Roar Rookie
Joined August 2014
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Rugby coach and teacher with an interest in creativity.
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The series-ending injury to David Pocock has allowed Michael Cheika the opportunity to put onto the park a backrow combination that most closely resembles…
Now that ‘The Pool of Death' has claimed its victims, the top two teams have been left to shoot it out this weekend in…
It's a Rugby World Cup year and many people have been commenting on how the Wallabies can win this year, or at least be…
Last week I analysed the creative offers in phase play made by Australian fullbacks in the Super Rugby. I began this process by specifically…
Spiro Zavos has been annoying me since January 19, when he wrote "Australian Rugby needs some of 'that spatial shit'". I mean really Spiro…
Sunday morning dawned not with a ‘golden sunrise', but nor were we greeted by ‘the darkness'. Since the New Zealand music, black fleece-wearing, kiwi…
It's a bit of a ritual in our house now that I play some music while my son has his dinner. As he was…
Cheers Hoppers, it’s moments like these that live streaming or videos on the Ipad come in very handy!
The Fardy Pooper versus Fireman Sam
Cheers Chasmac,
Over the 3 games I have watch Folau he does a lot of his offers where he doesn’t receive the ball when he’s running off Skelton and Beale. Especially off Skelton he should be running a tight line to take a pop pass and he is a real threat. I watched a lot of James Dargaville in last year’s Shute Shield and NRC and he does this very well by running short lines off ball players. It’s something he can keep on developing. As a coach I always feel you’re better off making a break in centre field so having players like Folau run off forwards is great because it opens up options both ways after the break.
Stats that matter: Izzy better than Ben, Charles (or the other Izzy)?
Kick stats is an interesting one Stu. It is another dimension to the game. Have a look at vodacom but I’m pretty sure Folau didn’t kick once Against the Stormers. Both Dagg and Smith were able to kick their team or of trouble with long kicks which found the grass. Something Folau doesn’t do nearly as well.
Stats that matter: Izzy better than Ben, Charles (or the other Izzy)?
Thanks Harry, vodacom is a great app for stats. I also enjoy the challenge of getting my own as you can focus on certain aspects which they may not.
Stats that matter: Izzy better than Ben, Charles (or the other Izzy)?
Thanks RebelRanger – the idea of ‘offer’comes from a player putting themselves into a position to receive the ball. Unfortunately my analysis is done from tv so it’s hard to judge if a player is offering from a position 2 or 3 players away from the ball. There is so much data you can gather as a coach to inform your work. Good luck with it all.
Stats that matter: Izzy better than Ben, Charles (or the other Izzy)?
Thanks John. Interesting comments. I started to look at Folau as a coach who wanted to see how he brings x-factor to the game and in particular is there something I could do to coach my junior players. I know some people are concerned about the RWC this year but what about 8, 12, 16 years time. Wouldn’t it be great if we could help coach more players with the Israel Folau factor?
Thank god Israel Folau's here
I’m looking forward to seeing them play this weekend and perhaps following up with an article on how the NZ fullbacks differ to the Aussie ones.
Thank god Israel Folau's here
Hi Johnno,thanks for your detailed thoughts. The point of this article was to look at only one aspect of the fullback play – that of the offer of support in phase play. There are plenty of other aspects as you mention – positional play, defence and kicking amongst them. I agree that Izzy doesn’t have the kicking game for test rugby but it’s not something he’s been coached for as much as perhaps Aussie rugby coaches could have done.
One thing I’m hoping for though at the RWC this year is that close games get decided by players putting themselves in positions to score tries and we don’t wait on a goal kicker to knock one over from 50m out after a referee’s decision.
Thank god Israel Folau's here
If it isn’t the ‘Fardy Pooper’ it will have to be some version of the ‘Fardy McPoey’ with either of the Mcs getting a start. I don’t know if the nickname will work quite as well though.
The Fardy Pooper versus Fireman Sam