No Ben Mowen thread?

[Slim 293]

We were supposed to beat Ireland, Scotland and Wales?

We're talking about the Wallabies right?

 

[fatprop]

I think the whole line is bullshit.

I also think that the sanctions were marketing bullshit

This "incident" happens before the Irish game, but the sanctions were done for Scotland? meh

If it was a "real" issue why weren't they pulled for the Irish game?

Instead we "suspended" a load of players for a game a week later, thereby choosing the weakest game on tour, a game that we were going to rotate for anyway.

 

[Ignoto]

Instead we "suspended" a load of players for a game a week later, thereby choosing the weakest game on tour, a game that we were going to rotate for anyway.

Didn't we cover this to death when it happened. I thought it was quite well established that Link and Co didn't find out about the drinking shenanigans until well into the week and after the team had been announced internally.

 

[Brumby Runner]

The more I read this thread, the more I realise that Link knows fuck-all about rugby and how to coach a team like the Wallabies. Against all the accepted wisdom, he appointed a hopeless player as captain while two of the best candidates available were also in the team. And heaven forbid, he even overlooked them to appoint QC (Quade Cooper) as vice captain! And don't overlook the fact that four wins on the trot were due entirely to some delayed benefit of Robbie Deans' coaching.

For my part, I'm willing to stick with Link. Mowen was captain and a very successful one. If he plays in 2014 against France, I would expect he will still be captain over Big Kev and Will.

 

[fatprop]

Didn't we cover this to death when it happened. I thought it was quite well established that Link and Co didn't find out about the drinking shenanigans until well into the week and after the team had been announced internally.

Again, if this was actually a "serious" issue why not immediately suspend?

 

[Pfitzy]

Well, I leave this thread for a few days and it spirals into a whirling maelstrom of supposition and shit slinging.

I'm most disappointed in my fellow front rower fatprop - old cheese, you should know that arguing with a Queenslander is pointless: they take you down to their level and beat you on experience.

Ben Mowen: champion. Should have had more years at the top. But best of luck to him.

Now let's move on with 2014 and let the Pony Buggerers discuss their choice of captain over on their own thread hmmm?

 

[TOCC]

There is drawing a line in the sand on discipline and then there is cutting the nose off to spite the face..

It would have been an absolutely ridiculous proposition to ban all those players merely 48hrs before the test match. They would have had only one full training session in the new team before the game..

Banning all those players would have been a greater punishment to those players forced to fill in and play below their potential due to the limited time frame, it was the correct decision to delay the punishment until after the weekend test match.

 

[Scrubber2050]

Yep, Mowen might not be popular with the shirts-off instagram set but he lead the Wallabies to much needed and unlikely wins.

No doubt Mowen was there for the wins - really don't think his captaincy was the difference between winning and losing - his captaincy was not inspirational, was it ?

 

[Pete King]

No doubt Mowen was there for the wins - really don't think his captaincy was the difference between winning and losing - his captaincy was not inspirational, was it ?

His captaincy was really poor against England actually. We were a better side all over the park in the other games and we would have won with Izzy as capt. The line we may have beaten the lions with him at the helm is a g-up surely

 

[Scrubber2050]

The more I read this thread, the more I realise that Link knows fuck-all about rugby and how to coach a team like the Wallabies. Against all the accepted wisdom, he appointed a hopeless player as captain while two of the best candidates available were also in the team. And heaven forbid, he even overlooked them to appoint QC (Quade Cooper) as vice captain! And don't overlook the fact that four wins on the trot were due entirely to some delayed benefit of Robbie Deans' coaching.

For my part, I'm willing to stick with Link. Mowen was captain and a very successful one. If he plays in 2014 against France, I would expect he will still be captain over Big Kev and Will.

I think Link appointing Ben Mowen (the hopeless player) was the right decision at the time. Horwill had been actually dropped and was only reinstated into the starting side when Robert Simmo was injured at training. It would have been unfair ion Mowen to give him the captaincy early in the week and then take it off him before the match

 

[Swat]

Anyone have a read of Rebecca Wilson's idiotic article that was pulled from the fox news website after only being up for 2 hours?

PICTURE for a moment this scenario: Wallabies great and former captain John Eales has a hissy fit and announces a year before the World Cup that he no longer wants to lead his country.

At the same time, fullback and rugby great Matt Burke decides to switch codes to the AFL, ditching the sport he grew up playing, and the one that has turned him into a household name.

The very idea of either of those things happening would have been tantamount to heresy a decade ago. Two of the great Wallabies, who sweated blood for the gold jersey, would never, ever entertain such nonsense. This week, the Wallabies' latest captain, Ben Mowen, announced he would head to France at the end of 2014. He cited that old chestnut, "to spend more time with his family" as his reason for turning his back on one of the most coveted roles in Australian sport.

He did not mention that he'd also had an almighty barney with the Australian Rugby Union over his pay and that he was miffed he did not receive a top-up in the latest round of rich contract deals.

Fullback Jesse Mogg looks like he's out of there, too, after being courted by the AFL for the last few months. The World Cup apparently holds no interest for either of these footballers.

Mowen's decision is gobsmacking. Handed the captaincy after the wonderful James Horwill was deemed to be struggling to retain his spot in the team, Mowen was the star of Ewen McKenzie's brave new era of reform.

The coach spelt out pretty early on that he would not cop any bad behaviour or ill-discipline, suspending more than half of the team for spending a night out in Ireland during the recent spring tour.

Mowen appeared to be made of the right stuff, leading the Wallabies to a surprisingly successful tour when they suffered a single, unlucky loss to England. The signs of recovery were there for us all to see - a more unified looking team, Quade Cooper back in great form and a forward pack that wasn't steamrolled like it had been in previous seasons.

Departing Wallabies Captain Ben Mowen insists contract issues was not the cause behind his shock decision to leave Australian Rugby.
Mowen was front and centre of McKenzie's World Cup plans. The 195cm flanker/No.8 captains the ACT Brumbies in Super Rugby. He is now locked in a contractual fight with that side's management over his decision to bail out and move to France.

While Mowen posed for photographs with his wife and young daughter on Thursday, telling the press they were the central reason for his decision, the rumblings grew louder that the captain had also spat the dummy over money. Given that French rugby pays ridiculous money for its club stars, the rumours appear well founded.

Mowen claimed a gruelling travelling schedule had taken its toll on his family life and that a move to France would offer an ideal solution for them all. While he is entitled to put family first, the decision to quit Australian rugby is one that the likes of Eales, Nick Farr-Jones and Mark Ella would find stupefying.

These young men all had wives and young families during their careers. Time away from home is always tough, but when your sporting career is relatively short in a long life, playing for Australia is something not one of them would have given up without a fight.

These guys would have been dragged kicking and screaming to France to play club rugby when they were captains of the national team. They most certainly would not have walked away because they weren't paid enough or to take a step down to club rugby.

Ben Mowen would have been on a contract worth at least $500,000 a year. Surely the opportunities offered to him as captain of the national side, combined with a damned good salary, outweigh his desire to play rugby in France?

McKenzie is now in a quandary, faced with appointing a new captain a year out from a World Cup that will be seminal for Australian rugby. Improvement in performances outside a World Cup year will count for nothing if the Wallabies fail again in 2015.

The Wallabies brand has taken a battering in recent years. McKenzie is the man chosen to take it out of a diabolical phase into a brave new one, rich with success.

Perhaps he might secretly believe he is better off without the likes of Mowen or Mogg.

He drew a line in the sand during the European tour. It is apparent he only wants people like Eales and Farr-Jones in his new Wallabies, players who would bleed for the jersey and stand proudly alongside their teammates, no matter how much they are earning.

I'll let Dylan Moran sum up my feeling towards Miss Wilson:

 

[Pete King]

I share a similar hatred of Rebecca Wilson, complete mole.

 

[Train Without a Station]

It's a story completely devoid of logic or actual facts.

I agree Nick Farr-Jones would not have left to go play rugby in France. Mainly because playing rugby for the Wallabies was better for his professional career and rugby was amateur then so it would have been to his financial detriment.

The Mogg to AFL rumour has been dispelled already and it was in fact the Brumbies who set up the meeting with the Lions to enable Mogg to do some extra work.

 

[Muttonbird]

His captaincy was really poor against England actually. We were a better side all over the park in the other games and we would have won with Izzy as capt. The line we may have beaten the lions with him at the helm is a g-up surely

His first game in charge at test level.

Could it be you were a better side all over the park for the other games because you had a level-headed and decent captain for a change?

On the Lions, I guess we'll never know. Deans didn't pick him as captain.

 

[Slim 293]

The Mogg to AFL rumour has been dispelled already and it was in fact the Brumbies who set up the meeting with the Lions to enable Mogg to do some extra work.

It seems that both Wilson and the Oz were a bit slow on that story..........

The Crimes already reported last week that the Brumbies organised the training session with the Lions while he recovers from shoulder surgery.........

 

[Pete King]

His first game in charge at test level.

Could it be you were a better side all over the park for the other games because you had a level-headed and decent captain for a change?

On the Lions, I guess we'll never know. Deans didn't pick him as captain.

Actually his second test as captain that we do know.

 

[Scrubber2050]

It was only Genia's shit box kick that did it for England - not Ben Mowen as captain !!!

 

[Train Without a Station]

Muttonbird, interesting comment "decent captain for a change". Horwill's leadership seemed adequate for the Reds to win the 2011 Super Rugby final and the Wallabies to win the 2011 Tri-Nations.

His leadership and captaincy at the Reds had been lauded from his commencement in that position up until that point in team. Since then the Reds made the finals every season. One bad, heavily injury affected season and suddenly every mug punter is taking pot shots at the blokes leadership abilities.

 

[Muttonbird]

Muttonbird, interesting comment "decent captain for a change". Horwill's leadership seemed adequate for the Reds to win the 2011 Super Rugby final and the Wallabies to win the 2011 Tri-Nations.

His leadership and captaincy at the Reds had been lauded from his commencement in that position up until that point in team. Since then the Reds made the finals every season. One bad, heavily injury affected season and suddenly every mug punter is taking pot shots at the blokes leadership abilities.

Fair enough. Horwill was instrumental in the resurgence of the Reds and Wallabies in 2011. The pressure has gone on since and like you say he's had a bad year under that pressure. I've noticed some indiscipline there too. I'm talking about the stamp on Wyn-Jones, though perhaps this was an isolated event born out of frustration.

God knows it must have been a difficult task leading the Wallabies off the field in the last few years with Bieber and co running rampant. Hope he does better now that lot are out of the picture.

 

[wamberal]

It has to be said that Horwill's form has not been the same since his return from injury. He used to dominate, he does not now. I would not be surprised if he fails to hold his starting position, which would kind of rule him out of the captaincy, I would have thought.