Tahs Vs Bulls

[Scarfman]

Waugh said that they weren't up for it. No surprise, really. If the piggies can gee up a bit I still think we'll make 4th spot.

But a few question marks developing about selections. As you say, fp, BR is an enthusiasm machine. Why he's not there is a mystery. And clearly the backline combos are fucked, how about trying something else?

 

[cyclopath]

Can't see any fix for the backs at the moment. SNK at 10 or 12, Beale at 15? Maybe try it, what have we got to lose? An observation about Tahu - he hit the ball up strongly, and was trying to free the arms to offload, and almost did a couple of times. Carter doesn't really offer the offload so much. Clearly the Bulls did their homework on Tahu well. Horne is crocked, so another hole there. Carraro? Playford? Any other suggestions running around in the Shute Shield?
PB made a good point about some of the second phase ball - we lost it a few times with players staring at it sitting under the last feet for 10-15 seconds trying to think of something to do. Not to mention the complete momentum killer that it is.
Between the idea vacuum and the backs playing like they'd been lobotomised, the Tahs are making themselves the easiest team against which to defend.

 

[naza]

Waugh said that they weren't up for it. No surprise, really. If the piggies can gee up a bit I still think we'll make 4th spot.

It was bound to happen. The pack have been carrying all the load and continually have to mop up the abortions of their backline.

And no, there is no end in sight.

 

[disco]

Tahs have a must win next week against the Force, I'm still confident that they'll make the final 4.

 

[steiner]

Well, the most dire performance yet from the Waratahs. Can't blame Kaplan for that drivel, though his stop-start refereeing didn't help, the Waratahs were more stopped than started when they did get the chance anyway!

The Waratahs are now in the bizarre position where the only rational thing to do is to finally move SNK to 10 even thougth he's only got a number of weeks left at the club! Hangers was pretty poor out there. He keeps threatening to go overseas. Let's pitch in and buy his ticket for him!
Geez you read some crap in the Aussie papers. I thought I must have entered a parallel universe when I was reading about Hangers' quick and accurate passing game. No such luck.

Can't move Beale back to 10 because of his defence. At least part of the reason, I think for Waugh's increase in form is that he is no longer having to cover the Beale channel in defence and can fully focus on his own game. We need Waugh firing on all eight cylinders not just six.
Beale has lost a bit of confidence as distributor anyway in this dysfunctional backline. The coaches need to wear the blame for that. Only a distant memory now is Kurtley's assured performance against the Crusaders in last year's final.

Horne needs to be rested next week and with the bye the week after that hopefully will give him time to overcome his injury. Carraro on to the bench and give him some good game time to see what he has to offer.
Play a tight game against the Force and with the Force having some injury problems hopefully sneak a win.

They then need to use the Saffa tour to revamp the backline. Get over to Saffaland early, away from the negative media. Change the backline: 10. SNK, 12 and 13, Horne and Tahu in either order, Turner and Tuqiri on the wings and Beale at fullback. The best attacking backline outside the best passing 10, and use a good two weeks training to get it into order. The season's not gone yet, just follow Steiner's Grand Plan for Success and they'll be OK.

A few positives against the Bulls were the form of Burgess and Palmer and Palu's continued forward momentum, and TPN at times as well. Just gotta hope TPN can get back to his early season lineout throwing. Hopefully this performance was an anomaly caused by the pressure of throwing against Matfield and Botha. The plan of throwing to the back to avoid the pilfering arms of these two backfired. They'll have to rethink that if they do make the semis and play the Bulls again.

 

[PhucNgo]

Smith is the thinking man's consumate professional rugby player. If he can't go thru he'll go around. If he can't go around, he'll create an opportunity for someone else to go around

If he can't do that, he'll chip or grubber kick the ball : Gimme a break.

Waugh is a very direct player but its not his job to find the holes and its only partly his job to contribute to a game plan. The coaching staff have to start answering some serious questions on why the fuck we don't even have a Plan A. I thought Hickey was supposed to be a genius? Surely then, even with the limited backline talent we've got at the Tahs he can find something to use?

NTA, I know you're not a fan of Smith's kicking (which I personally think he's quite good at), but that wasn't my point. Rugby's about finding a way to score tries. If belting it up time after time does it for you and it gets results, well then good. But if its not working, find another way, keep thinking and keep looking.

I have the utmost respect for Waugh, and I agree that its not his job to devise a game plan. But it is his job in conjuction with (normally) the 10 to execute the plan and where necessary to modify it to suit the conditions as the game unfolds. Unfortunately the Tahs don't have an onfield "brains trust" and as a consequence you get slavish adherence to a game plan which focuses on taking the ball thru a 20m channel; bash bash bash.

If its endurance you want, the Waugh's your man, but if its smarts, its Smith.

 

[disco]

Just gotta hope TPN can get back to his early season lineout throwing. Hopefully this performance was an anomaly caused by the pressure of throwing against Matfield and Botha.

Yeah Matfield was his chief destroyer last season in Jo'Burg this could be a problem in the Tri-nations if Moore can't play for some reason. Not always his fault but on most occasions it was.

 

[Ash]

I think I have to start agreeing with Kafe as he eunumerated on Thursday night - some of the the ELV's have to an extent created this bloody kicking mentality. The not taking the ball back into the 22 has given birth to a game of ping pong and all the league fans must be laughing in their boots as our game that up until a few years ago was a great running game has reverted to the trash we once endured 40 years ago.
Every one of the games featuring an Aussie side this weekend featured endless kicking and to some extent it resulted in the losses we had. Given the wet game in Canberra made for a territorial slant but even then I felt there was just too much kicking.
Now kicking isn't a bad thing but you have to be able to do it effectively and aside from Mark Gerrard and maybe Giteau there is no Aussie player capable of doing the same with effectiveness and control - all we do is hand the ball back for the opposition to say thanks pal and score.
The other teams must love us, no matter how much ball we win we just give it back - most times on a gilded platter.
What a boring bunch we have become.

Not in the Clan v Reds game. Kicking was mostly at a minimum. Despite the Reds losing, was a great game to watch.

RE Carter - he's a black hole. Whilst watching the game, a friend and I discussed him and Turinuri. Turinuri used to be a bit of a black hole (rarely pass), but he could find a gap, offload or create something - but was a turnstile. Carter is the opposite - no creativity, can just hit it up and be tackled...but he tackles everything and anything in sight.

When the Bulls got to 13 points, we both said that we didn't think the Tahs have enough points in them to win. And we were right. Until the Tahs can consistently score points then they are a risky propisition week to week. A few weeks of defensive lapses will definitely cost them games, whereas a team like the Crusaders could score enough points to cover themselves for a few odd poor defensive games.