End of Year Tour 2012

[Antony]

The USA may have more players then Wales, but having played rugby in the US its apparent the technical understanding of the game and the development process just isn't present. Senior team coaches have less of an understanding of the technical aspect of the game then a high school student in Australia does. There is very little in the form of a development structure to identify and promote talent. From my perspective the IRB and USA Rugby need to focus first on raising the level of coaching in the US(easier said then done) and a lot of pieces will fall into place following that.

I think rugby is a multi-generational game, in that it works best when people are raised with it. We won't generate successful teams out of nothing; the goal has to be to create dads/mums who raise dads/mums who raise footballers with the nouse of Larkham. Once we get rugby into the DNA of a community, then we're there to stay.

Therefore, increased participation numbers are a hugely encouraging sign, regardless of current aptitude. Though I appreciate that coaching is a crucial development step.

 

[qwerty51]

The Canadians weren't any where near full strength, Samoa had a decent side, especially in the backs where I assume they dominated.

 

[Blue]

They're pretty into American Football and basketball too, though rugby definitely has a profile. And as a side-note, isn't ice hockey a fantastic sport?

I find it really rewarding talking to Canadians and Yanks about rugby. There's a general lack of knowledge, but also huge respect for the game, and a sense that rugby players are really hard sons of bitches. That admiration gives me hope that there's significant scope for development in those countries (also, I believe the USA now has more registered senior men's players than Wales).

Getting them involved in tours like this is a great step.

Having spent a lot of time in the States I am a total skeptic about the future of the game there.

The American sports are just so ingrained.

Yes rugby is respected but I wouldn't call it admiration. Outside of some private schools and colleges there just isn't much of a profile. My nephews play touch rugby but the local club only cater up to around 13 years old. After that the kids who continue to play sport are just too involved in the mainstream sports.

Football, soccer, basketball, hockey, lacrosse, baseball. There just isn't room in the head of your average sports fan for another ball sport.

The guys that we would consider to be the right physical profile for rugby will all give their left nut to make it into an NCAA college football team. Rugby is just not the goal.

 

[jimmydubs]

Ireland have just started against the Bokke.... and they've rolled up in what appear to be All Black jerseys with a couple splashes of green...

 

[Antony]

Shame for the Irish then. I was watching it in a pub, so was a bit distracted, but I thought they played some pretty good rugby. Bit lateral, but nice to see some old-school backline moves.

 

[kronic]

Eddie Jones will be happy, Japan 34 - Romania 23.

How about Los Pumas?

 

[RoffsChoice]

Pumas showed the benefits of a competition with the top three. A dominant display.

Speaking of dominant displays...

 

[RoffsChoice]

Does the Fra-Aus game remind anyone else of the RC match in Pretoria, or the Super Rugby final this year?

 

[Sir Arthur Higgins]

The Canadians weren't any where near full strength, Samoa had a decent side, especially in the backs where I assume they dominated.

Yup. We were missing DTH van de merwe, Jamie cudmore, jebb Sinclair, and ander Monro tho I think he has retired and we are now in a transition phase in the 9 and 10 positions
We weren't as bad as the scoreline suggests. Just some sloppy handling. Samoa looked quite disciplined as well

 

[Sir Arthur Higgins]

Eddie Jones will be happy, Japan 34 - Romania 23.

How about Los Pumas?

That is a good win for the cherry blossoms

 

[Viking]

after that performance the tour is already a fail for me. Although I have not lost all hope yet, JOC (James O'Connor), Digby, Pocock, Horwill, Mitchell are all world class players and there return will be a massive boost, but until then I dont see the wallabies playing entertaining rugby, sure they might scrap through a win but I dont see them scoring many tries.

McCabe, Cummins, AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper), Harris, Tapuai all are "steady hands", they work well in combination with the x-factor players, they play as steady-hands adding balance to the backline.... howvever u cant fill up a back-line with these players otherwise you get what we saw last night. One dimensional, predictable, no organisation.

Beale - still has a lot of work to do, Cooper is still unmatched at setting up his outside men.
Phipps - terrible, should not be near the wallabies next season. Id rather kingi - or anyone else.

What is with our scrum. I swear our forwards were twice the size of the French but our scrum was still being dominated. Hooper not bad, Dennis is not up to Test level, at least higgers when he's firing makes an impact. Hooper not bad, Palu & TPN okay, everyone else not good enough.

 

[Blue]

after that performance the tour is already a fail for me. Although I have not lost all hope yet, JOC (James O'Connor), Digby, Pocock, Horwill, Mitchell are all world class players and there return will be a massive boost, but until then I dont see the wallabies playing entertaining rugby, sure they might scrap through a win but I dont see them scoring many tries.

McCabe, Cummins, AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper), Harris, Tapuai all are "steady hands", they work well in combination with the x-factor players, they play as steady-hands adding balance to the backline.. howvever u cant fill up a back-line with these players otherwise you get what we saw last night. One dimensional, predictable, no organisation.

Beale - still has a lot of work to do, Cooper is still unmatched at setting up his outside men.
Phipps - terrible, should not be near the wallabies next season. Id rather kingi - or anyone else.

What is with our scrum. I swear our forwards were twice the size of the French but our scrum was still being dominated. Hooper not bad, Dennis is not up to Test level, at least higgers when he's firing makes an impact. Hooper not bad, Palu & TPN okay, everyone else not good enough.

Your lot scrum to live. This frog forwards live to scrum.

There is just so much more emphasis. The Top 14 scrums are generally very strong so the guys who come out top in the French team are pretty darn good at it.

 

[Viking]

I was quietly confident the Tahs frontrow was going to go well, how wrong i was. And the worrying thing is there is not many other options, they are the best we got apart from Palmer returning from injury (but his impact at Test level is uncertain), Moore isnt any better at scrums then TPN. So how the hell are going to improve? At least in the locks, backrow and back-line we have up-and-coming players and players returning from injury.

 

[Gnostic]

No need for me to comment on the game just gone. Copy and past my last 4 years worth of posts.

Having just listened again to Podcast 77 I am not surprised that the Wallabies fail to compete at so many aspects of the game and are so inconsistent where they do actually compete. Blades comments left me thinking it is no wonder we get such results. Correct me if I am wrong but the rare interview he gave when assisting E Jones gave one a much better sense that the coaches actually had a plan away from very basic overviews and then react to what happens on field.

 

[LoneStar]

The Canadians weren't any where near full strength, Samoa had a decent side, especially in the backs where I assume they dominated.

Samoa weren't near full strength either, almost a 2nd string side. Samoa dominated upfront actually - and the 10, Tusi Pisi, practically did the rest. Very dominate kicking game from him.

Argentina weren't great, but once they got the lead, they looked dominate.

 

[aeneas]

Argentina weren't great, but once they got the lead, they looked dominate.

They may not have been great but they were much much better than Wales who looked awful. Argentina are certainly great front runners, they TRC looks like it might improve them with respect to the rest of the world in a big hurry.

South Africa appeared to be asleep or at least completely ineffective for the first half. The team talk at half time must have been very entertaining as they played significantly better in the second half. With that said the Irish were competitive throughout the match but seemed to lack ideas with ball in hand. Im not a fan of black Irish uniforms.

 

[LoneStar]

No doubt Wales were awful, and a large part of that was due to Argentina's stout defense, that gave little to no ground to Wales. When Wales' plan of trying to run the Argentinians over didn't work, they had no Plan B whatsoever. They didn't look like scoring, and only got into the Argie 22 through penalty kicks to touch.

Good win for Argentina, they'll back themselves against France.

 

[ChargerWA]

Argentina for the Grand Slam?

 

[kronic]

The mighty Tigers are beating the Maori ABs 29-17 just into the 2nd half.

 

[kronic]

Leicester 32 - Maori ABs 24.

Gloucester 31 - Fiji 29.