Unless the ARU has employed some sort of technical guru to alter the tapes i am certain i saw the Wallabies prodcue some backline moves!!

And they resulted in tries from set piece…. ahh beautiful

I played in SA for 2 years and our captain Dave (openside breakaway), was playing against a madman that you come up against occasionally in rugby. This guy had kicked several of our players in the rucks, one in the head and opened him up. At half time one of the senior props said to our captain ‘He is your man, fix him up’ to which our captain said ‘I have never fixed anyone in my life’ ‘Never mind about that he is yours’ was the reply.

Our captain went out and in the first scrum with the ref on the other side kicked the nutter in the head during the scrum. He produced a gash about 4″ long across his forehead and up into his skull, then Dave had to go off the field and stitch him up. He said he would ‘Never do anything like that again’. We all thought he had done the world a good service.

anyway, Richmond park, London, playing for Roslyn Park, the opposition Number 8 takes the ball off the back of the first scrum, goes down the short blind side, comes to our half back, and nonchalantly plans to just go through him. After all, he is a Number 8. The half back, smashes him into touch!!!! The half back was playing out of position and had just arrived in London as the incumbent 7 for the Australian Universities team. Well, that shut the Number 8 up. It was more than a tackle to the Number 8, it was a slap across his face!!! Nothing as precious as that in the backs.

It is a dumb numbers game and all these boys are pumped to the max as there is an obsession with bulk and then they breakdown physically and go back to club or sometimes like you give it away.

It is stupid and wasteful. Young players should be the size they naturally are and develop their rugby from this point. There are many examples of small guys outplaying bigger heavier players, it is almost as stupid as playing all players all over the park.

Maybe they will put AAC into the lock position?????? we are short there.

I want to meet my old coaches who, because I was big kept me from my DESTINY WITH GREATNESS!

At least at this distance from reality it seems like that.

As an old ex-forward myself, I would like that.

BTW, I was also a frustrated eightman who ended up playing lock!

It could be heaven, a world sans backs and more importantly sans whinging!!

I used to be involved with one of the premier clubs and the number of young guys with talent who would start to get serious injury in their late teens is alarming particularly if they were involved with the academy. I think it is due to the amount of muscle that is developed and lack of development of the ligaments to support the joints and the extra impact of the weight.

It sort of comes down to a few areas. Knees, always been there due to hard pitches in OZ but seems a lot more these days. Hamstrings and shoulders – the numbers of young guys with this problem is unbelievable.

A young friend of my partners boys has just played a professional year in England and then gets a serious shoulder injury here, he has just gone in for a reconstruction and decided to give rugby away for a couple of years and play something else.

Seems a pity to me.

That would certainly be better viewing than 7s.

Knives is in his early 20′s but unfortunately I do fit your description perfectly.

I used to wait in the clubhouse drinking quietly until you Nancy boys all got excited talking to one another and combing your (always) blonde hair, then I would make a date with your very bored girlfriend, who was only really there to try to convince the rest of the club that you were straight.

Rugby is a game for forwards and even good (read rare) back plays are only there as a bit of fluff on the back of a lot of work by the real rugby players.

The solution to rugby is to make it a game of 8 players.

Lo and Behold, I find that an article entitled “Where have all the backline plays gone??” I find two slaggy old forwards waxing unlyrically about what if’s. As author, I ask you to take your forwards reminiscing to another place. This is for backs, the handsome, clever ones that play rugby using there sublime phyiscal and ball skills and then pull the good looking girls.

Jokes aside, good to see that discussion is alive and well on the Roar!!!!!

As for Number 8, every season I would be put in there, only to protest and return to fullback. Less tackling, more running and kept my good looks protected for the girls!!!!!

* Hardly sighted
* When sighted going into contact, he lost the ball
* When going in for the clean-out at the ruck, he went straight off his feet and his effectiveness is essentially 0.

Instead of all this rubbish about Tuquiri and Sailor and now Gasnier and Inglis, we should have kept Brad Thorn in the country. It would have made a much bigger impact on the Wallaby team.

Scotty Staniforth agrees with you

We, subject to injuries, should be OK come RWC time.

Actually there are problems with the game also. In the recent BC match, there were 2 tries to one, which is okay.

But there were 6 penalty goals to 4. Now that’s a problem.

But yeah, I get your point. However, back in 1999, the Wallabies won the WC final 35-12 (two tries to nothing). There were also 7 penalty goals to 4.

The sad thing is the Wallabies had a backline to blow most oppositions to shreds, but they didn’t play it that way. That comes back to the way the game is structured.

Australia is a case in point with the backs. Where is our specialist full back? Deans picking O’Connor out of position doesn’t help. Bring back Cameron Shepherd!!!!