England v Australia

[Train Without a Station]

Have you not been following Cheika's career in Aus since 2013 at all? He sticks to what he believes in, that the results will come and he's doing it the right way. Go look at the Tahs 2013 season. It turned a corner about halfway through. He didn't make changes, stuck with it.

It turned a corner in 2014 when 3 of his 6 most influential players joined actually.

 

[qwerty51]

But Foley's points differential is -7 and that's enough to keep the challenger at bay?

The point wasn't really about Foley, more so Cooper's impact off the bench but in any case his differential over the 3 Tests is actually -1.

 

[KOB1987]

Well considering the uproar is regarding a player chosen over a superior option, then yes.

'viable' would be a better choice of word..I was happy to see QC (Quade Cooper) picked but I don't think the decision to stick with Foley is all that contentious..

 

[Train Without a Station]

'viable' would be a better choice of word..I was happy to see QC (Quade Cooper) picked but I don't think the decision to stick with Foley is all that contentious..

Let's settle on "test quality".

 

[Train Without a Station]

The point wasn't really about Foley, more so Cooper's impact off the bench but in any case his differential over the 3 Tests is actually -1.

Oh so it's only applicable when it proves your point but when used against you it should be disregarded.

Sorry to be sarcastic, but if you want to use that as a measure of success it's really only fair to apply it to all.

 

[KOB1987]

anyway, the team's been named..

the choice of McMahon over Jones surprised me more than anything, Horne too to a lesser extent..

I think Cheika is looking to build on the 'almost there' performances of the last 2 weeks and steady the ship..he can rock the boat after the Super XV

 

[qwerty51]

Oh so it's only applicable when it proves your point but when used against you it should be disregarded.

Sorry to be sarcastic, but if you want to use that as a measure of success it's really only fair to apply it to all.

No the point was it's not about Foley's performance but how Cooper's performance stacks up in comparison.

 

[Train Without a Station]

Steadily sink it?

 

[Train Without a Station]

No the point was it's not about Foley's performance but how Cooper's performance stacks up in comparison.

Well if we are comparing we need to compare it to foley's performance than don't we?

 

[wamberal]

Dear oh bloody dear, what a tedious debate.


Frankly I could not care less if Cheika picked a bunch of Tasmanians.

If he develops a winning team playing attractive rugby, he has done his job.

 

[Train Without a Station]

Dear oh bloody dear, what a tedious debate.


Frankly I could not care less if Cheika picked a bunch of Tasmanians.

If he develops a winning team playing attractive rugby, he has done his job.

If they were winning nobody would be able to debate the selections either

 

[Brumby Runner]

The bold bit is correct - so take your pick:

1 - Despite winning two European Cups and a Super Rugby title as coach, Michael Chieka can't recognise rugby talent

2 - Michael Cheika does recognise superior talent, but is so wedded to his Waratahs pals that he would rather lose international test matches and jeopardise the rest of his coaching career and legacy than select better players from other provinces

3 - Bitter parochiality is clouding your judgement

According to many posters Cheika's history with the Tahs is that he sticks with the team/players he thinks will perform his style of game and that time allowed him to achieve that style with the Tahs and to take them to the Super title. But how much time does he have with the Wallabies to show that he can be/will be successful? If the 2015 RWC is the goal, then I'd suggest his time runs out with this match against England. The likelihood is that the Wallabies will lose more than they win in next year's RC leading into the Cup, so he really has to show that he and his team can beat the Poms this weekend. Or is the 2015 RWC no longer on his horizon?

His challenge this weekend imo will be to match the Poms in the forwards because even with our changes the backline looks to be quite a bit superior to the Poms' backline. If we get parity or thereabouts in the forwards and still fail to win the game, then there will be real questions being asked about the game plan which would then have only delivered one win out of 4 against the NH sides. Not what would be regarded as a successful tour.

In the unsavory situation where we lose to the Poms, then I'll be inclined to vote for your No 2 option, but I could be convinced by argument that it really is No 1. For the Wallabies sake, and for all of our sakes, I hope that they can get the win and get it by playing an aggressive, up tempo game.

 

[wamberal]

Frankly I doubt that we have the cattle to play the sort of game that Cheika espouses.

It worked for the Tahs. They had Kane Douglas and the Potscraper, Palu did pretty well, TPN ditto.

 

[Paradox]

Hope Speight has his fucking head on because if he ducks in on defence this week the Poms might actually pass it to their wingers.

You might want to read this

http://www.theroar.com.au/2014/11/26/wallabies-best-performance-tour-far/

If you don't like our wingers playing narrow, blame Cheika.

On "Speight"

exactly the same space was evident in the matches against Wales and France when he wasn’t playing so it’s the system, not the players, that need to change.

Here's AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) playing narrow:

And a lovely shot of both wingers:

 

[KOB1987]

Thinking about this some more I feel that Cheika is going for mobility over size and we may see Horwill & Hodgo named on the bench. Further, perhaps some light is shed on the Foley v Cooper decision by the fact that AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) had to move to 13 to cover TK and that allows them to capitalise on some backline plays they knew so well at the Tahs which also involve Izzy and perhaps Horne? And maybe their knowledge of the defensive structure?

I think we will see both Cooper & Beale on the bench

 

[boyo]

But what about all the Seinfeld, How I Met Your Mother, Friends, Simpsons, Futurama, Family Guy, Cheers and Frasier re-runs you miss Reg?

I think that all those are available on commercial FTA TV. In fact, repeats are the mainstay of their second SD channels and their HD channels.

 

[gel]

I am going to bet that when it comes time to review the hooking position next year, TPN will be regarded as the incumbent and FTS will just be remembered as "injury cover whilst TPN was injured".

So I am going strongly with gagger's number 3 for most people in this thread including those tah fans trotting out the incumbency line.

On topic: England will probably win this game and I don't necessarily think it will affect how the wallabies play in next year's world cup.

 

[fatprop]

All this continual hand wringing over backline options amuses me, the pig's effort will decide this match

 

[Scotty]

It looks to me that Cheika is already digging into conservative mode (picking who he knows and not changing the team) to get a win. He may think that it is important since we are playing our group opponent, or he may be concerned with two losses in a row. I hope it isn't the latter.

A lost opportunity to trial some different combinations in this test match.

 

[KOB1987]

All this continual hand wringing over backline options amuses me, the pig's effort will decide this match

you are probably right, hence the defensive strength of the backline..