Coach Robbie Deans has two options for however long it takes to get Ioane back on the paddock, if at all.
The first option is a straight swap with James O’Connor, benchman against Italy, taking over from Ioane.
The second option is selecting both O’Connor and Drew Mitchell on the wings, moving “Mr Utility” Adam Ashley-Cooper to outside-centre, and benching the desperately unlucky Anthony Faingaa.
Outside centre will be the hot spot on Saturday night with Ireland’s skipper Brian O’Driscoll on duty, rightfully rated one of the all-time great No 13s.
Ashley-Cooper, and Faingaa, are both outstanding defenders, so whichever way Deans decides to go O’Driscoll will have his hands full, especially if he cuts back inside, and there waiting for him will be another rock-solid defender in Pat McCabe.
But the Ioane loss brings the Wallabies back to the field, with the Boks and England struggling, both dodging opening round bullets – and with the All Blacks and France not convincing winners.
One of those five countries will hold aloft “Bill”, but there are injury worries with the Boks, England, and the All Blacks.
Boks coach Peter de Villiers still doesn’t know if he’ll be without champion locks Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha, nor centre Jean de Villiers.
Martin Johnson will be checking on his skipper Lewis Moody, and half-back Richard Wrigglesworth, but he’ll lose nothing with Ben Youngs turning in a blinder from the bench.
Meanwhile, Graham Henry’s still unsure about his tireless back-rower Kieran Read.
While the coaches play chess with their squads, referees and the ball are high among the discussion groups around the RWC table.
Referees have so far dished out 175 penalties in the eight games decided, the bulk in ruck and mauls, often with multiple offenders.
The answer is simple – yellow card the first offender, red card the rest.
The do-gooders will say sending off players ruins the game, but so does a constant stream of penalties – averaging 22 a game, and likely to get worse.
Referees must be in control, and the players will get the message very quickly once one is heading for an early shower. That message will filter through the tournament like a bushfire, and a game of rugby will break out.
It’s still to be determined if the ball is another problem area.
It’s a Gilbert Virtuo ball, exclusively designed for the RWC. The IRB is happy with it, and no doubt the multi-millions of dollars Gilbert paid for the privilege.
But the players are the best judge, and to this point there is a question mark.
So far there have been 102 shots at goal, with just 57 successful – a strike rate of only 56%.
When sharp-shooters in the career 70-75% range like England’s Jonny Wilkinson converts two of eight, Argentina’s Martin Rodriguez two from seven, and to a lesser extent All Black Dan Carter four from six, and Welshman James Hook four from six as well, the ball must be questioned.
On the other side of the coin, Fijian Seremaia Bai landed eight from nine, Wallaby James O’Connor five from seven, and Morne Steyn three from three.
Go figure.
So from here on in, let’s keep an eye on how the penalties are running, and why – and if the Gilbert ball is all it’s cracked up to be.
ThelmaWrites
Guest
Maybe after the World Cup, JB! :-)
johnny-boy
Guest
The beauty of the Roar Thelma is the stuff you learn, from thumb guards to differing opinions, the humour and the personal interest etc etc :) What about Deans unconventional coaching ?
ThelmaWrites
Guest
@ Johnny Boy “I’m still mystified what brought Deans to his epiphany, to finally getting it right. Has he been foxing for the last 4 years? Is anyone so brilliantly canny as to be throwing dummies for that long only to finally make a break down the middle, a la Samo? The risk reward was so high only a fool or a self-assured genius would even think of attempting it.” Your words, JB. Some of us are driven. Some of us are compulsive overachievers. Perhaps John O’Neill had placed Robbie on a goals program when the latter signed on. It’s fairly standard in the corporate world. He might have structured a series of goals all leading to winning the World Cup. More probably, Deans set his own goals. When you’ve had multiple Super 15 championships, it would hardly be surprising that you aimed ad astra per aspera. Although Ozland is just across the ditch from his native land, I wonder if Robbie knew the magnitude of the task ahead. At the 2008 Shute Shield Grand Final, my daughter told me that Robbie was at the food kiosk. The first thought that came to my mind was: “He must be wondering what he had gotten himself into.” The rugby on display was terrible, the crowds measly. Let me take this to a personal level. On June 30, 197? I was teaching Botany and Soil Science. The following day, July 1, I was a trainee banker. I knew nothing of Finance beyond the Accounting course I took in the middle of a heavy teaching and research load. The bank I worked for did not believe in taking your hand and showing you how things work. They gave you the ball and you run with it. When I moved over to Operations, in the first week I left the vault open, I ruined the alarm, and I didn’t know the difference between a bearer check and an order check. I spent the first three months of my business career crying in the bathroom. The boss was a hatchet man, and the officers were nasty pieces. So I steeled myself and grew fangs quickly. You would hardly expect Robbie to quit, would you? The coach of the most successful team in Super 15 rugby history? Rejected by his countrymen? I’m still drawing from those two years with that awful bank. Our family business, after my 30 years of waiting, has finally hired an internal auditor. She’s raw, has never done an audit, has never counted money. In the last two months, based on those two years with that awful bank, I and she have been drawing up an audit program tailored for the family business. At the end of 6 years with us, Robbie would have exponentially magnified his coaching nous, over and above the Three Wise Men of NZ rugby. He will be blessing himself, not only for the money he’s earned, but also for the wealth of experience he has derived from us. If the English and South African rugby honchos were enlightened and not thick, they would be beating a path to Robbie’s doorsteps. Maybe not the Saffas; they’re set in their ways. But England coached by Robbie would be formidable. Yeah, I feel for Robbie. And don’t get me started on his unconventional coaching.
Scot Free
Guest
Stay calm. Don't worry. I've just started work on a bionic thumb.
Jimbo
Guest
You're completely right Mike and to be fair, it didn't affect Tiger either... it was only the repercussions not the existence of said women that brought him down. I don't think point 3 could be applied to SKW either... will be interesting to see how his botox affects his googly in the Big Bash.
grandpabhaile
Guest
It's 64 successful kicks from 104 = 61.5% successful. Take out the extreme wind conditions from the Irish game featuring the off-form Sexton and more successful O'Gara, along with the closed roof Taranaki, and the percentage of success moves to 70%.
Deez
Guest
I agree on the yellow cards - it is a balanced way to discourage repeated or cynical penalties while not permanently disadvantaging the team (like a red card does). It would be interesting to see the stats on the number of penalties (per minute) occur after a yellow card versus before - would guess that yellow cards tend to reduce penalties overall (or at least for the team it was awarded against).
Mike
Guest
Fourth Mike: I'll do the introductions: Capital, Mike. Capital, Mike. Capital, Mike. First Mike: Is your name not Mike? Capital: No, it's Capital. Second Mike: That's going to cause a little confusion. Third Mike: Mind if we call you "Mike" to keep it clear? *****Album Version Continued****** (And now all four Mikes launch into the Philosopher's song) "Immanuel Kant was a real piss-ant who was very rarely stable. Heideggar, Heideggar was a boozy beggar who could think you under the table. David Hume ....
bokka
Guest
Agreed. Share the mic Mike.
Johnno
Guest
Digbyis good but he is a winger he is not our most valuable player. In my opinion the most valuable players are a few forwards and will genia. Players australia can't afford to lose to have a hope of winning Horwill(irrepacable) Vickerman(irrplacable (nathan shapre and simmons timani or hugh pyle do not offer as much much as vicks) Steve Moore TPN (I would hate if our starting hooker options were Saia faianga and james hanson) Will genia Kepu( virtually irreplaceable but ben dally would do oak better than mafu and dan palmer is out SAMO AND Quade cooper(both can be replaced by Palu and bERRICK BARNES OR MATT GITAU OR even JOC and Kurtly beale) All teams have injury issues and some worse than others Argentina, Wales , south africa, japan , have been destroyed by injuries Japan which has less depth than aussies missing now 2 key forwards great shame for them. South africa if the forwad pack was full strength they would be my no 1 but they are not and wales look great at full strength there pack missing some big names eg matt rees captain, and 1 o there lions props irleand have lost dave wallace SO aussies injury toll is pretty good and so is nz currently compared to some of the other contenders. I hope Samoa stay fit they and Fiji are both dangerous bolters. So injuries will play a part im sure in a bruising 6 week format like RWC
Capital
Guest
Which Mike was that ?
Capital
Guest
MIke Leave Mike out of this - this is about Mike's comments, not Mike as a person. And Mike - MIke is entitled to an opinion as you are !!!
Mike
Guest
That's okay johnny-boy. I expect there's quite a few things hard to grasp, but we'll help you with the hard bits. Lets start at the beginning: That white oval thing over there is called the ball, and those tall white things over there with a cross-bar are called... ;)
ThelmaWrites
Guest
Hi JB! I read your post in Attention Wallabies, Can We Get Excited Now? I cut and pasted it in my Roar Word file. I was deeply moved by it. I am sometimes hesitant because my answer involves events in my own life, and people might think it immodest. I will answer your post. I need to compose it first. Cheers!
Mike
Guest
Hi Carn, In fairness, I don't think most of us are kissing Wallaby cup prospects good-bye just yet! But every team has some players that are more key to lose than others, and Digby is one of ours. I think we can survive the pool matches well enough without him but we will really want him in the knockout rounds. But yeah, no point in worrying about it for now.
Capital
Guest
We'll set the alarm - he'll be right
niwdEyaJ
Guest
I'm with you there Cattledog... Barnes wasn't outstanding against Canada - fell off quite a few tackles from memory so I think there remains a confidence issue in his head. He certainly doesn't smash the opposition the way McCabe and Faingaa do and that (defence) is far more important than anything he brings to the table in attack... there are enough attacking players in the Wallabies backline for that.. I think Deans should keep McCabe and Faingaa in the centres, AAC on the wing and JOC in for Ioane for the Ireland game. It's not a game to take lightly and experiment with combinations. Elsom has been good since being relieved of the captaincy and I think he's still the best man to start at 6 however I'd like to see Higginbotham get involved earlier (around 50mins mark).
Tonto
Guest
He wont be back till his hand is good enough to do his try scoring dance ;p
Carn Rebels
Guest
Ahh finally a busy rugger forum. :) Hi ladies & gents. My two cents about Ioane - move on. The team that wins the RWC will have endured players lost to the tournament, positional changing injuries & also fickle changes in form along the way. 6 weeks is aloooong time. Just as we've already seen that 22 players win RWC games truely 30 are going to be needed to see out this tournament for all teams.
johnny-boy
Guest
It's hard for me to grasp Thelma that 4 years of experimentation and developing along with sub standard performance is worth it just to win a world cup.