Issues for the Wallabies going forward

I know what’s wrong with the wallabies, it’s the beer they are forced to drink after the match, what has happened to Australia, they have gone soft, man they need to drink a mans beer, Vic bitter or xxxx would be better than what they are forced to drink as part of their sponsorship deal?????

Jimbo, that post makes no sense. Why would you start T.Tupou and leave out S.Kepu, one of the world's best TH props? And if B.Foley and K.Beale are finishers, who is your 5/8, T.Naiyaravoro or R.Hodge? LoL But agree about D.Pocock, should be 1st pick at openside with M.Hooper coming on about the 55 minute mark. The big problem is DP plays tight but M.Cheika wants a fast flanker to defend and cause trouble out wide, so who do you pick at blindside and #8? At least one of them must be good in lineouts which is likely why Ned Hanigan will get picked again (good tackler, goes all day and relatively fast but has the power of a lemon meringue). The other bloke (#8) must be big, a powerful tough runner of the ball with hurtful defence and ideally good over rucks. C.Timu ticks most of the boxes although M.Wells from the Tahs could sneak in, a bit light but tough and fast and good in the breakdowns. M.Cheika sees the solution differently. DP and M.Hooper attack the rucks, Hooper plays wide while DP and Ned patrol the edge of the middle battles, Ned steadies the lineouts, all three are good tacklers and go the whole 80 minutes. I would prefer a larger tougher unit in there but Cheika loves his blokes going the whole 80 minutes.

Unfortunately he will be locked in at 10 by his close friend Michael Chieka and we will lose 3 nil . In 2017 Foley tried very hard to lose the 3rd Bledisloe at Suncorp. P.S He lost us the second Bledisloe game with his missing of easy kicks.

Foley's last game Vs Reds: Dropped a pass with an open tryline beckoning. Gave away the penalty on halftime for not rolling away. Threw an intercepted flick pass. Passed the ball to no one and it went out. Wallaby contention? After 2016/17??? Anyone else - try Beale there. Foley should not be in the squad.

Yez are all missing the point ... Rugby union is a TEAM game not a game suitable for sundry high performers to strut their stuff. I blame the coaching 100% for not coaching defense as much as they spend on attack. Rugby is a game where if your side has the ball ...YOU ARE ATTACKING but if the other side has the ball ...YOU ARE DEFENDING. Two totally different mind sets. Therefore players and teams should spend as much time training for defense as they do for attack. The very basics of Australian Rugby Union have been missing for the best part of 15 years these are 1) Deny Time, deny Space. ... stop this hanging back in defense Rugby League style and then running BACKWARDS in defense. Deny time deny space, means get up in their face and stop the ball runner, by at most, the second runner ... approx. 2 to 3 secs.and have cover defender. One man one tackle. 2) Pass the ball to a running player, not to someone standing still !! 3) When you kick ahead, you must have a hang time of 4 to 5 seconds with at least three chasers and not kick the ball any further than 30 M ahead unless you are kicking for touch, if you are ... make sure of your touch. 4) Play the game in your opponents half preferably near or on their 22. If you make a mistake they have to run 80 M's if they make a mistake you only have to run 20M's . 5) Stop the Rugby League style 3 man tackle ie above the chest.... this gives the attackers two spare men somewhere. One man to tackle around the legs, that's all it takes to halt the ball. I have seen Australia running backwards for up to 30M in the tackle because the players are using upper body tackles which gives them no leverage. 6) When defending in the backs or loose play the tackler MUST come up on the inside of the attacker and try to force him to pass further out where your cover defense will take care of any break through.. I could go on and on but quite honestly I despaire at Australian Rugby and at Rugby in general which by and large is not worth anyon's time to watch any more.

At least Cheika will have some more options with the new Western Force squad members being available. Wallabies lure for Western Force signings Nick Taylor - The West Australian - Wednesday, 18 April 2018 Australians signed to the new Western Force will be eligible for Wallabies selection after governing body World Rugby approved the World Series Rugby competition. Several players have moved back from overseas to join the club or stayed after its axing from Super Rugby last year. Former Force captain Matt Hodgson, now head of elite performance, said it was a big win for the club. “The fact our Australian players are eligible to wear the colours of their country is a major victory,” he said. “We lobbied hard to ensure that any Force player that earns the right to play for Australia is not discriminated against and believe me, we have a handful of potential Wallabies in our team.” Scrum-half Ryan Louwrens, tipped as a Wallabies bolter last year before disaster struck, could come back onto the international radar. Just five games into Super Rugby he ruptured his left anterior cruciate ligament and his season was over. But he is back pushing long-time Force rival Ian Prior and youngster Elliott Turner for the No.9 jumper. Louwrens, a past Churchlands High School student, went through the Force academy and played for Force A side before picking up his first professional contract. When the Force was axed he had two years left on his Rugby Australia contract but was considering a future overseas. “Last year was pretty disappointing. All the dreams of going further than the Force seemed gone,” he said. “When the Force was cut I was in two minds about going overseas. I needed to decide what route was going to be best for me. In the end coming back to the Force was the best option.” *The Force have added flanker Henry Stowers and centre Henry Taefu to their squad. Stowers captained Samoa at this year’s Pacific Challenge and at the 2014 Junior World Cup. He played for the All-Blacks under-20 side and Wellington and Bay of Plenty in the NZ Provincial Cup. Former former Queensland Reds centre Taefu also played for the Australian Under-20 side and Samoa and is currently with French club Colomiers. *Force play their first game at nib Stadium against Fiji on Friday May 4 followed by Tonga, Samoa and Hong Kong, Super Rugby clubs Rebels and Crusaders and a Japanese team. https://thewest.com.au/sport/western-force/wallabies-lure-for-western-force-signings-ng-b88810031z

I believe that once he made the decision to go he wanted to play in a winning team. But I don't believe he would have left if he was still starting for the Wallabies like his form deserved (by the time he was being picked behind Dean Mumm he must have known the writing was on the wall). He also said that the reason he chose Leinster was to play in a winning team - not the reason he left Aus. Key difference there. He was pulled off the moment Coleman got a YC in Bled 2 (about the 50min mark) and barely featured for the rest of the year. Why stick around if you're his age and won't get any more shots for then Wallabies? Again, of corse Aus could match his salary. It isn't like they were competing with Toulon.

You believe him when he said it's not about the money, but you don't believe when he says it was because he wanted to play with a winning team. You then overlay your suspicion it was a falling out with Chieka. That doesn't follow for me. I think it more likely that at his age, like dozens of others, he knew this was the last big contract and so he cashed in. Australia couldn't match what he was offered. I don't judge players at all in making that decision, but I don't think they deserve to be portrayed as victims of bias or the system either.

Neither is Hooper

I don't think that it was about the money though... So what you say doesn't follow at all.

That's nuts.

SA lose valuable players sometimes. Why does that happen? Why don't they just offer them all more money when the players ask?

Hoy, I think the main criticism of Pocock is his continued selection at 8, and that is not his fault. My view is that he should only ever be picked at openside, with Hooper coming off the bench. It is Cheika's poor selctions that create the imbalance in the backrow and cause much of the unjust commentary about DP.

MacIntyre solved the problem by heading overseas. We have a number of players that couldn't develop here, went o/s for the experience, and some of them came back.

Foley isn't the best australia has got FFS. The best Australia has got is playing QLD premier grade.

That is as simple as it can be. Put another way, Pocock has won games for us on his own. Hooper has not.

Agree with all this, and it underpins (imo) what is wrong at the core of Aussie rugby People would rather their guy make the team than the best player. Pocock would be an automatic starter in nearly any international side - Hooper would not.

Thanks to Thorns Horrendous coaching, the QLD REDS don't deserve one player in the Wallabies.

why the Brumbies are continuing with the Kiwi boy at Flyhalf is a mystery to me as he is very average , ( average pass , game management , line breaks , field kicking though not a bad defender and goal kicker ) surely there is a home grown average kid that could be bought in with an eye to future development and potentially beefing up our stocks for test selection ?

Naiyaravoro is off to the UK....he's gone mate