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Langthorne, it will hardly surprise you that I would not be quite so supportive as granting a B- as at mid-2010 to RD. For what it's worth, he's my grading (designed like yours to stimulate discussion mostly): Dimension 1: Promotion of Viable Talent and Discarding Deadwood to Achieve Excellent...

Yes...and if England hadn't played so cluelessly and with a remarkable 30+ tackles missed etc, we would surely have lost that game. Their deficiencies were extraordinarily fortunate for us, as surely, surely, a loss on Saturday would have been legitimately termed a disaster for Australian rugby...

But Gagger, for a top coach in a major sport, isn't this just 'the core basics' of what competent coaches are meant to do, and do well, as one of numerous actions and attributes designed to gain dominance for their team? So sorry for the cricket analogy once again, but top coaches (and, I would...

Yes! Go Daz.

That's unarguably true; we don't know. But what I find striking is this: many posters revert to the 'well, he's better than Jones and Knuckles'. This may be correct, but the point I return to is this: why should we adopt _a relative standard_ v past (not great) coaches (whom btw had accumulated...

Langthorne, you may or may not have noticed elsewhere: I find the thrust of your posts re Deans remarkably astute and fact-based. It's equally remarkable how, despite such poor delivered performance over two full seasons and last night's dancing-with-disaster performance, Deans attracts so many...

Guys, two points if I may: One, crowds at the vast majority of home S14 and Wallabies matches have been declining in a financially and rugby-future-caring way for well over 3 years now. The reasons are well known: unattractive playing styles (mostly), no S14 final or consistent S14 semis wins by...

Ruggo, I agree with you. But I just have this sixth sense that RD is somehow now on a mission to rebuild Barnes' playing and play-in confidence. I mean, why did he have to co-caption the BaaBaas, and, just for the reasons you note, putting him on Coop's outside was hardly a finely honed and...

Indeed, spot on. It strikes me that many Wallaby fans have over recent years suffered from decreasing standards in what they enjoy and expect from our national team. The many breezily happy and congratulatory posts re last night's dancing-with-disaster affair more than ever convinces me of that...

We recall that to some extent we have been here with Burgess before. When RD picked him up and propelled him forward in the 2008 selections, numerous excitements and bouquets arose from many quarters. I remember Nick F-J pronouncing around that time what a hit for Australia he thought Burgess...

It's a reckless act of Dean's stubbornness not to at least bring Baxter into the squad, and in the bench 7 say. First up, he's had a very solid S14, next, he'd been a good mentor/tutor for the young blokes (whom badly need it), third, if the Poms play better than last night (a credible...

Indeed, to your good latter point. One of the reasons for my 'assignment' was to debate this whole matter of scrum training and coaching a bit. For example, there can be no doubt that McKenzie's expertise had a huge positive impact on the unity, cohesion and balance of the Reds' scrum. Again...

Let me say, I am not a Phd in scrums and will never be ;-). I have watched a few England 6N games and, whilst I can't argue this with statistical values, I would argue that the best of the Bulls or Stormers scrums this year could absolutely contest adequately or well with England's scrums as...

Do you not feel that Barnes' real level of confidence seems very down at this time, and at this level? As you and others note, his play under pressure last night was not encouraging for a top player in a key game....and btw, if I recall correctly, there were not dissimilar examples of these...

Interesting that you assess SA scrum skills and outcomes as 'not up to much' etc. Personally, I differ. I think an examination of (i) the SA scrum vs France last night and (ii) the Bulls vs Stormers scrum work in the S14 Final this year (and numerous other examples from this year's S14) would be...

If anyone was or is interested, I would love to see a fact-based discussion here on the following topic: Compare and contrast the selections, scrum training and scrum strategies deployed by: Example A - Reds v Bulls and Reds v Stormers ( both SA teams had generally the best forwards...

Absolutely. As the English media are reporting this morning (our time), England missed 20+ tackles in the first half, this was a big 'hidden' let off for us. The ABs and SBs will simply never grant us that leeway. Further, our handling error count was very poor, I have not seen the stats but I...

Nothing will convince me - and I think lots of others - that there aren't v serious problems with Brumbies' coaching capabilities and team morale. The former glories are all too former and far back. Something big and explosive needs to be done. Radical change a la QRU is needed. Re Tahs: well...

Is it not so that one of the most extraordinary and inexplicable decisions in top international rugby Tests this decade is that which, after all Genia's recent achievements, has Genia on the bench, and the hapless (in comparison) Burgess running on to feed to Coops?

I anticipate howls from some quarters in saying this, but I don't think it's 100% clear that Giteau is not in the grips of 'the Ponting syndrome', namely a formally great player in slow decline, still with value yes, but moving little step by little step down from peak. In the most pressure Tris...