Incidentally, I’d like to point out that this youth myth is just that, a myth. Australia has some young players but it certainly isn’t overburdened with really young players. For example, when Australia played England England had 9 players aged 24 or younger and Australia had 8.

I think it’s just the current ebb-and-flow of the game at present. Newly introduced rules have lead to teams realising that getting caught with possession inside your own half is courting danger. Hence they come up with tactics to avoid that (all this bloody kicking!). I just think SA put it into practice best and the rest of us struggled to combat it.

After watching France bash them into submission and defuse all their highballs I’m hoping they have shown everone the blue-print to beating this game-plan. It may well have run its course and we’ll see more running this next southern hemi season!

When you’ve got people like Dwyer saying it can’t be Deans’ fault because he was an excellent coach with the Crusaders, and Tim Horan saying the side is looking good for the 2011 WC, you’re pretty much in denial. There’s no honour in playing poorly now and pulling a fast one at the WC. That is not going to help Australian rugby in any real sense, it just gives the supporters something to hang onto until 2011. And as for Deans, history is repeating itself, only this time it’s worse since Deans is head coach instead of an assistant.

I sincerely hope the NZRU never let Robbie Deans within ten feet of the All Black coaching job.

It can’t be that outstanding if you don’t know which province he manages. And he has two good seasons – Magners winners and the H Cup last season. Nothing to shout about in SH terms.

In 2004 the Wallabies were an incredible side. They started 2005 looking just as menacing. What happened next? Gregan and Larkham both Injured. Ditto Rathbone and Mortlock playing matches while not fully fit. If memory serves, there were other notable injuries too.

This culminates in Rogers being played at 10. Thats how low our stocks were. The result? A poor season. Absolutely no depth. Jones is sacked.

In 2009 Deans puts in a far worse performance – but his assistants are to blame and not him?

No two situations are entirely alike. You have to remember that both Jones & Connolly had extremely experienced, & largely settled (TOO settled) teams under their control.

Robbie Deans has had to rebuild the team, bringing in a lot of new blood. Look, I’m not exempting Deans at all, It’s just that I believe the major problems lie elsewhere in this situation.

Let’s conduct a very quick exercise – let’s sack Deans & replace him with Michael Cheika. Why? Because Cheika has an outstanding provincial record with Leinster, or is it Munster (one of them).

Oh….. hang on a minute….. wasn’t that why we picked Deans as Wallaby coach in the first place? Because of his outstanding provincial record with Canterbury???

So you see, the solutions to current problems is not so straight forward & we might like them to be……….

His back line moves at the Brumbies were very clever, but became more and more complex at the national level and in the end impractical and predictable. Players lost their attacking flare and forgot to play the game as they saw it. You could guess what they were doing. I believe that Giteau’s current woes are attributed to his formative professional rugby years being ’scripted’ in this complex environment. He is now trying to regain the flare that brought him to everyone’s attention in the first place.

In the Jones era players became “the power brokers”. Jones’s playing system was too complex for those outside the Jones sphere to break into and understand easily. So we were stuck with players like Gregan well past their peak. Complex playing systems were in vogue so the local super franchises attempted to copy the national ’style’ and the Australian rugby ’style’ started down the road of complex predictability. Jones is a brilliant Rugby strategist (Jake White recognised this), but this didn’t translate into good coaching.

Connolly had no chance to succeed. He inherited a dog’s breakfast with no time to turn it around before the RWC, but in truth he didn’t help himself. He farmed the coaching out to his assistants who jostled for power. He kept the established players because there was no time to blood new talent. Barnes being the standout exception.

Deans has come in to fix up the mess we are in, but I don’t think even he saw it for what it was. He is attempting to completely overhaul Australian Rugby. He (with JONs blessing) has removed the player ‘power brokers’ and now he is teaching the players to feel the game rather than read a script.

Unfortunately the players aren’t responding well, and this is what has Deans frustrated. The players will get there; it’s just a matter of time. But will this time come before the RWC is the million dollar question. Some are arguing that under Dean’s reign we have gone backwards, but this is the pain we need to endure for a successful future. Even if we do well at the RWC (and I believe we will), Deans job isn’t over. There is more he needs to do revolutionise Australian rugby. His playing philosophies need to filter down into every crevice of Australian Rugby “The coach is king, rugby is simple and play what is in front of you”. After 4 years of pain and change, someone else will come in and try to stamp their mark and we will start all over again. We’ve gone done this path, we need to see it to the end. Lesser men than Deans would have walked away and given up by now.

Someone mentioned to me that Deans is too proud to leave Australian rugby in a worse state than what he took it over in, so I hope that post 2011 Deans stays on to complete the bold road to rebuilding Australian Rugby.

So the parallels between Deans and Jones are non existent. Jones sent Australian Rugby back after the great Macqueen era. Deans is putting us through a huge amount of pain to get us back on track. It’s just taking a lot longer than we thought and hoped.

Don’t get me wrong i feel anybody with talent should be free to earn an income from it but I believe it should not be enough to supercede pure desire and pride – that’s where the breakdown happens.

You cant be advocating the Waratahs/Wallabies continue with the mundane and pathetic play of this/last season can you?