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The Roar

Who Needs Melon

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Joined February 2009

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Hey Harry. Long time, no see.

I’ve been absent from this site for yonks, only occasionally checking in for my favourite authors. And this has correlated with a drastic drop in interest in rugby on my part and so I’m not as across the game as I once was. But lack of expertise never stopped people having opinions so…

To my mind, in retrospect, Stephen Larkham (god love him) was one of the worst things to happen to Australian rugby. It put in mind that ANYONE could become a star flyhalf. I know he wasn’t the first ‘convert’ to 10 from another position and I know he’d had experience in that position very much earlier in his rugby life… but still.

In Australia we haven’t seemed keen to invest in developing upcoming 10s for decades. To me it’s as specialised a position as scrum half. Or as a quarterback in gridiron. We’ve got nobody near Sexton.

Killer instinct and precision: Which young star is poised to become Australia's long term No.10?

In response to an article about the collective failure of a large portion of the Waratahs team, it’s disappointing to see the standard play in the comments repeated over and over again. That being to attack one or two players. Particularly Hooper. I’m no Hooper superfan but the point surely is that there’s something rotten overall for a team to capitulate like this.

For too long in rugby in this country there’s been a lot of “it’s this position’s job to do X” and “it’s that position’s job to do Y”. I thought we ditched that mentality in the 90s but it’s crept back with a vengeance.

Waratahs' experience counting for not very much at all

Dammit! Did I miss out on a conversation about Folau. Oh well. Next time.

Shadow of Folau obscures signs of rugby's revival in Australia

Brett, you commendably try to remain positive even when us naysayers are predicting doom and gloom. In this case you are definitely right though – this is a new era and this does seem a positive development… unless you’re one of those in the rabidly “must-be-an-Australian” camp.

There are a lot of other things that need to happen to turn Australian rugby around. Good to hear that Raelene Castle is “keen for change” but let’s see that put into action.

Clean slate: Rennie appointment starts a new era for Australian rugby

Drew Mitchell posted a link to this article on twitter this morning:
https://www.gq.com.au/fitness/sport/defeat-and-devastation-for-the-2019-wallabies/news-story/8bc8b6c697cb6f36cabad4bbc612c38c

A couple of things he said were really on the money. Firstly from his actual tweet he wrote “Now is the time when the support is needed most!!”. It’s very true. We’ve got to avoid lashing out and just bashing everyone connected to rugby in any way. At the same time we need people at all levels to own where things are at and take a good hard look at themselves.

And then the part from the article itself that resonated strongly with me was: ” There’s a thirst to have one person solely responsible or a thirst for us to make a judgement and carry on as if we know facts… The answer is not just the head coach of the Wallabies, it’s a systemic change that needs to be made from grassroots all the way through our rugby programs which then results with our best 31 players at the next World Cup and I think that’s probably where we’ve dropped the ball in the last decade or two”. I think this is bang on and, Luke, I like that in your article that you’re trying to come up with constructive solutions and not just tear it all down.

There was another good piece from RugbyReg the other day here: http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/the-stats-that-back-cheika-getting-the-sack

What I like about it is the highlight that somewhere in the mid 70s we said to ourselves “stuff this, let’s do something” and we invested in making things better. And circumstances seem to be lining up for us to do that again.

A strengths-based plan for rugby in Australia

Honestly, who would want to coach the Wallabies at the moment? Has anyone asked Rennie yet?

I reckon there would be three types of people willing to take on the role at the moment:

1. Someone who was supremely confident in their coaching abilities and saw taking on this under-performing side as a chance to really show their abilities. Is Rennie really that confident? There’s few people in the world I can imagine falling into this category. Maybe only Steve Hansen! Graham Henry?

2. Someone like Cheika who is just doing it because they’ve always wanted to be the Wallaby coach. It’s been a dream for them. This would therefore almost certainly need to be an Australian with immense pride in Australian Rugby and the Wallabies. Who fits this bill? Larkham?

3. Someone who knows it’s a write-off, knows they’re probably not going to make any difference and is just in it for the money and to get the ‘head coach’ title into their CV. I can imagine there might be quite a lot that fall into this category.

The Wrap: Good coach, bad coach; the winning (and losing) of the World Cup

Good article

Six talking points from Wallabies versus England

And with Peter’s and sheek’s comments here we realise how topsy turvy all things have become. Australian pack and set pieces ok but backs that are the issue, England smarter, better coached…

I’d also say Australia are now trying to play running, ball-in-hand rugby but we’re not that good at it any more. It’s all fairly predictable stuff, little in the way of offloads, real deception or good support play.

Oh how the tables have turned and the mighty have fallen.

100% agree that the stars need to align for the Wallabies to win this. Wallabies need to click and England need to fail to bring their A game.

Wallabies (lineout) rising: Rugby World Cup quarter-final hope against England

The Wallabies have unfortunately fallen into a pattern of about one really good game every 10 or so. The variability in the quality of what we see is also pretty vast – not just from game to game but within each game as well. Why is that? What is it that ‘clicks’ and produces a good performance? I’ve no idea and I suspect Chieka doesn’t either or he would have pulled that trigger before now.

As a Wallaby supporter one can only hope that the game against England is the really good one that I think we’re almost about due. Even still, I think we will need to simultaneously pray to the rugby gods that England aren’t on song. I hate to say this but, if they’re both at their best, I suspect England still tops the Wallabies.

And finally, if miracles do happen and we beat England, I’m going to take that as meaning our wad is blown and we will then revert ‘to form’ which is, I think we all admit, pretty mediocre at the moment.

Just their best performance of 2019: the Wallabies' simple quarter-final assignment

I remember after Folau’s first game thinking “this guy has a lot to learn” – his positional awareness in defence in particular was non-existent.

But I’m going to eat humble pie: Probably about a year later I think I wrote on here that I thought he could end up becoming one of the best players we’d ever seen in this country. There was a time when he seemed virtually unstoppable. Seemingly just a swivel of the hips and he was past anyone.

But Folau just seemed to stop developing at that stage. Opposition learned his weaknesses and exploited them. And he seemingly just accepted that.

Unfortunately Folau is not the only player in recent history that has displayed this characteristic. Almost all our players have at least one fundamental flaw. Could be a bad pass, inability to kick, bad defence – it varies.

At younger and schoolboy level we seem to do alright. So this leads me to think it’s more about the coaching than the players.

How the loss of Israel Folau has improved the Wallabies backfield

My concept of time is really poor but I remember going on a bit of a rant on here what seems like a year or two ago when I heard that ANY contact with the head would be deemed a penalty and cardable. “What about occasions when a play puts his head down and tries to bore into the tackle?” I ranted. “What about when a player falls as he is tackled?”

But my fears seemed to be largely unfounded since for the most part in all forms of rugby since this hasn’t been such a hard-and-fast rule. Until now. And that’s where I take a bit of exception.

It seems to me that by not being so strict in other competitions, we’ve almost trained the players to tackle one way… and then suddenly in an important competition the whole rugby world is watching, we’re judging them using a different yardstick.

But far more important than that is getting consistency within the tournament. If we can’t be consistent from match to match within the one tournament then how are different unions supposed to be consistent in their individual tournaments?

The Wrap: Red, yellow, green - rugby’s ‘traffic light’ World Cup

With 2 or 3 exceptions I actually think this is one of our better team selection options.

The fact is that we don’t have a really good flyhalf in the squad… because we don’t have a really good flyhalf in Australia at the moment. I don’t know what the story is with Lealifano and Foley is looking worse every outing. Toomua isn’t going to set the world on fire but is worth a crack there.

Nic White has had issues as well. But so has Genia. Again, we don’t have a complete package in a 9 at the moment. It will be a miracle if we get very far this tournament with mediocre halves.

I really like the look of that backrow – I just find it a lot more balanced than variations with Hooper included.

Those calling for consistency – well, yeah, that would have been good – but we also need to rest and rotate in a tournament like this. Consistency would have been better in the last year or two but hasn’t happened for a variety of reasons.

Hooper to the bench, To'omua at flyhalf among ten Wallabies changes for Georgia clash

Only one person tipping Wales?!? They’re sure to win now.

Rugby World Cup tipping Week 2: into the grind

I suggested in another comment that mixing things up is always good. If a team knows you’re always going to kick, they will be all over you. If they know you’re always going to run it, they will be all over that too. Ditto box kick too much.

On the flipside, there were questions asked by the commentators while I was watching why the Wallabies were consistently kicking long on their own restarts. Too long for them to really contest. Do you think this was a predetermined tactic? If so, what was the basis for it?

For me, we’ve done well in the past having Koroibete (at least!) chase down our restarts. But why not mix it up a bit – some long, some short, some one way, some another. Keep the opposition guessing for Pete’s sake! Isn’t that half the point of everything on a rugby pitch?

Why the Wallabies are running for the exit

I think the real issue has been that we don’t have the smarts on the field to make these decisions in real-time. The Wallabies don’t seem to be able to adjust and say X isn’t working, we need to try Y.

We shouldn’t ALWAYS be running the ball out of 22. Just as we shouldn’t ALWAYS be kicking. We shouldn’t always rush, etc. You watch a consistently good team like the All Blacks and they adjust to the situations, mix things up AND all seem to be on the same page when they do.

Why the Wallabies are running for the exit

I think your first 2 points are connected. Nic White is great at lifting the tempo of the team, sniping, doing the unpredictable… but that’s Fiji to a tee. There’s nothing there they haven’t seen before. Will Genia is (these days) are more slow, steady and deliberate player and that’s the horse that this course needed.

I’m not going near the ‘shoulder charge’ but Reece Hodge probably is one of our best wingers at the moment. There are faster players with better steps, etc. but Reece did a lot of good things this game and deserves to retain his spot.

Jury is out on the Pooper. Overall I think Cheika made good use of the bench this match. That’s not always been the case but it’s a key thing to get right in this tournament.

Rugby World Cup: Five talking points from Wallabies vs Fiji

Great series. You have reignited the floundering flame of my love for rugby. Or maybe it’s the looming World Cup. Anyway…

I did pick the top 2 although I said I’d have preferred Horan at number 3. Reading about these other champions, I am tempted to reconsider… but there’s just something about Horan. For me he’s just one of those players who, when they’re in the team, lift everyone else and increase the team win %.

I totally agree with Lomu at 1 and McCaw at 2. When you think of awesome WC performances, that ’95 series from Lomu was just a revelation. He drew people in around the world who didn’t even follow rugby. McCaw just had that indomitable presence – there’s not really a single performance that stands out – just the longevity of sheer quality.

I think it gets harder to pick the deeper you get into the 50 – i.e. top 2 or 3 easy, next 5 a bit harder, next 10 a lot harder, etc. – so I’m interested to see the individuals picks and maybe some stats.

Thanks again Roar and all contributors.

The Roar’s 50 greatest players in Rugby World Cup history: 5-1

Yeah, so difficult to compare players from different positions, teams, eras, etc. but Horan is definitely in my personal top 3. I’d maybe put McCaw and Lomu ahead of him.

The Roar's 50 greatest players in Rugby World Cup history: 15-11

Ok. But aside from coach, culture, co-operation, fundamental skills, the ability to win quick clean ball and a good kicker, we’re sweet, right?

What are the final pieces of the Wallabies' World Cup puzzle?

I understood the original intent of the Giteau rule as an attempt to ensure we retained good players in Australia for as long as possible. And then allowed us to have access to good, experienced players while allowing them to earn some bigger $s overseas – perhaps in the latter stages of their rugby careers.

But I think the horse has bolted now. We’re starting to lose our best players before they have reached the threshold of games that mean we continue to have access to them.

Continuing with the Giteau rule will only serve to weaken the national side and I think RA is now in a position where they desperately need the national side to be full of the best players and performing as well as possible. Because if they don’t the whole thing is going to continue to crumble.

I also don’t like seeing JOC and Nic White tentatively sign up to a Super Rugby team just to make the national squad. I hold anything against the players for doing this. I just don’t like mucking them around like that and you really have to squint and turn your head sideways to say “they are now local players” when you do this.

It seems now also that my romantic notion that the national team might function well because the players have combinations built on years of familiarity, that they have calls only they understand and moves they have all rehearsed endlessly together – these things are all a fantasy. Clearly game-plans are so basic and ubiquitous that anyone from anywhere can just waltz back into the team at the 11th hour.

So I’m in favour of just allowing any Australian player to play for the Wallabies. Yes, it means rugby in Australia becomes more like soccer in Australia… but I think that’s inevitable now and it at least gives up-and-coming players a clear pathway to success.

Is it time to scrap the Giteau law?

Great article as usual Nicholas.

I don’t often log in and comment any more – partly I’m short on time, partly short on enthusiasm – but I think I catch all your articles and try to make the effort to say thanks. I’m late to the party again and my comment will no doubt be drowned out by all the ones above arguing about red cards and shoulder charges and the like but…

I too thought White had an excellent game. In particular I loved the way he adjusted his speed to stay in perfect support position for that try down the sideline. Seemingly such a simple thing but there are a lot that just overrun the play these days.

Some have been saying the selectors deserve a pat on the back. I’m not sure I agree with that. Seems to me if you pick enough combinations, you’ll eventually find one that works. But I’m being churlish. Was great to see JOC back and play well. I wasn’t expecting that at 13 from him but in retrospect it was a good move pairing him with Kerevi.

It was a very unexpected win and a surprisingly ‘off’ All Blacks side. I’m sure the team is bracing for a huge comeback from the All Blacks this weekend.

Another thing on JOC: I read the Agassi biography years ago and loved it. There was a guy who we all (rightly) thought was a real pr#tt when he was young but just turned around so wonderfully as life went on. I’m not totally across the JOC story but I do like what I hear and hope we’re seeing a guy who has found peace with himself now.

All Blacks only see the red in a Wallabies bolt from the blue

What I fear will happen with JOC, Lealifano, Banks, etc. is that what’s happened too many times before. We bring them in for a game or two – maybe three. They’re really given not really any time to cement any sort of partnerships of feel of playing with the players around them. We pin all our hopes on them and when they don’t have blinders in those first 2 or 3 games, they’re discarded.

What is James O’Connor’s best position for the Wallabies?

Brett, you were doomed from the start…

Article:
“Address the structures rather than attack the scapegoats”… happens to mention some players.

Comments:
“Yes, you’re right – we should address the structures – but how about them scapegoats!”

Reminds me of the Monty Python “What was that about the hats” bit.

But seriously, you are bang on. And it’s not just been like this for the past 4 years – it’s been like this for decades. There’s this thought that if we can just drop this player or bring back that player or not kick so much or align deeper or whatever that things will magically turn around.

I’ve said for years that I’m not sure I’d want my son (if I had one) to rise up the rugby ranks at the moment and become a Wallaby. Look at someone like Foley, Quade, DHP, Beale, JOC or Tupou. Rise to the very pinnacle and be the best in the country… only to then become the target of every irate fan.

It’s like a whole group of guys from Quality Control in a widget factory yelling at the widgets that are coming out of the widget-making machine. But the machine is too complicated. It would take a decade to fix it! “Hey guys – there’s a pretty good widget-making machine just across the ditch here”. No – that’s a “completely different environment” – let’s just yell at the widgets some more. Maybe future widgets will be better if we do that.

Address the structures rather than attack the scapegoats

As usual, our hopes turn to the player(s) we’ve seen the LEAST of.

JOC won’t have any affinity with any of the current attack or defensive patterns, no chemistry with players all around him and it’s dubious what position we’d play him in. In other words, he will fit right in!

By the way there’s a typo in the above article. It reads “Despite debuting as the second-youngest Wallay in history, he…” – I don’t think you need the 2nd a.

James O’Connor lines up Wallabies return after signing with the Reds

Yeah, I know. We will see eh?

Brilliant Brumbies must be rewarded at the Wallabies selection table after superb quarter-final

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