Search results

I’m also patiently awaiting the playing/results dividend from all that fantastic new ‘culture’ that Thorn was supposedly inducing into the 2018 Reds. Perhaps we’ll just have to wait another year?

:) Seriously DP, you make my day.

Why do I feel I have witnessed that statement 23 times since CFS started playing with the Reds?

^^^ Agree - Powell was shocking. Why oh why really replace Phipps who’s super fit and was doing well overall - was he injured?

Congratulations Ireland, a fantastic effort this far from home and, even more impressive, all from a nation of 4.5m people with just as much cross-code competition as we have here. Outstanding technical coaching led by Schmidt (with his 72% w-l Test record) and pretty consistent playing quality...

Completely agree - I commented on the WR (World Rugby) rankings principally as they are routinely quoted here and in the media as though some sacrosanct reality to be continuously focussed upon and, as I've argued above, IMO they can be and often are highly misleading and further often change materially on on...

My whole piece was about trends and key meets (like 3 Test home series vs good teams), BC status and starting to lose against teams from way smaller countries and that, for the most part, historically we were unanimously assumed to be able to defeat. Maybe not for you, I respect that, but for...

It's a 'spontaneous on-the-fly' system that IMO is riddled with eccentricities arising from the fact that it is heavily weighted to the most recent attained Test results, can change significantly just on one latest global Test Round, does not routinely reward consistency of elite results over...

I guess I didn't desire to get into hair-splits re what is a Tier 1 nation and what is a Tier 2 rugby nation. Maybe WR (World Rugby) classes Australia forever as a Tier 1 until a cataclysmic collapse unfolds. If so, you are technically correct and I'll readily concede the literal point. Whatever WR (World Rugby)'s odd...

Whatever his qualities and future potential in green and gold, you are absolutely right. It's arguable that the 3 (?) penalties Timu conceded and Sexton's delighted 3-pointers from them may well have cost us the game.

We can shuffle the squad as much as we like but if our work at the breakdown (ie do way better than a singular reliance on Popock especially as the Irish have worked out how to (mostly) effectively counter him), tactical kicking and from hand, and lowering Sexton's 3-point opportunities don't...

Some interesting stats from news.com.au: Wallabies halfbacks’ success rates WILL GENIA (at No.9): 80 Tests, won 44 (56 per cent). With Foley: 25 Tests, won 13 (52 per cent) NICK PHIPPS (at No.9): 28 Tests, won 13 (46 per cent). With Foley: 18 Tests, won 7 (39 per cent)

Yep. Nearly every Wallaby loss now = extensive ref whinging/ref bashing, it’s a mark of our decline, not of our better insight. The slow death of the doctrine of responsibility of outcome by the person or team creating it. Someone else is now always to blame. The newly forged victims of the...

One important truth emerges from last night and Ireland's recent very impressive provincial and Test form: The ridiculous notion that Australian rugby is 'simply destined' to degrade into a tiny code here as 'we have to compete with NRL and AFL and so however we manage ourselves we're going to...

^^^^ Perhaps pinched from the 'What did Robbie Deans Do for the Wallabies' thread/essay of..........many years ago? = a trip down nostalgia lane

Yeah but it's like shooting fish in a barrel.

What really impressed me re Test I and answered my pre-game question - what has the Wallaby coaching team learnt since June 2016's disaster if anything? - was the obvious calibre of improved technical coaching in virtually all aspects of Wallaby play bar kicking from hand (which apparently is an...

Test II Ireland v Australia June 16, 2018 Referee: Paul Williams (New Zealand) Assistant 1 Pascal Gauzere (France) Assistant 2 Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa) TMO Ben Skeen (New Zealand)

If it's plural Byron, that should (as we now know) accurately be Byronii (as led forward into the grammatical abyss by the Pillock).

RR - looking at the latest ticket availability I think the Suncorp crowd could head towards 45,000. It was a very ordinary match in 2010 at Suncorp v Ireland, but I believe the crowd back then was 45,000. The biggest question in my view underpinning this Test - about which I’m excited - is...