Wallabies 2020

[dru]

You just don't want to do something that materially changes how the game is played. I.e. experimental breakdown laws that substantially change what players can do and therefore how teams play.

That would have the potential to put us at a substantial disadvantage at test level.

Agree but probably a touch more strongly. I want to watch rugby. If they actually change something material I won’t be watching.

 

[Rob42]

There are about 4 or 5 different free kicks a defensive scrum can give away though. Under the existing laws, it is only a penalty when you do each specific one a second time.

There is definitely the capacity for this to be abused if you didn't allow a scrum to be called from a free kick.

This is why I'd opt for stopping the clock. You're not changing the scrum contest, just removing the thing people complain most about the process.

Stopping the clock just makes for a better excuse to waste time - the time's not coming off the clock, but it's still dull to watch reset after reset.

Have a look back at games from the early 2000s, before the "crouch-touch-pause-engage" sequence was introduced - it's still in the professional era, powerful scrums, but they're able to set one and have the ball in within 20 seconds of the whistle stopping play. Sure, scrums today look tighter and more powerful, but really, you only need a few extra seconds to set it up. Between players and refs, just get it done.

Check this, for instance - Aus v Eng 2003, ref blows up a knock-on at 1:49 on the game clock, scrum is fed at 2:09.

 

[Braveheart81]

Stopping the clock just makes for a better excuse to waste time - the time's not coming off the clock, but it's still dull to watch reset after reset.

Have a look back at games from the early 2000s, before the "crouch-touch-pause-engage" sequence was introduced - it's still in the professional era, powerful scrums, but they're able to set one and have the ball in within 20 seconds of the whistle stopping play. Sure, scrums today look tighter and more powerful, but really, you only need a few extra seconds to set it up. Between players and refs, just get it done.

Check this, for instance - Aus v Eng 2003, ref blows up a knock-on at 1:49 on the game clock, scrum is fed at 2:09.

There were also more serious spinal injuries in scrums in that era.

Spinal injuries in scrums are now almost non-existent thankfully.

 

[wamberal]

There were also more serious spinal injuries in scrums in that era.

Spinal injuries in scrums are now almost non-existent thankfully.

It might also be because today's props are bigger, stronger, and better conditioned than they were back then, just a few years after open professionalism began. Any change to the Laws regarding scrums would be carefully framed, and scrupulously monitored, no doubt.

 

[KevinO]

Nothing on Hooper winning the top gong? Seriously, let the banter begin. Would not have been my first choice, but no one was really consistent across all the test this year.

 

[Sully]

Nothing on Hooper winning the top gong? Seriously, let the banter begin. Would not have been my first choice, but no one was really consistent across all the test this year.

I think it's in the 2021 thread cor some reason.

Aslo well deserved.

 

[cyclopath]

Nothing on Hooper winning the top gong? Seriously, let the banter begin. Would not have been my first choice, but no one was really consistent across all the test this year.

Those pesky players voting for him with guns to their heads, apparently.........

 

[RugbyReg]

For what it's worth, the GAGR Wallaby Player of the Year was Matt Phillip. Final table was:

1st Philip - 9 pnts
2nd Hooper - 5 pnts
3rd Wilson, Daugunu, Petaia, Koroiebete - 3 pnts
7th Hodge, Paisami, Tupou - 2 pnts
10th White, Hanigan, Simmons, T Wright - 1 pnt

Match points were as follows:

v NZL (Wellington):
3 Daugunu
2 Philip
1 White

v NZL (Auckland):
3 Hooper
2 Wilson
1 Hanigan

v NZL (Sydney):
3 Petaia
2 Hooper
1 Wilson

v NZL (Brisbane):
3 Koroibete
2 Hodge
1 Philip

v ARG (Newcastle)
3 Philip
2 Paisami
1 Simmons

v ARG (Sydney)
3 Philip
2 Tupou
1 T Wright

 

[rugby4life]

How have the professional rugby careers worked out for former Queensland Australian Schoolboy backs:

Lindsay Crook
Dion Taumata
Walter Petaia
Craig Hunt
Jack Tuttle
Adrian Henley
Mitchell Third
Liam Jurd
James Todd
Joey Fittock
Jayden Ngamanu
Jordan Lenac
William Eadie
Joshua Vuta
Tristan Stanghon

It seems like there's a fairly high percentage of Queensland schoolboy standouts who never go anywhere either. Are these guys picked based on showing quite different attributes to the NSW players? Is it creating a higher strike rate of unearthing future professional stars?

I see in the rugby news from Europe today that Jordan Lenac has departed our fair shores and signed with the Glasgow Warriors in the PRO14 comp over there.

 

[JeepsTragic]

I see in the rugby news from Europe today that Jordan Lenac has departed our fair shores and signed with the Glasgow Warriors in the PRO14 comp over there.

Do Any of them even play club rugby? The only one I remember is Eadie but cant remember too many others.

 

[Adam84]

Rennie won’t be exercising the Giteau Clause much it seems;

“My intention is to pick locally,” he said. “We want our best players here in Australia because they are going to have a big influence on the young kids coming through.“

He also gives some interesting thoughts on the current players;

Hunter Paisami: “I thought he was really impressive. For a young kid in his first season of Super Rugby, plays every Test and acquitted himself really well. He will take back a couple of offloads if he had the chance but he showed he has a good skill set and this season he will go back, he will be a lot more confident and hopefully he will talk a lot more.”

Jordan Petaia: “He has played as many Tests as he has games of Super Rugby so there are areas of his game that he has got to put more time into … certainly around his catch-pass. He is very good at beating people on the outside but needs to keep growing other areas. Even when they have guys on the outside, he will try to do a goosie and get around them. “He is a hell of an athlete and a good kid and for some guys it is just time in the seat and he has barely played any footy.”

Taniela Tupou: “He has the ability to be the best tighthead in the world. He is a unique athlete for a tighthead prop, runs as quick as a back, incredibly powerful. But he needs to be leaner. “He needs to be back on his feet and back in the game more, to get back in the game quicker. But he has a great skill set, so we want him to carry more.”

Matt Philip: ”He was one of our best carriers. We have a lot of guys who carried high, upright into contact and no footwork and are getting double-teamed every time, especially by the Argentinians. “If you can create footwork and create one on ones, you can generate quicker ball and you will put them under pressure next phase. So I thought Matt was really good in that area.

“And he has excellent leg drive beyond contact. “He is always going to put up his hand to carry but he was certainly far more effective than a lot of other guys who carried ball for us.”

Harry Wilson: “A big man who carries hard, who defends really well, aggressive. But he has no footwork in contact. He made a lot of go-forward against the Kiwis but against Argentina who double-teamed him … if you don’t use footwork he was really ineffective against them and it’s a good lesson for him. “We have been talking about instinctive footwork so that is part of the game he has to grow.”

Jack Dempsey: “He is a really good ball-carrier, good feet but I need to see more than that. “I need to see a lot more defensively, around cleanouts and around workrate, the physicality.”

Isi Naisarani: “It was a number of things. We asked him to make shift in the game, around his footwork in contact, more yards, around his accuracy – he lost a lot of ball in contact. Around his conditioning, to get more repeat efforts. He had a lot of errors in his game and he was carrying too much weight.”

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

I love those comments from Rennie. Praise where it's due, but clear areas to work on for each player. I note his repeated commentary on footwork in the loose. Rod Kafer brought up during the last season that he felt that this was an area that the Kiwi pigs had a real advantage and a few here poured scorn on that. He may have been right.

 

[wamberal]

Gee that is an impressive set of comments. It has been a long time since we heard a Wallabies coach speak so candidly about his players.