The Holy Grail

[dobduff11]

After much deliberation and many videos I have found evidence that Adam Ashley-Cooper can indeed pass, even though it was a pop i think it still counts.

0:27 seconds AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) passes to Peter Hynes for his first pass of 2009.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=greenandgoldrugby#p/u/92/tjLP4zFTXyE

The match against Scotland in the EOYT sees AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) pass. This is a rare sight and should be treated with a great deal of respect

 

[Aussie D]

You sure no one edited that vid so it looked like AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) passed? You know cut his head off and pasted it onto someone elses body?

 

[dobduff11]

I wouldn't be surprised if they did

I watched all the vids of the wallabies tests over the past two years and I can only find one pass from AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) and he played in nearly every game

He must have some obsession with the phrase, treat the ball like a baby, and then probably got confused and thought they meant his baby so he never passes it

 

[Groucho]

You sure no one edited that vid so it looked like AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) passed? You know cut his head off and pasted it onto someone elses body?

That must have been Bakkies Botha that did that.

 

[Lee Grant]

Very droll dobduff11 but did Mortlock pass the ball much more?

 

[DPK]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckWM8d1VD9g

Sure did Lee, approx. 1:08 in this video.

 

[RugbyReg]

I always thought Dan Herbert was a bit of Rodney Hogg, but if you look at the video that Austin put together of the Wallaby backlines, he serves up some delicious passes.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

I always thought that Herbert the younger was a pretty underrated player. In many ways he was the classical block busting centre who defended well and broke the line consistently, thus setting up opportunities for other guys around him.

 

[Lee Grant]

In 1999 he was the best outside centre in world rugby.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Without question, yes Lee.

 

[Slim 293]

I don't understand why AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) is criticised for not passing the ball?

He's often being left in the position of being the player needed to straighten the attack...

Or used as a crash ball runner...

I don't seem to recall a time where him passing the ball would've been a better option?

There's already enough sideways movement in the Wallaby backline...

The funny thing is some blind viewers (obviously including the OP) game him shit for not passing the ball in the first test against Fiji, yet upon replay he passed it a number of times, including the pass that led to Brown's try...

But whatever...

 

[DPK]

The thread subject is mostly the continuation of a running joke, not a analytical breakdown of AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper)'s passing history.

 

[dobduff11]

Good point DPK

And what about Christian Cullen as the best 13 in 1999,

How effective was herbert against the other tri nations teams in his tests in comparison to Morty or young Giteau?

 

[disco]

So much for injuries letting us down, all the players we keep saying would be a walk up start in the Wallabies were playing in that horror show against Scotland.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Good point DPK

And what about Christian Cullen as the best 13 in 1999,

How effective was herbert against the other tri nations teams in his tests in comparison to Morty or young Giteau?

Herbert was outstanding against all comers in his career for the Wallabies. He was so good that he kept Jason Little out of his preferred position.

Cullen should never have been made a centre. It was a case of reducing a strength to cover a weakness, something that I am fundamentally against.

I personally think outside centre is AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper)'s best position and he really only started playing full back as a stop gap when Latham left and Shep was perpetually injured.

 

[dobduff11]

Yeh i heard about the whole cullen thing, 1999 was a bit soon for me so i never saw whole game footage of the wallabies or the all blacks only highlights.

Why didn't they just play umaga at 13, cullen at 15 and wilson at 14. Seemed simple enough

AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) is a good fullback but we have kurtley now, he should probably stick to 13 for the rest of the year and see how it goes, or we should play him on the wing like he originally did in 07

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

KB (Kurtley Beale) is the option at fullback now, he's earned that right and good on him for it.

The All Black selections were indeed baffling. The have a bit of history, with Hart and Mitchell both guilty of it.

 

[cyclopath]

So much for injuries letting us down, all the players we keep saying would be a walk up start in the Wallabies were playing in that horror show against Scotland.

I noticed that - Alexander, Moore, Palu, Horwill...

 

[Slim 293]

I noticed that - Alexander, Moore, Palu, Horwill...

Let's not forget though that in that Scotland game it wasn't really our forwards letting us down...

Aside from the lineout (lack of lineout specialist) our forwards consistently performed the best on the EOYT than I've seen them do in years... their work in the scrums and at the breakdown was nothing like the Wallaby forwards of recent years...

Aside from the Welsh game our backline wasn't anything to brag about... I think this was mostly from the odd combination of having Giteau at flyhalf with Cooper and Ioane as the centres...

 

[dobduff11]

Yeh that was an odd backline on the eoyt, wales lost half of their backline in the first half and that probably contributed to the wallabies performance,

sometimes things just go for you in matches and that is what happened to gits on that day and the wb's played well because of it

The scotland game was a bit of a hiccup and without the break from JOC (James O'Connor) and the try from cross then the wallabies wouldn't have even scored a try

The wallabies will benefit from the return of palu, TPN, Alexander, Horwill, a fit rocky. They are all the effective ball runners in the usual pack so the carrying will increase when they come back

and without digby there is a lack of ball carriers in the wallabies forwards and backs,