Bledisloe 1: 29 July @ MCG

[Bullrush]

So Rennie tried to force a team to play a style they weren’t capable of

Must have missed Vince Lombardi’s speech on that

You mean tried to coach them?

Nah…just do pick and go and then hands thru the backs lol

 

[Tomthumb]

You mean tried to coach them?

Nah…just do pick and go and then hands thru the backs lol

No, good coaches adapt their style to suit the players they have

 

[Bullrush]

you look at the Super Rugby teams, we play plod rugby most of the time, very static, slow, prescriptive rugby.

few have ability to call plays,
few of our runners have the ability/want to call lines consistently.
few of runners will consistently run dummy lines
we rarely have the ability to reset after a few phases
we just bucket it to our next pig to run from a standing start
we see a short pass from a pig to another static runner without dropping it as quality rugby

My young fella is playing school/club footy and got his first taste of rep rugby a few weeks back. After one of his trainings, I made the comment that everything looks so structured and he replied that it is. He said one of the coaches hates unstructured play.

I'm trying to teach him that while the structure is a good platform for teams to build on, you also have to be aware of what's in front of you and be able to adjust and react. For example, they were doing some work on their pick-and-go and one of the players - one of the leaders - told the boys that they need to pick and drive towards the sticks to make it easier for their kicker. Driving home I told my son to forget about trying to go towards the posts, go where the space is. You have to score the try first before anyone gets a chance to kick for goal. But that's the 'structure' this senior kid has been taught.

I've seen it so many times in Super Rugby and Tests....someone makes a break and has zero support with him cos they were all too busy working to get to the next piece in the structure.

When I first got on these forums, I remember Robbie Deans getting a lot of flak for his desire to get players to 'play what's in front of you' but to me, Australian rugby has gone waaaaaay to far in the other direction.

 

[Bullrush]

No, good coaches adapt their style to suit the players they have

It doesn't matter what style you play if your players just aren't up to the required level. It seems like Rennie was trying to do bring them up to Test standard....probably why someone like Kerevi really enjoyed playing for him....

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

I actually mostly agree with you Bullrush. I think that Australian players have progressively had their creativity coached out of them. Our teams used to be considered among the most innovative anywhere and now we appear predictable.

 

[dusk]

I actually mostly agree with you Bullrush. I think that Australian players have progressively had their creativity coached out of them. Our teams used to be considered among the most innovative anywhere and now we appear predictable.

Marky Mark (Nawaqanitawase) still has that creativity with him, you can see it in his play.

 

[Pfitzy]

When I first got on these forums, I remember Robbie Deans getting a lot of flak for his desire to get players to 'play what's in front of you' but to me, Australian rugby has gone waaaaaay to far in the other direction.

It comes down to development pathways - they are so narrow that diversification of ideas is out the window.

 

[eastman]

I actually mostly agree with you Bullrush. I think that Australian players have progressively had their creativity coached out of them. Our teams used to be considered among the most innovative anywhere and now we appear predictable.

Junior rugby in Australia has been obsessed with structure for the last twenty years. It’s how you end up with plodders like Hodge and Mack Mason at fly-half who are good at kicking and playing for four phases maximum, but genuinely don’t know how to do a thing outside of that.

 

[Maulalltheway]

This has nothing to do with the ABs winning. But yes - one eye open just like EVERY Wallaby game you comment on.

For someone who has been watching rugby for 20 years, you didn't know that Scott Barrett was well within his rights to hit McDermott for the first AB try.
"Thanks mate. I thought he had to wait for mcdermit to catch"

Completely wrong on Mark Telea:
"Talea was miles in touch and then passes it and wallabies knock into touch. Hahaha."
"There's 5 points to the all blacks when it should have been a wallaby line out. Really bad call by the touchie."
"All blacks second try is frustrating tho. How the hell a touchie can't see talea with both feet ln touch is beyond me. Then it's all blacks line out maul try."

Looking for the ref to save the Wallabies:
"Would like to see a warning to all blacks soon."
"That should be a yellow card. Terrible sportsman ship from moanga. Absolute disgusting"
"It's how you the best teams win. Boks do it as well. Problem is when we do it we cop cards left right and centre."
"All blacks should have been carded as well. They have been giving away penalties with wallabies in attack alot"

Complaining about decisions:
"It's a ruck for 3 years and then the all blacks just rip the ball out of it. Come on Wayne. It's a fucking ruck"
"How do the all blacks just callapsed a maul and get the ball."
"Wayne wasn't calling any line outs not straight. The abz first line out was on the outside shoulder. He was consistent"
"How is a dummy runner an obstruction?"

Your ridiculous and repeated criticism of Ardie for playing rugby:
"Would love to see a yellow for all blacks soon. Ardie smashed toupo in the ribs in the ruck just then as well."
"Awesome tmo. Let's ruin the game even more even though toup gets smashed in the ribs off the ball Hang in what. A yellow card. Are they high ?"
"Let's allow someone to purposely smash toupo off the ball who has likely broken ribs and then card a wallaby for something that happened many times in the game."
"Ardie smashes toupo in the ribs off the ball. Now this. All blacks playing dirty. So it's ok to be a dog but you yellow card someone for an accident."
"Not be a dog and smash him off the ball where he is obviously injured would be good"

This is how I know you only briefly played rugby. When you step on the field, you don't ask for or expect your opposition to go easy. If you are injured, get off. If you can't get off but you don't want to be hit, don't go into tackles, don't carry the ball up and don't get into the contact areas. That idea that Tupou can run into the tackle area and you expect Savea to be more concerned about his ribs than Tupou himself is, is just dumb. Tupou wouldn't be calling Savea a dog - twice.

I get it. We all love our own team and feel hard done by at certain times with reffing decisions but you consistently blame the ref, think the Wallabies aren't getting the 50/50 calls, are being officiated out of games and claim the opposition are dirty, cheating and getting away with it. Not just last nite. Every. Game.

You don't know rugby.

surely there is a Black and white rugby forum if you're so unhappy here pal

 

[Dan54]

surely there is a Black and white rugby forum if you're so unhappy here pal

I would think Bullrush actually posts here more often than yourself, and if not following your narrative the answer is go and post elsewhere??

 

[Dan54]

Junior rugby in Australia has been obsessed with structure for the last twenty years. It’s how you end up with plodders like Hodge and Mack Mason at fly-half who are good at kicking and playing for four phases maximum, but genuinely don’t know how to do a thing outside of that.

I saw it when I was there to east, but seems it over here in NZ too, was talking to a nephews son who was copping crap at training for not following how he wanted plays done.
Infuriates me with young fellas, I coached for years at schoolboy/college level )as well as senior) , and with kids my mantra was coach 'how to do', not 'what to do'. In other words I tried to show them skills and gave them as much freedom to do with skills as I could. Obviously general idea of when it was a good idea when to try things, but never this is what you must do! I would still do exaclty same if I coached kids now.!

 

[Purce]

Mayb

So Rennie tried to force a team to play a style they weren’t capable of

Must have missed Vince Lombardi’s speech on that

Maybe he wanted to set a bar / level he believe they could achieve to actually compete against the best in the world? He did repeatedly say this as well as commenting they weren't where they needed to be to perfect their game plan. Clearly they were trending in the right direction though.

IMO they weren't far off.

But yeah let's go back to square 1 in a rwc year.

 

[Tomthumb]

Mayb


Maybe he wanted to set a bar / level he believe they could achieve to actually compete against the best in the world? He did repeatedly say this as well as commenting they weren't where they needed to be to perfect their game plan. Clearly they were trending in the right direction though.

IMO they weren't far off.

But yeah let's go back to square 1 in a rwc year.

Weren't far off what?

They made the same mistakes and blew the same games for 3 straight years. What's the definition of insanity again?

They lost 9 tests last year, stop pretending like we were any shot at the World cup with Rennie. Give me square 1 over 3 years of the same dross

 

[Marce]

Mayb


Maybe he wanted to set a bar / level he believe they could achieve to actually compete against the best in the world? He did repeatedly say this as well as commenting they weren't where they needed to be to perfect their game plan. Clearly they were trending in the right direction though.

IMO they weren't far off.

But yeah let's go back to square 1 in a rwc year.

The main issue about RA is deep. You can take Rennie, Eddie, Scott Robertson or whoever you want and them can't produce a quality test hooker in 1 or 2 years. Your 5/6 professional hookers are mediocre so that's something the coach can't solve in 1 or 2 years

 

[KevinO]

Watched the game live, have not watched a replay.

I actually thought the Wallabies back line was lining up almost identically to how the Irish line up, problem is it's taken Ireland close to a decade to perfect the way they play. If Eddie is planning for 2027 already then great, but if fans want to see instant results it's not going to work.

 

[qwerty51]

What do you mean by line up?

 

[RugbyReg]

Some of Hoopers defensive efforts last week.

Basically reiterates my thoughts. Big workload but little impact. Stats tackles they are.

But the kid is young and being promoted before he’s ready unfortunately. Hopefully people are patient with him but he shouldn’t be playing 7 for the wallabies.

France and SAF might have big 7s but they have good players who can play there. We don’t yet.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1686693326102089728

 

[Dctarget]

Some of Hoopers defensive efforts last week.

Basically reiterates my thoughts. Big workload but little impact. Stats tackles they are.

But the kid is young and being promoted before he’s ready unfortunately. Hopefully people are patient with him but he shouldn’t be playing 7 for the wallabies.

France and SAF might have big 7s but they have good players who can play there. We don’t yet.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1686693326102089728

Yeah saw that, thought it was odd they focussed on those tackles showing him clearly getting overpowered.

 

[cyclopath]

Yeah saw that, thought it was odd they focussed on those tackles showing him clearly getting overpowered.

Why would the Wallabies put out a video deliberately doing that? Seems strange.

 

[qwerty51]

The problem I have with T Hooper is he's not showing the form he was in 2022 when he was more deserving of getting picked until he got injured. He was bigger back then and yes more impactful, now he's slimmer and has a higher workrate. It's not what we need from our 7.