Ashley-Cooper quits Brumbies to join Waratahs

Ballboy, Ben I think it was AAC who was quoted as saying that he was upset for being singled out. Personally, I am sure it would have been hard to balance his decision. My frustration as a Brumbies supporter (now ex Brumbies as at 4 weeks ago) was that he sat on the Board. He had every right to weigh up his options, I think he had no right to be on the Board. It was widely acknowledged he had issues with the coach, and would stay if Friend stayed. So he signs an ARU contract that the Brumbies facilitate for him, but won't commit to the Brumbies. When it all blows up - he is left holding the can as a Players Rep. Tough gig, but when you play politics in a club like the Brumbies, don't cry if some heat comes your way. People who escape are the Senior Playing Group and the faceless Assassins - the Assistant Coaches. Larkham junior, and his dad on the Board. The Board have gone into hiding, the leadership group have folded, and the Assistant Coaches are two faced enough to let players like AAC take the heat. A fiasco, with no Plan B. I wish AAC every success, but the guy should never have been on the board without a long term contract with the club. For the same reason, Giteau should not be Captain. I hope to finds his form and plays standout rugby. The Brumbies players, Assistant coaches, Board, Fagan - you won the battle, you might still lose the war. Calling Jake White !!! Oh and good to see Eddie Jones at the Brumbies game on Saturday. An Assistant Coach again under White? Or just scouting for his mate.

Agreed......but at least he's on the field for a change. Apparently, To'omua, Giteau and Lealiifano will all interchange their positions during the game......lets see what happens........hopefully they will realise that To'omua is the obvious answer at 10.

They're not really looking to next year till Toomua starts at 10

Looks like the Brumbies are looking to next year already.......AAC has been moved to the wing, and To'omua starts at Full Back for the Highlanders game.

You guys listen to too much of your own crap!!! -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.

Willy, either you are full of crap and just dribbling nonsense, or your so called source in brumbies admin is having a serious giggle at your expense! If you are going to contribute to a forum it might be worthwhile to get your facts straight first!

Yes BBOB - Mumm is obviously no more than a competent No.6, a bit like Brown of the Force. Backups for other better options like Higginbotham, and Elsom if we must. It will be an accurate measure of whether or not Deans is serious in this coaching job as to whether he sticks with these previous silly selections out of some misplaced loyalty or whether it's no more Mr Nice Guy. Australian rugby desperately needs Deans to stop using Australian rugby as his personal coaching experiment to see whether he is as good as he's been told he is and can turn average players, playing out of position, in to test quality players. It's bleeding obvious he can't, so he's got to stop trying to be the super coach and start being more the hard arse coach. You're either up to test rugby or you're not and it's fairly obvious pretty soon. The ability to concentrate and maintain maximum intensity for 80 minutes. Some just cant do it. Australia has just enough players that are and there's not much room trying to bring others on ad infinitum. Persisting with almost good enough players just restricts the development of new players that will ultimately cut it. In fact this has been one of Australias great strengths over the years in bringing on brash cocky fearless upstarts and the two fingered salute of Phil Kearns epitomises that culture. It shocked NZ at the time. How dare he show so little respcest to the All Blacks. James Slipper, while not necessarily brash, cocky or fearless is a good example of a bloke given a chance and stepped up. Deans' continued attempts to try and make silk out of sows ears is his blind spot. We cant afford it. For example the Wallabies just cant afford to carry Ben Alexander seagulling round the field while dropping scrums and killing the teams momentum and if Deans selects him, we might as well stay home as we will know the Wallabies are not being given every chance to succeed. More like every chance to fail.

News is 'Second rower Dean Mumm and No. 8 Wycliff Palu have re-signed with both Australian Rugby and the NSW Waratahs for another season.' The re-signing of Mumm is a compete frigging mystery to me. Surely there are second rowers running around parks somewhere in Oz that are a better prospect. I'm wanting a big mean Mother F**ker that the Captain has to keep under a tight leash to stop him ripping the heads of opposition players, and is paid handsomely for it too. Not someone who needs a bloody cattle prod to get them revved-up.

Well said John Well where are all the Tom Carter haters now. The fact is he does more player appearances than any other Waratah player and plays his heart out. I agree he might not be the most talented player at the the Tahs but as all the so called Tahs " fans" keep saying- the Tahs constantly underperform. The reason he keeps getting picked is because he always gives his best, the players love playing with him and he does a lot of the unfashionable work that the show ponies can't or won't do.He certainly won't be on the roar in ten years time venting his spleen because he failed to live up to his potential. How many rugby players do you know that "could have played rep footy"

"Those teams were the provincial champions or close to so should have had either the most all blacks/Springboks and the best group of players." Not necessarily. In the old Super 10 there were very good players from NZ and SA who were not playing in the S10. I remember Wellington had some good individual AB's who did not feature in the comp during those years as just one example off the top of my head. Same with SA, since they were limited to only 3 teams. NZ's 1st division was 9 teams and only 4 could go into the S10. That meant the good players from 5 of the teams missed out. SA only had 3 teams in the comp and there were numerous players, esp from Northern Transvaal who missed out in 94 and 95 because they didn't qualify. Oz only had NSW and Qld in those days and all the wallabies were distributed between those 2 teams. "Not all Wallabies, All Blacks and Springboks play in the finals every year so wining it means nothing unless you get every test player into the 4 (now 6) teams who play finals footy." This was not my logic or assertion and therefore your argument is a straw man. I say again - now that the top players are concentrated in the SR franchises from SA and NZ, the success of the Brumbies programme was a considerably greater achievement than Qld succeeding against the old provinces from NZ and SA who did not necessarily have all the top talent in each country playing for them.

Don't you love how the Brumby diehards are saying AAC was never that good anyway? He had a brilliant int'l season last year - short memories boys. I agree he hasn't hit his straps yet this season, but who could the way the rest of the team is going? You don't suddenly become a poor player overnight. You're a local boy anyway Adam (well, Central Coast - close enough) so welcome back.

The Mumm issue is baffling. There has to be some sort of politics at play here.

Steady on there GrecoGuy, I'm an inner city dweller and I hate the Tahs too, can't leave us out.

Absolutely. The Brumbies have probably been the countries biggest underperformers the past few years and it some how gets very little attention.

Carter will still be the starting 12 in 2012. he makes more tackles, clean outs and is very much the heart of the Warathas. you all seem to bag him but remember he has played over 50 games and has contributed to a lot of the success the Tars have had. May never be a Wallaby, has played in winning club grand finals, super 14 final and semi and Brett, has done a lot more for rugby in player presentations than you have ever done and most of the Roar writers who by the sound of their coments are very angry people who have never had any rugby talent. Spiro and david lord included

It wasn’t entirely directed at you Peter ;) Cooper & JOC is the 10-12 combo for Australia, no questions asked. Both are shooting at around 80-90% so it’s not really an issue.

Perhaps he might be, yes.

Agree DS where are the developing forwards all I read about are the poofta backs

Particularly funny given the topic of the article...

Also I keep saying it is TOTALLY IRRELEVENT and WRONG to count all Wallabies as equal. There are many who have had a couple of caps and then only on for the last 10 mins. There are others that will never play for the Wallabies again well past their best. Then there are Wallabies who only got a start due to lots of injuires and then failed when they has their chance ie Daly, Maafu, both Faingaas. The measure should be number of CURRENT wallabies if every player was available or the best Australian player in their positiopn, how many of those you have. If you look at it this way the Tahs do not have that many starting Wallabies.