I know I must sound like a broken record but can anyone tell me what Robbie Deans is doing with the Wallabies? What is he trying to achieve? I have no idea, and I don’t think he has either.
After kicking away any decent ball they got on the weekend, somehow Berrick Barnes has been kept in the team and moved to fullback to replace Kurtley Beale, who is one of the few attacking weapons in the backline.
And that has been our biggest problem over the years is that we need to have players who can put the opposition under pressure.
I believe an ex-Wallaby is mentoring Barnes. This player was a great runner with the ball and a great player, but what is the incessant kicking all about? Every time Barnes gets it, he hesitates then kicks.
I know, I know … the modern day players are bigger, stronger, faster, better than the players of my era. Yes, yes, I wouldn’t make it in this era, blah blah blah.
But really, the basic skills of some players are very poor and the vision is not quite there. Why?
What do they do at training?
Not that the Boks were any better. They just looked like a bunch of guys going out on the field having no idea about what to do.
In the first half there were 43 kicks! And half of those were ‘no idea’ kicks.
The game is about the Ball. If you don’t have it, you can’t score. Very simple.
And what’s with all those ridiculous cut out passes? The Boks were attacking the Wallaby line and they cut out three players and still couldn’t score. Please tell your kids not to use cut out passes as it doesn’t work.
They should just put the ball through the hands and run into space. This should be a thing you do everyday at training.
It’s obvious that Deans hasn’t got the players’ confidence. They’re not playing for him. They’re not playing for the love of the game either.
It’s a sad reality.
I don’t understand the Wallabies selections. Apart from the mysteries of the starting line-up, there are no impact players on the bench – apart from Beale, who is down in confidence.
So get players around him to give him the confidence he needs
Who is going to win the Wallabies the game when they’re behind on the scoreline? We need players on the bench who can make a impact, not defend.
Where have we gone wrong over the years? I must be missing something.
I get sick of talking week in, week out about the same thing. Am I expecting too much from the players? Perhaps I should be diplomatic and say everything is going well.
But I can’t. Australian rugby is a real mess right now.
I Tweeted a simple solution last week: three franchises, the ARU control them all, and set up a Rugby Academy where all the players come out of.
The Academy then supplies the three teams with players who are up to the standard. Not like how it is now, where the gap from club rugby to Super Rugby is huge.
Australian rugby has traditionally been at its strongest when you have just three teams.
We cannot sustain five teams. We have to get too many players from overseas to make it work, which makes our rugby base smaller and therefore weaker.
James
Guest
trudat
Crowmania
Guest
Nice Andrew. The difference between NZ and OZ rugby really is that NZ has the Heartland championship which sits under and is a stepping stone to the Super Rugby and is a good development ground for second tier and up and coming players. OZ rugby has no such development vehicle, but badly needs one.
Crowmania
Guest
LOL> Actually the basic idea of the running man carrying the ball is to draw the defence prior to offloading to a teammate running into space. The cutout pass actually hinders this by allowing the defenders to run laterally across the field and they are therefore not "drawn" into the play but free to cover and push the attack into the sidelines - you therefore end up with an attack occuring on the edges being covered by more than one defender. The Wallabies definitely use the cutout pass too frequently and in the wrong situations and i hesitate to say it but it looks like they lack a basic understanding of the dynamics of this great game. I agree with Campo. Sorry GURU. And your comment about not good in overlap situations? LOL. IMO that is one of the ONLY times to use them - to quickly put a man into overlap space before the cover comes over... again mate, just a basic misunderstanding of simple rugby dynamics.
joeb
Guest
Bugger this, i'm going for lunch.
joeb
Guest
Would that be de Racing Club de Narbonne Méditerannée, AD? :) Some interesting names there, a certain Monsiur Harrison, and a previous J. Valentine. No sign of an Elsom - ah, what is going on... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RC_Narbonne Let’s not jump the start, but, erm… http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/union-news/a-rocky-start-under-cheika-20120915-25yzo.html If Cheika does get the nod, and he does seem the man for the troublesome Tahs job, it also augers well for the Wallabies some time after the McKenzie era, which commencement of shouldn’t be too far away now. We may indeed end up with two ‘golden eras’ back to back… :)
Ai Rui Sheng
Guest
Is it true that the Deans' Dingoes have an infinitely better record against the Bokke than Campo's Wallabies? Which team has consistently beaten the All Blacks since the Lord Ted and Chief Constable reigns. Nearly all the AB losses have been when fielding "B" teams. The biggest problem that Deans has is letting his players go to the SXV, where incompetent coaches fail to rest them occasionally; the Reds franchise is the exception. Consequently he has more injuries than he planned for.
Rugby Tragic
Guest
Campo is a has been - he was a player for his times and a revelation but put pressure on his team mates due to his lack of heart in defence. I enjoyed watching him when he was at his peak but his criticism today turns me off him big time. IMO he is right about one thing though - he would not cut the mustard with the wingers of today. The guys today are bigger, faster stronger. I am not suggesting Deans is the be all and end all, in fact many of his decisions have been preplexing. Having stated that, I just wonder what the Wallabies record would have been like with a full complement of injured players being available - I guess we will never know. Deans has got to make the best of what he as at his disposal which also illustrates the unfortunate lack of depth.
Ben.S
Roar Guru
Sailosi, I know you're very passionate about Pacific rugby, but how is Mafi in the top 3 6s in world rugby when he's not even the best 6 at the Tigers? He is a very good player, but he plays behind one of the most dominant packs in Europe and when he came to England he was nowhere near ready for European rugby. The Tigers developed him over time, so at that juncture Australian rugby wasn't exactly losing out.
mick-e
Guest
Just read this post. Where's the nearest cliff?
moose
Guest
from g.cowden's recent monday maul - A long-time Wallabies fan called in to say he and his friends have been involved in a drinking game in which each time an Australian player kicks a grubber, they have a beer. They have no recollection of the second half of any recent Australian Test. hilarious! campo's an idiot. rugby academies breed rugby robots. how can he carp on about returning to oz's traditional running strengths yet espouse such nonsense? the basic skills of international players cannot be coached during a training session - it's way too late. such skills are accrued early in a player's sporting life, and may be honed as required as their career advances
IronAwe
Guest
KP, You don't seriously think we would be winning, whilst playing like this, if we had a full strength team do you? I didn't mean to suggest that injuries aren't a problem, but we have greater problems at the moment, causing greater concern, and that's why no one is mentioning the injuries.
Johnno
Guest
I agree uncle bring back the emus tour.
Short-Blind
Guest
Brett/KPM an adjunct to your point discussion. In the coaching world Performance = Potential (talent) minus any interference ( or barrier). In Timani's case I'm not sure what the barriers were in his way that prevented him performing at the top level ie to his full potential. It could be poor coaching (lots of talk about that amongst AUS S15 franchises), lack of fitness, lack of confidence, lack of game time/continuity, lack of experience, lack of belief or a combination of this and many other things. So, in support of Brett, it's not that the S15 teams didn't recognize Timani's potential ( they did), rather they were unable to remove the barriers that were preventing him reaching this potential so he could maximize performance. RD to his credit (and I'm no longer a fan) has managed to grow Timani's performance in recent tests (well for most of us except FOS). I'm in the camp that poor coaching and development systems are to blame for this - see Sailosi's Mafi example.
kid
Guest
Too many options is a good problem to have but you only have 15 on the field. Is placing some of our best players into teams that have no chance good for their development. I know they are professional and it shouldn't effect how they train etc but really everyone knows if you are going well you're going to put that little extra in at the gym or at training, its too easy to think it doesn't matter when you are running last after half the season. when it comes time for a test match the boys are behind the eightball. Is this downside offset by the experiance gained by the other players... well thats one for the roarers
kingplaymaker
Roar Guru
No that's not the case: the problem is that the Rebels recruited the oldest dirty dozen of Australian players available and hardly bothered recruiting anyone in the forwards. The Rebels model and concept was fine, but the execution was flawed.
Banger
Guest
Rightly or wrongly Melbourne were introduced too soon. Australian super rugby teams had only reestablished themselves again following the introduction of the Force, and there was no time given for the teams to consolidate. Rebels introduced five years too early, regardless of the long term benefits to the game it is going to result in Australia underperforming in Super rugby for the forseeable future. Thats without even looking at the impact that this has had on the stability of the Force and their battle to consolidate themselves as a club.
Banger
Guest
Only criticism I have of your analysis is about Ioane, and in fairness I think he has only scored one this year including super rugby and that may have been in the first round. However, when was the last time he recieved the ball in a try scoring opportunity? I honestly can not remember him recieving the ball at the end of a backline at all this yea. They are so intent on using him to get over the advantage line that it has nullified his game massively. I have a feeling that he and shipperly might have a lot more space this weekend with the addition of mcabe to the backline. He is going to give the line directness, go forward and a viable dummy runner to open up space for the rest of the players.
Banger
Guest
Agree Harry, it took a number of years for Aussie Rugby to recover depth following the introduction of the Force. But as soon as some stability was acheived we go ahead and introduce the rebels, and overstretch the playing pool once again. Whether they were pressured into this by the SANZAR negotiations or not is missing the point, that being, that the expansion was at least 5 years too early in Australia. This has cost Australian rugby, and the franchises in Melbourne, NSW and WA dearly as they clearly struggle to attract the level of talent needed to compete.
cody
Guest
Sounds like a new Pacific Island SR team would solve all your concerns.
cody
Guest
"Simple" lol, if that was the case smarter brains than you would be making it happen now.