Competition - Link's top priority with the Wallabies

[The_Brown_Hornet]

It all starts with team culture doesn't it? There has to be a collective commitment on the part of the players, coaching staff and management to the following:

Rugby Fundamentals - a fanatical attention to detail in the execution of the core phases of the game: set pieces, clean out and securing the ball at the breakdown, attacking and defensive alignment, kicking out of hand and off the tee, passing and tackling. It sounds like a no-brainer I know, but last Saturday night's effort pointed out to me that we still have a way to go in a couple of key areas of the game before we can consider ourselves a top team.

Personal Attitude and Behaviour - I'm a big believer in personal accountability in any organisation. Each player (and the other staff, frankly) must take ownership of their fitness, skills and obligations as part of the squad. There must be no deviation from this, as it's bad for morale when some players are seen to be getting away with things that other players disagree with. With the accountability must come some level of authority too (more on that below).

Team Standards - this means the players and coaching staff agreeing on a set of standards, both on and off the paddock and holding each other accountable for them. It's not just the senior players guiding the young blokes, it's everyone doing their part to uphold the ethos of the team and having the authority to call people out (privately or publicly) when their standards have dropped. It also means building that trust the bloke along side you has the same level commitment as you do and is prepared to sacrifice themselves for the team cause.

Continuous Improvement - it's the ethos that Jim Telfer put so eloquently: "There are two kinds of rugby players, boys - there's honest ones and there's the rest. The honest player gets up in the morning and looks himself in the f***ing mirror and sets his standard, sets his stall out, and says 'I'm going to get better and I'm going to get better and I'm going to get better'". I don't think I need to expand on that.

 

[BPC]

There are lots of good answers, such as winning the next test, grand slamming the EOYT and so on.

My preference is that Link ensure that we beat Scotland. Why? Scotland could only get one player, as a reserve, into the Lions team, have been in a death spiral for some time and yet under Deans we have not beaten them. In fact they have beaten us twice. Under Deans, our win ratio against NZ is better than Scotland. Seriously, what the fuck?

 

[BPC]

Alternatively I would be satisfied with Link arranging a public training session in which Beale and Brand O'Connor are forced to load up on Hungry Jacks and then put through an intensive contact training session until they both pass out in their own puke. A raffle could then be held amongst onlookers for the privilege of shaving their eyebrows off. Why? Self evident really.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

There are lots of good answers, such as winning the next test, grand slamming the EOYT and so on.

My preference is that Link ensure that we beat Scotland. Why? Scotland could only get one player, as a reserve, into the Lions team, have been in a death spiral for some time and yet under Deans we have not beaten them. In fact they have beaten us twice. Under Deans, our win ratio against NZ is better than Scotland. Seriously, what the fuck?

Absolutely. If we can't beat a team who have been languishing for a number of years in comparison to their UK cousins then where are we?

 

[scaraby]

on a simpler note can we:
when we kick it hits the grass....plleeeaaase
when it goes out eventually on attcking 5 mtr line we win the lineout.
when we feed the scrum,we win the ball back.
when we get second phase,the big guys help the 7 get the ball back.
when we get a penalty we kick the goal.
Within 5 metres pick and drive, don't panic keep picking and driving and score.
After we've done that and earned the right..then I think you might find those fleet footed pretty things out the back may cause some damage.
The key is get 5 big blokes happy to NOT take the glory and the rest becomes easy.......You dont have to score 20 points in the first 5 mins its much more rewarding in the last 20 mins of the game...ask the Lions/All Blacks/2000ish Wallabies....Earn them then Burn Them....

 

[Rob42]

Link has two equal top priorities, a kicking coach and a scrum coach however I'm going to go slightly against the grain and say that a kicking coach is more of a priority.

If the goal is winning the World Cup a world class kicking game is crucial. The Wallabies would have won the Lions series, and probably 4 or 5 more games under Deans if they had a reliable 90% kicker. Lilo looks like he could be this guy but he still needs a coach to ensure that bad days are kept to a minimum. Also the Wallabies kicking in open play is mostly poor, they have to learn the art of tactical kicking and this should apply to every backline member in a Super rugby squad in Australia. To get out of their World Cup group the Wobs are going to have to beat England and Wales, both of these teams are going to play a tight game and try and do what the Lions did; get field position and milk set piece penalties. If the Wallabies improve their tactical kicking game they'll have a massive "out" and probably negate most of the threat posed by both teams. Kicking IMO should never be the first option a player takes but it should be a skill they are capable of executing to a very high standard as its a one that can be mastered through practice. This in itself will contribute to a culture change in the Wallaby camp as well.

I don't disagree that we need a kicking coach, especially, as you point out, to work throughout the game to improve the general standard of kicking in this country. But in the short term, pick Cooper or To'omua, Lilo and Mogg and the problem will go away. We have guys who can kick.

 

[It is what it is]

Get the basics right so we can play a style of rugby that wins games and the hearts and minds of fans.
The scrum - being assured of winning our own ball and at times troubling theirs
Kicking - effectively and positively
Run straight - it starts at 10
Culture - respect on and off the field for yourself, your team mates and the country you have the privilege of representing.
Develop a range of game plans - educate the wallabies around the results that come from following specific game plans against specific teams.

 

[Try-ranosaurus Rex]

Run straight - it starts at 1 and ends at 15

FIXED

 

[Moses]

Is it too much to ask for a set piece move?

 

[Try-ranosaurus Rex]

Is it too much to ask for a set piece move?

Lets get the set piece right first

 

[Braveheart81]

Link's first priority should be to do a G&GR podcast.

The reason being that talking to the excellent people who follow G&GR is clearly the most important thing to get out of the way in his first couple of weeks in the job as Wallabies coach.

Not sure why I didn't think of that earlier. It's obvious.

 

[Braveheart81]

Is it too much to ask for a set piece move?

Didn't you see the one in the third Lions test?

The forwards backpedalled 10m to get onside and the wingers and fullback sprinted back to the touchlines to cover the penalty kick for touch. Ben Alexander trudged off to the naughty corner.

10s of thousands of Wallaby fans simultaneously buried their head in their hands.

Given that we didn't see it unveiled until the third test, I can only imagine it was practiced extensively in the week leading up to the final game.

 

[daz]

This might be a bit over the top, but I'd quite like to see a Wallaby coach watching training from the sidelines, or even from the stands.

By that, I mean detailing to his assistants what he wants from training based on the gameplan they want to execute. Hold his assistants accountable. Take notes from training and present that to the assistants for improvement.

Scrum, work on this. Backs, work on this. Kicking coach, take these 3 boys away for an hour after training and practice kicks. Like this, do that. Etc, etc.

I want the Wallaby coach to take more of a helicopter view of proceedings and tweak things where he see's a gap.

I don't want to see the Wallaby coach actually coaching unless he is trying to make a point. Leave that to his valued and capable assistants.

Actually, what I want is a Wallaby Manager.

 

[Sully]

Link's first priority should be to do a G&GR podcast.

The reason being that talking to the excellent people who follow G&GR is clearly the most important thing to get out of the way in his first couple of weeks in the job as Wallabies coach.

Not sure why I didn't think of that earlier. It's obvious.

Link is good mates with Djuro Sen from that other podcast. That's one reason he's never done ours.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Proud Pig]

What I want to see is selecting a team based on form and performance. Then building a game plan based on these players and the reletive strengths and weaknesses of the opposition.

 

[Chauncey]

I can't believe that all these years after the humiliation of being absolutely murdered by England in the scrum department, starting with RWC France, we still have not solved this simple yet important component of Rugby.
How hard can it be to find a tighthead prop who can impose himself on the opposition.
Forget flashy backs. Until we have a scrum that can be reliably used as an attacking weapon - the best backline in the world will be next to useless.
It's way past time we spent some money on this. We have been talking about solving this problem for a decade now and we really have not progressed at all.
Look at the test on Saturday. They played us exactly as they wanted because they knew we would have NO answer to their scrum. And that was their 3rd choice scrum. God help us if they had their first choice loosehead available.

 

[nugget]

after doing the gagr podcast link should head down to musgrave park on Fri where Jesse Williams is meeting and greeting his fans and sign him up for Wallabies tight head prop.

He grew up playing rugby in Brisbane and they let him get away. Stupid.

 

[Flavio]

1 - Only select people want to die to wear the Green and Gold
2 - Piss off the dickheads
3 - Send them on a 4 week intensive SAS course (preferably in Afghanistan)

To see KB (Kurtley Beale), JOC (James O'Connor) and QC (Quade Cooper) laughing and having a joke with SBW after losing to the ABs is sickening.

Also any dick who takes a selfie pretending to be a gangsta should have the shit beaten out of him

The rest will follow

 

[Rob42]

after doing the gagr podcast link should head down to musgrave park on Fri where Jesse Williams is meeting and greeting his fans and sign him up for Wallabies tight head prop.

He grew up playing rugby in Brisbane and they let him get away. Stupid.

Yesss, but the ARU can't really compete with NFL contracts, especially for untried 18 year-olds.

 

[JJJ]

It may already exist, I dunno, but I'd like a change to how forwards are assessed. Forget x-factor or 1 or 2 crunching tackles, or the odd dash with the ball, I want to see forwards consistently rated along the lines Scott Allen showed us in his wallabies back row analysis. Instead of considering all involvements equal for statistical purposes, keep separate stats for effective, positive and otherwise. Particularly for the scrums. I'd like a proper scrum guru to watch every scrum and decide which props won the individual scrum and which lost. And for the stats to record that.

If there's a perceived lack of glory in forward play then let's raise awareness of what good forward play looks like, even if it's taking place in a weaker pack. Let's shine some light in the dark. No more gut feelings or fond memories.