These Wallabies aren’t good enough
Roar Guru By Rickety Knees, 24 Aug 2009 Rickety Knees is a Roar Guru
- Tagged:
- Berrick Barnes, Dan Vickerman, dean mumm, Digby Ioane, Drew Mitchell, Jonathan Kaplan, Luke Burgess, Richard Brown, Rugby Union, Tri Nations, wallabies, Will Genia
Despite Jonathan Kaplan providing the Wallabies with many favourable refereeing decisions, the Wallabies were not able to prevent a surging All Black team from winning the contest.
The current Wallaby playing group is simply not good enough.
Now that the Wallabies are left to only to play for pride, it is time to make both positional and generational changes.
Mat Giteau and Berrick Barnes positions should be swapped.
Giteua’s kicking under pressure is woeful whereas Barnes has a superior kicking game. Giteau was rated amongst the best No 12′s – the same cannot be said for his play at 10.
For the short while when Giteau was off injured, Barnes’ composure playing 10 in the last test against South Africa was a revelation.
Luke Burgess does not have the passing game required for test rugby. It is time to start with Will Genia.
The Wallabies backline will not go anywhere until the halves are sorted out. Digby Ioane’s explosive running provides the Wallabies with an X factor that they desperately need.
Drew Mitchell’s wrong option taking presents an unacceptable risk to Wallabies.
The time has come to impose further generational change.
Baxter and Sharpe should drop out of the Wallabies Squad with young Wallaby Sekope Kepu (currently playing brilliantly for Randwick) joining as the fourth prop.
In a previous post I suggested that the ARU should do what is needed to bring back Dan Vickerman, nothing has changed. We need his lineout generalship and more importantly his mongrel general play.
Dean Mumm does not impose himself – he needs to toughen up. No 8 continues to be a problem, sitting in the sin bin during the last two tests does not do Richard Brown nor the Wallabies any favours.
Unfortunately Brown, as this stage of his career, does not appear to be an effective ball runner. Hopefully Palu’s time out of the playing group will be the jolt he needed to understand that he needs to play for 80 minutes.
The sad fact is that the Wallabies tried hard and were just not good enough. It is time to move on and find a side that is.
Recommend this story.
August 24th 2009 @ 8:01pm
johnny-boy said | August 24th 2009 @ 8:01pm | Report comment
Actually they are good enough imo despite some valid criticisms. I don’t think it’s far away given a few tweaks. The pain of losing must be starting to burn. Deans took a while to get Crusaders humming but when he did – it was major dominance.
August 24th 2009 @ 8:28pm
Jerry G said | August 24th 2009 @ 8:28pm | Report comment
“Deans took a while to get Crusaders humming”
No he didn’t – He won the Super 12 in his first year.
But then, he wasn’t actually the guy to get them humming, cause Wayne Smith had coached the Crusaders to back to back titles in the years immediately preceding Deans taking over.
August 24th 2009 @ 9:23pm
craigb said | August 24th 2009 @ 9:23pm | Report comment
Jerry – They did win it 2000, but finished 10th the 2001
August 24th 2009 @ 9:31pm
Ben J said | August 24th 2009 @ 9:31pm | Report comment
Australia has the “cattle”, it is the coaching that seems lacking. That was a drop goal waiting to happen. So much for playing whats in front of you. That in itself is a misnomer because you can only play whats in front of you if you are coached to do so. I think a sports psychologist will make a killing with this Wallaby team.
I loved what coach Deans said after the game ” I think we are getting closer” What the hell does that mean? One point is as close as you can get mate! He seems to be thinking “what the hell have I got myself into?’ As with the All Blacks(Dan Carter the exeption) there seem to be no one on the horizon who can gallop into town to save Wallaby bacon. Too many fresh faced children in Wallaby jumpers prancing around with “boy genius” written all over them. Saw the 2000 BC opener and boy was the Aussie team filled with men; Eales, Gregan, Little, Mortlock(even though he was a youngster himself)
August 24th 2009 @ 11:05pm
Mick Gold Coast QLD said | August 24th 2009 @ 11:05pm | Report comment
“Too many fresh faced children in Wallaby jumpers prancing around with “boy genius” written all over them.” I like that, Ben J, because it is accurate! They actually believe the vacuous bullship that they are at genius level.
“Australia has the “cattle”, it is the coaching that seems lacking. That was a drop goal waiting to happen.” Too funny!
Commentator Phil Kearns (breathlessly): ” Who is that running on – it’s Robbie Deans wearing 22! To replace Giteau, who clearly hasn’t got the wit to do what former boy wonders are supposed to do instinctively after several years of opportunity watching classy players, up close. And Deans has rattled off a fantastic drop goal in the final minute to win the game for Australia.”
August 24th 2009 @ 9:34pm
Jerry G said | August 24th 2009 @ 9:34pm | Report comment
So? All that says is that he and the players dropped the ball big time that year – he doesn’t get credit for turning a team around from 10th when he’s the guy that coached them into that position.
Johnnyboy made it sound like he’d inherited a bunch of wooden spooners and turned them into champions (which is actually what Wayne Smith did) rather than inheriting a champion team and carrying on (and, yes, improving on) that legacy.
August 24th 2009 @ 10:45pm
mother teresa said | August 24th 2009 @ 10:45pm | Report comment
deans is clearly struggling to solve the downward spiral of the wallabies
he has brought many of his problems to the table;some outright blunders in strategic analysis
i have rarely seen a top coach so nervous in his prematch talk with fox.
aftermatch,he wouldnt talk about the positives to take thru to perth but gave us creeping moss as the performance analogy;thanks that was helpful
the wallabies have a larger catchment of players than yesteryear to select from and as the close scores indicate both nz and aust are of a similar standard.motivation and tactical appreciation maybe the difference
August 25th 2009 @ 1:52am
JOOLS- USA said | August 25th 2009 @ 1:52am | Report comment
Hi RK
Agree with all said re swapping positions & eliminating some players, but can’t buy the Kaplan story.
Maybe he leant towards W’s in 1st half by pinging McCaw & other ABs for their habitual infringments they mostly
get away with, but he played “even-up” in 2nd half missing blatant offsides & ball-killing by ABs.
He’s gotta go…………..some hope!
Jools-USA
August 25th 2009 @ 2:02am
ohtani's jacket said | August 25th 2009 @ 2:02am | Report comment
Kaplan gave the Wallabies the go-ahead penalty after NZ scored their try, which would’ve won the Wallabies the game if they’d closed it out properly. You can’t blame Kaplan for that loss. He let the Wallabies do whatever they wanted at the breakdown in the first half. The Wallaby forwards were simply worn down from losing the scrums and the defensive effort they put in. New Zealand won that game by playing pick and go rugby. They didn’t win it it by killing the ball. Australia were barely on attack in the second half. If you wanna blame anybody, blame the Wallabies for only playing with any urgency after the 80 minutes were up.
Why do they only attack hard when there’s no time left?
August 25th 2009 @ 9:50am
Hayden said | August 25th 2009 @ 9:50am | Report comment
Shock Horror Headline: Referee Penalizes Both Sides At Breakdown. No wonder the Wallabies lost. Or could it have been because they are not a particularly good team at the moment?
August 25th 2009 @ 2:38pm
Worlds Biggest said | August 25th 2009 @ 2:38pm | Report comment
Yep agree Rickety, they tried hard for the most part but are just not good enough against the Yarpies and AB’s. There effort on Saturday was there but the game plan has me completely miffed. Sharpe and Barnes are now out of the Boks game.
August 25th 2009 @ 2:55pm
ohtani's jacket said | August 25th 2009 @ 2:55pm | Report comment
That’s bad news about Barnes.
August 25th 2009 @ 4:38pm
Hammer said | August 25th 2009 @ 4:38pm | Report comment
Folks
Take a look at Bob Dwyers new website, a must for all Rugby fans. http://www.bobdwyerrugby.com (i think) anyway this is part of what he had to say on the game.
“there was pace and power in abundance, there was a total lack of quality ‘ensemble’ play. Straight running and an appreciation of its benefits have disappeared. Changes of angle and their timing and a similar appreciation of their benefits, are also absent. In one ball-carry from a Wallaby back, the line of run took the player from 17m. from touch to 7m. from touch with a gain of about 10m., and this with a three-on-one outside of him. Needless to say, this huge opportunity disappeared also.”
There are fundamental skills missing from this team. We will never meet the standards required until the players understand “HOW” to play the game.
August 25th 2009 @ 4:39pm
Hammer said | August 25th 2009 @ 4:39pm | Report comment
http://www.bobdwyerrugby.com/english/blog.asp
August 25th 2009 @ 6:04pm
Even looser said | August 25th 2009 @ 6:04pm | Report comment
Cheers for pointing us in the direction of Bob Dwyer’s site.
Always good to know what someone like him makes of the modern game.