Comments on: Wallabies wallop Wales, end a bad year superbly

By: conrad Rines

conrad Rines — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:42:22 +0000

2011 world cup wallabies
a little different but will go very well i think!

1. alexander
2. polota nau
3 robinson
4 hand
5 vickerman
6 elsom
7 smith
8 palu
9 holmes
10 barnes
11 turner
12 mortlock/horne
13 ioane
14 morahan
15 shepard

* would consider cooper or oconner for a utility bench spot along with either horne or mortlock

* hand is a late bloomer with a wealth of experience and and is considered by micheal foley as a top lineout general.

thoughts?

By: Dean Pantio

Dean Pantio — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:03:04 +0000

And no other team will be?

On what basis do you make the claim this rag tag bunch will be the best team? Certainly can’t be the way in which they’ve improved from last year.

By: CliffyTahTah

CliffyTahTah — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 01:35:56 +0000

Wallabies will be peaking at the right time to take the WC.

By: Dean Pantio

Dean Pantio — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:20:03 +0000

Definitely – this is one area where Sharpe is an asset to the Wallabies; his work in the lineout.

By: Dean Pantio

Dean Pantio — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:14:07 +0000

Hang on – where does this nonsense in your last sentence come from?

By: Joh4Canberra

Joh4Canberra — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:42:20 +0000

Parisien: I think we’re agreed that while players should be able to understand basic instructions in English once you go beyond this the use of English will favour sides from English speaking countries over the others.

Regional accents themselves shouldn’t be a problem if the referee makes a point of clearly articulating his words and not speaking too quickly. What often gets me though is the referee’s choice of vocabulary. I’m both a native English speaker and a referee and sometimes even I’m not sure what some of the English-speaking referees in international matches mean. Sure, I hear the string of words and understand each single word but am sometimes left in two minds as to what he is trying to say by that particular combination of words. And even if his meaning is quite clear to me as a native English speaker there are still occasions where I am left thinking that a reasonably competent non-native speaker would have trouble understanding what the referee meant. If referees are going to use English with non-English speaking teams then in addition to speaking clearly they do really need to choose their words carefully, avoiding many colloquialisms (even rugby colloquialisms).

By: stillmissit

stillmissit — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:16:07 +0000

Ohtanis Jacket – ‘Anyway, rugby needs more attacking play and a better balance between attack and defence and that starts with the coaching not the laws.” this is very true and I thought the whole of this reply was right on the money.

This ideas in your reply is worth a thread – why don’t you write it??????

By: Mungehead

Mungehead — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:29:54 +0000

Excellent post rugbyguy. And I completely agree that Rokocoko should have been dropped ages ago.

By: sittingbison

sittingbison — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:22:53 +0000

the 2006 wales game?

By: sittingbison

sittingbison — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:18:40 +0000

very droll

By: sittingbison

sittingbison — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:12:31 +0000

almost as funny as witnessing the ever-(over)optimistic all black supporters having their team as world cup favourites every four seasons hehe

By: johnny-boy

johnny-boy — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 10:28:06 +0000

Re low lifes – where do start. I’d just be repeating myself. Another day maybe. However, I will say Henry & Co will be carrying so much bad karma in to the next World Cup – it would be un-natural for them to win it. But stranger things have happened.

By: Shahsan

Shahsan — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 10:11:02 +0000

Except he’s really not that good. Good man to have in the pack but technically not that good a lock forward. If only he were bit younger and more mobile — could have been a good no 6.

By: ohtani's jacket

ohtani's jacket — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:07:51 +0000

What is it about the low lifes that you don’t like specifically?

By: ohtani's jacket

ohtani's jacket — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:55:05 +0000

Earlier in the season, the All Blacks were getting picked off in front of the defensive line and driven backwards, leading to penalty situations. In Marseilles, the forwards kept driving in the tackle and we were able to get quicker ball. Instead of passing across the face of the defence, we were able to hit the gap and offload. I think they showed that you can avoid being isolated and reduce the ruck contest if you inject a bit of pace into your attack. They kicked less, kept the ball in hand and ran at the opposition line.

A lot of teams played defensively this year, either by spoiling opposition ball or forcing mistakes, and sides infringed a lot due to a lack of possession. You don’t need to get locked into this pattern so long as you play well. The All Blacks have been more confident of late because of their lineout and the return of Carter.

The refs need to start making more no-calls and let play develop. There’s no reason why they can’t issue warnings and bear in mind what they saw the defence doing. Most teams would rather keep the play alive than have it killed, and I firmly believe that if the ball is coming out on the right side then play should continue. I don’t think refs should call an infringement unless the ball’s been killed.

And every ref should make use of the scrum option like Rolland did. That was brilliant refereeing. No guessing, just a perfectly sensible restart. You don’t need ELVs if you use that option correctly.

Anyway, rugby needs more attacking play and a better balance between attack and defence and that starts with the coaching not the laws. So, if the Wallabies want to stop the All Blacks from controlling the rucks and mauls and slowing the game down, they need to work on their attack and not bemoan the refereeing.

By: rugbyguy

rugbyguy — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:37:58 +0000

brian mills you are a dumbass, the world cup is in 2011, the wallabies recent results are irrelevent.
The reason we are saying the wallabies look good for the world cup is that their team is young and raw, at the moment they are average but with two years of internatioal rugby under their belts they will be very good,
wales and ireland are mediocre and their best current player will need walking frames by 2011, same goes for south africa to a lesser extent as they have some young talent on the rise.brian mills you are a dumbass

By: Campbell Watts

Campbell Watts — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:35:43 +0000

You want a lock with grunt and a huge ticker??

You cant go past Brad Thorn – at half time against the French he had just ticked up 1000 minutes of test rugby for the year!!!!

I think he’ll still have it in him come the world cup!

By: True Tah

True Tah — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:23:49 +0000

you’ve probably been saying the same argument in 1997, 2001 and 2005.

By: True Tah

True Tah — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:21:19 +0000

Maybe teach Mark Lawrence to understand Japanese

By: Campbell Watts

Campbell Watts — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:20:31 +0000

Agree Dean,

As good as the Wallabies back row are they don’t ever seem to be the 1st man there to support line breaks – which as shown in the Scotland game can come home to bite you!

Expect that will improve with Pocock next S14 season – I can’t see Mitch missing the importance of your No7 linking with the backline! I’d say it’s the only week point to his game at present.

By: Campbell Watts

Campbell Watts — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:15:18 +0000

True! A great combo to have – better than Smith/Waugh I must say. Smith is a better off-the-bench man than waugh in that he’ll also cover No8

By: Campbell Watts

Campbell Watts — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:12:22 +0000

Nice one stillmissit!

By: CliffyTahTah

CliffyTahTah — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 06:50:08 +0000

We firstly beat 2 crappy NH teams and drew with the current 6 nation champions..secondly, I think Spiro is reffering to the teams performance rather than the score line. We outplayed Wales in every area of the game, including the lineout. We have buckled every scrum that has come in our path (maybe on par with the AB’s) and the backline seems to be finally clicking. Out of all the teams in the top 10, the Wallabies are currently placed best wtih chances of winning the world cup

By: Shahsan

Shahsan — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 04:14:27 +0000

You don’t understand debate, do you? How old are you? Four? Or is that your IQ?

By: Brian Mills

Brian Mills — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 03:44:12 +0000

The Wannabies beat one crappy NH team and you now start claiming they’re in with a shot for the World Cup? You’re a complete twat Spiros.

By: rugbyguy

rugbyguy — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 03:06:27 +0000

as a coach i have no problem with Henry and Co.
the whole rotation debacle was blown out of proportion if you ask me,
back in the 2003 world cup nz were favourites until we had a couple of key injurys and ended up
with playing rookies in big games, which most agreed cost us a place in the final.
in 2007 the All Black coaches sought to over come this by developing depth in every position, they essentially had two teams which they heavily rotated each week. semi final time against france and most of NZ rugby fans were already looking to the final, we feilded a close to second string team so our top player would be fresh for the final.
France actually turned up for once and put in an inspired performance to knock the All Blacks out of the world cup.
true to form france went on to play poorly and lose the final in a bit of an anti-climax.
Of course the blame fell squarely on Henry and the knives came out,
When the All Black coach job was re-assigned Henry was the best candidate, Robbie Deans was as i understand it unwilling to work as part of the coaching team and so Henry was reappointed.
his record is pretty good and he has had an uphill battle having to rebuild his team after an exodus of player to europe chasing $$$, he has had to rebuild while remaining competative. i think hes done a good job and i cant think of anyone better to take over. personally i dont know him so i couldn’t say, he seems like a grumpy old man but who knows how much of that persona is put on for the media, he used to be a headmaster so he probably is a grumpy old man.
I like that Henry has been willing to experiment a little with combinations,
he seems willing to bring in specialist coaches and try new training techniques, they have a “scrum docter” mike cron, and have brought in AFL coaches to advise in taking the high ball, anything for that edge is good,
I dont like how Rokoko kept his spot long after his form had dived, i like the loyalty but WINGs SHOULD BE PICKED ON CURRENT FORM !!. we had so many outstanding wings on fire all year and Rokoko was rubbish.

By: johnny-boy

johnny-boy — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 02:41:51 +0000

DH – I’ve also been living in OZ for 27 years – am an OZ citizen, my wife and children are OZ – so it wasnt the only reason .
If Henry & Co win the World Cup I might begrudgingly accept you’re right. I would say the Sprinboks had it all over the All Blacks this year actually so can’t see how this makes Henry & Co pre-eminent coaching set up ?. Did you miss it ?
Who knows how Deans woud have went with All Blacks. His record to date with Wallabies would indicate …. not very well although he does seem very good at teaching a style that suits Kiwis.

By: Darwin hammer

Darwin hammer — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 02:08:35 +0000

Well more fool you – I think if anything has been shown over the last 2 years is that the NZRFU made a well informed decision by retaining the current coaching set up and not continuing down the same path which has consistently failed – Deans has shown that he’s all a sea in the international arena and I don’t think he’d have had better performances than the current set up

Henry is and has been a very successful coach and I’m more than happy to have him charge up to 2011 and the current set up have shown they’re the preeminent coaching set up in world rugby at the moment … they certainly haven’t betrayed the country – each to their own JB – but there’s no way I’d switch country alligence based on the fact that my favourite didn’t get a job

By: johnny-boy

johnny-boy — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:52:39 +0000

Rugby guy – at least they had a go – which is more than can be said for the Wallabies.
Darwin Hammer – I don’t incessantly run down NZ performances – only their coaches. I was as die-hard an All Black supporter for 40 years + that you would ever find – fanatical, one-eyed uncompromising defender of the darkness – until Henry & Co came along and betrayed the country and NZ manhood. I just couldn’t stomach supporting a team with these low lifes as coaches. I think you’ll find there are quite a few ex legendary All Blacks who can’t stomach Henry & Co as well so I feel I’m in well informed company. How about you ?

By: Darwin hammer

Darwin hammer — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:01:19 +0000

“I agree Wales were weak in 1st half and suffering from losing captain and star winger – almost as weak as France vs All Blacks”

the only realty check needed is your incessant need to try and run down NZ performances – credit where credit is due – neither Wales or Aust from last weekend could have lived with either France or the AB’s