• Welcome to the forums of Green & Gold Rugby.
    We have recently made some changes to the amount of discussions boards on the forum.
    Over the coming months we will continue to make more changes to make the forum more user friendly for all to use.
    Thanks, Admin.

Australia v England

Status
Not open for further replies.

Up the Guts

Steve Williams (59)
Yeah

I'm not so cocky about my margin containment call now, lads.

Even with a "mind games" selection followed by a possible late change, the whole vibe is out of whack.

I don't get the mind games of selecting Foley at 12, seems to be saying "you know this guy I genuinely thought would do alright at 12 last week, yeah well turns out my coaching instincts are horrible and he's actually shit but I'm going to pretend he's playing there again to lull you into a false sense of security."
 

RugbyReg

Rocky Elsom (76)
Staff member
So if, as expected, we lose this game we finish the season with 4 wins from 13 games. That's a win %age of just over 30%.

We have to go back all the way to 1974 for the last time we've had a winning ratio that bad or worse. That year we only played 3 tests (all against the All Blacks) and lost 2 and drew once.

The year before was the infamous loss to Tonga at Ballymore (after we beat them in the first test). We followed up the Ballymore losses with a couple of thumpings at the hand of Wales and then England.

1975 was a bit of a turning point for us. Prior to then we generally lost more than we won. In fact our overall record up until then was just 28.6% and other than the occasional 1 test season (of which there were a fair few in the early days) we only ever won more than we lost a handful of times:
  • 1927 we won 2 from 3 (playing as NSW Waratahs as QRU wasn't operating post war. These games were retrospectively deemed capped games)
  • 1929 we won 3 from 3 (back as the Wallabies now we actually swept the All Blacks 3-0)
  • 1949 we won 3 from 5 (2 wins v the ABs and one v the Maori - which was a capped game)
  • 1963 we won 3 from 5 (we split a 4 test series with SAF in SAF and beat England in Sydney)
  • 1965 we won both our tests v SAF in Oz
After 1975 we only dropped below the 50% win record in:
  • 1979 we won 2 from 5 losing to Ireland twice and Argentina once. We did beat the ABs in a one off (to win the Bled) and beat Argentina in the return match.
  • 1982 we won 2 from 6 being Scotland in Sydney and New Zealand in Wellington. We lost to England (away), Scotland (Brisbane) and New Zealand (Christchurch and Auckland)
  • 1983 we lost won 3 from 7 beating USA, Argentina and Italy and losing to Argentina, the kiwis and France with 1 draw. Dwyer was dumped for Jones after this season.
  • 1989 we won 2 from 6. The 2 wins were significant being the 1st test v the Lions and the 1st test v France (Little and Horan together for 1st time). We lost 2 v Lions and 1 v NZ and 1 v France.
That was all amateur era. In the pro era we had:
  • 2001 - 5 wins from 11 .
  • 2005 - 5 from 13
  • 2009 - 6 from 14
  • 2013 - 7 from 15
  • 2014 - 6 from 14
  • 2016 - 6 from 15
Sorry. Went down a history vortex. In summary wins were rare for the first 70-80 odd years. We got increasingly more successful, peaking in the 90s and now seem to be back around the 70s era when we first earned the nickname the "Woeful Wallabies".
I hate to reiterate it but the record over the last three years of 17 wins in 41 tests @ 41% is pretty damn diabolical.
 

Up the Guts

Steve Williams (59)
Sorry. Went down a history vortex. In summary wins were rare for the first 70-80 odd years. We got increasingly more successful, peaking in the 90s and now seem to be back around the 70s era when we first earned the nickname the "Woeful Wallabies".

I hate to reiterate it but the record over the last three years of 17 wins in 41 tests @ 41% is pretty damn diabolical.

I think the most telling thing is our Super sides actually improved this year and the Wallabies regressed further. Our best Wallaby performance was also only after a week of training together and our best half of football was when we threw the game plan out the window.
 

Derpus

Nathan Sharpe (72)
I think the most telling thing is our Super sides actually improved this year and the Wallabies regressed further. Our best Wallaby performance was also only after a week of training together and our best half of football was when we threw the game plan out the window.
I find it strange that he hasn't lost the dressing room.
 

KOB1987

John Eales (66)
Just for interest I had a look at the Betfair trading - prior to the team announcement we were at $3.80 and then blew out to $4.30 when the team was announced, however we're now back in to $4.00. The current line margin is 8.5 points.

I wonder if Cheika has a Betfair account? ;)
 

Up the Guts

Steve Williams (59)
I find it strange that he hasn't lost the dressing room.

Yeah so do I.

Usually, I don't think hoping the Wallabies lose to see the coach sacked is a particularly good attitude but this week it really seems that we might have to sink the ship to kill the captain (or the coach in this case).
 

Rebels3

Jim Lenehan (48)
Have you thought that this might be even more frustrating for Eddie Eyebrows? If you were the national coach, would you tell the whole world what the exact state of health of your whole squad is? Or the reasons for selections, or non-selections?

When the team is released it doesn't matter to Eddie, that 15 is the team he will be facing, so they might as well explain why some people were not considered. I get why you wouldn't say it earlier in the week as you might want the opposition guessing.

Cheika could easily say, "this is the team to play England, we had a tough week in camp this week with the stomach bug going round, unfortunately its claimed the likes of xyz, so they were unavailable for selection". This would completely eliminate the outrage towards some players not been selected.
 

TSR

Andrew Slack (58)
I am not sure that bewilderment was Eddie’s overriding emotion when he read the Wallabies team list.
 

Joe Blow

John Hipwell (52)
If one was to give Cheiks the benefit of the doubt you would suggest that both TT and Beale are unavailable due to injury or illness.
Foley becomes the next cab off the rank as the second kicking/playmaking option.
 

Derpus

Nathan Sharpe (72)
If one was to give Cheiks the benefit of the doubt you would suggest that both TT and Beale are unavailable due to injury or illness.
Foley becomes the next cab off the rank as the second kicking/playmaking option.
Its so much worse than just playing with one playmaker.
 

Joe Blow

John Hipwell (52)
Its so much worse than just playing with one playmaker.

Not for the series against England a few years back in Oz. With Kerevi at 12 we got slammed. He’s a much better player now and would give us some authority in mid field if at inside centre.
 

Derpus

Nathan Sharpe (72)
Not for the series against England a few years back in Oz. With Kerevi at 12 we got slammed. He’s a much better player now and would give us some authority in mid field if at inside centre.
We were more competitive in the series than in any of the games that followed.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top