I'm not giving up on the Wallabies, but I have no idea where they're going now

It’s easy to blame the coach or the Ref or the weather or the travel. At the end of the day it’s the players on the field who must perform. If you don’t have the talent and don’t have a path from kindergarten to international then you cannot expect to compete let alone win. Australian Rugby is failing to look inwards for answers.

I think Rennie's been dealt some unfortunate incidents as a coach, but so have a lot other international coaches, the pandemic would have thrown more than a few spanners at every coach in one way or another. The injuries curse is also well documented, but how much of that is due to Rennies' well-known rigorous training schedule, my guess is we'll never know the full truth to how much that contributed to the numerous soft-tissue injuries this year, even though that was being looked at 'apparently'. Lastly rotation, IMO Rennie does need to own some of this, and again injuries have affected his selection at times, but... 1.) by all means rotate your HBs, but at least start with the same HB and rotate the subs. For me White needs to start every test. 2.) 10, well we all know the issues here and there are numerous. 3.) Whoever decided to allow Kerevi to play at the Commonwealth games should leave the room right now 4.) 13. goes back to 9, 10, & 12. Personally I'd like to see consistency from 9, 10, 12 & 13. Think of the 'golden years', those 4 positions were pretty consistent, with later Herbert and Burke coming into the centres. 5.) A hooker that can't throw straight into a lineout, instantly dropped. 6.) Kellaway is an instant inclusion (as would be Koroibete when available). Wright has been given ample chances to impress but only shines rarely > bench. Nawaqanitawase, take a chance and play him for the remaining tests leading up to the RWC. 7.) Fullback, I'm a bit stuck here, as it seems Rennie still is. Discipline and having an effective cleanout, probably sits anyhwere between 1-7 or maybe even above. If you can't secure your own ball, or give away 'soft' penalties then you may as well not show up. History shows that RWC games are heavily decided by a side giving away a penalty, especially during the knockout stages, so the Wobblies need to clean-up their act, and quickly.

HiKa, yeah, that's what I thought of too :laughing:

:shocked: No!

G’day WL. So thrilled for him. Never been in the position but I understand that it can be a big learning curve as you move into the next level. I just hope he is given enough opportunities to learn from his experiences and force the staff to see the quality that some of us see. Hopefully he can learn quickly which tackling technique is required for different situations, possibly his only set-back as many on here have commented. I do believe he has shown more positives than most, if not all, who have had a shot at 15 over the last couple of years. Thanks for the call. Hope you’re keeping safe and well.

The emotion of a loss often exasperates all the problems. If we had of got that kick at the end, sure, there would be a lot to improve on, but it wouldn’t feel so despairing. Notice we had no trouble scoring tries, even if a bit clunky. We would usually be happy with 4 tries, except that Italy still scored 3 and won the game. Thus, if our defence was better, we’d be thinking we’re not tracking too badly, apart from a minor discussion about our discipline and some skills. But fix the defence, and those other issues are no longer seen as the reason we lost. The main reason our defence was poor and we lost, was a lack of cohesion. Points against is usually the first thing to increase when cohesion levels drop. Sure, there are other issues to address: discipline, game plan, some skills, but most of those other issues are exasperated by a lack of cohesion. Further, other issues such as some discipline, isolation/ruck issues, most poor passing, bad decisions, etc, are a result of low cohesion. And unfortunately, like most coaches, DR hasn’t focused on or properly worked out how to significantly increase cohesion at training and outside of game time together under pressure… yet. Cohesion is the depth of understanding players have of one another and how each other reacts under pressure. High cohesion in a team also accelerates an individual player’s skill development. A team with high levels of cohesion allows new young players to do a lot better when they join the team. But high cohesion needs to be the foundation. Building cohesion is only just now starting to be seen as an important factor by the SR teams in Australia: hence, all the mini tours, talk of 3rd tier etc. The Wallabies use to gain cohesion automatically with only 3 SR teams, but now we need to build it intentionally and in other ways because we have 5 teams. ABs use to have it more so with a greater reliance on the Crusaders and one other SR team. With disruption to the cohesion of their SR teams in last couple of years, and with less reliance on the Crusaders, the ABs cohesion levels have dropped a bit. Anyway, all this to say, unless you address the systemic cohesion building issue in the Australian rugby system, the Wallabies won’t become a consistent top 3 rugby team. But if we did address it, we could be a consistent top 3 team. But we need to be way more intentional about it than we have in the past because we now have 5 SR teams.

Robo’s was stupid – trying to show his ‘physicality’. Yes but Hunter P was taken out in similar circumstances and no penalty 100% on Jake Gordon, and much to the satisfaction of most probably won't see him again this tour L/O's okay but with 2 players competing for the ball similar circumstances will arise so is the suggestion we don't compete. I think the WBs have stopped competing at the breakdown to avoid be penalised so do we want to do the same at line outs one on one as opposed to stealing

Both the ABs and Wallas are focusing on the wrong solution because they don’t understand the real problem.

BNHF, interesting take on the breakdown. I've been watching Prem League games, mainly to keep an eye on the AU players, and wonder if England aren't heading down the same path. Ruck speed is the be all and end all apparently with many uncontested rucks as defenses don't want to commit, conceeding the ruck rather than a penalty, in the pursuit of a fast, open entertaining game with high scoring. I liken the change in the game there to the introduction of the "6 again" rules in the NRL. It's effectively a different game. In both games seemingly momentum is everything. Once teams get momentum it's very hard for the defensive team to get back on taws. Big leads are racked up quickly until there is a circuit breaker, then it might swap around and there are big comebacks. Do these games, SR and Prem "LQB" League adequately prepare players for the hard grinding sometimes trench warfare of International Rugby? It's an interesting topic.

Injured

He had one bad kick against France. Otherwise he can kick it further than anyone.

That’s right. His provincial teams were famous for dirt and “niggle”. That will only get you so far and it has never been the Wallabies’ way - to their credit.

I very much suspect the Wallabies are doing too much weight lifting and not enough short sprinting. A bit muscle bound, they are clearly too slow to the breakdown. A rest from gym work and a focus on speed is required. And as many have commented, pick basically the same team for all tests.

thanks mate, as i said italy perhaps not the best example as the ruck pressure wasnt there like other teams and there was undisputedly lots of dumb plays, just something ive been wondering for a while with us conceding so many holding on pens at the ruck

I think at its most basic is lack of skill sets as where we continually lose the game is around our inability to compete at the breakdown. To me this stems back to lack of core focus on basic rugby skills as part of player development. Again a problem of our grass roots and disconnect with private schools and junior club rugby and coaching and skills development challenges.

I thought last years autumn european tour was the worst tour performance and results wise I could remember. Well done wallabies for now topping that.

Welsh Rugby was built off the back of miners and the common man but the rest of the home nations was the upper class and private schools. Miners have certain bodies because of the work they do and they had to be agile in tight spaces, the other nations had to be more proscribed in training/development to get the same player. When the mines closed Wales had to wait for the URC and Gats to put in the new system to bring back those players. SS and HC worked and are still working, RA just needs to take those u20s that are being produced and replace what got lost in professionalism. Leinster/England/SA/NZ was built on the school system and Munster/Scotland/France/Wales/Italy was on the Club system, RA just need to look outside Sydney to find a solution how other places have adapted or in Munster's case failed to adapt.

It could be he isn't giving people the feedback needed to the players. When he left Glasgow one of the themes from players was he had his favourites who go his time while the rest were in and out and none the wiser what that changed to get them selected or dropped. If WS can't jump but fills the better role in DR plan of the 1 man ruck then he should tell all his backrowers they need to be doing lineout jumping if they want to get selected. Or if Hooper is very good at what he does and he is needed then what he lacks you tell the other backrow players that they need to show they can do those things.

Don't agree on Gordon. I think players who cost teams wins should be made clear to them what they did wrong and what they need to show what to be back in favour. Coaches like JS would make players afraid to make any mistake so they made no errors but were predictable. Oz has a discipline problem that needs to be fixed more so than one player, Swain could have cost Oz the NZ game, but he didn't.

These youngster have been told since they were in the high performance unit in Italy that 5 Nations don't think they are good enough to be in the 6 Nations and that no one in Italy thinks they are good enough but that they are and they can beat everyone if they put in the work and play like Italians. Because of that they always play with the emotion much like Argentina but now also have the skills to play but know they must play their best. When you get told all week that Italy will try but its a chance for you to shine you don't bring the same focus. any I agree seeing the players line up often tells you their mindset, some people get emotional, some emotionalless but you want to see something.