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Wallabies: Reckless and ill-disciplined

Roar Rookie
11th December, 2016
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It's not the Wallabies people mind, it's the inconsistency. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
Roar Rookie
11th December, 2016
30
1786 Reads

I was moved to write this piece after reading Paul Cully’s article in the Sun Herald on Michael Cheika.

One of the characteristics of the Wallabies all this season has been their poor discipline – more yellow cards than any other top team – and their often reckless approach and style.

Of course one can say we always got the wrong outcomes from every referee and that we were unfairly targeted for scrum penalties, but the fact remains that penalties have had a major impact on the outcome of matches.

The senseless spear tackle by Dean Mumm in the Ireland game is a glaring example of poor discipline and senseless and mindless behaviour. He was right in front of the referee and exposed to every camera in the stadium and he is a serial offender.

On the reckless front think of the play in the England match when poor old Nick Phipps threw a bad pass to Kepu who, instead of doing what every schoolboy rugby player is told – namely kill the ball on the deck – bats it on , with his back to the on coming English – to no-one in particular. The result, a try against the run of play.

These traits in our team now seem endemic and potentially fatal.

I suggest that they reflect the reckless and I’ll disciplined style and personal behaviour of the coach.

His suicidal approach to referees, his childish outbursts (think Auckland melt down) and manic coaching style cannot but be infused into the culture and behaviour of the team.

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‘The world is against us, we are hard done by, we are always on the wrong side of the refs, but you know what? They can all get stuffed.’

When you think back to great Australian coaches in contact sports, Rod McQueen and (perhaps not lately) Wayne Bennett, you think of calm, measured, thoughtful, smart individuals. Ranting and playing the victim simply does not cut it.

Which leads to my last point. The current Wallaby team chronically lacks on the paddock leadership and rugby smarts. Think of Michael Lynagh devising a winning play in the 1991 Rugby World Cup quarter final versus Ireland.

With a few minutes to go, Australia must score. He calmly comes up with a clever (but simple) play which is superbly executed. Sadly Stephen Moore could no more come up with such an approach than Will Skelton.

Again I suggest that the Cheika style discourages individual thinking and does not result in players exercising on field capability to execute a plan B or C.

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