Jim Boyce writes:
After the victory in Melbourne a number of observations spring to mind: Mortlock must remain as captain. If you are going to have the back line shuffle placing Giteau at half and Staniforth at I/C, Mortlock is the permanent. The multiple captains can then, thankfully, go the way of the dodo.
Secondly if you now opt for muscle on the wings in stead of speed, really use the talents of Tuquiri in snaring the ball in the air. That also goes for Ashley Cooper. The All Black wingers have speed but are very limited after that. That also goes for the Boks. This is not to say A-C and T are slow , they don’t have the acceleration of Turner and others. Palu is fast and big but Hoiles has more variety to his game. Interesting how both were successfully used at 3 in the lineouts. Hoiles deserved more of a mention in the 2nd half.
The refereeing was not good in Melbourne and unlikely to see that repeated. The number of scrum penalties was ridiculous. He more or less gave up. The winners out of that were the Wallabies, the front row did look uncertain and would have been very shaky if given a prolonged workout. As for crooked lineouts, both sides reduced their throws to 5 and 6. The linesmen decided that they were draughtsmen and forgot it was a pulsating game that was required. Connolly has started to work out, how to use the bench i.e earlier rather than later.With Giteau and Mitchell, he can get away with a 5/2 bench and he might need every forward he has if the scrum turns wobbly.
In the previous O’Neill regime the coach (McQueen) reported directly to him. I would not be surprised to see a reordering of the “Rugby Unit” and the HPU to once again have a direct link. Lastly the Tuesday SMH coverage of Rugby was nearly as surprising as the test result. What with ” Leagues Lost Heart” and the AFL’s problems with Didak and Cousins and the aging of the Swans, Spiro Zavos’s excellent observations were further back than usual. However, Masters is closely catching O’Neill.
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Peter L said | July 3rd 2007 @ 4:56pm | Report comment
Jim – which AB wingers are you meaning when you say they have speed but not much else? Can’t be the ones I watch compete for the ball, tackle and make yards with players on their backs!
Couldn’t agree more about the ref – how straight do you have to throw to a line out? What about the scrums? What about Gregan’s continued delay to feed? The sin-bin was a joke – 45m from the line, and the ball was competed for in the tackle. Hayman didn’t fall, then reach for the ball – he already had his arm around it, wrenching it free as they fell. If it wasn’t a joke, why was Tuqiri not sin binned for repeated infringement (what used to be called “Lazy Running”) – so repeated that the ref did warn him at one point – while waiting for a restart, not during general play!
But you know what – that’s the game. You take the roll of the dice, you make what you can and move on. On Sat, with Mortlock in fine form, the Wallabies did just that, and it must be applauded. Yes, I’m with you, Mortlock must be captain for the RWC, not Gregan.