ACT Crusader
Jim Lenehan (48)
wise words from the goat:
RD: Did trust in your team help you get through that final?
RM: Absolutely. Trust is the biggest thing in rugby. I believe there’s very little difference in talent between teams at this level; it comes down to the mental side of things. We spent a lot of time building relationships in the team, so when the pressure came on, we trusted each other to do exactly what was needed. We know each other’s vulnerabilities, strengths and weaknesses and, if someone doesn’t get it right, we help each other out. Those bonds build trust.
- See more at: http://www.readersdigest.co.nz/new-...person-2012-richie-mccaw#sthash.845kowtr.dpuf
He'll go places this young fulla will....
The combinations and trust within a group is the critical factor and it's what's been lacking in OZ rugby for some time in my view. This has been due to a number of reasons, two of the main ones have been injuries and selections.
Yes there are skill and ability issues but when you see a disjointed wallaby pack operating across 80 minutes or the backline not in sync, it's not the skill or committment or even the 'mongrel' that is lacking, but the trust that comes from time together.
Just when I thought OZ had been building a combination say in the backrow (ELsom, Pocock, Palu) one of them always seemed to get broken and what was building is disrupted. Then make shifts are tried and because of lack of form or simply not being ready/up to test footy, the pressure is on the selectors to try someone else - see Hodgson, Brown, McCalman etc etc.
The midfield became a veritable turnstile of selections during Eddie's, Knuckles and Dean's tenures, particularly the latter two coaches. Giteau and Mortlock knew how to work together and had built a trust that stemmed from Super rugby and they were pretty effective at test level.
Tight 5, well probably the most talked about on this forum after QC (Quade Cooper), Beale and JOC (James O'Connor) of course. The last 8-10 years there have been some class players, even world class at points in time, but again under the last 3 coaches and early in Link's tenure, there appears to be this lack of confidence in the guy next to them and that innate belief in knowing what they are going to do and how they will do it.
It's a big task for Link to turn that around. Hell it took Henry a few years.