Good research.
cheers

P.S. Wallabies by 5 in Bne!

The expression of ‘playing for each other’ is about creating a bond within the team that will withstand and rise up against adversity. However this has to be underpinned by inspirational on field leadership. Now I am a great fan of Morts as a player but he is too far away from the action. A great outside centre his – a great leader – I am sorry to say – he is not.

We have to find a forward who the others look up to – someone who does not flinch in the heat of the battle and somebody who is a good man manager (knows when to use the carrot and when to use the stick) ie past leaders like John Eales, Phil Kearns, Simon Poidevan, Buck Shelford, Sean Fitzpatrick etc

For mine Big Kev should lead the Spring Tour. He has mongrel, form, intellignce, size, is the always in the action and has captained Qld – he will be better for the complete leadership experience a tour provides and will be in his absolute leadership prime come the next WC.

I watched Tonga v South Africa, Fiji v Wales, Fiji v South Africa, USA v South Africa…all of these games had moments…the 99 world cup had the france v NZ QF and Pumas V ireland, but there were no strong performance from so-called minnows.

Who was the Takudzwa Ngewenye of the 1999 world cup? There was none.

Connolly was never a long term coach, he knew he was in for the short term…just listening to him, he didn’t seem enthusiastic or charismatic…Steady Eddie, well he is never going to win a crowd with his enthusiasm now is he?

Deans is the man, it is a long road, but I think he can create a strong team culture within the Wallabies, which creates the platform for success.

And TT if you thought the 99 world cup was boring, you can’t have watched much of the last one!

whilst I appreciate MacQueen’s results, he really did it by using defence orientated game, and it was really boring to watch, the 1999 world cup was the most boring by far, despite having some outstanding Wallaby backline talent.

Deans’ Crusaders on the other hand have deservedly got a reputation for playing attractive expansive rugby.

Also annoyed when people say Deans is the same as Connolly and Jones, Deans is a hell of a lot more motivated than either of these two guys were, and I believe in 2011 we will appreciate how good this guy really is!

Deans, and McQueen, both share the ability as man managers and the belief that elite rugby is essentially played above the shoulders and that players need to be “managed”.

It will be interesting to see who Dingo selects on the tour and then who he plays and in which position.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to the Brisbane game. There is a lot to play for for everyone!

NZ by 10 points.

Jam good analysis between the 2 coaches. I always thought that the European tour is when we will start to see Deans real selections. Next season I would like to see us a bit more consistent, then 2010 builiding a winning ethos in the team and then a grand final against NZ for the WC would be magic to me.

The NZ journos wrote the whole thing off as irrelevant, since Deans is the guy they wanted and they don’t know how the Brisbane Test will swing. Deans is pretty much exempt from criticism.

We’ll see how the Wallabies go in Brisbane, but they’re a tad bit lucky to be in this position.

There are some key differences between the appointment of Rod McQueen and Robbie Deans. The main one is there was a far longer buildup to McQueen’s appointment and seemingly instant success.

McQueen coached the Waratahs in 1991-2, and was a Wallabies selector in 1994-5 before taking over at the Brumbies in 1996. He was clearly a settled part of the Australian Rugby hierarchy. Once there he had a good two years to develop some of his proteges, who later appeared in his Wallabies teams.

John O’Neill and the ARU were in a rush, understandably, to pick up Deans as a windfall from the AB’s before he got another offer. Because Deans had to finish off his last season at the Crusaders, he got less than a month between meeting the players in his capacity as a coach and their first game against the Irish.

In contrast, McQueen was appointed in September 1997, which makes you wonder if the ARU already had him in mind before the 61-22 thrashing in Jo-Berg.

McQueen had a NH tour and the Super 12 in 1998 to solely focus on his plan for the Wallabies, possibly with the ears of the Super 12 coaches as to any suggestions on player selection. This is a luxury Deans has not had.

Given the lack of time to develop and blood uncapped players – which he has done anyway with a very good rate of success – what was he supposed to do?

The 3N is a crucible, with the top 3 teams in the world playing each other consecutively. It’s hardly the time to take huge gambles at fixing long-term problems like the front row. Timana Tahu has experienced the kind of nightmare debut the 3N is capable of dishing out. I support Deans holding off on a few other players to avoid destroying their confidence and giving them baggage that he would have to work at undoing.

Sure, sometimes blooding players in high pressure situations works. The Berrick Barnes example is more one of circumstance, as Larkham couldn’t play and Giteau was already set at 12. Horwill, Hynes and Cross have worked too, so credit thereto Robbie.

This lack of preparation time means that Deans has wisely not played his full hand. It also means majority of the Wallabies team picked itself. Pat Howard and David Nucifora probably still have a large amount of input in player selection.

Btw – who are the current selectors?

Give Robbie credit. I didn’t predict that the Wallabies would do as well as they have this year, given Marseille last year. I thought they’d finish last.

I’m amazed at the lack of patience displayed by some on this site here and in other threads who are adopting the attitude I used to in early high school in 95-97 of “I want a totally new team and I want them to win and I want them to win NOW!”

It should be obvious that it takes at least a full year to get a true indication of the impact a coach is having on a team. That’s how long McQueen had by the end of the 3N in 1998. That’s also close to the amount of time Eddie Jones took to make the Wallabies post a downturn, although the full effect of his mismanagement wasn’t felt until 2005. Deans has been given until the WC in 2011 to produce results, which I think is fair and achieveable.

I have heard some say they are sick of hearing about Deans the Messiah and that they think he hasn’t achieved anything that Connolly hadn’t already. Even if this is so, we’ve still won one in SA, something that Connolly never achieved. Some can attribute this to the Boks playing poorly rather than the Wallabies clearly beating them, but normally it’s the opposition not allowing a team to play well.

Either way, part of what we’re seeing now is to some extent a result of Connolly’s rebuilding of the team from the nadir of 2005, for which he deserves some credit.

So far, Deans this year is stacking up pretty damn well against McQueen in his first year given the constraints on him. So there are shades of 1997 as well. So what? Rome wasn’t built in a day. They managed to beat the Boks in Perth, unlike 1998. The Boks may be a weaker, definitely less consistent team than 1998. The ABs are definitely better this year than the 3N wooden spooners of 1998.

Going into Brisbane we are in a similar position to our last game in the 3N of 1998, where if we had won in SA against a strong team, we would have won the 3N. The ABs of today are comparable to the Boks of 1998, judging by their last two games, but a win (at home mind) would mean the 3N title as well. A respectable loss would still have Deans stacking up well in my book against McQueen in 1998.

So enough death-riding Robbie Deans! Maybe we are in a similar situation to 1996. We might not quite have the players ready yet to be world-beaters. We’ll find out soon enough. I have confidence we’ll get a lot better in the next four years.

September 13 Australia v New Zealand
Referee: Jonathan Kaplan
Assistants: Craig Joubert, Mark Lawrence
TMO: Johann Meuwesen

OJ confirmed in another post that the referee for the Brisbane test is none other than Jonathan Kaplan. I’m also on a Mac and only notice the anomaly with the use of the ampersand when I read the replies in Apple Mail but not on the Roar website, haven’t worked out why yet but I agree it’s annoying but I’ve learned to get used to it.

I think the All Blacks should win, but you never know. We don’t know how badly injured McCaw is, for example. The All Blacks won’t have put the fear of God into the Wallabies with their hit out against Samoa, but I think we have the better pack and if Australia don’t get their defensive lines sorted we have the ability to score.

Thanks mate. I am on a mac, does that make a difference? Anyway, appreciate your explanation.