Okay, McKenzie has pulled a Deans to the nth degree. The good thing about Deans is that even when he picked players who you weren't expecting, we still won the game.
But this shit... I do not understand. How the hell are Slipper, Alexander, Timani, Horwill and Genia still in the team? Does he need them to hand the ball to the opposition on the try line or is that just ignored because once upon a time they made a good pass or tackle?
Does this man understand the position he is in? Is he naive enough to think that the team is amazing and the referee is the reason his record is 25%?
I would prefer it if we gave the coaching job to a shoe at this stage. If we lose this weekend, the worst part won't be that we lost, it will be that I expected it and don't expect any changes.
I can understand Genia, he's dropped him once already, you have to hope that a player of his caliber takes a shit week in his stride and steps up again. Everyone has their shockers, I'm backing him to be back to his best this weekend.
Horwill was improving, I can understand why you'd keep him and also it was Timanis first start in a while, hopefully he picks it up this week.
What really, really, really, really fucks me off is this front row bullshit. Im hoping, as I'm sure everyone else here is, that there is some mastermind plan behind flogging this dead horse of a selection, but it really isn't looking good. So much for "its a week to week contract" hey? What happened to "if its not working, we'll try something else?" And the solution is rob simmons at 6? The only change?
It's only 6 months in so I still have patience for him, but Link is certainly dipping his toes into the pile of shit that was Robbie Deans' selection abilities. It won't be long before he dives in head first.
Going to edit this. After calming down a bit:
I can see why he's kept the front row as well... If we are perfectly honest, and has been pointed out numerous times, they actually didn't do too badly against the poms. In fact,t here were a few scrums where we should have won the penalty and got dudded. I'm not saying it would have won us the game etc. etc. but I would say there was only one or two scrums towards the end where we really got messed up, the other times Clancy just fucked them over. Changing the front row isnt going to change the perception that results in us getting the blame for every scrum failure. Slipper and Alexander are improving in this area and if jackson has any ball this weekend, he will ref according to what he sees, not some preformed idea that if the scrum collapses, it must be australias fault.