Excellent assessment of the real and sad state of affairs. Hamish McLenan is Scott Morrison in a Wallabies jumper. Spin king, unaccountable, chasing headlines and a trail of wreckage in his wake. There is no improvement under his tenure, only deterioration. He will not rescue Rugby, Australia needs to rescue rugby from him.

Game stats tell the story for the Bunnies in 2023. Errors #1 in the NRL. Completions #16 (ironically, Roosters are only team below us). Defence in Round 8 was at #1, now it has more holes in it than Swiss cheese. We are heading south and very clearly it is not smooth sailing behind closed doors. Implosion approaching!

Top2 roster? Names mean nothing when a team has no discipline.

Hooper has a poor form line as captain. Not just win/loss but his decision making, esp not taking points on offer, has cost Wallabies games before.
Apart from the high error rate and continuing skills failures, the strategic failure at the beginning and end of game were painful to watch. Any one of those first half penalties would have changed the dimension of the game. Then, at the end, the ball to boot strategy demonstrated a team (and coach) that was more scared of losing that inspired by the opportunity to win.

Jamie Joseph.

I can see only 2 words. Jamie Joseph.
What he hs done with Japan (now rated highr than Australia, is outstanding. Ther style of play, their skills, their ability to punch above their weight. GET Jamie Joseph and like QLD did with Ewan McKenzi when in dire straits, give hime freedom to rebuild his way.

?? Totlly lost in your defence of player quality GMS. “man for man, Australia has a squad that is the equal of all opposition and far better than most” ….. and then you go on to highlight exactly where they are not. Our pasing is second rate, we do not have a tactical kicker, our scrum looks poor, we are poor at restarts. Skills are not issues of tactics of coaching, skills are issues of player capabilities. If players do not have these skills then they are definitely not the equal of players that do.

Genea’s mouth was indeed wide open as he stood back and watched Savea steal possession instead of securing possession or even competing for possession himself.

“Point is, Western Australia is ripe for the taking” ….. what are you on Tumoana Poata?

There are more registered Australian Rules players in WA than there are Rugby players in the whole of Australia.

WA is an AFL stronghold and to think that the ARU has missed an opportunity here is just blind and senseless to the 10’s of thousands of fans that turn up to watch an AFL game every week and the 10s of thousands that play Australian Rules every week in WA.

They just built a 60,000 seat stadium here because 40,000 was big not enough to hold the AFL fans for regular season Eagles’ (and the occasional Dockers) home games.

You need a reality check. The Force contributed to their own demise and the ARU is getting the blame. Force sold their licence to the ARU because the organisation and the sport was failing. They then initiated a futile court case to pretend that did not happen.

I’m astounded that there was not enough money for the ARU to send the Schoolboys team on their UK tour yet enough to send Pocock around the world on sabatical holiday, and enough now to top up the pay packets of the pro athlete who perpetually demonstrate that they are no more than mercenaries for the highest bidder. No player is worth sacrificing your feedstock for but the ARU fat cats don’t seem to get that investing in the game is “not” paying (excessively) for a player “not” to play when the organisation is bleeding money.

I was once a rusted on rugby supporter but the ARU have managed to repel and disgust me with its appauling management. Good luck surviving as a sport with this mob at the wheel.

What would have been useful from the press was to ask Cheika if he had any regrets about his team selections. From the announcement there was widespread concern about 13 (out of position), 6 (inexperienced and lightweight) and the backrow combination as a unit being too small. All three of these concerns rung true on the night.

Frankly, I think Cheika got off lightly at the press conference. When he backs the Grey defensive plan 100%, who asked him to justify that belief given the results that it has delivered this season?

Cheika would have us believe all that went wrong was a bit of poor communication and lack of confidence. Falling of 50 tackles is a physical component, not chatter or confidence. It is commitment and skills.

I hate that the Fox commentators clique can’t find it in their mettle to call for accountability at the player and coaching level. (It’s like they have to hand over their spine when they put on a FoxSports shirt).
I hate that even at half price tickets there was 40% of a stadium empty …. even more if we take the AB supporters out.
I hate that my own children do not think that the Wallabies are relevant
I hate that I have no confidence in the ARU or players/coaches ability to refloat a sinking ship
And finally, I hate that I have to look outside of the game I have spent 45 years playing, coaching and administrating to look for inspiration and pride.

Ouch. That hurt. I was kind of expecting a touch up but hoping for a miracle after watching our lead up tests and comparing the physicality and skill set to the ABs-Lions series. The quality of rugby was a world apart and that showed last night when the boys played the men.

I’m a long time fan that is losing interest in rugby I’m sad to say. The last decade of Wallaby Rugby is like a revolting drama series and the professional era has indeed diluted the integrity of the sport. Recall the drama around Deans and his personality politics, McKenzie’s assassination and the farce that has culminated in the culling of the Force. I can’t help feeling that the paycheck is now more valuable than the jumper to the Wallabies set whilst I get the feeling the All Blacks would play for nothing just to be an All Black. The Lions too seemed willing to do anything for that jumper.

Surely it is impossible, after a series defeat to England at home, loss to Scotland, fall over the line v Italy and last nights embarrassing performance, for there to be no consequence for playing or coaching staff from what they have dished up in the past 12 months. Sadly, the friendly Fox commentary clique are passive in their assessment and only those from outside the fold are calling for adjustment.

One thing for sure, the Wallabies and the ARU are contributing to their own demise and their relevance in the Australian sporting culture is now seriously diluted. Just look at the crowd figures last night, subtract the AB supporters and you have the evidence.

What value a Wallaby Jumper?
You have to be kidding selecting Marika Koroibete. Just 4 days ago we have the Wallaby captain trying to defend the history and integrity of the Wallaby jumper and all who have played for it. Now here we have the ARU and selectors giving that same jumper away to a bloke that has not played a game. Is he a prospect or an investment they are looking for a return on. Either way a culture of earning a Wallaby jumper no longer exists. The clown suit looks like a good fit to me.

Change one thing at least please Cheika. Do not let Hooper make any more decisions on the field. It’s a Test Match, not a Super15 game. If we learned anything from Test#1 it was that penalty goals count. They count enough to win Test matches for nations.

Perhaps you can also teach Israel to pass the ball. He does not need to make contact with the defence every time he touches the ball. I don’t think anybody has told him. Mabe some offloading in the tackle instead of letting the ball die every time someone engages with the defence. A ball in motion is so much harder to defend.

Absolutely DJW. The ARU has a chance to invest in it’s own supporter base and the first thing it does is looks elsewhere to a fleeting, uncommitted market that might grow the sport …. in another country? Doh!

Do we really need to wonder at all why Rugby in on the ropes, struggles to maintain a supporter base across Australia when this sort of conversation is going on instead of taking the opportunity to reward a largely volunteer supporter base that you rely on day in day out.

Good on you Adam Scott for calling a spade a spade. It’s what we expect from great Australians.

The great irony of it all is that trying to make the Olympics meaningful by including popular sports unnecessarily is making them “meaningless”.

Sports like golf and tennis being in the Olympics is not “for the sports’ sake”, it is “for the Olympics’ sake” ….. and that is the wrong reason for any sport to be there. For Dawn, the Olympics were a pinnacle. For golf, it is not and never will be.

Adam Scott represents Australia at every tournament he plays. Nationality is a fundamental part of the branding for golf, just look at the score board at any golf tournament and you will see a national flag beside the name of every player. Does naming one the Visa or Coca Cola Olympic tournament make that any different?

Let some other sport that needs a platform to grow use that opportunty. A sport that can be relevant to more countries, a sport where the Olympic medal can provide ambition for millions not be an after

If I could be guaranteed of only one then I guess I’d take Bill Machooka because it comes around only every 4 years. That is of course if sacrificing the Bledisloe guaranteed me Bill. If the question is I can only “try and win” one then I would not enter that hypothetical because for me it is a ridiculour proposition that a national team should not try to win the test match that it is in now.

In any case I don’t see why they are mutually exclusuive, and neither it seems do the All Blacks who picked a team to win the Bledisloe first. Absolutely what i would say, and have said further down in this commentary is that we should play for the World Cup when we are at the World Cup, not when we are at the Bledisloe Cup.

The Bledisloe will still be is gone Boonzie. We had one hand on it but did not try to put the other hand on it to take it away. Play for the World Cup when we’re in the World Cup, not when we’re playing for the Bledisloe Cup.

RT, I think after 2 minutes and the first lineout they had licked their lips and thanked Cheika for his selections.

TT, let’s put that in a boxing context. I’ve just knocked the World Champ to the ground for the count. Why would I let him beat the crap out of me for the next round before I try and finish him off ?

I don’t think he set out to lose the test biltongbek, but he certainly did not approach team selections with the focused attention on winning that I would expect from a national team playing for our most historic trophy.

There is no reasonable excuse for disrespecting a Bledisloe Test. Full stop.
It has taken many decades to create the trophy’s relevance to Australian Rugby and it should “never” be disrespected. Again … never. To step out into any Bledisloe Test match (let alone a deciding test) where winning the test is not the single and only focus of the playing, coaching and executive staff is against everything that we would want to teach any junior rugby player as the right way to represent your country. Everybody, absolutely everybody, saw Cheika devaluing the Bledisloe Cup and not one commentator or past Wallaby called him on it. Why did these people all go missing in action ?

I don’t care about the World Cup … yet. And neither should Chieka. This is a Bledislow decider. We have not had the cup for 13 years. This is the main game right now, so treat it like it is the main game rather than denigrade the Bledisloe.

Toomoa … 2 ineffectual and meaningless kicks = 2 All Black tries. That told me enough that he does not have the game to be a reliable, first pick 10. Foley does not look the part but he keeps delivering a solid kicking and passing game with great support running. If only he could tackle then we would not need to be considering alternatives.