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Cheika's 2016 Wallabies: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

29th November, 2016
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Michael Cheika and Stephen Moore will not win the grand slam this time around.
Roar Guru
29th November, 2016
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2674 Reads

The single best thing that can be said about the Wallabies in 2016 is that its best players have, by and large, been its young guns and rookies.

The Good

Young Guns
Adam Coleman and Samu Kerevi have become the Wallabies’ most important forward and back. They were sorely missed against Ireland.

Dane Haylett-Petty’s improvement has been phenomenal and he should now be playing fullback for the Wallabies, not only because Isreal Folau is better suited to the wing, but because Haylett-Petty is a better 15 than the 2016 version of Folau.

Tolu Latu may well be the Wallabies’ first-choice hooker in 2017. Andrew Ready is another very good possibility.

Reece Hodge has mixed in some incredible running and kicking with awkward positioning and mental snaps. He is a very young man, however, and these should be cleared up in the Super Rugby season.

Sean McMahon continues to improve and Rory Arnold, Alan Ala’alatoa and Lopeti Timani have done their jobs extremely competently, if not spectacularly.

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Kyle Godwin did an excellent job on debut, and will hopefully be given more opportunities to develop at the Brumbies than Western Force.

Luke Morahan looked very good against France.

Sefa Naivalu’s speed means he’s able to both score tries and make tackles that wingers in Australia have failed to be able to do for many years.

2. Depth
Leading on from the rise of the young guns, the Wallabies have – extremely haphazardly – found themselves with significant depth in many positions that they’ve traditionally struggled.

At number 7 there is David Pocock (soon to be lost), Michael Hooper, Sean McMahon and Ben McCalman.

In the centres the Wallabies enjoy Kerevi, Kurtley Beale, Tevita Kuridrani, Hodge, Rob Horne and Folau.

The Wallabies’ first choice locks in the 2015 Rugby World Cup are now the second string option after Coleman and Arnold.

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Ready and Latu are excellent hooking options.

In terms of outside backs Folau, Haylett-Petty, Morahan, Beale and Naivalu mean the Wallabies are well covered.

While there are still issues in propping, number 6, number 8, number 9 and number 10, things are moving in the right direction. Who knows, perhaps Godwin will be the future 10?

3. Backline attacking ability
Despite the issues of the Wallabies’ forward-pack, the backline has shown great improvement throughout 2016.

Although basic skills errors are still apparent and there is a lack of cohesiveness in attack, the Wallabies’ backline can be extremely dangerous due to the potent threats of Haylett-Petty, Kuridrani, Naivalu, Will Genia, Folau and of course Kerevi.

Despite the forwards’ struggles against Ireland, our backs kept us in the game until it was spoiled by a certain forward.

Having such a dangerous backline means the Wallabies will win games they possibly do not deserve to, such as against France.

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The Bad

1. Lack of strategy
The Wallabies have followed no consistent strategy in 2016.

Against England, Michael Cheika was determined to play “the Australian way”, which meant running the ball at all times.

Unfortunately, somewhat unsurprisingly, running the ball from your own try-line can lead to disastrous results against a team with good defence, especially when they possess an ace goal-kicker and the Wallabies have poor discipline.

The 3-0 thrashing by England led to a change in strategy.

Instead, Foley, Genia and Mick Byrnes told us in the lead-up to Bledisloe 1 that the Wallabies would kick more.

It did not work.

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Foley seemed to have the uncanny ability to always find the hands of the player attempting to charge his kicks down, or not to kick it out when he attempted exits, leading to tries scored by the other team on counter.

Since then, the Wallabies have looked confused, unsure whether to play a game with tactical kicking, or one of pure running at all times.

Lack of direction is not a recipe for success.

2. Forwards
The front-row have been average (at best), unfit and largely invisible.

When Coleman is playing, the locks are fixed. Without him, the second-row lacks any form of physical imposition or intimidation or power.

The back-row has been a farce. Any team that feels the need to consistently field Dean Mumm in the starting line-up is one that is going to struggle. While the back-row could easily be fixed by smarter selections, Cheika has thus far refused to do so.

With the exception of the matches against Wales and perhaps South Africa, the Wallabies’ pack has been dominated in 2016.

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Unless things change in 2017 the forwards could really, really hamper the Wallabies’ results, especially with the loss of Pocock.

3. Discipline
The absolute worst aspect of the 2016 Wallabies has been the team’s discipline. I cannot remember a team that managed to commit so many more penalties than its opponents week-in and week-out. I actually find it amazing that the Wallabies have even remained competitive in matches given the lopsided penalty counts against them.

I hope this can be turned around in 2016, but I have to wonder if it stems somewhat from Cheika’s coaching philosophy, as Waratahs are generally the team’s worst offenders, aside from Pocock.

Unless this is addressed the team will never win consistently.

The ugly

1. Selections
It would be possible to write a PhD thesis on Cheika’s selections and still find no rhyme or reason. The most positive thing can be said is that Cheika eventually succeeded in creating some depth, even though this was forced on him by injuries to Dad’s Army (Adam Ashley-Cooper, Matt Giteau, Rob Horne, Mumm etc).

Unfortunately, Cheika’s selection process has given the perception of bias, as he has been willing to drop non-favourites who have been average but by no means terrible (Kuridrani, Rob Simmons, Scott Fardy to name a few) while retaining many sub-par favourites (Stephen Moore, Foley, Mumm and Will Skelton).

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Hopefully Cheika thinks hard on where 2016 went wrong and comes back with a new approach, selecting the best players in their correct positions, and favouring young guys over the oldies.

2. Exits
There is nothing quite so ugly as Cheika’s team trying to execute a straightforward exit.

It typically involves either the team running the ball from their own 22, which sometimes has fantastic results, but more often leads to near-catastrophic errors (both of which occurred against Ireland).

When Foley attempts an exit I screw my eyes shut in trepidation. The kick rarely goes 20 metres and often fails to find touch regardless. The number of counter-attacking tries scored against the Wallabies off exit attempts by Foley must be in double digits.

One has to ask why Haylett-Petty, with his huge and accurate boot, has not taken up the kicking duties?

The problem was somewhat fixed with Quade Cooper at 10, but Cooper has been dropped. If Foley is retained at 10 then Haylett-Petty, Genia or Hodge must take over kicking.

3. Set-piece
Another year, another problem with the Wallabies’ scrum. It seemed these problems were fixed in 2016, but that is frankly not the case.

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Nothing can be said except that this has to be fixed, and there has to be better options than James Slipper and Tom Robertson.

The line-out has been even more embarrassing. A traditional area of strength has become a weakness due to the lack of enough good second-row targets.

At the end of the day the Wallabies are probably in a better place today than they were in June. That said, significant questions over Cheika’s selection, strategic and tactical abilities have been raised in 2016. Hopefully the coach can overcome these and improve things in 2017.

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