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Joined August 2016
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The critical thing about Haylett-Petty’s decision to obstruct Savea was that is is completely and utterly in-keeping with Cheika’s coaching mentality with the Waratahs and now with the Wallabies. He encourages his players to be a nuisance either through increased aggression or niggly tactics. And it has the potential to be effective and throw an opponent off and even bend the law just enough to wrangle an advantage – which it not a criticism, it’s the reality of rugby. But the trade off is that it if not intelligently used it can backfire. The Speight no-try is a clear example of this. Haylett-Petty should have had faith in Speight and run support if needed. But he didn’t – it’s been coached into him to cause problems. He saw Savea and tried to do enough to put him off even though arguably it was unnecessary. He over-stepped the line and cost his team five-to-seven points.
I think on some level Cheika understands that and having such a clear example of his own tactic blowing a Wallabies opportunity seems to have sent him over the edge a little.
Rogue Cheika tarnishes the Wallabies once again
I think the only match up that won’t be a challenge will be the one against Italy. The Pumas are at home and have proven the have the capability to worry the All Blacks. The Boks and Wallabies may be misfiring but both have the potential to take it to them. Ireland have two bites this year for the first time they’ve met since THAT game, and France is France which is still a valid argument I think.
I don’t think the All Blacks can relax. Another undefeated year is not a certainty.
Can anyone test the All Blacks this year?
This seems based on a lot of assumption and incorrect information. Maybe just wishful thinking.
Firstly the All Blacks are on 15 wins and have to beat the Boks and Pumas away to get to 17.
Also the Wallabies have a game plan to beat the All Blacks? Doubtful. The skill and general ability? You’d have to say they do being one of the few teams that can beat the All Blacks with some degree of regularity but that alone doesn’t mean they have any clue how to beat them currently. Passion, desire, and aggression isn’t going to be enough.
Remember the Wallabies haven’t beaten the All Blacks at Eden for 30 years through peaks and troughs in both teams’ performances. Based on where both are at the moment… without sounding dismissive you’ve got to say the chances are not high for an upset.
Also in regard to your selections – David Pocock is out with a broken hand.
The way forward for the Wallabies: Win at Eden Park
I decided after Conrad Smith left that Sam Whitelock would be my new favourite All Black but how can you not love what Dane Coles does? That little chip he attempted as he flew down the wing against the Boks sums it up, as does how pissed off he was at himself for buggering it up. I don’t think it’ll be too long before he adds tricks like that to his arsenal. Wonder how long it’ll be before he attempts a drop goal?
The Big Rugby Championship Question: The standout individuals
For all the crap people tend to give Justin Marshall and for every justified criticism about how annoying he is, I really do enjoy his strategic reading of the game, especially when it comes to attacking set-pieces.
All Blacks aren't waiting for the Wallabies to catch up
I don’t think the Wallabies have adequately responded to Henry’s criticisms with a couple of home wins against a malfunctioning Springbok team and a misfiring Pumas. If they get a few wins on the road then maybe. Really though there are a lot of murmurs of concern about the standard of Australian rugby at the moment and I don’t think it can be called a beat-up, more an acknowledgement of Australia’s important role in the state of the global game. Better the team and Michael Cheika take the message on board than try to dismiss it.
Winning Wallabies sink Graham Henry's "worst ever" attack
If memory serves it was Ralph who ended up defeating Goliath in that Simpsons episode. Don’t know what that means for your analogy… or in general.
Fixing the Wallabies is a David vs Goliath task.... that gives me an idea
Hard to separate the Wallabies and Springboks. I think the Wallabies will be a little more driven given it’s at home and they’ve got a bit of a losing streak they’d no doubt like to put a lid on. The Springbok team seems weaker on paper but I think they have a better handle on what they’re doing than the Wallabies who have just looked aimless. A lot will rest on which team has addressed their weaknesses better in the past fortnight.
I’ll tip the Wallabies but that’s mostly because my flat mate is tipping the Springboks.
The Big Rugby Championship Question: We might not lose this weekend
What I saw the other week was Cheika resorting to his Waratahs default – supplement for skill and game plan with passion and aggression. Worked sometimes for him at Super Rugby level, at least when he got the rub of the green with the ref. But it’s not going to work in an international and certainly not against the All Blacks.
That’s why I think there’s was so much moaning about the refereeing from Cheika. He was relying on “lax” treatment from the ref for this tactic and he didn’t get it. Partially because there is a higher standard of refereeing, partially because Romain Poite can be a niggly bastard, and partly because Stephen Moore as a captain does not have good referee-relations skills. So he and Matt Burke have covered for it by claiming it was the All Blacks who were given special treatment. It’s rather sad and I don’t know why Cheika expects it to be a winning formula anyway. The Waratahs may have taken the 2014 title with it but it was hardly convincing given they won the final with a penalty kick the referee later acknowledged shouldn’t have been awarded.
Cheika has benefited more than most from that sort of thing by Craig Joubert.
All Blacks: Aussie niggle a sign of weakness
It’s like what in said in another thread – Cheika’s focus has been short term. He took over from McKenzie and wanted immediate results. The Giteau law was part of this, changing eligibility to ensure the team had experience. It was a smart move and at the time necessary. The Pooper was another, playing a top player out of position for the sake of keeping two highly-skilled players in the starting line-up. Again, needed to be done to address the lack of depth.
But both moves were stop-gap and should have been retired after the World Cup. The Wallabies now need to build the experience that players like Giteau represent. They need to build the depth that was lacking that required the Wallabies to sacrifice a dedicated number eight for the combined skill of Pocock and Hooper.
I thought they were doing that for the England tests though perhaps that was out of necessity since the overseas players were unavailable and Pocock was injured. But despite the results I really think they need to keep that up. Unless you’re the All Blacks rebuilding means you’re going to have a few disappointing results. But the most recent 40-44 loss to England and the weekend’s 8-42 loss to the All Blacks suggest the return to the overseas players and the Pooper is a big step backwards. The All Blacks are tougher than England but not *that* much tougher and remember they almost had two more tries while Barrett left quite a few kicking points on the field.
Giteau Law must go before it destroys the Wallabies' culture
I think Australia’s World Cup performance is a little over-sold. A lot is made about the “group of death” but in reality their only real challenge was England which we all know now was seriously misfiring. Wales, despite being a top tier nation, has never worried the Wallabies too much, was severely depleted, and pretty much emptied the tank in beating England. And the Wallabies still didn’t mange to score any tries. With that they secured the easy path to the final and almost balls’d that up against Scotland. And in the final it should be remembered that they only scored three points against 15 All Blacks and could only breach the line against 14 – something that was repeated on the weekend.
When Michael Cheika came in his task was to cobble together a team that could compete in the short term. And he did this. But now the short term’s up. The Pocock-Hooper combo has done it’s dash, the weaknesses have been found out. The veterans are past it and can’t step up from French club matches to Rugby Championship tests on the turn of a dime any more, the core group haven’t taken up the mantle of experience and leadership, and the new players are coming in under-cooked from under-performing Super sides.
A bit of a mess really.
What is happening with the Wallabies?
Kaino came to New Zealand from American Samoa at age four.
The notion New Zealand is the primary villain in the Pacific Island poaching game is nonsense. While I think more could be done by tier one nations to support Pacific nations for the sake of promoting rugby in countries that love it, this whole “poaching” dialogue just breeds unjustified resentment. Not only on the side of nations who feel unjustly villified but also on the side of Pacific Island unions who feel as if they are being cheated despite the fact that their players are benefiting hugely from the rugby development of tier one nations that they simply can’t get in Samoa/Fiji/Tonga.
Do the All Blacks exploit the Pacific Islands?