking Aussie play we've seen since the previous try quick ball we saw offloads we saw ikik involved Corin bidy um Tano with a kind of pick and go and then valtini able to go over from close range 1614 back to game on and then a few minutes later we see an Aussie penalty which puts them in the lead and it's an interesting one which is maybe highlights a bit of good um referee management from alala he mentioned how the Argentinian guys were jumping across at line out time and um not long later there's a line out and the argentinians get pinged for exactly that 1716 the uh Australians are in front can they take the restart after just scoring points of course they cannot it is absolutely mind-bogglingly painful to watch the Aussies try to catch restart balln this game um and then the Aussies put themselves under more pressure when lso's pass to frost is a bit of a stinker it's kind of really close to the ground and um yeah the pumers from the resulting turnover Ball blow what is undoubtedly their best chance to put the game to bed because I feel like if they score her they probably go on to win the game where gajo is over the goal line and just drops the ball so if that's a try as I said I I don't think the Pumas lose it they did manage to get another mole chance later which somehow the Aussies managed to stop that was pleasing for them but not long later the Pumas got Advantage anyway and opted for a three so they took the lead back 1917 but that's their final scoring and it would have been nicer for them if it was 21 17 or potentially 237 if they managed to get themselves a converted try but no uh kbby comes on on 72 minutes and the crowd must know it's his final game cuz they give him a massive cheer he comes on in the flank because um they've got a bit of a uh a lack of players in terms of um like the backline I think they had Gonzalez out in the in the backline for this one so cvy comes on in the back row and then again I'm sure Aussie have blown this because they can't catch High balls I forget who it was there was at least two high balls they just maybe car by and loio couldn't catch them the argentinians had taken one not long earlier showing them how it's done and then when they did have a counterattacking play uh Jorgenson's pass just got knocked forward so nothing was going right for the Aussies but they still managed to keep fighting 78 minutes they're going through a load of phases in the Argentinian 22 and then the pumers get pinged there's one of those new kind of law variations where anybody who's near a rck is not allowed to play play the nine the pumers do this I think it would have been an okay play uh last year but this year under these new laws that one is a nogo so the pumers get pinged for it it is right out in front uh G Gordon but no Donaldson Donaldson takes the clock right down to the last 5 seconds before slotting the kick which gives the Wes a 20 points to 19 Victory first victory in the rugby Championship this year first victory in the rugby championship for a we while see as they went through the last campaign winless under Eddie maybe this is the start of something better I don't know certainly the scrum looked a bit better the restarts looked bloody awful but the breakdown work was incredible and um they managed to score a couple of nice tries the Pumas will be disappointed at home they're only able to score one try against this wabby side which has been leaking a few points against the Box anyway but the Box are a different article possession finishes 55 50 for your stats territory 4951 edging to the WABE so very tight run meters finishes 378 to 278 with the Pumas well ahead there the carries finish 116 to 114 so very even and the Puma getting more kind of pay for their carries they get uh fewer Defenders beaten though 2315 and they get fewer clean breaks three zip so the wallabies Edge those kind of key X Factor stats and the turnovers one is maybe the biggest one in deciding this game 61 in favor of the wallabies tackle count finishes 145 Pumas 119 Wes uh so the Pumas asked to do a fair bit of defensive work penalties conceded as 108 so pretty low in the scheme of things with the Pumas conceding 10 no cards in this one uh individuals iow beats five Defenders Mata has 11 carries so he was busy likewise Wilson 11 carries but he's able to add a couple of turnovers to his game Tano top tackler with 22 for the the Wes and a couple of turnovers kma 24 tackles but yeah the pumers in terms of putting themselves in a key position to challenge for this rugby Championship uh needed to win this game and this is a big big dent to that campaign they absolutely need the All Blacks to win one game against uh the box and then they would probably need to beat the Box twice so yeah disappointing one in terms of that which been on the cards but for Aussie rugby what a boost on Father's Day here in New Zealand and Australia I know it's not in sync with many other places in the world but uh a good win for the Aussie boys really really much needed hopefully for them this can you know kind of give them a bit of confidence a bit of a boost uh going into the kind of final three games they've got of this rugby Championship you guys let us know your thoughts on the game subscribe to this channel if you have not done so already if you want to see a video where I talk white board and Blackboard with some Chinese students who showed me around a University campus in China while having a conversation in Chinese this is very random for a guy making a rugby video but there's another Channel called two tour I'll put a link up there or down there feel free to check that out now that the rugby championship games are over for this weekend you guys take care of yourselves and I will talk to you again soon see together