Wallaby scrum not fixed, but improving
Roar Pro
By stillmissit, 4 Nov 2008 The Crowd is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- Dan Vickerman, Deans, Jim Williams, lineout, Rugby Union, wallabies
We should all take our caps off to Jim Williams and say that he has made solid improvements in our ability at scrum and tight play. Baxter’s improvement is almost unbelievable. We had all written him off as a guy who looked the goods, but didn’t have the goods.
Under Deans and Williams, he has put in consistently stronger performances almost every time he is on the park. On Saturday, I was tempted to give him the Wallabies Man of the Match, which surprised me.
Moore is also getting stronger.
All we need now is a strong loosehead prop and we have the makings of a good front row.
The second-row is still an issue. I don’t believe that Dan Vickerman will be back anytime soon. Sharpe has not improved that much under Deans, and his time is subject to a replacement showing itself.
The back row is looking good, but we need some of them to be able to stay on the park. Apart from Smith and Waugh, we don’t have a backrower who can stay injury free. Brown might be one, but it’s too early to say.
If we had Palu, Elsom blindside and Smith openside, we have a quality backrow, with back-up on the bench in Pocock, Waugh, Brown and McMenniman.
All things considered, we are looking much better but there is still lots to do.
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- Explore:
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Homer said | November 4th 2008 @ 7:43am | Report comment
Moore was my tip for man of the match (from a wallaby perspective) but i thought RObinson wasn’t far behind him, along with Brown. All three were always in support to take the ball up, Brown and RObinson’s efforts leading to tries, making tackles and hitting the breakdown hard. Chisholm worked hard but is out of his depth and I think while Sharpe is a fading star.
I believe there is enough depth in the backrow, just a little lacking in experience. Dean Mumm worked hard but is possibly a little light to make a physical impact, Mcmenimum will be great if his body lasts and Brown has a work rate second to none at the moment.
I think the likes of Hocking from the Force and Horwill will provide the future of the 2nd row but it is hooker that is looking weak. Frier is past it and Polota-Nau has a shocking throw, although he is awesome around the park. Move him to prop now so he can cement a spot in the team. Hopefully Alexander, Kepu, Palmer and the young QLD and Brumbies props will serve us well into the future. However, there are no outstanding hookers in any state. Faingaa is off the pace currently, Mcaaisac is too old, which leaves the Force in a very bad position up front, and I am not even sure who is backing up Moore at the Brumbies, although the young Sydney University Hooker who is an academy player down there gets solid raps at the age of 19.
The scrum on the wekend wasn’t bad, but i was sad to see so many uncontested lineouts. Dean Mumm is a very good defensive jumper.
LeftArmSpinner said | November 4th 2008 @ 9:14am | Report comment
SMI, i agree, the pack did fine, subject to the ref. i have recovered my sneaking regard for Baxter in the past year and dont have him on my list of “Time to goes” like Dunning, Tuqiri, Sharpe, Waugh and eventually Mortlock.
Chisholm seems to have lost his edge and workrate, at least for now. he never had the mongrel anyway.
What was wrong with Robinson? he seemed to do his stuff and scrum time, made some good tackles and rtan straight with the ball, particularly during the phases leading up to the Aussie tries?
Charles is getting the job done at Uni and Fitzy in the NSW academy team is also an up and comer. a former backrower, so good around the field and fast, really fast.
as regards the backrow, it is like the inside backs, plenty to choose from, the question is how to shoehorn them into a team in the right combination. Brown as got to be there somewhere and Pocock can start on the bench replacing waugh. The question still remianing is whether Smith can continue to do his stuff at his current level for another 3 years. I suspect not. But, for now, an embarrassment of riches.
matta said | November 4th 2008 @ 9:23am | Report comment
yeah its odd…what has happened to our lineout?
stillmissit said | November 4th 2008 @ 11:59am | Report comment
Matta – the leader has gone ie Dan Vickerman. It will take some time for Horwill to take up this role but in the end he will be our scrum leader if not captain.
LAS – Nothing wrong with Robinson and did all we could expect of him. I think he is a bit small for international prop. What do you think? I like the look of the brumbies prop who is injured – cant remember his name.
Mark H said | November 5th 2008 @ 1:40pm | Report comment
The Pack did well. The only reason we didnt go through with it in the second is because of the poor refing. The rulings were incorrect. For mine the ABs front row buckled under the initilal engagemnent. To top it off, the surface was poor. The boys churned it up prety good. We were all over them.
Jerry said | November 5th 2008 @ 1:52pm | Report comment
Mark H – wouldn’t say “all over them” but the Aus scrum did have the upper hand in the first half. In the second half the AB pack probably shaded them. And I don’t think that’s only cause of the reffing, it was also due to the AB’s adjusting and the Wallaby forwards noticably tiring (also Sommerville made a big difference when he came on).
The surface was a big factor in pretty much every scrum – it meant that if a team didn’t get a good hit on, there was little chance to rectify without collapsing. That assisted Aus somewhat as they timed the hit well.
Harry said | November 5th 2008 @ 1:52pm | Report comment
We never really had a stable platform on our put in – the minimum requirement for a true attacking option. We were penalised heavily at the scrums, rightly or wrongly. Once the kiwi’s woke up to our tactic of quick put-ins we were under further pressure, several times Burgess and Brown had to pick up the ball while we were back-peddling.
Any pack with Nathan Sharpe in it has a probelm at scrum time.
Also disappointing that we couldn’t/didn’t contest their lineout.
Same old problems in my book. Hopefully I’ll be proved dramatically wrong as our scrum at least holds its own in the next month. The italian scrum presents a stern test, if we can at least have things 50/50 we will win fairly easily.
stillmissit said | November 6th 2008 @ 7:07am | Report comment
Harry I agree about the stable platform but compared to where we were this time last year it is a good step in the right direction. I have constantly complained about the looseness in our front row and on Sat night I didnt find myself in a position where I could see the second row and daylight as the scrum went down.
If everythiing in a game of rugby starts up front then we have been off the start for a while.
The Italian scrum will be interesting and a great test of where we are. I will be watching closely.
Mark said | November 7th 2008 @ 12:17pm | Report comment
You are kidding ??? Your loose head spent more time with his binding arm folded in on itself & elbow hitting the ground than scrumming. I watched the game again last night with a focus on the first half scrums & thought the ref was reasonable. He read both scrums the riot act about going early, Wallabies straight after go early while AB’s wait for his engage call, he then pings the Wallabies – fair call. Then repeated warnings to your proprs especially Mr Loosehead about keeping it up & when they keep going down he pinged them. Surprise surprise.
Oh yeah, & when are the refs going to pick up that your #9 is feeding the lock not the hooker ? it’s similar to george’s trick of holding the ball up high & looking at the ref for a penalty as his scrum was getting monstered.
Curious about how your lineout went missing though, when they competed they competed well in the lneout.
I’ve got a feeling the England are going to monster your scrum, hope your loosies & backs are on song for that game.
Homer said | November 7th 2008 @ 2:15pm | Report comment
Mark i think you missed the AB’s playing the ref better. Several times they withdrew from the engagement making it look like the Walla’s were charging in. The ref, being from the NH is already convinced of teh Aussie scrum weakness before watching the game.
He also penalised the wallabies for collapsing the scrum on their own feed and tried to claim it was a NZ feed?!
Our loosey, Ben Robinson has stood up very well this year, especially for a young guy, and as Nick Mallet says is a very tough guy especially for his size in that role.
The lineout didn’t go missing, it was a strategy to allow for a defensive realignment. Let the AB’s have their own ball and then get numbers to the breakdown. It worked evry well until the ref penalised us at every breakdown. If you watch the game again count the times that AB’s go off their feet and diving over and slow down Burgess and they didn’t get penalised once.