Can’t disagree with your 2, 3, and 5 answers too much, but I’m not sure we’ve seen the last of Mortlock just yet, unless of course Ioane has real purple patch in the next 6 months…

Well thank goodness for that Dean, we were getting worried….

Just like a junkie the Wallabies need to hit rock bottom before they can truly look to get back on their feet. Oh please let this be that. Only then could they begin to redeem themselves not inly to the die hards but the Australian public.

Pete, you’ve just learned the lesson in reading to the bottom!!

Republican, I think it’s quite brave and even laudable that you do keep presenting this opinion of yours, about the decline of the ACTRU, and while I do have a somewhat contrary opinion, I am open to the fact that things in my neighbourhood perhaps aren’t representative of the whole picture. Without the supporting evidence or reports (and I don’t mean from you personally), it’s hard to be so sure either way. But glad you enjoyed today’s read…

Great piece Brett, Thanks

In between the testosterone filled “my dick, team, country, hemisphere, code, is better than yours” back and forth , around and around abuse and rubbish that has been going on for weeks here at the Roar, there were a few who tried to look objectively and sensibly at where we were headed.

Just thought it may be time to look at those questions again.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

The solutions are as predicatble and without revelation so it should be said that I am in good company here.

I do however appreciate the creative levity you have been able to bring an otherwise ground hog day of a topic.

Cheers

1. Is Rocky Elsom the next great Wallaby captain?
2. Can Matt Giteau regain his mojo?
3. Is this a career-defining tour for George Smith?
4. Where does Stirling Mortlock fit into future Wallaby plans?
5. Can the Wallabies win back the Australian public?

Hard to disagree with too many of Sue’s answers above, but for what it’s worth:
1. Potentially. I like what I’m seeing currently
2. Not on current form. He definitely needs to though..
3. Yes, definitely. He now knows how hard he has to work to win back the No.7, and in Pocock he’s getting more competition than in the last few seasons from Waugh.
4. Mortlock would still have to be in the plans, for the simple fact that Ioane is a work in progress, Cross is best forgotten about, and Ashley-Cooper is becoming a top-notch 15.
5. Hmmmmmmm………

So back to October 27th …. do you have the answers to the questions yet?

1. Maybe too soon to tell. Saturday will probably decide.
2. No.
3.Yes. He may be taking over Phil Waugh’s spot on the bench
4. We obviously need him, the body may be against it
5. If Wellington was the line in the sand then where are we now? The diehards are becoming wobbly and we have no hope with anyone else.

On Matt Giteau …….. a quote from

Million Dollar Baby
Article by Wayne Smith in the Weekend Australian Magazine May 26-27 2007 about Matt Giteau

Credit here to Giteau’s former Wallabies kicking coach, Ben Perkins, an eccentric by any standards but one who won the respect and close friendship of former team captain John Eales, and has done the same with the young man he forecasts is about to become the Wallabies’ next long-term leader. “I told him a couple of years ago that I wanted him to start thinking about whether he wanted to be captain,” Perkins recollects. “I said, ‘You’re the sort of player who leads by example and they make the best leaders. If you’re going to fulfil your potential, the captaincy is the ultimate step.’”

From all reports he is not happy about a number of things, most of all losing the captaincy,and if this is right is it any wonder. He has obviously had someone in his ear promising things that could not be delivered.

Is Perkins still his coach?
Surely his better kicking performances of late have been when playing for the Force where he has Darryl Halligan as his kicking coach.

I still keep pinching myself every morning since: someone must have had the score sheet wrong???

Interesting add-on in Wayne Smith’s article today in The Oz re Giteau’s kicking:

Meanwhile, Giteau’s long-time kicking coach Ben Perkins believes he has identified the problem that caused those costly goalkicking misses.

“Standing the ball more upright requires more power and Matt isn’t a power kicker, he’s a timing kicker and he’ll get that back by lying the ball down a little more.”

In the backs – Genia, Barnes, Cooper, Ione, AAC and few youngsters (the likes of O’Connor) and even the lessor known names on tour – all offer promise.

LAS your comments on Giteau are spot on – I suspect he just doesn’t get it. It maybe arrogance or maybe just a lack of grey matter – have no insight there except that he demonstrably lacks what it takes to lead a team around the paddock. He stepped into a team that offered more structure than what is there today and the further he moves from that, the more that is needed from him and the less he has to offer. The gap between what he offers and what is needed continues to widen – this is more the issue than form. He will not find form while he cannot deliver what is needed. Deans is smart enough to know that. In the end Giteau is the one that needs to accept it – failure to do so will mean that he disappears into rugby obscurity while continuing to whinge and whine…and do his hair of course!

I loved this: “..but when you ignore three blokes and throw the pass 35m on the run, it’s gonna drift forward, isn’t it? “

The problem with the Wallas and the Brumby’s is that there is simply no forthcoming ACT GR’s to give us and Oz Union all that wow factor it is so sadly lacking, as well as having to endure a Kiwi coach of course.

Cheers

Hey Worlds I have been up to watch every game live on 1HD …. no replays for me, get up and watch. Its the least I expect of every Wallaby fan.