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The ARU's official announcement, and coach's commentary: http://www.rugby.com.au/wallabies/News/NewsArticle/tabid/1516/ArticleID/4506/Default.aspx

Kiwi fans behaviour/attitude towards Aussies/Wallabies going mainstream now. This on front page of digital SMH just now:

A lot of this team's 'strategy' makes little sense to me then. We can take lots of on-paper risks with starting multiple forwards that are either ex-injured or have started little (see list), yet we keep A Fainga'a in who's sadly been playing poorly and looks more and more risky for a QF v SA...

With a likely QF vs an improving SA looming and with a game v Russia telling us little, madness IMO not to run Barnes at 12, Horne 13, S Fainga'a at 7 (great idea from Hawko, far better bet than McCalman). That scrum of ex-injured and little-played looks quite high-risk to me v USA. Also, whole...

Interesting. The 2013 Lions tour will only be a reliable financial success if the Wallabies from now until early 2013 actually achieve something worthwhile in the sports public's, especially the football public's, eyes. Wallaby-related gross $ income and average gate attendances have been in...

Thanks teach for the good input. fp and DPK: you may just remember that last year we debated (here) and agreed that something like the above excellent-sounding initiative in NZ was badly needed for top Aus front row and forwards development in general. And it'd sit on top of or in addition to...

I thought it worth posting this snippet from John Eales' rugby column in the SMH today:

I know what you're on about Mr T, but let me guarantee one thing: the worst mindset for these Wallabies in entering a QF game vs SA (or anyone else) is 'a feeling of invincibility'. History shows that is the moment when in the Wallabies' now known cycle of 'from masochism and debacle back to...

We routinely need 'good humiliations, real debacles' to then start a new cycle of guilt, self-recrimination and remotivation back to, say, a 2011 Bled 2 level. We just need that predictable new cycle to be in its upswing phase come QF time via (likely) SA. It's all about the timing of the mental...

Scott, I doubt it's a misquote, he's said very similar things (re the Macqueen background in 1999) before to justify this extraordinary re-signing of Deans before he had delivered anything of objective substance after nearly 4 years in charge of the Wallabies. The current turn of events re...

Guys, just re BB. Aren't we falling into the unjustified optimism trap re all these 'just returning' players? We have watched Rocky take, what, 4-5 Tests to get back to 'acceptable but not stellar' form (and he went downhill v Ireland). TPN: he was a shadow of his 2011 Tahs best form on Saturday...

More could be added to that unfortunate list of 'embarrassing firsts'. But can I note here that I see the ARU media machine going guns blazing over the 'we've won the tri-nations for the first time in 10 years' line. Indeed, a nice piece of silverware but at best it's a clear case of 'Tri...

I would buy the 'but Test rugby is so very different' line for explaining our Wallabies' forwards' maddening inconsistencies if, well, they weren't inconsistent, they were just more or more always this bad and meek. That evenness of mediocrity would point to predominant issues of intrinsic poor...

BR, key observation there. I am aghast when observers - after the latest version no 12 of Wallaby lapse in forwards' attitude, intensity and application - take recourse to a kind of all-embracing critique of Australian forwards and rugby in general and it's almost as though we should shut the...

Climate change?

Mr T: I have something of a problem with this. I would not if (a) other high-ranked national teams in this WC were just as inconsistent by this stage and/or (b) if say the 2011 S15 Aus teams were consistently guilty of 'not showing up' meaning that this is some sort of proven generic Australian...

BPC, first, I agree, do a trace line from that awful day in October 2007 in Marseilles to September 2011 Auckland, and what do you see but an almost identical set of Wallaby deficiencies, fundamentally uncorrected (and a not dissimilar scoreline) including a poor scrum performance. It's worse in...

Let me say unreservedly: Barb, I admired the guts and honesty it took to write that blog post as you did. It was remarkably eloquent for someone in that condition ;). 90% of Aus Wallaby fans would have privately thought that way pre-game re the expectation that we'd beat Ireland, and why. Well...

Is 'Marseilles 2007 Mk II' a fair descriptor of this Wallaby performance; it's not far off.

My loose expression. By 'self-praising' I mean/meant when the Wallabies/ARU media machine (not the fans per se) start the public hubris roll pre games: over the last few years, this has almost always correlated with a disappointment immediately thereafter, and was regularly premature when viewed...