The Wallabies collapse again

I think they'll take anything now chum - even a 1 point win against Mongolia would give them heart, so bad has it become. And another thing - what are their faces going to look like if the new Jesus Christ Cheika produces results worse than Link or Robbo or whats' the name of the bloke before that ,,,,,,, ah er Eddie someone or other.

Ben Alexander is a poor prop. However, there is nothing in the law book stating that the dominant scrum should be rewarded with a penalty. That is an 'interpretation' by modern referees. The act of forcing a scrum to collapse is illegal. In my mind if you have the stronger scrum, rather than forcing the weaker scrum to collapse, it should be your responsiblity to keep the scrum up and avoid injury. An analogy would be a strong defender being penalised for a dangerous tackle. The solution to all this in my mind is to completely remove penalties from the scrum contest. I am 100% certain that the ball would start to come back through the channel very quickly indeed. In effect we are rewarding teams for intentionally collapsing the scrum. Whether they are dominant or not dominant is irrelevant. As the law book states - a scrum should be a quick restart to play after a minor infringement or knock on. That's how they were played for most of rugby's existence. It's time to make the scrum an attacking weapon again, not a mechanism for teams to milk penalties. As the Manager of the last British and Irish Lions stated, the 'the modern scrum has become a lottery.'

Two props who have massive potential and are definitely the future of Aussie front rowers.

City were good. But were trounced by the Rebs / Rising The problem we face with props is the huge leap from SR to test for the new players: - Ppposing packs are 75kh heavier and have good technique. Your own pack is around 75kg heavier. - Its a bit like putting JJ Tualagi from club to the Reds. He was God awful! - But the NRC as a scaffold was perfect for him, among others We dont have a scaffold for test level piggies: - Either they manage, or the are booed off the team. There has to be a better way. - One option is mid-week games, or pre-tour club games - Just like the Pumas this year. And it worked wonders.

ummmmm i am puzzled why no one sees a close win to a composite side as a worry for the Gold....

Wally - "scrimmaging" belongs to American football. Don't let that wretched spell checker change "scrummaging" to "scrimmaging". Stand up for Rugby!! As for scrums - reffing decisions are a dog's breakfast to me. Given that, and given that even test level players don't seem to be able to work out what to do - or how to do it - or even want to do it....we could save time and always award a short arm penalty when a scrum collapses. With the decisions, after multiple re-sets, seeming always to be so arbitrary, the instant penalty can hardly be any less fair. So make them all do their jobs: the refs and the front rowers. Scrum goes down, ref makes a decison - best guess - and move on. It will all even out in the end.

Very pleased to see that scrimmaging was key during the NRC, and Brisbane City's win can be attributed in a major way to a powerful scrum. The Brisbane City props look to have real potential.

Gets, Lions tests were using the old rule which includes the hit. Once that was gone, BA and BR had to adapt and focus more on 8man push and core strength. Not there.... yet Tom. Kepu has been fantastic under the new rules. And still is

As a former tight head, I can tell you it is one of the easiest positions to pay. It is almost impossible to stuff up.

Agree Harry the 3rd test was bad, very bad but how good was the second in Melbourne? that's Rugby. In the 3rd test i think from memory BA got the first infringement, Slipper the second, Big cliffy the third and then slipper again (there might have been one against the 2nd row also I cant remember) at which point the ref warned the next one was a yellow which was BA.. to be Objective Agree we need to blood the new guys but i just can not see a replacement in the short term. they are talking about switching Sio but that the wrong that they did to BA originally as he was a Loose Head forced to be a tight head. Talking about issues - Australia has a lot. We can only just keep supporting the current crop until the next generation mature enough to change the path forward

Tom if you are at all objective watch BA in the 3rd and deciding test against the British Lions last year and try to argue that he should ever be picked as a starting tighthead for another test. He has been of course, to Australia's detriment. I am truly as mystified as Wally James and others as to why he continues to be selected. IMO his work around the field, though mobile, isn't overly impressive or with necessary impact. Like Al Baxter, gutsy and fully committed player but just not up to being a test tighthead. The fact that BA and Al Baxter are Australia's most capped props is IMO a major reason why the Wallabies have underwhelmed for the last decade. I get that the alternaives aren't proven or outstanding ... on this tour we have Faulkner along who has played the odd super rugby game but never at the highest level. I and other Roarers hype Alo-Emile and Weeks as possible alternatives, but they are either injured or in not overwhelming form. All in all, remains Australia's biggest problem.

Time to blood some NRC props, Alo-Emile and Paraka should be considered.

Benn Robinson is worse. He can't scrummage under the new laws and doesn't have any impact around the pitch.

Thanks for the article. If I recall, they tried other options earlier this year. Chieka mentioned he's going with the flow wrt selection for the tour. WBs for a long time prefer props with better running and loose scrums as opposed to actual scrums. But when push comes to shove (quite literally) they have to choose a better scrummager. As one Oz front rower one said (Palmer to I think). After playing in NH, scrum skills is more critical than running around in the park.

Yes he has a bad reputation and no he has not played well this session but if you watch the game objectively - BA only had one Scrum penalty against him on Saturday night out of how many that were awarded?? If you also want to view all things objectively - how has Sekope Kepu performance been on average over his term in the Green and Gold? These guys are playing a game that is millimeters between greatness or a penalty. I'm not trying to defend BA or have a crack at SK just would like to see fair reporting. It was only two spring tours ago the BA was the 'savior of the Australian scrum' demoralizing England at Twickenham. If anyone writing these stories had ever played tight head in a scrum would know there a many contributing factors to why a scrum collapses and most are not in the control of the tight head. Why do all the coaches keep missing his poor setup? well I can not answer this but they are all paid a lot of money to pick people with skills and he is getting pick so I am guessing the professional selectors know what there are looking for or maybe all the critics should put there hand up and offer deep and correct statistical analysis

There was only a single scrum in the entire first half of the USA-NZ game.In the 33rd minute.We actually had a half an hour of continuous play without the excruciating time-wasting that scrums have become when one team doesn't want to scrummage. When two willing teams scrum-(eg NZ v Eng, inJune) and time-wasting is minimised-the contests are enthralling. The IRB has made some changes to fix this ongoing blight on the game. Stopping the clock must soon be a consideration.Or instructing Refs to reach to their pockets more readily perhaps?

Tu out could have argued in the past that his general play kept him on the bench, but even that has evaded him recently. I can see no good reason not to try someone else

It's a mystery