Author: Scott Allen

It was obvious to anyone watching the first game of the Tri Nations last weekend that the All Blacks went in with a deliberate policy of keeping the ball in play to minimise the impact of the Springbok lineout and tire the big South African forwards. Whilst the number of times in possession was fairly even with the All Blacks having 50 possessions and the Springboks 46, the number of times each team took the ball into a breakdown was vastly different – 118 for the All Blacks and only 79 for the Springboks. Click on the Match Statistics icon to…

Wow! We have some very attentive readers.  The number of things people picked up that might link the eights scrums I showed you last week together was amazing.  It may well be that some of those even apply to 74 of the 75 scrums so far this season but there’s only one issue that I know of that meets that criteria. There were three readers who left comments that were on the same track – BigNose was the first to notice the pattern, then expanded on the idea with AJ before James D joined in and also got it.

Here’s a video of eight scrums in the first four Wallaby tests this season.  One is different to the other seven – in fact this partcular scrum is different to every one of the 74 other scrums so far in the international season.  What’s the difference?  Watch the video and leave your comments.  Then come back on Monday for confirmation that we see the same thing.

Luke Burgess’s passing against Ireland left a lot to be desired. He threw an average pass 47% of the time and a poor pass 22% of the time. The performance of Burgess and Genia so far this season is shown below.  Watch the video to see examples from both Burgess and Genia. FIJI – Luke Burgess ENGLAND – Luke Burgess ENGLAND – Will Genia Pass Type Number % Number % Number % Good 40 57% 33 50% 38 66% Average 25 36% 27 42% 18 31% Poor 5 7% 5 8% 2 3% Total 70 100% 65 100% 58 100%…

In the first four games of the season the Wallabies have used a relatively young back line with some new combinations.  There’s been plenty of discussion elsewhere about how the individual players have been performing and what the makeup of the back line should be. What I want to focus on is how the back line has been combining and more importantly, what directions they’ve been receiving from the coaches.  In this video we look at a sample of the plays the Wallabies have been using – some with success and some not.

This year we’ve introduced a comprehensive statistical analysis of the Wallabies games. After four games of the 2010 season and with a four week break for the Wallabies now’s the time to reflect on what’s happened so far and look at the trends that have developed. In terms of possession, there’s not much continuity in the Wallabies current game with 42% of the Wallabies possession sequences only lasting one phase with a further 27% lasting two phases. One of the major issues with continuity has been

Wallaby supporters would hardly have been filled with confidence for the upcoming Tr-Nations by the performance against Ireland. The Wallabies had 145 phases from the 50 times they commenced a possession sequence.  Yet they were only able to make five line breaks and score two tries (one of which was an intercept).  The Irish had 82 phases from the 42 times they commenced a possession sequence yet they were only able to make two line breaks and scored no tries.  Hardly entertaining rugby! Click on the relevant graphics to download either the Team Statistics or Player Statistics.

On Friday I went to the Wallabies Captains Run and watched Matt Giteau and Quade Cooper working very hard on their kicking and as I noted in my article on Matt Giteau’s kicking later that day, Giteau was still having troubles whilst Cooper was kicking well.  What I didn’t realise at the time was that this was a “kick-off” between the two to help Robbie Deans decide on who would be kicking against Ireland.  As we now know he went with the left-side, right-side strategy and that seemed to cause confusion between the kickers when the first kick was straight…

. John Eales turned 40 on Sunday so on behalf of all of us at G&GR, Happy Birthday. At a time when Australian Rugby could do with some heroes I thought we should celebrate some of his rugby triumphs in this video. From the World Cup in 1991, to the World Cup in 1999 to his retirement in 2001,  there was just too much to include everything. It’s certainly good to watch a Wallaby captain lifting up some major silverware. Let us know your favourite John Eales moment and don’t forget to send your own birthday wishes.

Matt Giteau’s kicking in the first half of last Saturday’s game against England was quite good.  So what changed?  Did his technique change or was it the pressure of knowing the game was tight and the outcome of the kicks could mean so much? Or was it the fact that he was kicking from the left  side of the field?  I don’t think that’s the answer and let’s not forget the last one he missed was from directly in front!  I think Giteau’s been a good kicker but I see a flaw in his technique that could well become a…

In bringing you our analysis of the Wallabies each week, we need to watch and re-watch the game to find the most relevant information to highlight and sometimes it can be painful going through that process.  However, this week it felt like Groundhog Day – I couldn’t escape the feeling that I’ve seen all this before.  England must get credit for their improved performance, even though they were coming off a pretty low base.  To so radically change your performance from a slow, stodgy game in Perth to an up tempo game in one week without major team changes was remarkable and…

▶ Here they are – vote at the bottom for your favourite try from these doozies. We had 22 submissions in May, and these were our panel’s pick of the bunch. World Cup winning Wallabies coach Bob Dwyer also had a gander, and here’s what he picked out of the short list: 1. Paul Donnely for Brothers . Great awareness by s/half on own goal-line. Following kick, urgency at b/down with numbers results in quick t/over. 2. Mitchell Wade for Qld Uni. Great running skills by f/back in counter. Excellent urgency in recycle. Great straighten after break makes pass back…

Here’s the video for part 2 of our scrum analysis.  I’ve included scrums showing both tighthead and loosehead sides.  I’ve also added some still frames and slow motion footage at relevant points and posed some questions. Sure, there are what I consider to be are refereeing errors and illegal tactics but that’s part and parcel of rugby.  We’re more interested in hearing what tricks there are to counter these tactics. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to imagine Robbie calls you in to tutor whichever young blokes he’s going to throw in to the lions den this week. 

Is there anyone who can really work out all of the secrets of a scrum?  There probably are a few around, but we don’t profess to have all the answers.  Perhaps collectively we can act as the Wallabies scrum doctor and decipher what went wrong on Saturday and what to do about it. So if you’ve stuck your head into dark places on a rugby field, please share your knowledge with the rest of us.  For our part we’ll try to deliver the relevant images to help your analysis. In part 1 of the analysis we’ve included clips of the…

The Wallabies performance against England on Saturday had plenty of positives.  Quade Cooper continues to show he’s the real deal.  The defence was really good and the goal line defence was superb.  Luke Burgess had his best game as a Wallaby and Drew Mitchell continued his good form. The statistics from the game confirm a couple of areas where there are trends developing that need attention.  The amount of possession lost was too high, there were more missed tackles than should be expected from a national team and Luke Burgess has some more work to do.  The scrums? Yes, there is that issue,…

This month we’ve got 22 club tries from clubs in Brisbane and Perth. There are some fabulous tries in the list, including one from Australian Under 20 player, Aidan Toua, who shows how fast he really is. However it seems there are no good tries being scored in the rest of the country. We keep hearing good things about the attacking rugby being played in the Shute Shield competition but there’s no evidence being posted in this competition. Last month Trent Jones from Brothers in Brisbane won $750 of prizes from Skins and Kooga. See the presentation at https://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/ggr-best-aussie-club-try-of-april-winner/

Any discussion regarding how the Wallabies used their possession against Fiji will probably focus on how the combination of Quade Cooper at #10 and Matt Giteau at #12 worked. There was a lot of talk before the game suggesting they would take turns at first receiver or possibly have a left side/right side first receiver. What setup did the Wallabies use in attack? How effective was that setup? Was Cooper able to bring his creativity during the Super 14 to test level? Who was the Wallabies most effective ball runner? The answers, the video and more are here ….

 You know the score, you’ve seen the game and you’ve probably formed a view on what the Wallabies did well and what they can improve on.  What do the statistics show? Do they support your views on what happened in the game? Throughout the Wallabies 2010 campaign we’ll bring you previews, live calls, match reports and after match analysis (including statistics).  Our statistical analysis isn’t just a series of numbers regurgitated from another source – these are statistics prepared by the Green and Gold Rugby team so we can all dig a little deeper into an analysis of the game.   You can download the complete…

Just what was Rocky Elsom thinking with his Jumpin’ Jack Flash impersonation in the game against Fiji?  

There was a clear winner (with 45% of the vote) for our April Try of the Month: following some scintillating lead up work from Damon Murphy, Trent Jones demonstrated great support play to dot down for Brothers against Sydney University. Below is a video of the winners being presented their Skins and KooGa booty by G&GR’s Juan Cote. This try will now be one of the tries up for the G&GR Best Aussie Club Try of the year, of which the winner’s club of will receive more Skins and KooGa kit as well as a team coaching session with Robbie…