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The Roar

Geoff Parkes

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Joined October 2012

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Geoff is a Melbourne based sports fanatic and writer, who started contributing to The Roar in 2012, originally under the pen name Allanthus. His first book, A World in Conflict; the Global Battle For Rugby Supremacy was released in Dec 2017 to critical acclaim. For details on the book visit www.geoffparkes.com Meanwhile, his twin goals of achieving a single figure golf handicap and owning a fast racehorse remain tantalisingly out of reach.

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No, sorry Jacko.

What I do know is the contestable kicks, because I did that myself.
Boks put up 12, (recovering only 2), and the AB’s didn’t put up any.

Given the amount of kicking that Aaron Smith has done in recent years, that clearly represents a change in tactical emphasis from the AB’s.

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3d

It was pleasing to see Luke Pearce hurry the Springboks along, Phantom.
It felt to me like he was close to losing patience and awarding a free kick.

All it would take is for this to happen a few times and all sides would stop the line out conferences.

The Wrap: Coaches ride the rollercoaster as Rugby Championship gets turned on its head

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3d

I’m not wishing Craig Bellamy any ill will Joe, but I’m really fascinated to know if, when he finally leaves, the Storm will continue in the same vein or not.

The Crusaders have done that, because their system is so entrenched, and you’d think it will be similar for the Storm. On the other hand, Bellamy is such a strong personality and hard worker, it’s hard to gauge how someone new will go.

The Wrap: Coaches ride the rollercoaster as Rugby Championship gets turned on its head

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3d

Yes. He could have released a short statement that said something like ‘matters pertaining to the coaching position will be addressed later this week, after returning to NZ’, and that would have been far better accepted.

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3d

No, not any longer, RF. Held-up over the line triggers a goal-line drop out now, not a 5m scrum.

This is becoming a more refined part of the game – we’ve seen many players in Super Rugby go one-out to try and barge over, been easily held up, and thus release the pressure on the defending team who can clear with a drop kick.

Coaches and players will start to get smarter about their red zone finishing, and defences too, we can see that it’s now a strategy to try and pull players over the line so they can be held up without scoring.

The Wrap: Coaches ride the rollercoaster as Rugby Championship gets turned on its head

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3d

Thanks mz, no I wasn’t whining at all.

Was just making the point that it was a significant moment in the match – the Wallabies would have gone from 0-14 down to have recovered the lead, and who knows what effect that would have had on the outcome?

As for the call itself against Slipper, it just felt a bit harsh, as it wasn’t a dangerous clean-out imo. But, as others have pointed out, there were a couple of passes that followed that could easily have been ruled forward.

And I agree with the comments above, that referee Dickson had a very solid match.

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Would love to see a lot more of that, Pom.

I don’t understand why refs are made to guess. If they genuinely don’t know, this should be an option, and then it should be left up to the TMO.

It’s important because once they do guess and send it up as a try or no try, then the TMO has to find compelling evidence to overturn, which is not the same thing as them making a ruling at face value.

The Wrap: Coaches ride the rollercoaster as Rugby Championship gets turned on its head

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3d

Wallabies bench front-row had 10 minutes Test match experience between them, BS.

No disrespect at all to any of the 23, but you’re right, at some point, indicators like that are going to catch up with any team.

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3d

Agree on Petaia/Wright, mz.
Like Cooper/Slipper last week… you just gotta be ready, and execute your skills.

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3d

Good point, Hugh.

Maybe because it was on the first play of the match, a safer play might have been for Petaia to take a settler, to allow the Wallabies to clear their 22. No argument there, it’s Test football and being down 0-7 immediately is not the way to go.

On the other hand, players should be just as ready in the 1st minute as the 79th minute. Wright was running forward, against the tide, and if he’d held it, looked to have a clear running opportunity up towards halfway.

Maybe it shouldn’t have been thrown, but I didn’t think it was a bad pass at all – at this level, I think it should have been caught.

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3d

“I reckon they could randomly select people out of the crowd and they would undoubtedly do a better job.”

Judging by many of the comments on forums and on radio, I’m not so sure about that! 😂

But yeah, I take your general point. Compared to the NFL for example, we’re very poorly served.

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3d

Good point you make about the BP’s, RT.
This really does feel like a year when these are going to make a difference.

The Wrap: Coaches ride the rollercoaster as Rugby Championship gets turned on its head

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3d

Foster was indeed a gritty opening batsman back in the day, Fin, so it’s a very good analogy.

The Wrap: Coaches ride the rollercoaster as Rugby Championship gets turned on its head

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3d

That music at the cricket in Galle was bizarre, Chook.
It’s like the locals went out of their way to make the visitors feel at home.
Who needs Sweet Caroline when you can have Chisel and The Divinyls?

The Wrap: Coaches ride the rollercoaster as Rugby Championship gets turned on its head

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3d

All very sound, and well put, Jim. Cheers for posting.

The Wrap: Coaches ride the rollercoaster as Rugby Championship gets turned on its head

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3d

Let’s hope you took your learnings from it, Doctor… 😂

The Wrap: Coaches ride the rollercoaster as Rugby Championship gets turned on its head

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3d

I ended up alongside Habana and Conrad Smith in the media room, watching the second half of the Wales v France 1/4 final at the last WC, Beebop.

Habana is an absolute specimen. But, for what it’s worth, I use that description out of envy, not desire… 😂

The Wrap: Coaches ride the rollercoaster as Rugby Championship gets turned on its head

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3d

I’m talking about comments those players made on TV and to the press after the match, OM.

The Wrap: Coaches ride the rollercoaster as Rugby Championship gets turned on its head

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3d

Distance is half of it, B/fan. He also got the accuracy right – most of those kicks just cleared the sideline, thus getting full distance value.

As others have mentioned, Mounga was harshly treated on that strip – both by the referee not demanding the tackler release him, and by Clarke transferring to him under pressure, instead of taking the hit up himself.

The Wrap: Coaches ride the rollercoaster as Rugby Championship gets turned on its head

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3d

That was a strange call, Pilferer. I didn’t mention it because in the context of a 31-point win, it didn’t turn out to be material. But yes, you wouldn’t have wanted the outcome of the match to have come down to that.

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3d

I believe Rex Harrison was married six times, ols.
A little bit like the Wallabies – keep making the same mistake over and over… 😛

The Wrap: Coaches ride the rollercoaster as Rugby Championship gets turned on its head

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3d

There’s another Divinyls song reference to work in there somewhere, TLN, but this is a family publication…

The Wrap: Coaches ride the rollercoaster as Rugby Championship gets turned on its head

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3d

Even though it seems a little counter intuitive, I was actually ok with that ‘not straight’ being called back for a scrum, DA.

Reason being, even though the Boks won the ball, it wasn’t clean ball and they weren’t really set well to use it. If I was the Boks I would have preferred to take the scrum and start again from a solid platform – which is what the ref granted them.

The Wrap: Coaches ride the rollercoaster as Rugby Championship gets turned on its head

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3d

Solid post, Phil.

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3d

Spot on, Jonty. The reaction following a loss is almost always way out of proportion with the true, underlying situation.

The Wallabies are a case in point this week. That was a very disappointing capitulation, there’s no sugar-coating that, but in the bigger scheme of things, with a bit of distance and perspective, it will almost certainly be viewed for what it is – a sobering day for an inexperienced and injury disrupted side, against a very good opponent, who took full advantage.

The Wrap: Coaches ride the rollercoaster as Rugby Championship gets turned on its head

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