The woeful Wallabies and their rubbish rugby

Starts at the top, the aru or ra (?) and the delusional, arrogant, school boy bully coach.. He is being forced to learn humility, it is being shoved down his throat.

Honestly, I've been living in London two years and support two French club... and reckon, seriously, that 1/2 dozen of the top Euro clubs would beat the Wallabies ATM. I'm embarrassed. They are not my national team, only the Easybeats, RIP. I'm sick of watching their Barbars style with no control, pattern or consistency. An average club coach over here would do better that this disgraceful rabble. It's patently unentertainjng and insulting that they think they can play with the open style and skill of our teams from the 90s. Watch the videos of all our former great teams to see this is a case in point to see how far they, not we, have fallen. These faux Wallabies play with a blend of delusion, arrogance and schoolboyishness.

David you are so correct. I see also bob dwyers comments about leadership in rugger. I think they are backed up by the change that has taken place in 'rugby' schools. My old school Barker College, is struggling to field 12 teams. It used to field 5 teams A to E or F in every age grade. It now even hosts aussie rules. I work regularly in Christchurch ans i see and feel the rugby vibe at all the schools league doesnt get a look in. The NZRU has completely grasped the ABs and filtered it into nz psyche. Such a shame to see.

'I think we have to face the fact that the present players for all their underperforming passive-aggressive arrogance are here to stay' Touche!

Hats off to Scotland. I was at the QF and far from thinking Scotland were robbed I thought they were incredibly lucky to get within a mile of us. All of the Scottish points seemed to come from charge downs/intercepts or brain snaps and nothing constructed. Saturday completely changed my mind. The charge down and intercept both came off the back of fantastic defensive intensity and passion that both rattled the wallabies and created the circumstances for the two Genia-TPN/Genia brain snaps. if the forwards are getting murdered, it's up to the 9/10 axis to operate effectively under pressure. I recognise that this is incredibly hard to do but Genia and Foley failed on the weekend. l actually see our reduced penalty count as a sign of softness in the pack rather than improved discipline.The Scots picked up a lot of penalties but working at the intensity of Pocock/Fardy at their best is always a high risk high reward game and our improved discipline indicated that we've abandoned that to an extent. Hooper is a great breakdown specialist but he needs an enforcer working with him to be effective. Finally, great to see a lot NH teams not just relying on the loosies for breakdown passion and i hope this is something we can learn from. Ultimately, I think having Pocock in the team has been papering over the cracks of a 4th to 8th world ranking calibre team. It's kinda felt over the last 5 years that we've been hanging onto that 2/3 ranking by our fingernails. THere's nothing in our playing pool, game plan, or inherent sporting intelligence that gives us a divine right to being in the top 1-3. Until we develop a proper plan for how we want to do it then we deserve to keep dropping down the ranks...

Richard that's a terrible idea which has been knocked thousands of times even by the ARU

Why not, Cheika's not up to it!!!

I think we have to face the fact that the present players for all their underperforming passive-aggressive arrogance are here to stay . Oh yes of course Cheiks ,and selected players will all say the right words ,make the right noises and cry the requisite volume of crocodile tears BUT the gravy train will just rumble on . I think when Cheiks called Mr Quigley and tried to sell the line that " ...no ;you're wrong ...WE really DO CARE !!! " showed that he ;like the team hold the common or garden public in collective paternalistic contempt . Well Cheiks the hens are coming home to roost , the axe is coming a'swinging and where it stops no one knows least of all You :-)

There are also 3 other codes in competition with rugby and most Australians, the vast majority, prefer them. The ARU is putting money into developing rugby at all levels but there is only so much to spend. All schools received an email today in fact about a school rugby introduction program. Rugby is a small time sport in Australia, not big time, despite our excellent record.

Australia look in the wrong places for Wallaby talent; it is generally accepted that you send your son to a private school if you want him "noticed". Many skilled 'naturals' of the game are never even looked at purely because of the schools they attend. Kids who have the ability to read the game at an early age; having a love of training and improving skills; living a balanced life - starts as a youngster and Australia have never put enough money into club rugby at the junior or intermediate level. There are whole tiers of rugby missing in Australia. A necessary part of building a champion.

Completely agree! Moore has had his day!

Agree. Great atmosphere at the game and in the Paddington pubs afterwards. I've never seen so many kilts. Disappointing result yes and plenty to be fixed in the Wallaby camp but the game itself was exciting. I was at Twickenham for the World Cup quarter final when the Wallabies nearly lost with a much stronger team than now and never for one minute thought that Scotland would be easy to beat. Despite all the criticism, a lot of which I agree with ,do we really want Test rugby to be that predictable and think that we should always beat every other country other than the All Blacks?

Setting up your forwards in the middle of the backline as a pod to set the ball up just gets very predictable and easy to defend against (as was seen on Saturday) It also breaks down the lines you can run and the total flow of the backline. Most of the time this 'pod' of forwards got the ball, they didn't break the advantage line, and only succeeded to throw themselves at the feet of the opposition. This was very poorly performed and looks more of a coaching issue with lack of vision. Continue to try and score through the rucks and mauls (as Bob said) is why we can only score minimal tries, and find it very hard to chase a side down if you are a few points behind. When we get behind our way to catch up is by chip kicks, cross field kicks and bombs. A very low percentage success rate. Australia really needs to look at their tactics and improve their personal abilities (especially giving the ball back in the opposition half with stupid irrational kicks.) The coach never seams to have a clear and consistent game plan, and if that fails, game plan B doesn't exist. When questioned at the end of the game, we keep coming up with the same words that bore me and mean nothing in the context of the way the coach uses the words ''physicality'' (didn't you think an international would be physical) 'the contest''(didn't you think it was going to be a contest) 'we need to do things faster'' (hasn't that been our problem for years) ''our kicking let us down (as it has done for 5 years, we can not kick) So when our coach starts muttering these statements, you know the coaching staff is out of ideas and game plans. May be time to start looking for men with new and more rugby style game plans.

I suspect Folau doesn’t know how to get involved unless its a structured play. 100%

I think the All Blacks usually have less possession. I think you're right, because they chance their arm and therefore either score or lose the ball more often. Even if you lose, at least you don't die wondering

Maybe he should go looking for the ball you know, do his job?

so the answer is no, you cannot provide 1 concrete example

Really fiji?? Tier 1 rugby nation vs fiji? C'mon mate..look at what the other tier 1 nation(All Blacks) did to Samoa..Ben Smith vs Samoa, Izzy vs Fiji you tell me who was involved more?

Wow, what a win by the baby ABS..

So Wessells for wallaby coach then ?