Teddy should voluntarily stand aside. He has led Australia proudly and is a rugby league great. But every time he has a head knock I worry for his future. Nothing to prove Teddy !

Frankly I think Eddie was let down by the players and his selections. Four fundamental requirements were never satisfied. 1. Realistically to win the modern game the first selection you must include a 100% reliable kicker. European minnows know that, they had great kickers. 2. The team must include a large but mobile forwards pack. I still wait to read the real story why Tupou and Skelton were unavailable after one game because of an alleged training injury. Were they fit when picked ? 3. All players must be disciplined in the game. They were not even disciplined in the must win game vs Portugal. 4. Finally, the team must have a deep quality bench. The successful teams use virtually all reserves in a game, as it is intense, quick and collisions causing injury are inevitable.
None of these prmary requirements were met

Spiro I am a great fan of your analysis of the game. But you ignore the reality. Rugby league has the money , Rugby Union has not. In NSW and Queensland the league has journalists who fawn over the game of league and if union receives any publicity at all, the journalists tend to write as detractors. And now even you who supported the use of a youthful squad , with benefit of hindsight have withdrawn your previous views. Selecting a new coach who has always been labelled a controversial one, just before the World Cup was a risky move . But some, including me, would argue that the Wallabies team hopefuls were not up to scratch and the writing has long been on the wall that our standing in the world of rugby was about to crash. Drastic changes had to be made in a drastic situation. The experiment clearly failed. But Eddie is a victim not the cause. The simple fact is our players are too small in the forwards and rugby has to attract new talent there. Whether they can be found is the worry. Obviously the European teams have, with the aid of large mobile Pacific Islanders, have succeeded in meeting this identical problem.

Ireland had luck but played smart unlike Boks. As both teams will proceed to next round I have the impression that many Boks were too casual. Good hitout but not perfect games by either nation.ABs and France should not be unduly concerned.

It’s up to RA to pick a coach, then it’s up to the coach to pick a team. In the end results depend on the team. So our journalists criticize all those levels but are silent on a team they would select that would not be subject to criticism. Of course there is no such perfect selection because even such selection would be judged solely on results. Eddie has been let down by players he selected. Fiji looked good because the elements of its game looked good but it could have lost and if it did it would have not been praised. Winning is everything

The article is very poor and typical of so called journalist experts . It misses the point that the team is the players not the coach or RA. The team played like one just thrown together and leaderless. The absence of Tupou and Skelton meant Jones had no options but to use the old guard of forwards who play undisciplined and lazily. Celebrating the number of games played for the Wallabies in the past rather than the lack of quality in those games in articles, our expert journalists clearly have nothing to offer. This team has potential not yet realised and I for one wish them the best. Don’t run postmortems before death.

Good analysis. But to me the glaring selection error is the failure to pick a player that can be relied on 100% to kick goals from all locations. Kicks win games.

The English lioness’s tactic of slowing the game and playing rough house on Matilda breaks worked. The defence at the back was not tough enough. There was no rhythm in attack. Chances for Kerr were missed.
That redcard walking on the back of an opponent in the earlierEnglish game suggested to me that the English coach’s last words to his team were “Take no prisoners !” They were a tough bunch and did not take prisoners.

Happy to see that a reliable experienced centre was spotted by Jones. Once an Australian schoolboy Foketi has put in the hard work and performed in a non performing team, the Waratahs. He has demonstrated that he can defend and find holes in attack. Foketi will be the unsung hero of the team. Cannot wait to see him tackle a few international heroes and place them on their backsides.

A truism- forwards win games Hard to do that with old slow and easily fatigued forwards as selected. Jones correct in chasing size but they must be smart and mobile. Tupou looks ominous but is obviously unfit and I suspect carries an injury. But where do we find them ? Super rugby and in France. ?

The team needs discipline but so does the coach with his public tantrums.

Worst display I have seen in years. Sack Fittler (could not organize a PLAN of attack), Tedesco (should retire), Ado Carr (lost all skills and very slow) Get some tall wingers for bombs, find intelligent not just large forwards .. Haas forces passes and creates fumbling in red zone. OK blood new blokes for 3rd game which does not count.

Very disappointing. NSW in cruise control while QLD crash tackled and let the ball do the work .
Reputations of Tedesco, Turbo and Addo-Carr tarnished forever – were they carrying undisclosed injuries; in any event each should review their performance because not one could penetrate the defence and each looked slow.
Gould dead right attack looked clunky. Luai is a problem for Fittler as he always runs sideways and jams up the backline; often works but he was stifled by hard in your face defence.

Eddie look again . Charlie Gamble is needed.

The omission of Charlie Gamble is a big big mistake. Gamble is a dynamic worker with a skillset, is tough , adds remarkable defence, and can jackal the ball legally as Hooper once but no loner can do.
The forwards are the problem with the squad, especially if the Jones style is fast and tough. The bad habits of some of the forwards to have brain snaps and be undisciplined giving away penalties cannot be trained out of them.

Has to happen as only very professional teams can afford the insurance premiums for coverage of negligent management of players seriously unfit to work from concussion injuries. Clubs at big risk of bankruptcy from law suits for compensation

After this game, is the coach better informed or any the wiser for future selections . The standard of the game was very poor.

Hodge is dodgy unless at fullback. No one mentions the other dodgy thing about about the use of short box kicks. You have possession you put it up and mostly give it to your opponent with a 5 metre gain. About as smart as investing in crypto. Go figure.

I thought Foketi was a very steady player with maturity above his years. Hopefully he will be ok by World Cup. For the first time in a long this Wallabies team looked composed in first half; second half was frenetic. What makes a player become wild and play in a panicky way ? The instruction to play territory results in box kick and deep kicks from backs. But it should be made clear who are preferred go to kickers. The referee confounding decisions re penalties compel this style.and Comments wanting a full return to “running rugby” are misplaced ; when to adopt the running style is a balancing act. Tupou fitness is key to his game as he is a vital starter now and he should stay on as long as he can. However he must be firmly instructed not to attempt jackal but to quickly get back on defensive line as he repeatedly gets penalized (often unfairly).

A much better display by Wallabies, until , as Rennie says they did not play territory game in second half. Should bolster confidence of the squad. Poor old Tupou he had a great game and gets called for poor jackal effort AGAIN. Maybe time to leave that manoeuvre to others mate. Foketi showed great speed. It is a warm up game for next year’s cup and for the first time I consider we will be able to have a chance. Doomsayers can go jump.

The game against Japan was interesting but useless as a yardstick for selecting a team for the World Cup where our main opposition has fast big forwards. Sorry but forwards win games and our efforts to find big guys who are disciplined and play as a threatening pack has failed so far. Playing Japan is unhelpful in this regard.

I hope Rennis is correct about our forwards. He must emphasise intelligence as a essential Sick of emotionally caused penalties by Aussie forwards.

Sorry to say it but poor Tahs just lost a game they ought to have won because of their mistakes when they did not take the opportunity to play a 13 man team. Instead of spreading the ball from wing to wing on offence they repeatedly turned the ball back in. They took a penalty goal to even the score instead of chancing it with the corner and line out next to the line. The forward pack should have known the probability of the short pass to Tupou near the line but apparently no one was assigned to be in his face, relying only on a sliding defence. I don’t agree about Wilson for the Wallabies but Tupou and O’Connor must be the first Wallabies selections. And before the Wallabies play he must be threatened with suspension but given a get out of gaol card just before the game. He seemed empowered by that. Archer Holtz had a positive impact on the scrum and Jack Grant who gave it a go, impressed for the losing Tahs.

I watched the Socceroos play the Japanese team on tv last night and as they went through the team lists before the game I noticed that the commentators highlighted those players who were Aussies but now play in foreign countries.
They were no doubt earning big dollars. It was a matter of pride that some Aussie kid did well. Never a hint of a suggestion that he deserted his local club or in that doing so, he showed he was disloyal to his country.
And yet in the responses to my article many of those opposed to getting rid of the RA restrictions on suitability to be selected for the Wallabies saw the doom of local rugby if it occurred. Players were spoken of as property of RA. It was wrongly suggested that a player who left would not return and they would not still love to be selected as a Wallaby. Utter nonsense. Overseas clubs who rely on tv and sponsorsghip would not stand in the way. They promote themselves as having so many internationals. The RA cannot justify its unsound policy.

Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results. There cannot be empirical evidence of a future event so your argument is a non sequitur. I have been involved over 20 years with a Shute Shield rugby club that has ” lost” players to overseas clubs. 6 left last year. You just deal with it and wish the player the best and rebuild; experience is that you only miss them for a short time as ambitious replacements fill their role. Removing the restriction on Wallabies selection wont likely lead to a mass exodus of players as many predict. That is a fallacy. If many leave it will be because of the money and AB cannot prevent that. Handicapping the selectors by ruling out overseas Aussie born players is not dealing with the reality of a world sport professional game.