Rugby videos of tackles, tries, funny incidents and more: Highlights of the Australian Barbarians against England in Perth

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Highlights of the Australian Barbarians against England in Perth

James O’Connor scored a hattrick while Berick Barnes missed a late match winning penalty kick as England narrowly avoided defeat to the Australian Barbarians when they drew 28-28 in Perth on Tuesday.

The Australian Barbarians looked in control for a large part of the game, but two late tries to England allowed them back in it. O’Connor was the star of the show though, with his three tries, two conversions, and two penalties giving him a personal tally of 25 points.

O’Connor, still only 19, has since been called up to the Australian squad to face England this Saturday, replacing Kurtley Beale who played at fullback against Fiji.

"He couldn't have done much more," coach Robbie Deans said of O'Connor. "He had a great game. It's good to have choice. He was assertive in his game. We know he is a talented individual. He served his wings well, he served his team well under the high ball and he created a bit himself."

Barnes levelled the scores with a penalty late in the game, but his final kick went wide as the home side looked to snatch the win. England coach Martin Johnson feels that his scratch side did okay considering they were together a week, but was unhappy about the errors.

"We really could and maybe should have won the game at the end with the opportunities we had. Of course, we could have lost it.

"Every part of our game today was good in bits and inconsistent in bits. We did lots of good things but we also compounded a few errors. From our point of view it showed that if we do what we say we will, it will work for us.

"But if we relax and make mistakes, miss tackles, get tight defensively and compound errors then it won't. If you make mistakes at this level you get punished," said Johnson.

This match wasn’t broadcast on TV at all, but they did stream it on their website with one camera and no commentary. Here’s some highlights for you to watch anyway.

Time: 04:56
Note: Thanks to rugby.com.au for the footage

Excellent, cheers RD

By Lil-Chris, at June 10, 2010 12:46 pm
O'Conner is getting a decent run of form.

From anyone who saw this match did England actually have a game plan? They seem to have perfected the art of lying all over the ball and throwing passes into nowhere. Although the replacement 9 seemed to inject some pace.

By Nick, at June 10, 2010 12:50 pm
first I want to be the last...B.

By Anonymous, at June 10, 2010 1:05 pm
Yes they did play rugby...

By Alexander, at June 10, 2010 1:10 pm
most boring fans ever!

By Anonymous, at June 10, 2010 1:34 pm
From the highlights it did seem at least that England were trying to recycle the ball quickly, which has been lacking for some time.

By Phil, at June 10, 2010 1:34 pm
I think in fairness it's worth pointing out that the England side were really the second string guys too. This was Australia A vs England A.

By Kev, at June 10, 2010 1:48 pm
kev you're right but their game (england) was still boring and with no direction.

By 3/4 centre, at June 10, 2010 2:34 pm
Seems a little hard to put direction in a team that has only been together for a week.

In that perspective, I think England did rather good against an australian team of world class players.

By jente, at June 10, 2010 3:13 pm
feels different without replays and commentary

By pilapica, at June 10, 2010 4:01 pm
In response to a comment on here - I felt England actually di recycle the bal very quickly - resulted in a try in right corner.

Aussie Baa Baa's continuity was terrific.

The referee, as is normal in Australia, was useless. He awarded the final penalty to Aussie Baa Baas when the player quite clearly joined from the side of the ruck. Had the game been won on that, it's have been a disgrace.

By Anonymous, at June 10, 2010 4:03 pm
The ref was fine in this game, no issues there.

England drew this game in the last 20 minutes based on forward dominance - smacked Aussie in the scrum in the last 20 with an Aussie prop getting yellow carded. Dean also made a number of substitutions with and eye on the weekends test - O'Connor and Hodgson (no.7) in particular.

Until Geraghty came on, England had nothing in the backs - Hodgson and Barkley offered nothing. Predictable.

O'Connor was fantastic - a real talent. Thought England would be better based on experience (every-one had international caps, and a lot of players had quite a few) and the Aussie team would barely have practised - some players played in the test match in Canberra against Fiji.

A really good game to watch.

By Anonymous, at June 10, 2010 4:39 pm
What about the David Attwood citation... The luckyiest player of the world.
It's not the first time, remember is kick on the head of a glasgow player this season on heineken cup...

By Anonymous, at June 10, 2010 6:37 pm
How do you figure that they're "lying all over the ball"? From the highlights, it looked like that only happened a few times - which, as someone else pointed out, this is more of an England A side, so it's a bit expected for them to not play as well.

I'm not England fan, but I was just confused by your comment.

By filo, at June 10, 2010 7:06 pm
Nice to see the Aussie ref make up an infringement in the final play to allow the barbarians the chance to win.

Watch the last play. Should have been a penalty to England, for the most blatant coming in from the side ever.

By Anonymous, at June 10, 2010 7:39 pm
filo, there are instances of it in this match and it was prevelant in the Baa Baa's match last week. I don't think the excuse that this is team 'that has only been playing together a week' is that strong. A number of the players have come through the playing system playing together and pretty much all of them have been in the EPS system for a while. Last weeks Baa Baa's hadn't been together a week and showed more diversity in there play.

The final 20 looked better with a fresh 9 and Geraghty on the field, I just feel that someone is calling this slow and frustating game that England keep playing as the whole squad use it.

By Nick, at June 10, 2010 10:58 pm
What's wrong with my comment? I just put my like somewhere to pass a message, there is only one team I support. And to the usual one who states "first": I want to be the one to last ... with my team?
And yes it was a poor evening I could not listen myself to the comments, so sick of them not accepting my opinion. I know it and they will know it, too one day. What's wrong???

By Anonymous, at June 10, 2010 11:34 pm
^ Wtf are you trying to say?

By rodney, at June 11, 2010 12:07 am
australia did score some good tries but they also stopped a england try at the start illegally along with a few other decisions that went their way. a draw was a fair result. this was a mickey mouse game so don't expect too much from the ref,im sure both teams weren't too worried about winning but enngland did finish alot stronger.

By Anonymous, at June 11, 2010 2:15 am
hahah god Banahan is useless, I love it when England sends him across...

By bokkelikerod, at June 11, 2010 2:43 am
England were well and truly getting beaten and then Deans subbed off sveeral of his best players, including O'Conner, who personally had scored 25 points at that stage.

By Anonymous, at June 11, 2010 5:48 am
There's that amazing NH defence they talk about.
O'Conner beats three tackles to go into the corner on the first try, coasts untouched through the defensive line for the second and no one covers him or the kick for his third.
All doen in only 47 minutes of rugby.
Yeah, amazing defence.

By Jim, at June 11, 2010 7:06 am
Nice one Jim^^, let's start the old NH v SH argument. Yawn....Get a life mate and brush that chip off your shoulder. England were poor and I say that as a NH player of sub-standard rugby. Have to agree with Bokkelikerod that Banahan is a donkey. Young fella for Oz was outstanding. Probable result for the series is a whitewash for Oz against England. Tour downunder will hopefully have got us a little more shipshape - perhaps Johnson might get fired which would be even better.

By NiWiTa, at June 11, 2010 2:24 pm
Haha how odd is a game without comments? just the "oouws" and "aauws" of the crowd.

By i wear purple rugby boots and I, at June 11, 2010 6:52 pm
o conner is a girly bitch puff, ill say that to his face aswell!

By braindeadaussie, at June 11, 2010 8:04 pm
hahhahaha

By Anonymous, at June 11, 2010 8:29 pm
Definitely one of the better commentary teams that I've heard on recent RD videos!

Also it's so much better to hear crowds that actually respond to the play on the field instead of blowing stupid plastic horns for two hours like brainless idiots.

By jackson, at June 12, 2010 8:17 am
Anonymous said... What's wrong with my comment? I just put my like somewhere to pass a message, there is only one team I support. And to the usual one who states "first": I want to be the one to last ... with my team? And yes it was a poor evening I could not listen myself to the comments, so sick of them not accepting my opinion. I know it and they will know it, too one day. What's wrong???

LOL .. "What's wrong?" indeed .. what the hell are you on about?!

By peter, at June 12, 2010 11:23 am
NiWiTa said... Nice one Jim^^, let's start the old NH v SH argument.

Jim's comment is fair enough. NH fans go on and on rubbishing SH defence despite the fact that the NH always have great trouble breaking it. Even supposed experts like Stephen Jones (admittedly a doofus) keep spouting on about it. So as long as they do then people like Jim have every right to point out their error (to put it nicely).

By Nice Ned, at June 12, 2010 11:32 am
England miss 35 tackles vs Australia in the test match.
NH defence is terrible.
End of story.

By Jim, at June 15, 2010 5:06 am
Did anyone else notice that in the photo on this story, it looks like O'Connor has his finger up the nose of the English player?

Pretty funny.

By Unknown, at June 15, 2010 9:09 am