Time for Michael Cheika to crack the whip

Slipper any where near the squad, VC? ARE YOU SERIOUS?????? He's an embarrassment.

It doesn't matter where you kick if the chase is poor, all you are doing is giving the ball away. This again comes down to coaching. These moves, signals, who calls the shots, kick direction and role of each chaser should be drummed into the players all week. Hard to state why it was so disorganised but Saturday's game was like watching comedy capers. Player A thinks "hell, bad situation I better kick high, chase and hope I get there", players B and C think "gosh, he kicked the ball and is running towards the bloke about to catch it, we better chase also". Good execution of kick and chase is vital, every international side has it down to a T, drilled and coached incessantly till they do it automatically. It puts terrible pressure on a defence. Add the occasional well drilled kick and chase to the good running game that the WB have and you would have our backs creating mayhem.

Are you seriously saying that we should drop our best forward, M.Hooper? Now I have heard it all! I just have problems with picking two no. 7's in the WB team, be one plays at #6 or #8 it leads to an unbalanced side. No matter who they are they mess up the grunt up the middle, the weight of the scrums and more importantly the lineout. S.McMahon, Liam Gill and M.Hooper all have the same weight, and not that much different in height, 186cm, 184cm and 182cm respectively. So no physical attribute screams one over the other. For my money they are all #7's and that's it, bad luck for 2 of them. For my money Leroy Houston should be at #8, but he obviously, for one reason or another has not impressed M.Cheika. I get that Cheiks wants to run the English forwards off their feet, but so far all we have seen is monster opposition forwards trucking it up the middle and smashing our rucks aside (when they bother to contest). Perhaps David Lord is right and MC needs to crack the whip, or perhaps a bit more thought in alternative plans wouldn't go astray.

Spot on there, Ardie is the man. Sam Cane is a bleeding good player but Ardie Savea will be better. Surely one of those blokes has an Aussie grandmother that we can dredge up. LoL

I seriously think some people who blog here need to take their nationalist eyepatch off and look with TWO eyes. For weeks now, I have read from folks, many who come from a certain little chilly island, all stating that Izzy Folou is crap at centre or would be eaten alive at OC in an international match. I was at the Tahs vs Chiefs game in May, Izzy was OC and playing against a reasonable player, one Seta Tamanivalu who is good enough to be playing centre for New Zealand AB. Mate, I.Folau ran rings around Seta T, ran something like 200 m in the game and barely gave his opposition a sniff. And yet I read this rubbish on the Roar that he can't play centre. Wtf, shoot me now!

JJ, I'm talking about his public behaviour regarding the silly "Strength to Care" campaign, what he said on Australian Story etc. I am not commenting on anything that people who have followed him have not seen. As for any disruption he might cause as player, that is entirely different from making him Captain. The Captain has a key role in establishing the culture of the team and if he gets up the player's noses, communication and ultimately performance will suffer.

But yet if fit Boz he would be one of the first picked..so cant be disrupting the team too much regardless of his putting principles before the game of rugby. Interesting so you have seen his behaviour - i take that to mean you have personally witnessed that behaviour ? (or speeches he has made, articles he has written and signed off on, that you can produce if required) Conclusions based on others reports of what he has said or written (i.e. hearsay) is an assumption. He maybe grandstanding a bit as part of a personal agenda and i wouldn't be surprised to see him running for parliament one day - it was reported he moved from the Force to Canberra to be closer to the action so to speak.

I am not assuming things, I am commenting on a public figure based on what I see of his behaviour. And I have no problem with someone putting their principles first, I just have problem with them grandstanding and shoving them down other people's throats. There are better ways to make a difference .

I guess disagreeing on his motivation matters less than agreeing that he is not suitable.

I disagree with the vanity comments. I agree he puts his views above the team. It's noble, but not good for the team as a whole.

I must have missed all those prime mode of operation incidents of finger waving... I recall the homophobia thing and the chaingang stuff - what other incidents are you referring to Boz? Homophobia is still rife in the community and i know that because i am still a tad homophobic myself...then when i am called on it (usually by my daughters) and actually forced to consider and discuss it sensibly i retreat from that position..my outward homophobia is a shallow position i adopt because i cannot stomach blokes kissing in public and blokes adopting children for example - but they are human beings and it is not a new phenomena and as long as they dont hurt other people i guess good luck to them. I also find it curious you disagree and denigrate a person putting his principles before a game - to others that may indicate he has the courage of his convictions.. an admirable quality. And it is a dangerous practice to assume things and verbaliize them - especially about what another persons does in an environment you are not a part of. Shall we return to rugby ?

I used to respect Pocock for having a social conscience, especially with respect to his charity work in Zimbabwe, but I think he has just gotten more and more full of himself as time has gone on. There are times to speak up, Stephen Moore did so brilliantly and courageously in support of Di Patston when she was being bullied by the Sydney press and online cowards. However, it should be done so judiciously, with other less divisive methods of influence being the first port of call. In contrast Pocock has made it his prime mode of operation to publicly wave his finger at people who do something with which he does not agree. For example, he is still carrying on about calling out homophobia in a game a couple of years ago, despite the fact that the bloke who committed the transgression paid a fine and apologised to the gay community immediately after the incident. Why should Jacques Potgieter be continually be used as a publicly whipping boy for his mistake despite having made amends, especially when Pocock’s social justice campaign doubles as a commercial campaign to sell Dove? You can also see Pocock’s eyes flash when he is talking about chaining himself to mining equipment in that protest and he loves telling us how, if his illegal activity had stopped him playing with the Wallabies that this is just the way it is. Essentially he is saying that he is bigger than the team, something which I do not think breeds a healthy team environment. All this all tells me that there is a lot of vanity at play with our Dave. I think he likes being the big man and throwing his weight around off the field as much as he does on it, and that is a personality characteristic that I do not like. I certainly wouldn’t like to be playing in a football team where a person like that is the captain and if he pulled that sort of nonsense on me, he would be told to get stuffed. I can only assume that there would be a few of the current Wallabies players who would feel the same way and I would strongly suggest that he might get an unwelcome reaction from a few of them if he carried on the way he does as a captain, he is a valuable player to the team but not more valuable than two or three of his more capable colleagues.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha .............and ha!

Exactly!

Eddie McQuire can attest to that :)

Well the comment I was told from a Wallaby was you need to essentially watch what you say around Pocock, as he will take you to task for a careless remark. Whilst I don't condone careless remarks, I point out that this sort of thing can be detrimental to team harmony. McCaw set the standard, but it wasn't a standard that was to onerous for others to maintain. Essentially don't be a flog.

Agreed but is there any direct evidence of Pocock actually holding others morality or beliefs against them or is it supposition and chinese whispers... To do would seem to contradict his own character. Setting or adhering to a standard by following and exhibiting them yourself is an indicator of strong leadership whereas moore and a couple of others (skelton, kepu, even hooper) seem to have fallen into the trap of following cheiksa schoolyard bully boy mantra i.e. cant think for themselves and thereby making themselves lesser people. Eddie Jones has capitalised on that. In current times McCaw set the standard and was universally lauded as a captain and as a person - Pocock is the closest Australia has to that.

By Falau do you mean Steve Fualau the former Melbourne Rebels hooker? Not sure he's eligible!

It's not just about setting the tone though. It's about 32 other people feeling constantly uneasy about being themselves around 1. It's a tight line to walk because I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting those around you to be better people, but when you are constantly holding it against them and calling them out for not meeting the level you expect it makes life uneasy.

Really... how about the view a player with firm standards on fitness, a world view and morality sets the tone..... obviously not in cheikas team, though where the requisite appears to be the willingness (not necessarily the capacity) to bully...