Australia Vs. England, Twickenham, 2nd November 2013

[I like to watch]

How much longer till the honeymoon is over?

I would have more patience if he was more candid about shortcomings,rather than putting a spin on the performance.
Did he really take a photo of the touchie's blunder to the presser?

 

[Braveheart81]

For me, the honeymoon is already over.

It's not like he's reinvented the wheel. If the Wallabies were trying to play in a dramatically different way to what we have seen over the last five years then I'd have more patience, but we're simply not.

We throw the ball around sometimes, but with no consistency. At other times we kick far too much and thoughtlessly.

Players are still making far too many skill errors.

Our scrum has got worse.

The decision making is abominable.

We have some new players in the side, but they can't be used as an excuse because by and large they're amongst our best performers.

Our biggest problems lie in the forward pack and in particular our tight five and it is the area of the team which has seen the least selection changes.

 

[FrankLind]

 

[Dan54]

I think Links quote in paper was right up there with any of Dean's, he said "We could of won, we could of drawn, or we could of lost." Is he not sure of the score??

 

[Rob42]

For a bloke who's obviously a good politician, Link forgot a key politician's tactic - upon coming to power, declare a massive, unforeseen deficit - budgetary as well as in skills, tactics, etc, that could take years to fix. This would also have had the advantage of being true.

What Link is telling the team is more important than what he says to the media, but if the players really think they are on the cusp of consistently beating the top sides, they are fearfully deluded.

 

[Braveheart81]

For a bloke who's obviously a good politician, Link forgot a key politician's tactic - upon coming to power, declare a massive, unforeseen deficit - budgetary as well as in skills, tactics, etc, that could take years to fix. This would also have had the advantage of being true.

What Link is telling the team is more important than what he says to the media, but if the players really think they are on the cusp of consistently beating the top sides, they are fearfully deluded.

Bill Pulver (albeit with reason) already stole the budget emergency line.

 

[wamberal]

I doubt that the new coach can be blamed for very much, just yet. He took over mid-season, inheriting a sinking ship.

Pulver should never have put any public pressure on him, that was a schoolboy mistake.

Chaps, we are down. It will take a huge effort, and several seasons, to get back up again - if we ever can, that is. Maybe this is where we belong, in the middle of the ladder.

 

[fatprop]

I know this maybe tantamount to treason, but I think we aren't that good.

We are playing with a pretty average set of forwards and mediocre backs

 

[I like to watch]

You are too harsh on the backs,and too kind with the piggies.

 

[Zander]

Jake White would've done better. For shame ARU.

 

[fatprop]

You are too harsh on the backs,and too kind with the piggies.

probably, but I would like to see our backs being able to catch and pass and support

the forwards? meh

 

[fatprop]

Jake White would've done better. For shame ARU.

yeah right, we really have the forward pack to play White's Bok rugby

 

[I like to watch]

I think the same forwards would be more effective under White,they were more effective under Robbie despite all the criticisms.

 

[fatprop]

I think the same forwards would be more effective under White,they were more effective under Robbie despite all the criticisms.

they were more effective under Deans because the ball never went past the first receiver for over a year, apparently that was dumb negative rugby, but it did ensure turnovers were close to our pack and not in space

 

[Hugh Jarse]

All the talk about how poor the current piggies are and how that could be improved under this coach or that, the fact remains that there is not a lot of depth to cover the current batch in Team Rehab.

I can't really see Carter, Pyle, Gill etc making all that much of a difference ATM even if they were selected. The problems run deeper than that. I'm not even sure that we can sheet home responsibility to the 6 year reign of Dingo.

It seems like there has been a decade long malise in Rugbydom since RWC03 as Oz Rugby seems to have just gone through the motions and under invested in youth development and grass roots, and over invested in executives, schmoozing and overheads. The Development Officer network has been strangled for funds, and still expected to perform loaves and fishes miracles.

Little wonder the participation figures have been found to be a little overdone when subjected to even the most cursory examination.

 

[BPC]

I doubt that the new coach can be blamed for very much, just yet. He took over mid-season, inheriting a sinking ship.

That is an argument, but after several games and much talk from the players about the new culture etc, we have gone backwards from where Deans left us. When Cheika took over the Tahs, there were at least signs of positive changes after the first few games.

In particular, I fail to understand how a RWC winning prop who learned to scrum before the power hit came into vogue has actually managed to take our scrum backwards under the new rules.

Maybe we don't have the players to compete with the ABs and Boks at the moment, but the Poms were a shambles and could have been beaten. Instead, whatever mistakes the officials may have made, we were blown away in the forwards at the scrum and breakdown by a more committed and aggressive team. The backs attacked well but it was largely one-off attack and few seem to know how to catch and how to pass. The Wallabies didn't deserve to win that match even if the kick was adjudged out or Hartley was pinged for obstruction.

The team is a bunch of individuals, not a committed group. Despite talk from the players, I have seen no improvement in the team cohesiveness or the strategy since Link took over and in my opinion the skills (in some areas) have regressed.

I will support the Wallabies no matter what but, as Barbarian says in his article on the front page, "I am sick of this shit".

 

[wamberal]

BPC,

I do not think that the coach is responsible for the skill levels of the players at this stage of their careers. He is responsible for his selections, and I do not hear too many alternative selections being canvassed. He is also responsible for tactics, and as Fatprop has pointed out, perhaps that is an area where he can be criticised. Nor is he responsible for a lack of committment and aggression amongst the forwards.

We have a scrum coach, he is primarily responsible for the performance of the scrum.

Frankly, I think a large part of the problem is that the players are rooted after a long and tiring season, with more than a fair share of dramas.

If we had a swag of development players, this tour should have been treated as a development one. But we don't. We are near the bottom of the barrel. I am buggered if I can see any coach in the wide world changing reality at this stage.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

BPC,

I do not think that the coach is responsible for the skill levels of the players at this stage of their careers.

He may not be responsible, in the sense of him being the cause, but he has to do something about it.
There's not a lot of point in the coach ignoring the fact that his players dont have the fundamentals. Its not as if you can train all the sparkly shit if you cannot catch and pass.
Given GGRs dire assessment of this team I would take them back to the basics. Now here's a bit of pressure to go with your fundamentals.
I'd also get rid of every frigging witches hat and cone in the kit bag and piss these bull shit drills off.
The game is actually about how you react to the unexpected things and how you create unexpected things. All the drills I've ever seen performed just breed complacency because all the players know what they're supposed to do to get a pass mark in the drill and they know what comes next.
We've become #1 in the world at drills, I'll bet.
This is a game that should be kept as simple as possible: its how you string the basics together as an individual and a team that makes it look more than the sum of its parts.

 

[Zander]

yeah right, we really have the forward pack to play White's Bok rugby

So you thought the same about the Brumbies pack then?

 

[Brumby Runner]

So you thought the same about the Brumbies pack then?

The mystery is that with half the Wallabies' pack comprising players from White's Brumbies, why are they playing with so much less enthusiasm and power than the Brumbies' pack did? Is it the other Brumbies that are being missed. I can accept that in relation to Scott Sio (who was prematurely dispensed with), Peter Kimlin (who is no longer available) and Sam Carter, who probably should have been on tour and would now be a real contender for a atarting spot because of his unwavering work in the tight and top lineout skills (compare with Timani and Simmons). Then there is Dan Palmer who apparently wasn't worth keeping.

Or is it a coaching issue? Could the Lord, or someone else, sort out this Wallabies' pack and make them at least competitive on the world stage. If it is a coaching problem, it better be sorted soon in order to have a team worth its place at RWC 2015.