So, who here thinks Deans is the coach we need?

[ChargerWA]

Is Ewen McKenzie, the dead set certainty to be his successor or is there someone else who could beat him to the punch?

Jake White would be the only real other candidate on the radar at the moment. His proven success on the big stage has to be a big tick.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Should the Wobs coach be the ultimate for ALL rugby in Australia, and not just the performance of the Men in Gold?

If it is not the Wallabies coach,who then sets the standards and is responsible for achieving the standards set at all levels in our game, juniors, schools, colts, subbies, and grade?

Production of Wallabies starts at registration for the under 6's and all subsequent rugby experiences contribute to producing the future Wallaby.

The Men in Gold are only as good as the depth coming through.

 

[Badger]

The Wallabies coach should only be responsible for the Wallabies as that would be more than enough to do without being responsible for all rugby standards in Australia. They would have input into standards, but I would say a Director of Australian Rugby would be the position responsible for setting the standards and be accountable for those standards being applied at all levels of rugby in Australia. This would have to be done in consultation with the state unions etc.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

^^^^ Do we have one of those?

Who is it if we do have one of those beasts?

If we don't, should we have one and who should it be?

What would be the skill requirements for that role?

 

[Waylon]

I was very excited after Deans got the job.......and then we beat the allblacks in his first Bledisloe

Then they won approx 10 in a row

It wasn't so much that we got beaten but we were hopelessly outcoached........the kickoff debacles were a classic. We would kick prredictably to their best jumper every single time whilst they would mix it up and get the ball back seemingly everyime. They scored tries from set peice scrums and lineouts......we fumbled through the basics.

We chose backlines to try and stop them rather than backlines to take them apart

last year we got it right and won the Tri nations for the first time...........then we were poor at the RWC

I just checked my watch.....it's Link time

 

[p.Tah]

^^^^ Do we have one of those [director of Australian rugby]

I think Nucifora sees that as his role

 

[Athilnaur]

For me the defining game for us at the RWC was the Irish loss.

I was interested to hear Gaffney's views on the game last Thursday. He basically said the Wallabies had a bad day, the Irish had a good day, and the conditions played to Irish strengths. We saw the Irish achieve much the same thing in Test 2 v the ABs, right down to SBW being held up in mauls.

Had we won I genuinely believe we would have been finalists. We would then have played NZ after they had just played a brutal game against the Bokke and a much closer score would have happened. I still think they would have won tbh, the strategy of bombing our back 3 was good, and Kaino and Dagg had defining games that presumably they would still be up for even after a brutal game vs Bokke, but Digby was immense for us and when any of Digby, Beale or JOC (James O'Connor) get the ball the kiwis get scared. They know those guys can cut any loose defence to ribbons.

My read was that Gaffney didn't hold Deans or the Wallabies at fault.

 

[Bowside]

The team selections and gameplan for the irish match were formulated by deans. He chose not to select a fetcher and instead opted for a journeyman no 8 to fill the open-side flanker position. He chose the rookie 12 McCabe whose running style was exploited all night and constantly left us on the backfoot. He chose a pack containing an injured and out of form vickerman, an injured and out of form Elsom, and a prop who was clearly not upto the standard. No surprise the pack was compressively beaten.

It's not like his hand was forced with these decisions either. He had other options in everyone of the above positions. Many on this board made this point before the game.

He was out coached by a bloke that most irish rate as a pretty average coach. His team was beaten by a team that in the grand scheme of things, was a pretty average team. It was simply not an acceptable result all things considered.

 

[Athilnaur]

I'd agree about playing McCalman at 7, but the other points I'd take issue with. Done to death and I don't propose to revisit that here other than to say for me McCabe was the least of our worries, with Cooper my biggest backline issue and a poor effort from our back row.

 

[Richo]

I don't see the problem with changing coaches now. If the RC is a serious failure he can be sacked immediately and Link be appointed. No sense fucking up another year.

Or maybe THIS will be the series it all come together...

 

[Groucho]

In our passion to see the Wallabies win, and our absolute loathing of losses like, that Aussie A 'practice run' last year against those really big pacific islanders and that other practice run we had somewhere near Newcastle, it is pretty easy for us fire up. Easier too if you see players picked that you don't agree with. Then there is the convoluted management speak
.

Well I'm certainly mystified by that paragraph!

 

[Joe Blow]

He is the one we have and is proving difficult to move on.
Link's turn in the hot seat is coming soon. Before Deans I was in favour of the best possible coach, from anywhere, to coach the Wallabies.
From here on in it should be the best possible Australian coach.

 

[Nelse]

As long as the next guy isn't somehow Nucifora. It concerns me how he has manouvered himself into his current position. After his tenures at the Brumbies and Blues, it defies belief that he is allowed such an influencial position over the Wallabies.

Link is obviously the man in waiting, but it also it a bit concerning that he is seen as The Saviour(TM) of Australian Rugby, and his coming will turn everything around. It will take time, and much like MacQueen's coaching, it will take good people around him. Remember, Dingo Deans had an even better super rugby record than Link has.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

I think Nucifora sees that as his role

"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
In accents most forlorn,
Outside Coogee Oval, ere training began,
One frosty Sunday morn.

The punters stood about,
Coat-collars to the ears,
And talked of scrum and ruck, and lineout,
As they had done for years.

"It's looking crook," said Daniel Croke;
"Bedad, it's cruke, me lad,
For never since the Tahs went broke
Has seasons been so bad."

"It's Nucifora, all right," said John O'Neil,
With which astute remark
He chowed down upon Star Casino’s jellied Eel
And left the rest of us in the dark.



APOLOGIES to JOHN O'BRIEN

 

[Swat]

Munster.... Lest we forget.

 

[fatprop]

I just don't think a coach change is going make us better than the ABs consistently at the moment.

 

[Richo]

I just don't think a coach change is going make us better than the ABs consistently at the moment.

I think that's true. The talent deficit is too great. Doesn't mean a coach change isn't a good idea though. Right now, we have a coach who is, IMO, not maximising the playing talent available to him and not instilling strong game plans. Consistently beating the ABs might not be possible, consistently playing to a standard where beating them is consistently possible is a different story.

 

[Braveheart81]

I agree with fatprop.

I think there are a lot of things Deans needs to improve but I also think our players need to improve a lot too.

I think it is all too easy to call out the coach as being the reason for failure rather than being critical of the players (unless they are the much maligned players such as Rob Horne, Sitaleki Timani or Ben Alexander to name a few).

Everyone hails Link as the future saviour of the Wallabies but he is hardly infallible. It was only a few weeks ago when everyone was dumfounded that he moved Genia to 10 when Lucas got injured and the Reds backline fell apart.

The performance of our best few players and those in key positions will always have a very strong impact on whether we win or lose against the best teams. The individual performances of players like Pocock, Genia, Barnes or Cooper, Beale, the front row etc. will have a far greater impact on whether we win a game than perceived tactics and style of play or our coach.

Teams like the All Blacks rarely lose because they have a lot of 'best in the world' players and they rarely have bad games.

 

[Brisbok]

With the calibre of playing talent he has at his expense, he has done a royal mess of fucking alot of it up. You look at our full-strength backline, that's the best in the world. We have the best openside in the world, Horwill and Sharpe have been premier locks, Moore Kepu and Robinson are all good frontrowers. So you cannot say it's the players talent that is letting us done.

The amount of shithouse decisions he has made shocks me, I'm not going to list them, but he has tactically turned a highly skilled side into a team that stutters every second game.

Full-strength backline the best in the world? Who is this full-strength backline you are referring to? I think the Kiwi's have a very strong case for this title - definitely this season and more than likely last season too.

At the moment the Wobs are rated the 2nd best team in the world. Yes, they can certainly iron out the inconsistency in their game as they shouldn't ever lose to the likes of Scotland and Samoa. Possibly also snatch a win or two more than they have at home against the All Blacks in the last couple of seasons too. But do they have a better 15 full-strength players available than All Blacks do?

Props - All Blacks by some distance
Hooker - Probably Wallabies slightly.
Second Row - Even
Back Row - All Blacks (Wallabies probably better at 7, All Blacks better at 6 and 8)
Scrumhalf - Wallabies
Flyhalf - All Blacks (probably number 1 and 2 with Carter and Cruden ahead of Cooper/Barnes)
Centres - All Blacks
Wingers - Even
Fullback - Even

Agree that at times Deans' selections are mystifying even from an outsider's perspective. But cannot agree that he has a better 15 players available to select than the AB's do.

 

[tigerland12]

I pretended the All Blacks didn't exist when I said that Brisbok