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Wandering Aloud

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Joined August 2016

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Die hard (well you have to be don't you) Reds and Wallabies supporter. Very Mediocre five-eighth...a very long time ago.

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Harry,

An excellent read as usual. Thanks for your continued contributions after your partner in the 8/9 combo abandoned us for some fly by night website…

I want to pick up on the comments earlier in the day about referee relations.

It strikes me that since Michael Chieka was appointed coach the siege mentality he brought to the team has included the refereeing team among those waiting on the other side of the wall.

One only needs to read through the ‘we woz robbed’ themed comments on this website after a close loss to understand just how deeply blaming the referee has pervaded the Australian Rugby psyche as the fig-leaf for our own shortcomings. They have become our enemies starving us of possesion, territory, soldiers and joy.

I’m firmly of the opinion that what the Wallabies need to learn to improve referee relations is empathy. Whether they learn empathy for the referees by getting out and reffing junior games or by the introduction of a retired referee to the staff or any other method I care little. But learn it they must.

Whilst we continue to treat the referee like the enemy at the gates we can expect them to continue to starve us out of existence…

Joe Schmidt's search for a 'cold-hearted bastard' - and the issue he'll lose most sleep over

I’ve got a Christmas in July gift recommendation for YJB…

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/23848190

He was in complete control of his actions, as was Mitchell Starc, neither of them have anyone to blame but themselves.

'Worst thing I’ve ever seen in cricket': Broad, McCullum whinge about Bairstow drama but McDonald returns serve

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/apr/04/james-graham-david-klemmer-nrl

This was the moment that I stopped watching the NRL. In 2015, David Klemmer got three weeks for standing over Gerard Sutton and yelling, “You’re off your f—ing face.” He should have been rubbed out for the season. Instead, he played in State of Origin 6 weeks after the incident.

The NRL is responsible for providing employees with a psychologically safe working environment. They have failed in this instance and in every other instance that has followed.

https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/system/files/documents/1911/work-related_psychological_health_and_safety_a_systematic_approach_to_meeting_your_duties.pdf

If the NRL are serious about protecting refs, they should have thrown the book at Reece Walsh

Completely agree. Stan Sports role is to promote the game not try and drag it down into the mud!
The man apologized. He’ll likely be punished with a suspension or a fine for bringing the game into disrepute. Move on and talk about what was a fantastic game of football!

Savea CITED for throat-slit 'brain explosion,' faces prospect of lengthy ban

It’s a pretty normal way to conduct performance management I would have thought and entirely depends on the culture within the group as to how it is received.

If they’ve got a strong culture of sharing and vulnerability within the group the this is a good way to make sure that the coach and the players are on the same page about their performance and allows the quick correction of those players who have a dramatically under/over inflated view of their performance.

If they don’t have this culture it’ll be a fruitless exercise of trying to second guess what the boss wants them to say…

'We need to see more': Rebels coach says 'brutally honest' Wallabies stars know they're not aiming up

Sorry Greysy – should have kept reading…

Folau fires in flying start to rugby return in Japan

Folau was not paid compensation, his case was settled out of court at the behest of RAs insurance provider. Seems semantic, but the two are in no way equivalent and a settlement is in no way an admission of wrong doing.

Defending a case to high court costs a bloody fortune, even if you win. This was a test case and therefore inherently risky. This was a classic case of risk management on behalf of RA and their insurer.

Folau fires in flying start to rugby return in Japan

Why does adding the phrase ‘religious views’ free him from the consequences of breaking the code of conduct of the company for whom he works in a public manner?

Folau fires in flying start to rugby return in Japan

Bit harsh to take a swing at QANTAS for cancelling their sponsorship of all sport whilst taking a government handout to alleviate billions of dollars worth of losses due to all of their aero planes being grounded.

Cadbury products however did pretty well out of the comfort eating induced by lockdowns…

Folau fires in flying start to rugby return in Japan

I went back and watched both in the last ten minutes.

Le Roux wasn’t in a realistic position to catch it. This was proven in that he, um… didn’t catch it.

There was also a clear overlap and try scoring opportunity. This was certainly not the case with the Beale tackle… James O’Connor was about to smash (as much as he’s ever smashed anybody…) the winger into touch. This makes Kurtley’s action doubly stupid as it wasn’t necessary and shows a lack of faith in the defensive system (the difficulties of bringing people into a system at short notice perhaps???)

Stupid? Definitely. Penalty? Sure. Yellow? No way.

'Is there any accountability?': Everything Rennie said as he savaged refs group over 'massive decisions'

I’m genuinely uncomfortable about this from Rennie.

The red card, unquestionably was, the WBs need to be better around the contact area. Valentino had plenty of time to drop his body height and cut the attacking player in half. He chose not too…

The yellow card was a joke. Penalty sure, but the requirement for a yellow card (in my understanding) is that a clear line break would have been made. The cover was with 3m of the potential receiver as the pass was made. The referee did not appear to be interested. (Biltong, before you chime in about Le Flux’s card on the Gold Coast. I went back and watched it. If you think those situations are equivalent, I don’t know what to say to you).

The knock back, probably was, it’s a bad look but the decision was correct by the letter of the law. A worse look was Nic White and Kurtley Beale waving their arms in the air instead of chasing back. I’m not sure any of them could have made the tackle but it strikes me of an attitude of victim-hood in the WB ranks.

This is the reaction of a team who believes that the referees are out to get them. It strikes of a distinct lack of responsibility for their own actions and an unwillingness to learn. Nic White is the chief protagonist and now it feels like he is being backed up by Rennie in this mentality.

The Wallabies discipline on this tour has been appalling. Worse, it hasn’t improved one iota over the three games. I am now convinced that this team has a Fixed Mindset (see Dr Carol Dweck) when it comes to refereeing. It is so deeply ingrained in their psyche that the can’t imagine that their I’ll discipline could possibly be their fault. Therefore, they see no reason to change their behaviour as it is the referees, not they, who need to be better.

Dave Rennie has had a poor leadership moment here and I hope he reflects on his behaviour post game and how it has contributed negatively to the development of his team.

'Is there any accountability?': Everything Rennie said as he savaged refs group over 'massive decisions'

Really, the South Africans have been hard done by, by referees???
https://www.rugbypass.com/news/the-astonishing-numbers-behind-south-african-refereeing-that-paints-an-ugly-picture/
To my knowledge, none of the coaches of the affected sides felt the need to publicly defame the referees…

'Forever tarnished': Nic Berry reveals heavy toll of Rassie's 'character assassination'

Talking to someone who has been raised in the ‘hard man’ culture immediately after the game is never going to stop them if their core belief was that they’d worked hard were entitled to a party.

The organisation has spent his entire life telling them that concussion isn’t a big deal, a five minute chat from the doc is unlikely to override that deep held belief which is being reinforced by the current administration.

This is an educative process that needs to be ingrained in every part of NFL, Rugby and Rugby League. Only once the prevention, mitigation and recovery from head injury become part of the culture will this go away.

This won’t happen whilst administrative bodies put their short term profits ahead of their core product, the players….

Hiding behind the concussion industry: The NRL’s ticking time bomb

Hi Peter,

My understanding was that it was still all up for negotiation.

But that pesky job that gets in the way of my reading about, and watching, more rugby potentially makes me ill informed in this case…. I’m happy to be corrected.

'A chance to change perception': Successful spring tour would mean more than usual for Wallabies

Team,

Some interesting decisions this weekend with question marks (at least) over Cooper, Kerevi and Koriobete.

If the three players that were key to the WBs turn around are out (and if RA were foolish enough to employ me as WBs coach) I’d be thinking of taking a leaf out of the Springbok play book.

Pick big in the front 5 and mobile in the backrow. Kick for position, give them the ball and defend to create turnovers. Turn it into a dogfight around set piece and disrupt their rhythm.

Do what your opposition least want you to do and play to your relative strengths. That Sun Tzu guy was onto something…

'A chance to change perception': Successful spring tour would mean more than usual for Wallabies

The cynicism of the Boks around the catch area is pretty astounding.

Nkosi jumping way past the contest and making illegal contact with Banks head.

Then, on the clip of Tate’s box kick out of the 22 de Klerk is pulling Hooper out of the contest.

They’re also pretty good at running a ‘screen’ as can be seen in the second to last clip where Koriobete is run off the ball.

I’m sure the WBs are guilty of some of this too. But if SA are going to make this area the decisive contest in the game, the refereeing team needs to be all over it to make sure it stays a fair one.

Coach’s Corner Issue 26: Is Dave Rennie thinking outside the 'Boks?

Hi Muglair… it sounds a lot like the Boks may have caught the Chieka syndrome…

Coach’s Corner Issue 26: Is Dave Rennie thinking outside the 'Boks?

I’m not especially proud of this, but after the second intercept I turned it off. I couldn’t watch it anymore because I realized I’d stepped off the deep end.

I raged at Pickerel for not YC an AB prop at the end of the second half after they’d been warned “another penalty…”

I raged at Pickerel for calling a line-out not straight when there was absolutely no intent from the opposition to contest.

I raged at Pickerel for missing Whitelock’s hands on the ground last the ball for the penalty DMAC knocked over from 58m.

I raged at Pickerel for penalizing Koriobete when he was bumped, by a blatant blocker, into taking someone out in the air from a kick-off.

I raged at Pickerel for not noticing Retalick bumping Kellaway onto the ground in a kick chase in the lead up to the afore mentioned Whitelock penalty.

I raged at Pickerel for mowing the blatant offside in the phase before the last intercept…

Then I realised. I wasn’t mad at Pickerel. I was just looking for a scapegoat for my dismay that the WBs continue to play rugby that is beyond their level of skill and the exact opposite of what the great philosopher of conflict Sun Tzu would counsel….

‘So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak…’

Why in the world would you play up-tempo, unstructured rugby against the All Blacks?

MATCH REPORT: Rennie's Wallabies sent out to go big or die trying - it was the latter

This is my last post on this. It’s taking up too much of my time… The moment you are used ‘’ around leaked confirmed that there will be no changing your mind.

But, no, the vaccines are not in trial… They’ve all been through Phase 3 trials.

https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-covid-vaccines-idUSL1N2M70MW

https://www.australianclinicaltrials.gov.au/what-clinical-trial/phases-clinical-trials

First Wallabies Test moved from Sydney due to COVID outbreak

KCOL,

What I’m saying is that the Sydney numbers for this year are not relevant.

They are artificially deflated by the National Border closure, and hotel quarantine.

The virus is not endemic in Australia. Every single one of these outbreaks has leaked from hotel quarantine.

As such, we need to be looking to jurisdictions who have experienced the defects of uncontrolled COVID in the community (the USA for instance) to inform our decisions around COVID rules. Hence the lockdowns over a few cases to try and prevent uncontrolled spread.

Could, and should, our politicians be much more transparent about their decision making process and the data that informs it? Absolutely, you’ll get no argument from me on that.

First Wallabies Test moved from Sydney due to COVID outbreak

I answered it above.

The deaths and hospitalisations are overseas. The national border closure is keeping the case numbers down.

When do you propose that we lift the border closure if we don’t have a vaccine?

First Wallabies Test moved from Sydney due to COVID outbreak

To reply to this I’ll refer to my comment on the border closure.
It’s not an Australian Pandemic… it’s a global pandemic.
All of our infection, hospitalization and death rates are artificially low because of the continuation of our status as a ‘Lucky Country’. I mean that in the sense Donald Horne meant it. Ironically.
We can’t remain closed off forever. But, we can’t open up without a vaccine or an acceptance that a lot of people will be infected and 2% of them will die.
Happy to have a debate, in another forum, about whether the economic and mental health costs of the current policy settings are higher than that if you’d like. On that, I think there are valid arguments on both sides.
I will not, however, countenance an anti-vaccine argument that doesn’t recognise the costs of not vaccinating the population.

First Wallabies Test moved from Sydney due to COVID outbreak

KCOL,

The numbers aren’t hidden. Every state government produces something similar to the data from SA below.

https://mobile.twitter.com/SAHealth/status/1409043380789678082/photo/1

More important that Australia’s numbers though, are the global numbers which show a death rate of about 2% per infection. https://covid19.who.int/

Australia’s numbers are artificially low because we are fortunate to be an island and can easily control the movement of people into and out of the country. Because of that, every single COVID case is able to receive world class treatment.

However, this is economically unsustainable and we will have to open the borders eventually. The only way to do that without inviting death is to get people vaccinated so as to prevent serious ill ness.

The fact that a vaccine can not prevent someone ingesting, and therefore spreading the virus should not be surprising. It doesn’t create a magical forcefield, it simply creates an immune response that prevents death. When you consider that the death rate from the AZ vaccine is 0.0008% it seems a pretty good trade of on a globalized scale. https://jmss.vic.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/AstraZeneca_and_blood_clots_-_by_the_numbers.pdf

I get that people don’t want to put anything in their body that has a ‘death rate’ associated with it. However, we are happy to trade off the risk of driving (much higher death and injury rate) for an economic benefit. Why is a vaccine different?

First Wallabies Test moved from Sydney due to COVID outbreak

Brett,

This is my biggest problem with the a Brumby maul. They very often get the timing ‘strategically wrong’ and the lifters end up in front of the receiver as he comes to ground.

This puts one or two players in an offside position before the maul is formed and they should be regularly pinged for obstruction before they even get their long arm out!

They’re not on their own doing this I’m sure. By their effectiveness makes it more noticeable when you’re on the receiving end (and your wife is a Brumbies fan)!

The Brumbies have a perception issue only they can address

I’m with Red Rob and jameswm here Geoff. The referees already have complex enough job. I’m perfectly fine with a blunt instrument being used to deal with contact to the head on the field.

Let the judiciary deal with nuance in the comfort of an air-conditioned room, with lots of replays, lawyers, coffee, canapes etc.

I would really like to see referees apply a less nuanced version of the laws. Particularly around, the offside line (kicking and defensive), the breakdown and the offensive side of the maul. They wouldn’t have to blow the pea out of the whistle for long before:

1. Everyone is behind the kicker on the kick off.
2. Wingers are behind the halfback on box kicks.
3. Chasers are no longer blocked from contesting high kicks.
4. Defence’s give 1/2 a metre at the breakdown.
5. The ‘gate’ is re-established at the breakdown.
6. The lifters don’t form a blocker at the front of the lineout maul.
7. Those joining the maul don’t ‘slide up’ past the ball carrier at the back without somehow not ‘changing their bind’.

Wouldn’t that be a much better game to watch?

The Wrap: Reds take their learnings to break Australia’s Super Rugby duck

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