Rugby videos of tackles, tries, funny incidents and more: The Wallabies crush the Barbarians in Sydney

Sunday, June 07, 2009

The Wallabies crush the Barbarians in Sydney

The Wallabies began their international season on a high note after they convincingly beat a star studded Barbarians team 55-7 in Sydney on Saturday.

The home side raced off into a commanding lead early on with three tries, before the Barbarians’ Iain Balshaw scored just before half-time.

The Wallabies hit their stride in the second half though, adding a further five tries, making the result emphatically one sided.

Stirling Mortlock had a fascinating duel with Sonny Bill Williams all match, as it was Williams’ first international Rugby Union match. Mortlock generally had the better of him, but Williams showed moments of brilliance, and we’ll see him again at this level in the future no doubt.

Matt Giteau showed his class as usual, contributing 16 points and a fantastic solo effort of his own, dummying twice before crossing the line.

The Barbarians, despite having a fantastic side on paper, perhaps suffered from the fatigue of travel, and too many nights out during the week, as they were blown away by the powerful looking Aussie outfit.

"We couldn’t have hoped for a better hit-out than that," said Australia captain Stirling Mortlock. "I thought our intent was obvious from the first 15 minutes and we kept up the tempo in a high-speed game."

Time: 07:26

mannnnn i just knew ben alexander was going to score as soon as he came on hahaha. what a revelation. got no idea how he compares to props in terms of scrummaging but damn he is good when he runs with that ball

By Anonymous, at June 07, 2009 9:53 am
o'connor is a ridiculous talent, i look forward to seeing him for two more decades in the gold jumper. Even tough I an American, Oz would be my second homeland in my heart.

By Anonymous, at June 07, 2009 9:55 am
Great game. Also great to see Robbie picking most of the same players from last year, for sure they'll be a force to be reckon with. But judging by the talent in the southern hemisphere all three tri-nations teams will be deadly.

By Kieth, at June 07, 2009 10:45 am
Aargh british lions WTF. lol

By Leinster fan 4 life, at June 07, 2009 12:29 pm
whats happened to elsom?? haha
last week he played for barbarians, was he in australias squad or in babarians or neither??

By Paul Gormley, at June 07, 2009 12:32 pm
"whats happened to elsom?? haha
last week he played for barbarians, was he in australias squad or in babarians or neither??"

He pulled out just before kick-off due to a bone bruising of the knee. It'll be most likely he'll be available for Australia's next week's match against Italy.

By Phil, at June 07, 2009 12:39 pm
Looking good this year, and how could they not be a force to be reckoned with, when they have a coach like Robbie Deans and players like Gitaeu, Mortlock and Elsom and great young players like Alexander and O'Conner coming thru.

By Anonymous, at June 07, 2009 12:59 pm
excellent. im a diehard munster fan, but even i can see how INCREDIBLE he was for leinster this season, an absolute TANK. great player

By Paul Gormley, at June 07, 2009 1:00 pm
Giteau is... like Moses!

He opens the sea! O_o

By Madflyhalf, at June 07, 2009 2:01 pm
The Barbarians had a fantastic team on paper

Unfortunately - they were
playing on grass

By Anonymous, at June 07, 2009 2:55 pm
^^ brilliant.
Giteau is amazing, and australias looking sharp.

By ed, at June 07, 2009 3:05 pm
Cum on anonymous make up ur own jokes

By Joey, at June 07, 2009 3:49 pm
Joey said...
Cum on anonymous make up ur own jokes

Come on Joey, don't make up your own spelling.

By The Teacher, at June 07, 2009 3:53 pm
great game by the wallabies. but i guess deans will be aware of the fact that his team could only run riot because of the (friendly said) sloppy defensive work by the barbarians...
lets see what they can do against italy's "bunker play" ;)
ans as as kieth said - it's gonna be one hell of a tri-nations this year! can't wiat for it to start :)

By opfazonk, at June 07, 2009 4:48 pm
I love Horwill, he's the locks' tryman

By Anonymous, at June 07, 2009 6:02 pm
as usual, nice to see 'oconnor really shining through ;)

By Anonymous, at June 07, 2009 7:02 pm
looking forward to a half decent version of these highlights RD

By Anonymous, at June 07, 2009 7:10 pm
some nice play, dissapointed by Collins in both games really. Australia look to be finding their feet again, but don't look to be in the same league as the All Blacks or the Springboks, and are still weak at the set piece in comparison. Expect an entertaining tri-nations, and a bucketload of Aussie excuses.

By The Scpoople master, at June 07, 2009 7:14 pm
O'Connor and Giteau will give Australia its third world cup in 2011. NZ, prepare for another very harsch deception or develop some talented inside backs right now. Carter and McAlister are just so overrated.

By Ave88, at June 07, 2009 7:24 pm
Joey said...
Cum on anonymous make up ur own jokes

The teacher said...
Come on Joey, don't make up your own spelling.

U are a legend funniest joke ive ever heard in my life thanks alot for the laugh

By Leinster fan 4 life, at June 07, 2009 7:45 pm
Ave88 said...
O'Connor and Giteau will give Australia its third world cup in 2011. NZ, prepare for another very harsch deception or develop some talented inside backs right now. Carter and McAlister are just so overrated.

U dont realise that catrer is the best outhalf in the world and mcallister is pretty damn good 2 so get ur head out of ur arse and realise that yeah giteau is good but isnt much of an outhalf much better at inside centre and I think Ireland wih a back line of
10 Sexton
11 Bowe
12 McFadden
13 Earls
14 Fitzgerald
15 Kearnry will be class for the WC

By Leinster fan 4 life, at June 07, 2009 10:33 pm
Maybe if they whip the aussies will kickFrance in the semis and then take NZ i the final :)

By Anonymous, at June 07, 2009 10:35 pm
Leinster fan for life: "giteau isnt much of an outhalf". Are you actually mental?! He is AMAZING!

By Anonymous, at June 07, 2009 10:44 pm
12 McFadden
13 Earls

are u mad, BOD will still be about for the next world cup.
p.s giteau is the best 10 in the world at the moment, abouslete genius. :D

By Anonymous, at June 08, 2009 12:29 am
i thought sonny bill showed in parts what a class player he could become, (some of the little one handed offloads and running lines) a future allblack if he stays injruy free and go to the super 14 to play.
what you think?
:D

By Anonymous, at June 08, 2009 12:36 am
WOW how good is james o'connor going to be when he getts older. only 18 and playing inernationl rugby. crazy how talented that boy is! !
:D

By Anonymous, at June 08, 2009 12:43 am
The NH really have some weird opinions on the Aussie team.
First of all Gitaeu is almost certainly the form fly-half in the world right now, he lacks nothing from his game. He can pass, kick, tackle, step, is fast, tough and has a great rugby brain. There's no one in his class, except maybe for a fit Dan Carter.
And Australia hasn't finished last in the Tri-nations for fucking ages, they were one victory away from winning it last year, they only lost to NZ by a few points in the very last game and almost got away with it but were denied on the tryline in the last ten minutes.
And for that ignorant bastard who said Gitaeu is a better inside centre, WTF? Do you know anything about rugby? He's always been a fly-half, he played at inside centre cuz he had Larkham in front of him, and he played as a second five eight, not a classic inside centre at all.

By Anonymous, at June 08, 2009 3:33 am
Leinster fan 4 life said...
U are a legend funniest joke ive ever heard in my life thanks alot for the laugh

Thanks Leinster fan, it's nice to be appreciated. You're a legend too, I laughed like crazy at your "Aargh british lions WTF. lol" comment under a Wallabies vs Barbarians video. Whacky guy.

By The Teacher, at June 08, 2009 3:44 am
um.. get a room Leinsterfan4life and the Teacher? weirdos..

anyway.. nice to see the longer version of the highlights up. cheers.

giteau is pure quality. that try, and his neat little kick for the other try (mitchell I think) were brilliant. hernandez, giteau, carter.. nobody else comes close in terms of the overall, complete number 10.

By FrankyH, at June 08, 2009 1:39 pm
Matt is the best fly-half in the world

By Anonymous, at June 08, 2009 2:11 pm
i thought sonny bill showed in parts what a class player he could become, (some of the little one handed offloads and running lines) a future allblack if he stays injruy free and go to the super 14 to play.
what you think?

I think you should stop listening to what the commentors said and form your own opinion. Sonnt Bill was crap. He got stuffed on the goal line by a 9, hammered half the other time he caught the ball, played garbage Def, and turned the ball over almost everytime he touched it. The only quality play he has was the one handed offload.

He seems to play with hesitation. IMO.

By Boz, at June 08, 2009 4:11 pm
well nearly all of the babas are on holiday since last week so i suppose its nice for the ozzies to get a run out and enjoy themselves.

Unfortunately thier scrum is still rubbish and of course it always helps when you have a fellow ozzie as ref so keep the feel good factor going.

Giteau oozes class and is one of if not the best in the world. Im a leinster fan and i actually got embarressed by the idiot calling himself leinster fan 4 life mentioning johnny sexton in the same sentence as Giteau.

Also wtf is he doing putting a future leinster line up in a comment for this clip - it has nothing what so ever to do the wallabies hammering the barbarians.

Also that wallaby try that started with a huge baa baas break away and ended with wallaby prop scoring looked suspiciously like a knock on by an oozie infronmt of their own posts. Ah well stuart australia dickinson either didnt notice or didnt want to notice it.

Nice win for australia get your scrum sorted though, its pathetic.

By Kenny, at June 08, 2009 4:31 pm
where is burgo's try saving hit on SBW?

By Matt, at June 09, 2009 1:20 am
agree with comments about Australia scrum. Its always a concern. But this was the first international game of the season, maybe it will come good.

As for SBW, he had an ok game and there's indications of his potential talent. I just want to comment about people's suggestions he move back to NZ or Aus to play union...

1. I don't think it will happen. He left Australia because of money. He BROKE contract to go get money elsewhere. If he comes down south, he's going to take a huge pay cut.
2. I don't want it to happen. I think the character he showed when he left australia was contemptable. Going north to get money is something a lot of people have done, I have no major issue with that. The way he did it was just wrong. He made no attempt to negotiate with his club, try and find a compromise... he just left. What club wants a player who doesn't honour contracts? I know he's only done it once, but that was a pretty big once. Let him stay in France or go to the UK, good luck to him, I'd rather not see him back here.

By granite, at June 09, 2009 4:06 am
Australia could have a great scrum and people would still critisize it. It's a preconceived notion that Australia's scrum is bad, no matter how well it competes or what personnel changes there are.

By Anonymous, at June 09, 2009 5:02 am
i disagree, aus have had a bad scrum for ages and the fact that they were still under immense pressure on a number of occasions during the match against a scrum that, lets face it, was practically on holidays highlights a huge weakness.

Well they have Italy next who have a huge scrum and also craig gower at out half whcih could be the link up their massive forwards need to their as yet unconvincing back line so watch out.

Remember Italy pushed them all the way in Italy last Autumn and only a dodgy late try sealed it for the wallabies.

Unless they front up they may have a few problems, but on the other hand with Giteau in the kind of form he was in on saturday it may be over before it starts.

Go figure....

By Kenny, at June 09, 2009 10:28 am
Did you watch the game?
We dominated the scrums in this match. Your perception is a perfect example.
It doesn't mean that much cuz the barbarians scrum was never gonna be that competetive, but it's a case in point.
Like when Australia smashed England at the scrum at twickenham last year. At one point the entire English scrum disintergrated and Robinson was mashing his opposite prop into the ground. If the situation had been reversed people would still be talking about how the mighty English scrum had destroyed the pathetic Aussie set piece.
I mean how much do you really know about Australian rugby, really? The Waratahs have one of the best scrums in the S14, they are respected across the comp. Benn Robinson was probably the best scrummaging Loosehead in the S14 last season. Moore is certainly no slouch.
The scrum has completely different personnel now. It is certainly not the finished article, and is far from the best scrum in international rugby. It's also not nearly as bad as fans, particularly NH fans, make out.
But you'll probably just repeat yourself and say something like :
"Everyone knows the Aussie scrum is bad. It's always be bad, and will always be bad."

Which of course isn't true. In the nineties and particularly the late eighties and early ninties, it was one of the best around.

By Anonymous, at June 09, 2009 12:29 pm
Oh, and as for Italy, I predict at least a 20 point margin of victory, probably bigger.
We haven't lost to a NH team in Australia in six years, Italy are certainly not gonna be the ones to do it.

By Anonymous, at June 09, 2009 12:36 pm
"The scrum has completely different personnel now"

you mean new props like al baxtor come on, like i said i mentioned this earlier and straight away i had an ozzy agreeing that your scrum is crap. Check granites reply to my comments

as per usual you bring the one good scrum you did back in england during Autumn when England couldnt beat my 2 baby sons in a scrum, can you think of any and i mean any other time where the ozzy scrum has not been a point of ridicule.

Sometimes its good to know your teams weaknesses and in australias case its their crap scrum. Everyone knows it mate. You dont need to know aussie rugby to know that, Just watch the game in question, B J Botha was giving Baxtor a bit of a torrid time and he plays for lowely Ulster.

Oh and the eighties are long gone mate but hang on to them if you want, whatever makes you feel better.

By Kenny, at June 09, 2009 1:59 pm
The Aussie scrum was good as recently as 1999. But that's not the point, the point is sometimes the scrum is a problem, sometimes not.
Baxter's the only member of the front row who is an old hand. Moore and Robinson are young and both good scrummagers, Robinson particularly. Alexander is good too and he'll probably replace Baxter sooner or later.
The second row is solid with Sharpe and Horwill both decent in the scrums, and add alot of bulk. The back three are also not slouches, Elsom and Palu add alot of bulk.
The aussie scrum isn't great, it still needs work, but it's miles better than it was a couple of years ago. The Aussies gave as good as they got to the Boks and Kiwis in last years tri-nations. They also preformed well on the November tour, although the French certainly won that scrummaging battle. England got soundly beaten, and Australia held their own against Italy. Wales wasn't a great scrummaging preformance, but not terrible either, and that loss had alot more to do with the yellow card they gave away.
I watched this Barbarians game and Australia didn't lose a single feed or give away a single penalty. They generally pushed the Barbarian scrum back or held their own scrum together. The scrum didn't cause a single problem all night.
So I don't know which game you were watching.

By Anonymous, at June 09, 2009 3:04 pm
They also performed well on the November tour, although the French certainly won that scrummaging battle. England got soundly beaten, and Australia held their own against Italy. Wales wasn't a great scrummaging preformance, but not terrible either, and that loss had alot more to do with the yellow card they gave away.

You said they performed well scrum wise in Autumn and then you mention they were cak in the scrum against France and wales so which is it. Italy are muck anyway so you cant really count them so really Australia scrum wose bossed England and then got crushed scrum wise by France and Wales and in all fairness were very lucky to beat France. Although beating France in France isnt exactly easy.

But if i were you i wouldnt bring up Autumn as Australia were totally blitzed by the kiwis who beat everyone and didnt even concede a try in the process whereas australia stuttered their way throught the series.

I do agree you will proib beat Italy but they are probably the weakest team going on tour at the mo so its taken for granted but all i was saying was Craig Gower will be interesting to watch.

OZ second row and back row is 1 of the best in the business, strong line out and great ball carriers but al baxtor is pile of shit and why he is still playing is a mystery to me and makes me wonder that Australia have very little there apart from him.

By Kenny, at June 09, 2009 3:45 pm
hope the aussies can win the trinations this year, and i really hope i dont ever have to see matt dunning again

By Anonymous, at June 09, 2009 4:00 pm
Kenny, I brought up the kiwis cuz we played them four times last year.
They won a few scrums against us, we won a few against them. In Hong Kong we flat out won the scrum battle with them, In Auckland they beat us. In Sydney and Brisbane the honors were shared. I mean we came within four points of beating them a second time and taking the tri-nations, our scrum couldn't have been that bad against them.
Against South Africa we did well also, we smashed them at scrum time in Perth, although they gave it to us in that mauling we got on the high veldt.
We smashed England, had no real problems with Italy, got mashed by France and (without getting really blitzed) we got beaten by Wales.
You know, similar to how England got smashed by us, but did ok in the six nations at scrum time (ok but not great).
In regards to France and Wales, I was reasonably happy with both preformances, considering the hugely lopsided penalty counts against us (weird considering Aus have never been a cynical team, and are rated highly when it comes to on-field discipline - but away from home it happens).
And if I never brought up a tour Australia went on simply because the Kiwis had done better, I wouldn't bring up many tours at all. They're the All Blacks man, they're the best in the business.
We won three out of four in Europe, away to france and England being particularly good victories.
That's not bad at all, considering how much experimenting Deans did on that tour. Against Wales half our team was rested and the younger guys did fine once they were given a chance to play by Alan 'Australia has never won a game under me' Lewis.
The point is that Aus' scrum is steadliy improving and has been for a few years now.
The only guys who are from the old guard really, are Sharpe and Baxter. The rest of the scrum are new personnel, chosen with one eye on their ability at the set piece.
And Baxter's on the way out mate, Alexander is his most likely replacement, another solid scrummager.
And it'll be very interesting to see what Craig Gower does for the Italians, it's a bit of a home coming for him and has generated alot of interest in what will almost certainly be an Australian victory.
Gower's a good playmaker and tough as hell, but he can only work with the players at his disposal, and Italy don't have alot of talent out wide for Gower to work with.
We'll see.

By Anonymous, at June 10, 2009 3:04 am