A good read and a good call John around the brains trust of the Brumbies this year. A little light on experience (thinking more on Ben Mowen) compared to previous years and fingers crossed it does not bite them. You could argue new face equals new ideas that should freshen up a side but sometimes it’s the better the devil you know. Lordy and Palmer are big losses, and their presence alone in previous years would have poked and pushed not only the players but Larkham. The respect they had they could do this. Look at Les Kiss, very experienced coach but it’s his brains trust behind him with Les and buy in from the players have the Reds humming. It just might take the Brums sometime to gel behind the scenes, but Brum DNA should keep them in the fight.

Spot on PK, would rather see good coin in a national coaching framework than blowing it on bringing mungos across.

Les Kiss say no more. A good, experienced coach with nothing to prove, has built a pretty handy support team (brains trust) behind him and a part from a few tweaks has inherited the current roster that’s doing well. Depth was tested last weekend against a pretty handy team and didn’t they stand up. Great effort. To date he is getting the best out of them. We need to invest more in quality coaches like Les across all parts of our game (women / men) to lift the standards. Just another piece of the puzzle in getting our game right at all levels.

They don’t call him Lord for nothing. Let us pray he continues to be part of the wallaby setup or more importantly part of the wide Aus rugby community. A walking talking encyclopedia, a treasure to our game.

Agree Bobby, without Bell they struggle at scrum and getting over the gain line. Theres already a smell of dead man walking (DC) which is frustrating. RU as they showed with the Rebels like to leak early DC has the first 4 weeks to prove why he should be the coach next year. For DC & Tahs sake they need to fiz not fizzle.

Hi Geoff
It kills me reading good news stories like this that paint rugby and community engagement in a completely different light, a positive light and the drivers behind it. The Rebels do community engagement so well probably better than anyone in the country. Life changing stuff. Our game has so many good people behind the scenes, the true glue of the game. People like Orange we just cannot afford to lose. His giving the game a cost effective blueprint to get the game into mainstream schools at little to no cost. You’d think this would be a leg up for rugby. Differing priorities. I don’t have a magic wand but whatever happens rugby must have a presence in Victoria in some shape or form. Its back to that old chestnut again about getting our back yard in order and determining what competitions or structures are going to best serve us long term. Ground Hog Day.

I wish Nick Politis would take over RA.

ha ha

Here here. Well said JD. Have a great break Geoff you deserve it. As for RA, just like an old soapy ”like sand in an hour glass and so are the days of our lives”, stay tuned.

Let’s move on EJ does not deserve any more air time please.

We will see how the cards fall, McKellar should be the front runner but would he want it. Hammish did not do himself any favours by going straight to Eddie to replace Dave R. If McKellar did not have the bosses confidence then so why now. Messy.

”Must be comfortable with being sacked. The next Australian coach will almost certainly be sacked less than halfway through their term, so make sure we don’t hire a cry baby”. A good read Ben BUT….Whilst ticked with the results overall this year, I don’t think I could handle another payout, Ben. If Eddie stays and taking the emotion out of it I will expect him to honour his contract for better or worse and dig us out of this hole. And, I would expect RA to have him on a short leash this time. Had too much power and sway leading into that world cup. If Eddie decides to sneak off to Japan, well breach of contract I say and let’s recoup money rather than paying him out. He must be on at least a mill a season. Folau and Rennie’s pay out, with Suuli & Eddie coming across God knows how many millions we are up to in wasted coin over the last 4-5 years. Yet there’s no money for grassroots or women’s rugby. Poor. With all the coach sackings over the last 30 years, showing my age now with I think Greg Smith the first – please correct me if wrong, then stability under Rod Macqueen, then Eddie Jones Robbie Deans Ewen McKenzie, Cheika, Rennie and the circus around Eddie presently who’d want to coach the Wannabies. I want accountability but that needs to be underpinned by the right processes, structure and framework not ego Hammish.

Good eye Peter in regard to Ireland. Watching them play reminded me of past Brumby and then Wallaby sides. Almost very Australian in the way they go about their play. The loops out the back has Australian rugby coach Alan Gaffney all over it, the ball retention and recycling which does look like the brumby / wallaby of old. You just don’t get tired watching them play. It’s a shame they won’t progress. AB’s to good on the day. David Nucafora will never have trouble getting a beer in Ireland. Has done a wonderful job building the foundations with support of some good aussie coaches over the years, but a big tick must also go Kiwi Joe Schmidt. I think he was the glue that bedded down this style and Farrell has come along and just enhanced it. The players have buy in and it shows. On a side note Joe I think is behind the scenes with the AB’s now must have had mixed emotions watching that game last weekend. What a game.

Spot on Rusty, those (potentially) missed points essentially won them the game in the end. Freakish player.

Spot on Ken RA the cappuccino club of Sydney will roll on unless there’s change. We have good people as mentioned who can help us rebuild from the bottom to the top. Ego appears to be the blocker. A push would be nice but I don’t think we could handle any more payouts.

G’day Harry, a danger game for the Wallabies. Interesting templates Harry on how ”to play not play the Fijians” but there is a way not mentioned. The most efficient Aussie super side of all sides yes, the Waratahs have been a bit of a bogy side for the Fijians have already provided us with the winning template. 2022 was a clinic, one of the better performances from a very young Tahs side which sort of mirrors the Wallabies. Might have been their first win in ages if memory serves me. The Tahs took them out of the game early through forward dominance and set piece. Belly was mighty in a 40-10 win. A little closer in 2023 without Belly but again forward dominance via set piece and a solid kicking game with Jorgenson and Marky finishing off. The Australia A tour last year with Gilmour (tah assistant coach) at the helm followed the same mantra with Frost and Neville dominating lineout, scrums were on par as we had a smallish front row, but Gleeson certainly caught the Drua attention that day. A bull at the gate that day. Thor or no Thor we will still roll out a big pack and whilst unusual for a Wallaby side our forwards by far are our strength with more than useful finishers. Play to our strengths I say, accuracy at set piece and bludgeon away in the forwards and hopefully finish of everything. Now as for our bench, get the worry beads out as this could be our undoing if we were to go down. Fiji do have a good big bench as you mentioned and we know they will come home with a wet sail, so we must get them early chasing the scoreboard.

You obvoiusly dont know much about Langi history. Heres a good place to start. Cheers. https://rugbynews.net.au/langi-gleeson-the-20yo-no-7-who-turned-his-back-on-league-to-light-up-shute-shield/

Kerevi lacks pace and Petaia is like Ioane, a winger trying to defend at 13. Crusher, just think Kerevi hasnt got the miles in the legs just yet. I get what your saying though.
Needs more game time. His had a tough 12 months, the broken hand came at a bad time. The more minutes the better he will be. I was pretty impressed with Petaia overall, defensively I thought the field openned up more when we lost both centres. Foketi is another who looks underdone, should have been at 13 as he he a strong defender by nature and a good communicator. MK who moved in from wing 12 would have been safer option. They are learning on the run but wont get the same leeway when they come up against say a Wales.

On a side note Brett, was really impressed with the first 40 Jordy Petaia. Just demanded the ball. Good to see. Is really taking ownership of that 13 jumper.

Yep like your thoughts on bringing in Kells and Frost, although Perese did nothing wrong in the rugby championship could also provide the same cover as AK. Set piece should be a priority against an unpredictable Fijian side. Really need to take them on there. As you say Slipper is a must bench start if fit. Other than the bench the only starting change id like to see is Gleeson start at 7 with Mc Freight off the pines to finish the game. Just horses for courses. Fijian heritage against Fijian. This game could be a smash up derby. Samu like Slipper just has to play. Both need miles in the legs now.

Hi Jeznez, Fair call. Might be part of his secret plan, they haven’t shown a lot thus the throw away comment.

I’d like to know what their (defence) completion rate is PK, looks higher than previous years with less misses and aside from that my theory with the NRL coach is Eddie wants to get this group getting used to tackling lower and dominate from there. He knows he cannot afford anyone sent from the field by going to high. Over the last three months I think Thor has been the only one binned from memory for going too high but in fairness he was injured and should have been taken off earlier anyway. They can certainly do more work at the break down. EJ needs to get Lord in there to tidy this up. Cannot work out why they are short on the edges though. Possibly communication or still getting used to a new pattern, not sure. Could be another EJ smoke screen – I hope. We will see a lot more from the Georgia game onward.

RTL, I agree, the squad is raw but with a tonne of potential. I know this sounds a bit off but I don’t think we have seen Eddie coach yet. After the SA game where they only had a few training sessions before the game and it showed, each game has had a work on, be it set piece, defence, I believe they only started to look at the attack just before BL2 and of course their overall fitness.
So small steps. Some big decisions were made resulting in clearing of the decks producing a raw squad EJ believes he can mould with little past baggage. EJ has picked a captain who is used to winning and has also been assigned to bring the group together and by all reports is doing just that. And for the size and mobility of their fwds, they have not been direct enough which I hope will alter in comming games.
I might be wrong; I feel at this moment EJ is keeping his cards close to his chest and I hope we will see more game management unravel from the Georgia game onward. They look like they are not too far off clicking.

In fairness to Foketi it was his first game in ten weeks. He plays very differently to big Kev, very good communicator and defender at 12 and 13. Think you nailed with cohesion being a bigger issue with another starting 10 12 13.

Yep score line was rough in the end and did not reflect some of the good stuff the wallabies produced. A loss is a loss though. Goal kicking (concern) the break down and another yellow card (harsh) certainly contributed to that. Set piece was excellent apart from two missed throws – well they didn’t show much there anyway. What’s not being talked about and I’ve heard Eddie say this on a number of occasions, leading into Bledisloe 2 and the French game is a heavy training load. They are apparently in another heavy week this week before tappering off next week. So in short EJ is playing the side under fatigue or duress. He has history here of applying this method. Again the results don’t look good but they do look fitter with a bigger picture in mind. Work ons has to be goal kicking. Defence not idea why they are getting caught short on the edges, certainly need better communication at the break down and with the forwards they have I hope they play more direct, maybe going wide or kicking to early. At this point of time the Georgia game is all I’m concerned about, not past results so fingers crossed we have a group now that can put past learnings into practice now. A win will kick start these guys they are not to far off the pace.