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Joined February 2018
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From an outsider’s perspective I’m not so influenced (or scarred) by individual losses. I don’t think chucking Chieka would help things. He inherited a difficult situation and the current problems with the Wallabies were already there before the 2015 RWC, the cracks were just papered over in the short-term with the introduction of the 60-cap rule. This was always going to be a torturous rebuilding job and the showings against us over three Tests suggests that’s actually starting to materialise.
Add to that, it’s always difficult as a Wallabies coach because three games a season against the ABs (who almost unbelievably kicked on after their 2015 RWC win) would expose the weaknesses in any side’s development.
More prosaically, if Cheika gets the boot, who would replace him and do a better job?
Mean green: Ireland snatch third Test, series win from Wallabies
Agree with what you’ve said here Geoff.
I can see what Luke is saying and one of the strongest parts of Ireland’s attacking game (to which there are still some significant weaknesses) is that the difference between decoy and strike often gets decided well after the play has started moving. With some teams you can spot from miles off that a decoy runner is not getting the ball (hands down, not looking at the passer, etc.).
The Wallabies clearly scouted this and decided that it would give them an advantage to smash the back door and front door players regardless of whether or not they were actually getting the ball in the RL style from about a decade ago. They made that illegal in league – and for good reason because, as you say, the attacking side is trying to do something inventive and it’s the responsibility of the defence to counter that in a way which is in line with the laws.
The Wrap: Ireland go up a gear as Beauden Barrett takes a fall
Great analysis, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was spot on and Ireland look to win line outs and build dominance in the maul. An unstructured game favours Australia and last week Ireland lacked the control they often produce when Sexton and Murray combine behind a dominant pack. I can’t wait for this match.
Sexton not the biggest worry for Wallabies
I think there’s a certain unwillingness among some SH fans to acknowledge Murray’s quality as historically SH halfbacks have totally outclassed their NH counterparts.
All the players you mention have areas of their game better than Murray: Smith crisper pass, Genia is a little general and great around the ruck, Faf de Klerk has great vision and pace and is better in open play. Murray is the best tactical kicker and is a better physical defender, although positionally Smith is probably better. He’s also good around the ruck because of his strength and size.
They all have their qualities and its churlish to claim Murray is overrated. We’re talking about the top 4 scrum halves in world rugby.
Sexton not the biggest worry for Wallabies
Ireland won the 6N in 2014 and 2015 and the GS in 2018. Plus a first ever victory over the Boks in SA in 2016, a win over NZ in Chicago and several wins at home over Boks and Wallabies. In your haste to condescend you’ve missed a pattern of hard-won incremental improvement. Maybe Ireland’s record isn’t as impressive as the Wallabies overall, but it’s at least as impressive as this incarnation.
Ireland needs to show more respect to the Wallabies and to Super Rugby
Australia were set up to cover the out the back pass that Ireland use a lot and did so really effectively for the first 30 minutes. Ireland did adjust eventually and started playing to the runner on the line rather than out the back to let the runner get smashed so there was some adjustment.
I just think that the Wallabies executed their defensive game plan very well and Ireland made too many marginal errors: kicks out on the full, missed tackles, poor kick chase, missed touches, not resourcing rucks properly. If your basics aren’t executed properly then you’ll struggle to cope with a defensive getting off the line fast. Simple as. Hopefully they’ll sort it out next week in Melbourne.
Ireland needs to show more respect to the Wallabies and to Super Rugby
I usually head down here to read Spiro’s weekly round-up and I often think that he watches not just different games, but a different sport to everybody else! ‘Unruffled refereeing’! He was equally poor for both sides which is a kind of fairness, I suppose.
Time will tell if this really is a Wallabies new dawn and arguably some of the criticism leveled at “disrespectful” Ireland picking different players and not revolutionizing their game plan could be explained by the fact that it’s the end of the season up here and it would be a pretty hard sell to teach players (many of whom won three trophies this year and played 30+ matches) a load of new tricks for the summer tour. SH fans are always claiming the November Tests are a joke for exactly the same reason!
The issues with Super Rugby are pretty clear to everyone and haven’t gone unnoticed up North either. The attacking play is tremendous, but some of the defence is horrific and some teams are just not competitive. I watch the Pro14 every week – trust me, we feel your pain.
Having said that, Australia did not defend like a Super Rugby side, whereas South Africa and England both thought they were playing Super Rugby. For all that it might have been exciting, nobody could have predicted the grit of Australia’s performance based on the cricket scores the Reds and NSW put over each other a couple of weeks ago.
Anyway, I’m enjoying this series already. It’s great to have Australia and South Africa really competitive again and playing good rugby. Two more Tests to go and then we’ll have a real sense of where we all are.
Ireland needs to show more respect to the Wallabies and to Super Rugby
Hi Nick,
As ever a great article!
Nice to hear someone involved in the game say that about tries and TMOs. I think NH rugby can be a bit confused about the goal of the review. If the aim is to encourage try scoring then why go looking for reasons to rule out tries!
I’m not saying any- and everything should be given but imho if you have to watch it more than three times to work out whether the pass was forward, the ball was grounded or the foot was in touch then it’s still going to be arguable on the 12th re-watch. You may as well just give it and move on with the match. If the presumption is always in favour of the try-scorer then it’ll balance out in the end.
Why an analyst needs a long memory: The Reds and the Tahs restore the faith
I think this is a pretty fair analysis overall. It’s very difficult to judge what a win over France and Scotland is really worth this season. Scotland absolutely capitulated to Wales which very few people expected and France haven’t capitulated in either match which more or less everybody quietly expected, based on perceived poor discipline and lack of fitness. Poor discipline and lack of fitness have definitely been problems, but not to the extent we might have thought.
My pre-tournament predictions were:
England
Ireland (although secretly wanted to back them for a GS)
Wales
Scotland
France
Italy
So far, things are looking pretty bang on.
What I really disagree with is the Georgia coming in to the 6N stuff which I’ve been seeing a lot of. Georgia competed against Wales for 78 mins. True. But that is their only Tier 1 match of the season. It is the single most important fixture in their calendar. Italy play 8-10 Tier 1 sides every year. They get shellacked because they can’t keep their powder dry for any one game. If Georgia had to do that schedule they’d be whipping boys too.
The WR rankings are very deceptive on that score because Italy lose to higher ranked sides and Georgia beat lower ranked sides. The rankings can’t really make sense of that, hence Georgia’s better ranking relative to Italy.
Finally, Italy’s domestic structures are getting much much better. Benetton have a positive winning record for the first time ever in the Pro14 and are in a play off spot. Zebre have beaten Ulster and Dragons. The Italy U20s have shown real promise and made life difficult for England and Ireland. In the latter case playing with 14 men for about 70 minutes. The senior side sucks just now, but the future is (hopefully) bright.
Six Nations: After two rounds, who's worth your money?
I’ve been getting pilloried for saying this on other boards, Nick! England noticeably don’t play phases they kick the ball away and harry teams into mistakes. Nothing wrong with that, but pundits up north are talking about England as though scoring those tries shows they play an all court game, which is just complete rubbish!
Will England rule the world in 2019?