Love DC’s awareness about young Jorgo! This builds a strong relationships between players, team and club. Classic DC, pity Not-so-steady Eddie didn’t do this. RG is officially starting to think of better times for the TAHS!

Hey Lucky Phill!
Love it! more people playing and more games played with a feeder path! Yes, I wonder though how many Premier Rugby GM’s will reach out to their RA mates to white ant it! The academy and SR seconds are likely to be owners of the box of chocolates at the end of the season. Another good idea is to recruit contracted players from the U16 Nationals for like 30K/pa and once out of school, move them into Premier Colts teams until they can make it to the academies. One Suilai fee per year could run 30-60 u16’s for 2 years. A good use of investment money!

Cannonball, I understand that a change of government is now required after two losses in a row and although they didn’t win they were soundly beaten and really didn’t play that poorly! The Nuns are in a world of pain! Suggest reading stuff.co.nz for all the pleasurable foolish details!,,,

MTC, Spot on, for us wobbley supporters, negotiating F1J1 team will be a serious affair. Beating them is the first issue and surviving them the second issue. Most people fear the AvB pools but expect the to teams to dent each other quite a bit. Losing a key player will be a big issue for most and possibly enough to lose a semi final.
The best RWC is decades as it is so open. My tip, look for the guys being parachuted in from Australia A team. May I suggest there is a hidden 10 in Eddies grand scheme of tricks!

Barnes Got it 100%, At kid footy, refs would show some love! But at the very top the law clearly states a scrum and other team feeds. Its about taking advantage and opportunity. That however comes at a cost, so get it right.

Geoff, Thanks for the honesty, a rare thing in rugby. This years World Cup for us is getting around Fiji without having too many bruises. Definitely a tense match for us. The later is the battle of Lyon! We have to put Wales away with a plumb in order to go drinking in Marseille! I expect the beers will flow for us there on Saturday more than Sunday. However, a win should Eddie & team prevail brings us down to the place where “anybody” can win. Bodies being the keyword, who gets injured, who gets carded, both for Wannabies and the foe. To be fair Rennie could have got us this far basically due to the draw. Eddie can only be marked from Semi final on! To date, “No miracles here mate!” et at all Edward Jones.

Common Eddie! You have been gifted a quarter final team from Renns. So now its your turn, make the call and prove your worth…..

After a million beers thinking this one through its come down to these key points.
Chuck Giteau law as far as you can throw it. We always need the best 23 whenever the Ws play. Contract the promising 16 year olds at nationals for a nominal amount and make them play in elite colts until their bodies and brains are up to it. That increases the number of 20 year olds in the game which corrects almost all the other issues. Three to five years of this and we are always back in the top three which should always be our measure of success! Being 1st all the time is great but fanciful as you cannot control what other teams and countries are doing.

JDK, Coach a team understand the dynamic. What you say is really on the number. However the media needs a quick read and that is always gonna be a boom bust cycle. This is seriously destructive to the game. I am of the belief that Rennie had started a cycle of re-building / start of a new cycle as you say. The Wallabies are absolutely gonna make a quarter final and with a bit of luck a Semi. Depending on tournament factors ( namely injuries of key players in our team or opponents ) you just never know. If Eddie does not get a Semi Final then the whole charade of shooting Rennie and buying Eddie should classed a miss management. My view in winning RWCs is mostly about making sure every young kid who plays rugby get the chance to develop into a player of the highest possible standard that they want to play at. Work in keeping the players in the game via clever pathways is key. Then we just need those miracle mums like Mrs McCall, Mrs Carter, Mrs Farr-Jones etc to perform for us! Lets hope for 23 of those special people! The more of them the more world cups!

Class, Class, Class!
Rens achieved a huge amount for RA and we have treated him less than well. The player group has developed in stature and skills. Our performance in this RWC will be on his foundation.
Thank you,

Riggers, love the chat but you missed the biggest ones of all time a Paramount Mini series of RA in the “Power and the Glory” or, is it “Rugby Dynasty!” or, then again it could be “Love Island” or even just “Survivor!” Paramount would love this melodrama set at Driver Avenue! Perhaps they should contact Netflix for a bidding war!

PK, I would hope for more optimism! The players are key and a fit 10/12 combo of QC & SK will change the look of the team. We really need some of our next year’s players to really step up but I have lower confidence that they will. Hunter is an unlikely Kit’tau if fit, is the guy, and, as much as I would like Tate to get ago I cannot see him nailing his passing & kicking game and I would expect Lonegan to step up. Also, remember a Koro/Marky wing combo is looking impressive with Kellaway in the mix. I think we are better than a QF!

OMG, Rennie is a master coach! He has taken a below-par Wallaby team crucified with injuries and ridiculous exclusion laws and been at the tipping point of beating all the top teams in one or two of the matches. In response, he has built amazing depth and found a few newbies who could do the job as well. Australia with a full and fit team will be the scariest opposition at World Cup in France. With the likes of Korobeti, Kerevi, Cooper, Skelton, Philip, and Taupo returning and Frost, Nagaagagagaga (you know that bloke on the wing) A full back or two returning. You are going to be exceptional just to make the squad. People in rugby should know it’s time to place a bet on the W’s for Semi and Finals for the RWC while the odds are good. Thanks, Rens I’ll give you a nod of thanks. Geek!

R, if Tate cleans up his passing game and masters a box kick, then Rens will love him. But to be honest he really needs work to be world standard. However, definitely worth the investment.

KPOL, Love the balanced thought. Totally agree! But we are talking RA HQ?

Yet another 70 good reasons to dropkick the Giteau Law out of bounds. Gee we don’t need this many reasons to not be successful at this game!

Sounds like a plan! have a 9 with a poor pass to a 10 with poor structure/attack under pressure. Rennie reads it correctly. Both may step up. But there are no free rides at the national level.

Jones is not a long-term coach. His style will always lose the dressing room. Rennie is not acknowledged for the good that he has done. This team given a fix in their overzealous physical training. (problem tobe fixed shortly, fingers crossed) Can put out on the paddock a top 3 side. Plus there is now for the first time is a decade or two depth to slot in behind our number one players. So our answer to this is? “Burn him! He is a witch!!!!” as typified by the monty python sketch.

OS,
Sadly Joc has moved to the final trimester of his career. He joins KB with Cooper possibly next season or if we are lucky RWC then fade away.

CD, It hurts at times to be a coach of a team. Players train like Tarzan and play like Jane! The WB’s have a brain issue with the desperation to want to succeed. But they make poor choices under pressure. Rennie is the right coach but he needs to sit players down so they get time to be straight. Half-backs that can’t hit the player out in front in both directions are NOT Wallaby standard so sit them down till they get it. 10’s that make poor choices have to prove themselves at the lower level until they are the best option. Hookers have to be able to 100% hit the target at Test level otherwise sit them down. Back-three must be 100% on a high ball so sit them down. My concern is? Do we have enough players to actually get 23 that just do the core stuff perfectly? I spent time with players working through what it costs a team to give penalties away. If you can get the team down to 5 to 6 penalties per game you’re on a big winning streak! Players who can’t compose themselves need to own up to the other players that they just don’t trust each other enough to do it correctly. Often the answers lie between humility and calmness. Desperation and fear too not succeed are the killers. The Wallabies are full of both. Dave Rennie has the calmness required but the organisation has to support the process of being blunt to players about performances and rest them till they get it. We are close to rock bottom as well as exponential growth. Attitude and calmness with ten tonnes of resolve is what’s needed. Plus give the spin doctors a rest at RA, they are just not helping……. Rant over…..

JM, the analysis is quite sound. I would like to flavour it with one of the guiding principles of Rugby. “That it is a game of continual contest for the ball.

” Where this law annoys me is it’s the choice of the attacking team to choose how far backward or not they choose to pass the ball.

A deliberate knockdown is easily enough to determine on the pitch as a ref. Most knock-forwards are a desperate attempt by a defending player to intercept the ball. In fact, I really can’t remember a game internationally, when a player deliberately knocked the ball away. Possibly a reactionary action from an Ex-NRL player in goal in a super rugby game.

This should only have a penalty sanction only with a scrum for unintentional and penalty try (without a yellow card) where a try scoring opportunity was probable.

Gents
Last weekend was truly beautiful for rugby world wide! Argies did the AB’s in the gutsy defence wins games! Parlance! Wallabies tough out a smart win against the Bokkes! NZ now ranked 5 th and my France trip next years is looking so good I am already salivating! But looking wider I can’t help but think the kiwis have finally done a job on themselves! They have for the past 5 years exported some fantastic coaching talent all over the world and the have lost their rugby IP advantage. Now the world teams are so close that there is no longer a gap! NZ will just have to suck up the fact that they created there own problems by coaching up the opposition to level where they will only are wining 25% of there games! That is coach sacking territory and Ian Foster may not be the poor quality coach rather he just has better competition!

PK the ref really experienced the toughest of games to ref. A number of calls were subject to pressure and I counted about 5 doubtful call that went against the WBs. But all in all we should smile with the W

Best to read and enjoy the Poms disgust in losing, knowing we really dodged a bullet that was meant to be for us! Well done the WBs!!!! But the White Trolls are far from done!

MC for a harden Tahs fan! I have been misled, tricked, conned, and, deluded into believing that the Tahs have what it takes. Every year they get me! So much so I shout the motto of “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory!” to anybody who will listen. I know DC, a fine man who knows a thing or two about our game.

But the last game, wow! I have watched it twice and the excitement is back! Like a jilted lover, “all is forgiven”