Wallabies should stop complaining and start performing
Roar Rookie
By Crusty of KL, 3 Nov 2009 Crusty of KL is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- All Blacks, robbie deans, Rugby Union, wallabies
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I have now watched two seasons under the “messiah” Deans and I am wondering why he is getting such an easy ride from the rugby scribes of Australia: Growden, Spiro, Smith and co.
All well-credentialed and admired rugby writers, who have in the past, and with much venom, gone after under-performing Wallaby coaches. But not this one.
Why is Deans protected? Isn’t his record now one of the worst in our living memories?
Jones and Connolly must want to know also!
After watching the fourth successive loss to the All Blacks in 2009, I despair for Wallaby rugby and any chance they have of being a regular force in world rugby. I despair even more in the television commentaries: Kearns is now the “doyen” of biased TV commentary and I do not understand why he is allowed to be so inaccurate and biased.
The constant “whining” about Richie McCaw is just so weak and pathetic when he could be looking to get positives from McCaw’s performances and maybe give some clues to his Wallaby “mates” on how to combat this great player, who never whinges or complains about other players or referees.
Have you heard the Springboks complain about McCaw?
On Saturday night, McCaw was held back “illegally” on at least two occasions that I saw by Pocock (and good luck to Pocock for not being penalised) once almost allowing for Palu’s try before halftime.
Do you hear the All Black’s complaining? No. And McCaw wins the man-of-the-match again.
Surely this is telling someone that the New Zealand captain is doing something’s right and the Wallabies are doing a lot that is not.
This All Black team, and it is not a great one, has coasted to victories in the past three matches against the Wallabies, but probably should have lost the first match.
Whose fault was that? The Wallabies butchered their chances.
Deans, who has until now shown great “mana” in not complaining, has joined the cheap-shot brigade to make excuses for his under-performing team and pointing blame at referees who don’t make decisions he would like.
They have been completely outplayed in the second half of the past two games by huge margins.
Someone has to tell Deans and his team that complaining will win no games and even fewer friends. Choose a team and stick with it. Play players in their right position.
I really worry about Ashley-Cooper, the Wallabies best performer in 2009. He is such a good player but has played every position except halfback and flyhalf this year. How can that be good for him and building a backline?
But perhaps Australian rugby is just at the bottom of a cycle and the players are just not there.
It is very hard to see any players in this crop of the calibre of Eales, Horan, Campese, or Farr-Jones that could drag this team up and out of the doldrums.
The Grand Slam tour should be a very interesting month of rugby.
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johnno42 said | November 3rd 2009 @ 7:07am | Report comment
re your comments about the fox team (the wallaby glee club), i have to say, i had thought that they had softened in their obnoxiousness this year. i have been a subscriber to fox since 2004 (the only way to watch union, and the sevens, at that time). during this time i have regularly forced my fingers down my throat at the one eyed boorishness of marto and kearns. it is odd that now, there is a popular dissatisfaction with them!! perhaps i have just become accepting and tolerant with age
Dean Pantio said | November 3rd 2009 @ 8:03am | Report comment
Excellent article Crusty of KL.
fred said | November 3rd 2009 @ 10:02pm | Report comment
deans sacked cullen,mehrtens, umaga etc;;i just wonder if some past wallaby stars would have lasted under deans approach?
Vented Relief said | November 3rd 2009 @ 9:43am | Report comment
This article seems like one big whinge fest by another pessimistic anti-wallaby provocateur. The only ‘complaining’ that has been going on has been legitimate and rare…. the ref did have a shocker the other night, no question. I’m not sure if you noticed though that Deans stated the All Blacks were the better team and clearly outplayed the wallabies. Sounds pretty humble and honest to me.
Also, not sure if anyone noticed (I know the ref didn’t), but McCaw broke from the scrum about 2 seconds before the ball was out in the play when Palu almost scored. So while Pocock might have been holding him back, he was only providing the delay that should have been there if McCaw had have kept his bind legally.
hayden said | November 3rd 2009 @ 1:20pm | Report comment
I’ll say the ref had a shocker. He gifted the Wallabies a try they didn’t score, nor deserve.
fred said | November 3rd 2009 @ 9:57pm | Report comment
deans humble?
wallabies have been humbled how many times?
at least england should be ripe for picking?
and deans the greatest coach ever?
Go_the_Wannabe's said | November 3rd 2009 @ 9:58am | Report comment
Would anyone else do better than Dingo at the moment? No. So suck it up and hang in there. Yes, we are at the bottom of a cycle for the Wannabes……but we’ll bounce back. Always have, always will.
Really, what is the point of criticising the cr*p outta Deans? Just let him have a crack at RWC 2011 and then see where we are after that.
I agree that Dingo should not have complained about the referee. They won the penalties 13-9 didn’t they? Good teams make luck and the referee irrelevant to the result in 99% of games. Dingo – shut it, it looks petty and demeaning – enough said.
2 Dads is the best of a bad bunch at the moment. He should not be shuffled all over the park like a finger in the dyke. IMHO he is best at FB where he can attack from anywhere on the park.
Yes, the GS tour should make men out of boys. Cometh the hour cometh the men. We just haven’t found them yet or played them in their right positions.
cinematic said | November 3rd 2009 @ 10:02am | Report comment
GTW, how many losses on the remainder of this tour will you allow dingo? If he were the AB’s coach he would undoubtedly be gone by now, yet he’s still good enough for the Wallabies?
Go_the_Wannabe's said | November 3rd 2009 @ 3:08pm | Report comment
I have predicted elsewhere 2. England and Scotland. And they will both be close.
Again, I pose the question – If you yanked Dingo, would it make any difference to the current team who they replaced him with?
Answer – No. So might as well pick his brains and get some use out of him until after the RWC and then pull the carpet out.
We know they have Nucifora waiting in the wings as Plan B…….but what’s the point at the moment?
Good old Noosey would probably only take 2 weeks to alienate the snr players and we’d be back to square 1.
Just give Dingo a go until after the GS tour at least. Judging by his outburst at the ref, he’s already been given a FIFO speech by O’Neill………Fit In or F Off……….he’s an intelligent guy, let’s give him a break, huh?????
sportym said | November 3rd 2009 @ 9:30pm | Report comment
Maybe he should start picking players in their preferred positions and it does not take a genius to realize that O’connor is no 15. Question is it the ARU or Deans that is persisting and wasting O’connor in a position that is loosing us games. It was interesting how everyone is blaming cross for missing smith while O’connor also made a meal of it.
fred said | November 3rd 2009 @ 9:50pm | Report comment
not intelligent enough it would appear;lots of really dumb initiatives exonerated for “tomorrow,tomorrow”
clearly out of his depth without his background music;but alternatives ?????
jerome said | November 3rd 2009 @ 1:07pm | Report comment
Vented Relief I was going to make the exact same point about McCaw detaching from the scrum early.
Damo said | November 3rd 2009 @ 1:21pm | Report comment
Perhaps the reason St Richie doesn’t ever complain is that he knows that on a scale of rugby law-breaking he is getting away with ruck and off-side murder every game. There may be more than nobility to it.
BTW the rugby team from New Zealand are playing OK. They have a lot of talent and toughness and deserved to win. And that McCaw bloke is talented at rugby and other things too.
mudskipper said | November 3rd 2009 @ 11:00pm | Report comment
If the Wallabies are to win start O’Connor on the bench at Twichenham…. Bring him on second half… Start with Tyrone Smith or Quade Cooper at 12…. Put AAC to fullback , Digby at 13 and Mitchell on the wing… and Cross on the bench
MickeyB said | November 4th 2009 @ 2:05pm | Report comment
I agree with Go_the_Wannabe’s
Two things to consider:
1) Deans is the best hope we have. Who else is in line: Link, Nucifora, Allan Jones? C’mon? He’s it and deal with it.
It’s taking time, however we are still recovering from shallow talent pool and poor succession planning from past coaches where a culture existed in which some players owned positions based on seniority not current form.
2) Deans is making progress although slowly due partly to above points.
Let’s review:
1) Halfback – Solved: Genia and Burgess as back up
2) Scrum – Very big improvement and put in the best scrum performance I’ve seen in at least 2 years in Tokyo.
3) Cultural change – Blooding new players and increased competition for spots
4) New leadership – and building leadership team.
Needs work:
1) Line out – we need a leader in this spot, either flanker or hooker – not there at present.
2) Backline – we have the players, need to test a few younger players during grand slam and get cohesion.
3) Kicking – Tactical mid field, set piece and field/ penalty kicking. Needs to be developed and consistent.
4) Defence – not happy with backline defensive structure. Not enough trust and support for each other. The backs missed an enormous amount of tackles over the Tri Nations/ Bledisloe.
5) Breakdown – improved in Tokyo but we need to be ‘bezerk warrior’ like if we are to be world champions again.
Just my disjointed thoughts. Is it foolish optimism, or are next year’s Wallabies going to be a vastlyl improved team next year?
Ben said | November 4th 2009 @ 2:24pm | Report comment
I agree on many counts.
Front row essentially solved.
Second row – someone and VICKERMAN – lineout solved.
Backrow – Smith has to start – was there a more involved player per minute in either side? Pocock is worth working on so Smith to 8 or Elsom to 8.
Half sweet
5/8 Cooper or Barnes
11 Hynes
12 Giteau
13 Mortlock/Ioane/AAC
14 Ioane/GERRARD
15 Mortlock/GERRARD
Vickerman and Gerrard – consistently best Waratahs and Brumbies players – get them BACK.
Knives Out said | November 5th 2009 @ 10:24pm | Report comment
This is all stuff that other people attempted or achieved.
1. Connolly tried Giteau at 9.
2. Foley improved the scrum.
3. Jones and Foley blooded huge amounts of players.
It took Deans far too long to realise that Burgess wasn’t up to scratch and people forget that he tried things that had failed for Jones and Connolly: Waugh and Smith together, and Smith at no. 8, for example. Plus there is the issue of Giteau at 10 and the traditionally strong backline has got much worse. There is a strong conservatism and slowness to react that pervades the deans approach.
MickeyB said | November 4th 2009 @ 2:38pm | Report comment
Ben,
Without turning this into the mutual admiration society – you’re spot on.
Just a few q’s:
1) Vickerman: since he left we lost our dominance in what was our greatest strength – the line out. However is he a realistic option in building for the World Cup due to age/ interest/ commitments in UK?
I think Pocock, given his agression and bulk is a more agressive scrumager. Dominating at the breakdown is critical and Smith may be too comfortable in this spot?
2) Agree with getting Gerrard back in. Is he a good defensive option at 15? I seem to recall he is inconsistent? Seems to me we have a wealth of players that have the attacking vision for 15, but defensively are suspect eg: Mitchell and O’Connor.
Not sure if Stirling has the cross field speed to be as an effective 15 as younger players in building up to RWC?
3) Smith is out of place at 8 and lacks the size, strength and agression. Palu needs to stay agressive and consistent. Traditionally, successful Wallaby sides have played someone with PI heritage at 8 and size and agression is key like Kefu and co.
Thoughts?
Hansie said | November 4th 2009 @ 3:18pm | Report comment
I agree with this article 100%. Deans has the worst coaching record of any modern day Wallaby coach, and yet is given a rails ride by the media. The broader point is that O’Neill, who has made it clear that the success rates of coaches like Eddie Jones and Greg Smith were insufficient for them to retain the job, is invisible when his chosen coach has a worse record than Jones, Smith or Connolly.