Author: Scott Allen

At the age of four, little Aelita Andre from Melbourne has become a fêted artist. Dubbed the ‘Toddler Picasso’, she has just held a solo show at the Agora Gallery in Chelsea, New York. Her style is called ‘abstract expressionism’.  Is she an amazing artist or just a kid splashing paint around on a canvas? It doesn’t really matter what we think, does it, because there are people who love her work and they’re prepared to pay tens of thousands of dollars to secure one of her paintings. That sounds like a great way to earn a living and I…

Did you see the reports recently that the NRL is planning to introduce GPS-fitted balls so forward passes can be monitored by satellite? We already know that GPS chips are embedded in some players’ jerseys so the amount of running they do is monitored by strength and conditioning staff. I wonder how long it will be before every player wears a GPS chip and the ball also has one embedded so it’s possible to track which player is doing what and how each team is moving the ball around the field when they’re in possession? If you had that sort of…

What’s going on at the breakdown? Last week I published an analysis of infringements at the breakdown in the Tri Nations match between the All Blacks and Springboks to determine how strictly the referees are adjudicating the breakdown. See it here. I said last week … ‘The purpose of this exercise is not to target any particular team or any particular player.’ However, many of our Kiwi friends (and some who weren’t so friendly) didn’t believe that an Australian could prepare an analysis that wasn’t alleging cheating on the part the All Blacks, and in particular Richie McCaw. The most…

The All Blacks were outstanding against the Wallabies on the weekend. It was a dominant display and on the night there was a significant gulf between the two teams. In my opinion I’d rate the All Blacks performance at around 90 per cent. The only areas I think they would have been unhappy with were their scrums and lineouts. Wyatt Crockett looks a likely candidate to earn plenty of penalties with his technique and his position in the squad must be in doubt, given the improvement when the Franks brothers were together. The All Blacks’ lineouts were average with only 79 per cent…

If you’re a Wallabies fan and you can’t wait for tomorrow’s game, press Play! [youtube width=”600″ height=”450″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk4316vwN98[/youtube]

The anticipation is building — there’s only two days to go before we get our first real indicator of how the Wallabies are looking for 2011. Watch the video to see some of the areas I expect the Wallabies will have taken note of from last weekend’s game between the All Blacks and the Springboks. My tip: Wallabies by 5. [youtube width=”600″ height=”450″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5P2SHGH-Ig[/youtube]

What’s going on at the breakdown? It’s been about a year now since Scarfman, our colleague here at Green & Gold Rugby, produced his All Blacks at the Breakdown video exposing some of the tricks the All Blacks got away with in the first match of the 2010 Tri Nations between the All Blacks and Springboks. That video proved to be a worldwide hit and evoked plenty of comment from All Black supporters who claimed we were biased in our approach as all teams were guilty of the same breaches, and from the rest who lined up to decry the…

It was certainly a resounding victory for the All Blacks against the Springboks on the weekend. Some of the key statistics that show the All Blacks’ dominance are: the All Blacks won 100% of their lineouts while the Springboks could manage just 77%; the All Blacks conceded one scrum through a penalty but still won 92% on their own feed while the Springboks conceded one though a penalty and lost one outright for only 71% on their own feed; and the All Blacks won 9 of the Springboks’ breakdowns leading to only 87% retained by the Springboks while the All Blacks…

Fortune favours the brave! Who dares wins! We all know Richie McCaw pushes the boundaries of the Laws of the Game and he gets away with more than most — that’s what makes him the world’s best number 7. As a coach I’m always keen to see my number 7 pushing the referee as far as they can and then once they find the limit, backing off. In the past we’ve seen plenty of illegal work at the breakdown from Sir Richie and we’ve seen his early detachment from scrums to run interference or score that try against the Wallabies…

After an ordinary start to the 2011 international season against Samoa, the Wallabies bounced back with an improved performance against the Springboks in TN1 on the weekend. There’s no doubt the introduction of some of the players rested for the game against Samoa made a big difference but the match also offered a chance for some of the players from that game against Samoa to show they’ve got more to offer the Wallabies than they managed the week before. Will Genia, Quade Cooper, Kurtley Beale and James O’Connor were the high profile stars who grabbed much of the attention in the…

The bookies think it’ll be the team in Red… sorry, Grey! I feel most people think the Crusaders are the favourites, and most Aussies hope it’s the Reds but suspect it might be the Crusaders. Before the semi-finals I was asked for my predictions – I went with the Reds over the Blues and the Crusaders over the Stormers. Then it came to the question of Reds v. Crusaders in the final. I dodged answering as I thought it would be too close too call. After the semi-finals I started wavering towards the Crusaders – their demolition of the Stormers…

What are the factors that will give Link and all Reds fans reason to smile as the Reds approach the Super Rugby final against the Crusaders this weekend? The Reds’ defensive record is good and there should be a good level of confidence the Reds can shut the Crusaders down. In 2009, before Link and his coaching team took charge, the Reds had a pretty ordinary record in that regard. Link says that when he first joined the Reds and was looking for assistant coaches he read a paper on defence written by Matt Taylor, who at the time was…

As the Reds approach their first Super Rugby final, there are a few areas of concern for Link and his coaching team. The first area has to be the scrum. In the regular season in 2010 and 2011 the Reds managed to win 94 per cent of their own scrums. However, in both years when they played the Crusaders that fell to 83 and 8o per cent respectively. Granted, that doesn’t look like much of a drop, but it’s still one scrum against the feed per match, and with that sort of advantage the Crusaders could really sting the Reds.…

… particularly when it involves Richie McCaw. Sunday’s game between the Reds and Crusaders didn’t disappoint with a number of refereeing decisions being called into question. There were even some who claimed the referee cost the Crusaders the game by wrongly awarding that last penalty against McCaw. Marc Hinton had this comment to make on a rugby blog in New Zealand: On Sunday Dickinson was so bad it almost defied belief. To be fair he wasn’t helped by his so-called assistants, but his calls all seemed to go against one team. At a rough count he missed two obvious Reds…

As we head towards what I think will be the game of the season to date I wanted to take a look at some of the threats the Crusaders pose for the Reds. The following video touches on some areas the Reds must be mindful of. But the thing about the Crusaders is that there are so many other threats to deal with as well. Having said that, the Crusaders will also have their hands full dealing with what the Reds have to offer, so this should be a great game. [youtube width=”600″ height=”450″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhPY60TQwOg[/youtube]

I’m not a fan of the current scrum call sequence, particularly how slowly it’s being called in 2011. One of the common complaints about the calling sequence is that there is so much variation from scrum to scrum and from referee to referee. To see how accurate this complaint is I decided to look at three games from the 2011 Super Rugby competition that were controlled by referees who’ve now been announced on the 2011 RWC panel — Craig Joubert, Jonathon Kaplan and Bryce Lawrence. If there’s one job I wouldn’t want in rugby, it would be refereeing; there is…

There’s been lots of comment on the Tom Carter no-try decision on Saturday night. People have strong views on the subject. Here’s the footage of the movement from three different angles. [youtube width=”600″ height=”450″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km7XMyNG3rM[/youtube] As a starting point for my analysis I’ve summarised the comments of those who believe the wrong decision was made as follows. The referee was in poor position or the wrong position to make a decision; Even if it wasn’t a try, the ensuing scrum should have been awarded to the Waratahs; Even if the footage doesn’t show the ball being grounded over the line, there…

Let’s take a look at the statistics for the kicking by each Super Rugby team after Round 9 of the 2011 competition. Click on the icon in the column headings to sort the data in the tables. This table shows the number of kicks and the metres gained so far in 2011. While the Reds might be leading the pack in terms of the number of kicks per game, my impression is that a lot of those are attacking kicks in behind the line; nonetheless, there’s no doubt that Quade Cooper is playing for field position more than he did in 2010. With…

The Waratahs completely outplayed the Reds in their Round 2 clash, playing a power game built on an aggressive defence structure. The Tahs played played for field position and then defended really well to shut down the Reds attack. While there was little difference between the number of kicks by each team (Tahs 30 to Reds 27), the Reds were trying short kicks to break the Tahs’ defensive line and so gained only 659 metres kicking; the Tahs were looking for distance and gained 1,043 metres off the boot. The Tahs played with only 44 per cent of possession and…

Teams need quick ball from the breakdown so they can attack more freely by limiting the time the opposition has to set up its defensive structures. In 2010 the revised interpretation of the laws saw the attacking team favoured at the ruck. That led to much quicker processing of the ball, allowing teams to retain possession and attack with more confidence. Early that year, questions were being asked about the open-side flanker’s role, on the assumption that there would be less opportunity for the traditional scavenging function and fewer turnovers at the ruck. Some suggested that No. 7s would play a little…