Hey Wallabies,
It’s me again. I take it you got my letter yesterday. It certainly seemed to get a reaction, didn’t it?
Since writing my letter (and reading the 230-plus comments) I have had a think. About rugby and about life more generally. And I sat down and rewatched the game. It certainly was a bit of an eye-opening experience, and so I thought I would write you another letter after the chaos of the weekend had died down a little.
First up, I will always love you guys. Always. At the end of the letter I said I was ‘out’, but to be honest I could never walk away from you. Gold just brings out the shine in my eyes so well, and when I see John Eales hoisting the Webb Ellis, or Kev lifting the 3N trophy, it just brightens my day. As much as I was devastated after Saturday, I will still be supporting you with everything I’ve got for the rest of the tournament. And I will be in the front row at the airport to greet you when you bring back Bill.
But that doesn’t mean I take back everything I said on Saturday. Far from it. Once again we were outmuscled at the breakdown, and plenty of forwards went missing. The thing that I loved most about the Brisbane Bledisloe was the hunger and mongrel showed at the tackle contest. We were picking blokes up and driving them back in the tackle, then competing with all of our might when the ball was on the floor. Where did that go on Saturday? Instead of belting blokes we were going for the bootlaces, then standing back as the Irish easily secured possession and rolled on without missing a beat.
And we were soundly beaten in the battle of the tactics. In fact we were flogged. So Robbie, you deserved everything I threw at you on Sunday morning. The Irish knew their strengths and played to them perfectly — the scrum, the tackle, kicking in general play. Not only did we seem directionless in attack, we also made plenty of stupid decisions. Where we needed cooler heads to prevail, we instead tried chip-kicks in our own 22 or behind-the-back passes when hot on attack. That may be the stuff that wins Super Rugby games, but this is the fucking World Cup, boys. You should know better, and if you try that shit again in the finals I will lose it. Again.
But it was more than that. Ben McCalman is a shadow of David Pocock. And I don’t mean to get down on you, Benny. I love you, and think you are a great player. But you should never have been running out in a crucial RWC match with a 7 on your back. It isn’t your fault. We have two very good opensides sitting at home, and I’d imagine they would have been as frustrated as I was. I feel your pain, Hodgo and Beau.
I was wrong to single individuals out, though. I admit that, and realise the obvious irony of saying that just after singling out one player. On Saturday everyone was bad. Whilst KB and Quade had a few good moments, they also were responsible for two of the most calamitous brain farts of the game. In a tight World Cup encounter that just isn’t good enough. So apologies Rocky, McCalman, Sekope, Ant and Pat. I was wrong. I should have added Ben, Tatafu, Vicks, Kev, Samo, Genia, Quade, AAC, JOC and Kurtley. Oh, and the bench. Actually, maybe not because most of you only saw the game in the last 5–10 minutes, whenthere wasn’t really much you could have done.
So in conclusion, I didn’t mean to be so harsh with you guys. I love you, and sometimes that love drives me to say crazy things. But that doesn’t mean that you didn’t deserve an almighty serve after Saturday. And I stand by a lot of what I wrote about you. Nonetheless, I will be cheering madly while you try and dig yourselves out of the hole that you have created.
Yours forever,
Barbarian.
Hi Irish people,
Welcome to the site. It was lovely for you to pop by yesterday. And you certainly know how to dominate a comments board, don’t you!
Yeah I was a bit harsh on your team. They are a good international side and played well. You have some great players that I love watching, and your pre-match IRB ranking of 8 may have been artificially low. Congratulations, you deserved the win.
However, some of you got way too far ahead of yourselves. You played a good game on Saturday, but it was by no means a great game. Some of you seemed to believe this Irish side are a group of immortal world-beaters, and that the Wallabies should not have just been respectful on Saturday, they should have been positively scared. But they aren’t that good, I stick to my guns there. They played a good game, but never looked like scoring a try. Can they win the World Cup? I very much doubt it. Can they make the final? Yes. Especially with the good draw they know have.
I am happy to eat a kilo of humble pie if you guys lift the Webb Ellis. And to be honest I will be cheering for you aAs long as you aren’t playing Australia). I like the way you play. But I don’t think you can get there. So call me arrogant if you must, but I will stick to my guns. And I promise I will post a big humiliating apology if you win.
But back to yesterday. You said I was arrogant, and a sore loser. I disagree with both. Is it too much to expect my team (the team currently ranked second in the world, who just beat the All Blacks to win the 3N and looked pretty damn good against the Italians) to beat the team ranked eight who played pretty poorly against the USA and before that lost four on the trot? And yeah, I know they were just warm-up games, but you know what we did in our warm-up games? We beat the Boks in the Republic and knocked off the Kiwis at home. So was I wrong to be feeling confident? The bookmakers certainly agreed with me. As did most of the pundits. Are they arrogant too?
And it goes beyond that. The talk coming out of this Wallabies team was that they can beat anyone. They are a brash, confident mob. As a result of this talk I too thought they could beat anyone. After all, why would the Wallabies lie to me? I saw this game as a challenge, but ultimately one we should have been good enough to overcome. But we weren’t, and in my view a lot of that was our players’ and coaches’ fault. I felt like a bit of a chump after feeling so confident before the game, and that was where a lot of my rant stemmed from.
And the ‘sore loser’ thing? I would suggest I wasn’t a sore loser, I was just plain sore. I never disputed the result for a second;the Irish were the better side on the night and thoroughly deserved the win. The Wallabies copped a far bigger spray than you guys did. The spray didn’t so much come from Saturday night, but more from a larger history of matches against perceived lesser opposition (Scotland, Samoa, England, Munster). So don’t take it too personally. Please.
So in conclusion, it was lovely to have you at G&GR. Please hang around and peruse the range of quality articles we have on offer. We would love to have you. And good luck in the RWC. I think you will need it.
Much love,
Barbarian.
