Assistant coaches must be de-Linked

The scrum has always been Australias weakness, that is till Topo arrived on our shores in 1984, I played with him at the Rats and he made an immense difference, one man lifted the whole attitude of the forwards, he brought us specific training routines both weight oriented and aerobic depending on the position you occupied in the scrum, makes sense dosen't it! It has been 29 years and we have come full circle, the scrum is terrible and Topo is available to help his country fix the problem, why has he not been invited to contribute his depth of knowledge and experience.to remedying this situation. The ARU must be seriously contemplating a change in coaching staff, Andrew Blades must surely be under review, or better still establishing a think tank where Topo can have some input, for our game to survive we need to address this area, it is imperative that systems be put in place now at the junior levels of rugby concentrating on the finer aspects of the game, technique, ball skills, Bob Dwyer has consistently addressed the lack of development in these areas, watch a Super Rugby game and marvel at the pin point accuracy of passing in the NZ teams, how they link up in attack from depth..,.we use to be like that, we need to rediscover these lost skills

Please oh please can we have Kearns deliver the news on Rugby HQ with that line?

WBs and EM are in a tight spot, and has a lot of work to do. The backs need practice games. WBs should gather top 30 pigs and put them all through an intervention programme, invite their coaches too. Backs should also join them on occasion.

A for effort Mike, but i already mentioned elsewhere he was allowed to bring McKay in because that was a role Robbie previously filled. And what he said was that he would evaluate the current coaches over the next few months which is common sense because they are under contract & he can then choose to keep them or let them go. Nothing about him reinstating anyone.

"A small amount of checking & you would have found out that all the assistants are on contract until the end of this year & the ARU could not afford to pay them all out along with Deans. The only concession was allowing him to bring in McKay" This is incorrect. See my posts and linked articles above.

This is not the quote from McKenzie at the time that I was looking for, but near enough: "The entire Wallabies coaching staff will be up for review once McKenzie takes over, with assistant coach Tony McGahan already moving on after agreeing to become head coach of the Melbourne Rebels for 2014." See http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/rugby/ewen-mckenzie-new-wallabies-coach-as-aru-cuts-ties-with-robbie-deans/story-fnh5q2eu-1226675671289 I don't blame McKenzie for choosing to keep two assistant coaches who hadn't done badly under Deans, and now Blades may as well see out his contract, i.e. the current tour. But some of the stuff being bandied about on this thread is just rubbish. McKenzie reviewed his assistants before he formally took over, and he made the decision to keep two of them. There was no secret about this at the time.

Ahh, I didn't say it, Muggleton did. No doubt you "get it" more that anyone else including previous professional footballers with a track record. I also suggested it when Deans was coach to support him but don't let that's get in the way of your "anyone who speaks negatively about Deans is a bloody idiot" rant.

What "public disenchantment"? Only with those so ignorant as to think that our rightful place was higher than No 2 or 3. "they faced the Wallaby brand becoming less & less relevant." If they were so thick as to believe that, then they shouldn't be put in charge of a school fete, let alone a national sporting code. "He may well get to choose his new assistants, but that doesn’t make your claim that he was given an option when he took over & chose to reinstate the incumbents and you said he did." Link himself said this at the time. Whereas you don't proffer any support for your comments at all. Whatever...

Dally M, you need to get the context right, and your basic knowledge, before "popping off". There were a lot of articles about this in the press four months ago, including reports of Link saying that he chose to keep the current assistants as well as current players while he reviewed his options. Nothing about making a decision when their contracts ran out (which would have been trite anyway). "Ewen may well get to to choose his assistants when the current crop are finished, but i’m sure the ARU get the final say much as they did with Robbie." I expect you are "sure", as you seem to be about everything, despite having no basis for being sure. Another article from last July: "Unlike Deans, who ultimately had his assistants selected by the ARU, McKenzie had the power to co-opt McKay and was understandably delighted to continue their association. ..." See http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/international/9004783/McKenzie-won-t-shackle-Wallabies-attack. Common sense may be right or wrong about this, but he at least has a number of press reports at the time on which to base his opinions. You have nothing. When you describe comments by others as "total bullshit", you are only describing your own.

True. This is why the ARU should be following this up. Not with public comments that distract our own players and make us look churlish, but a detailed and reasoned confidential brief indicating what the deficiencies were, and why they can't just be put down to the "everyone makes mistakes at some time" factor.

Exactly.

I said unless you walk around at that weight naturally. Look at the body shapes, they are very different to our guys. Maybe Tony Woodcock...but most have very different shapes than our guys. The fact they are actually lighter shows more muscle mass.

That's right mate; the Aussies actually had the stronger scrum - in fact it was completely dominant. The only problem is the bias of referees like it has been for the past decade. There; hopefully that message will get around and the rest of the world can have another ten years of laughing at the Aussie pack.

That's right mate - Australia actually had the stronger scrum; in fact it dominated. There's no problem at all. It;s all bias from the referees and has been for a decade. There; hopefully that message will spread round and the rest of the world can have another ten years of laughing at the Aussie pack.

From what I recall re WB previous games w/EM: 1 v AB. Dropped balls, gaping holes. Scrum shocker, 2nd half disaster. 2 v AB. Minor improvements but still very bad. High ball exploited. 2nd half disaster. Lineout better. But outwitted in breakdown. 3 v Boks. Less dropped stupid balls. Rest was same especially atrocious 2nd half. 4 v Pumas. Kickfest in storm conditions. Less dropped ball. Everyone still talking mainly about backs. 5 v Boks. Scrum improved still bad, backs much better. Forwards no improvement. 2nd half not a disaster. High ball still very bad. 6 v Pumas. Scrum good. Backs ok, forwards ok, but not tested. 7 v AB. Scrum spotty. Backs better, except high ball. Forwards tested and failed 8 v Poms. Finally eveyone is concentrating on the forwards. EM badly miscalculated his opponents early and was too aggressive and optimistic about his team's capability. I recall after the first AB games, one of the senior WB players naively said 'but it worked in training'. The Bok game strategy in 'The fortress' seemed even more naive. But they made improvements after. I believe the term used is 'dumbed down'? Coaches thought new scrum laws would be to WB advantage. The 1st game against AB showed a failure in comprehension of the modern forwards game. Though the backline improved significantly except 9, the pack only inched forward. Its been in a bad way for a long time. No specific coaches need to mentioned because they are all guilty. The WB forwards game are so far behind the leaders, Im unsure they can turn around in time for RWC. Unless there's radical changes to finally address this issue.

@ BEN : Except for Charlie Faumuina and Jeff Allen, all other MIB front rowers are below 120kg. (It was said Ben Tameifuna was the biggest prop in NZ.) In fact Dane Coles is listed at 103 kg! He may be the lightest forward in that pack ....