Roar Rookie
Joined November 2014
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A Wallabies supporter - state-agnostic
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In a move guaranteed to raise hackles and hopes in equal measure - with Tweed Heads being the proximate fulcrum for that impressively gymnastic…
Are you sure that Hooper “avoids rucks”? My recollection is that he frequently tops the ruck engagement stats for both the Waratahs and Wallabies.
Hooper's not the best over the ball, so why say he is?
Why did you choose the 2012, in preference to the 2013 or 2014 stats?
Hooper's not the best over the ball, so why say he is?
Cute demonstration of your own political bias by singling out one party.
Hooper's not the best over the ball, so why say he is?
It’s easy to criticize Dwyer, because he certainly puts himself about, but it’s worth remembering that he’s a world cup winning rugby coach, with a high-quality coaching manual that’s highly respected today, and still an advanced thinker on the game, which is more than any of the many keyboard warriors who like to criticize him have ever achieved in the sport of rugby.
His points on urgent realignment remain completely valid, and we can see that no more than in the play of the All Blacks, who play in precisely that way. If you actually read his points on multiple touches for playmakers, he makes it abundantly clear in his publications that in today’s game this isn’t about looping behind supports, in the way that it was done in the 80s, but about playmakers urgently realigning in attack so they have the opportunity to help exploit breaks and half-breaks by the runners they release.
Done this way, the tactic has precisely the same application that it did then, which is to generate numeric mismatches in attack. The great current masters of it are the Kiwis, who always work hard to get playmakers behind the ball in open play. The greatest master of it in the Wallabies post-Ella period was Tim Horan, who continuously ranged on the shoulder of men he put into gaps.
Obviously, if done laterally it’s easy to defend. Done dynamically, at pace, it isn’t. The straw man here is to intentionally dumb down Dwyer’s analysis to score rhetorical points.
Ella, the 80s and rose-coloured glasses (part II)
Waratahs is spelt with one R, Crazy Horse, the same as in Farce.
Wallabies on the way up