Australian Under 20s effort disgraceful
Roar Pro
By tiger, 23 Jun 2009 The Crowd is a Roar Pro
The Australian Under 20s have posted a less than impressive campaign for world glory. The side, with household names such as Rob Horne, Damien Fitzpatrick and the injection of Kurtley Beale and Mat Toomua – who were unavailable to compete last year – has failed to achieve supremacy.
Their dismal record of five games played three games won, losing to New Zealand and then obliterated by South Africa in successive matches, must be questioned.
May it be remembered that David Nucifora had described last year’s effort of five games played four games won as “disappointing,” despite the fact they lost controversially to second place England and managed to beat France to finish fifth with a depleted side.
When juxtaposed against his team’s inability to beat a top class side, with a squad full of Super 14 talent, it must be questioned as to why Nucifora should keep his position as Under 20s coach.
Apparently, as the head of the High Performance Unit, he appoints himself.
Something has to be done, or imagine what will happen next year without Beale, Horne and Fitzpatrick to steer the ship.
A small fall from Australia’s youth, but a large fall for Australian rugby.
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Mitch (in Valencia) said | June 23rd 2009 @ 5:10am | Report comment
tiger, I agree they played poorly against South Africa, but did you see the last few games? You might have noticed that Kurtley was injured before both the NZ and SA games, and correct me if I’m wrong, but Rob Horne was injured for most of the tournament (definately didnt play any finals). Richard Kingi, who was up for player of the tournament nomination, didnt start against SA, supposing Nucifora wanted to develop another half-back.
To say it was a dismal tournament I’d say is a little harsh. They didnt play England, so we’ll never know what would’ve happened there, but they came fourth, better than last year. They lost to NZ and SA, two of the best sides in the world. Do we say the Wallabies have a dismal world cup if they come fourth, losing to NZ and SA? And in a Tri nations, if they lost to both the sides, do we call it dismal?
Sam Taulelei said | June 23rd 2009 @ 5:35am | Report comment
Yep, Australians sure do.
Sam Taulelei said | June 23rd 2009 @ 6:14am | Report comment
Many people will call it dismal especially when the team were touted as a very strong contender to win the title. Despite Beale’s injury they had a quaility player in Matt Toomua who impressed with the Brumbies this year.
Maxxy said | June 23rd 2009 @ 8:26am | Report comment
Someone told me Nucifora is keeping his coaching hand in so he can replace Deans down the track??? Not sure on this ARU plan but you would think that coaching the U20′s for the next 3 years is not enough especially if you are getting smashed.
The last rugby official to self appoint was Jeff Miller who was the Reds CEO and then gave himself the Reds coaching job – the rest is history (custard)
With Nucifora self appointing there is precious little opportunity for other coaches to step up. The ARC provided some opportunity but this is lost seemingly forever – No wonder there are 30 odd Australian coaches doing their best in Japan and Europe
Justin said | June 23rd 2009 @ 8:33am | Report comment
Funnily enough the SA scoreline was not indicative of the match. I actually thought for large periods the AUS boys were well on top. I think SA scored 2 or 3 intercept tries and another from a turnover in broken field. Our scrum was murdered by SA though and there were just too many dropped balls and turnovers but they had the territory and declined at least 3 shots at goal which was a huge mistake in those conditions.
All in all a disappointing tournie, our backs wree outclassed besides 9 & 10 with Kurtley and Horne out. The wingers were pathetic. How Davies has played S14 is beyond me.
Showman said | June 23rd 2009 @ 11:05am | Report comment
A great opportunity lost with the U20′s surely the breeding ground for the next Wallabies.
And a large part of the blame for the result must be leveled at the Coach/s. Who selects them?? I am told Nucifora selected himself from his role with the ARU when there are several good/great coaches unable to get a look into senior roles.
A prime example is Brian Melrose, at present coaching Eastwood, who achieved a better record with the U20′s last year despite little ARU support and, as I understand it NO PAYMENT. Wasn’t it he, also, that was dropped from the Waratahs as Backs Coach after their best performances a few years back……There are other examples of poor Coach selections that should be questioned if we are to have a home grown Wallaby Coach after Robbie Deans.
Undercover Prop said | June 23rd 2009 @ 11:28am | Report comment
I think you’re a bit harsh tiger.
We have to remember that Australia had three key players missing from the final two games in Kurtley Beale, Rob Horne and James O’Connor (who obviously didn’t play any of the tournament).
I didn’t watch the SA game and i admit that the result is disappointing. But from what i saw of the NZ game our forwards were matching it with theirs, which is promising because this is where we usually struggle in the younger teams, and it was only outside the number 10 that we were outclassed. This can be put down to those three players missing. A backline with 9. Kingi 10. Toomua 12. O’Connor 13. Horne and Beale at 15. would have been the best in the comp.
David Nucifora only gets the players for a couple of weeks before the tournament and with two of his star players getting injured during the pool games it was always going to be tough for them to beat NZ or SA.
Undercover Prop said | June 23rd 2009 @ 11:59am | Report comment
Showman.
They finished 4th this year and last year they didn’t even make the semis and finshed 5th, so i don’t think you can say that Brian Melrose did a better job. Maybe their win – loss record was better but that was only because they played against much lesser teams (eg Samoa) for the 5th place ranking after not making the semis.
ACER said | June 23rd 2009 @ 12:10pm | Report comment
Wow it amazes me how technical some people get here while trying to summize reasons why our team failed.
Has anyone given thought to the fact that we just lost to better teams on the day. All in I don’t think the boys did too bad they were certainly more competitive against NZ than the English were. I think people also tend to forget this is a team sport and that while patches performed well we just didn’t gel as a complete unit and until they start doing so they just won’t bridge the obvious gap between us and our SANZAR partners.
Undercover you can’t really include O’Conner he wasn’t part of the squad.
Also did we not have one of if not the highest ratio of professional players at the tournament????
Waratah said | June 23rd 2009 @ 12:22pm | Report comment
Undercover prop.last year They lost to england with an injured Horne without Beale and losing mccalman in the match. From the referees account it stated that the charge down they lost from was indeed offside.
They were atleast the 3rd best side there. This year their only decent performance was to beat wales. An understrength British side not in the same league as that of England 2008.
Have to agree tiger. Spot on mate