Tomthumb
Peter Fenwicke (45)
Is Rennie desperate? His team just lost 48-17 and everyone seems to be patting him on the back
Wallabies 2023
- Thread starter RugbyReg
- Start date
Joe Blow
John Hipwell (52)
Who would be better than DR right now? The weekend was not a good look but Rennie has done a decent job under trying circumstances.
Nobody can polish a turd………..well except for Cheika for a couple of months
Tomthumb
Peter Fenwicke (45)
I’ve never liked the argument of “Who could do better?” It’s not judging someone on their own performance and excusing underperformance
He has been in the job the same amount of time as Andy Farrell and Gregor Townsend, so the trying circumstances didn’t affect them too much
we need to stop having such low expectations
He has been in the job the same amount of time as Andy Farrell and Gregor Townsend, so the trying circumstances didn’t affect them too much
we need to stop having such low expectations
Viking
Mark Ella (57)
I hear Scott Robinson is looking for an international gig
I'd love to snag him just to annoy the 75% of ABs fans that want fozzie gone, plus they would be stuck with him for longer. Double win.
Derpus
Nathan Sharpe (72)
I suppose there would be varying degrees of thoroughnessI'm not sure there is any other kind.
It's not a case of low expectations.
It's a case of not overreacting to a single result.
What has changed this season? We're capable of some good comebacks, we have periods of good play but lack consistency. We make far too many catastrophic errors that gift the opposition tries.
The Wallabies played poorly on the weekend and that shouldn't be glossed over but the overall situation is the same.
qwerty51
Stirling Mortlock (74)
We pulled a SA Rugby.
Tomthumb
Peter Fenwicke (45)
This is not about a single result
It's about another home series loss to England, a winless European tour last year, no Rugby Championship since 2015, haven't sniffed the Bledisloe Cup in 20 years.
A 39% win record isn't good enough. Every other tier 1 nation would demand improvement. We don't for some bizarre reason
You can demand improvement but how exactly is it achieved? It's clear that there is no magic bullet to becoming a significantly better side.
It's pretty clear that we sit firmly in that 4-7 zone of teams in the rankings. On our day we can produce an upset against a top 3 side. On our day we can lose to a lower ranked team.
Tomthumb
Peter Fenwicke (45)
It's achieved by having a long term vision, but developing players. It is not achieved by jettisoning in the likes of Quade Cooper, James O'Connor, Bernard Foley and Kurtley Beale to plug a short term gap
We are well worse than 7th though. The two teams behind us both beat us the last time we played. This team is 9th at best
We are well worse than 7th though. The two teams behind us both beat us the last time we played. This team is 9th at best
dru
David Wilson (68)
I agree with you in principle, BH. But we sit at 7 in the world rankings, an equal low for Australia. If it's only temporary as we bounce up, even a little, then that one game is not material.
Let's hope this proves the case though I suspect we have a hard road in front of us for the rest of the Rugby Championship.
PhilClinton
Mark Loane (55)
And the teams lurking above us on the list don't have the NRL and AFL competing with them to secure talent
A lot of players have debuted in the last couple of years. The concept that we aren't bringing in new players through the system is incorrect. We've already selected 46+ players to play 5 tests this season (primarily due to injuries).
Like it or not rugby very much works on World Cup cycles. Maybe in hindsight we made a mistake bringing in Cooper last year but at the time he was clearly playing the best rugby of our options and brought us some good results.
We have very limited time to prepare for the RWC and it does seem like we need to bring in a couple of experienced players to the squad whether or not they actually play. We should also bring in the next young 10 to build experience. We are trotting out incredibly inexperienced test teams at the moment.
That's not how rankings work. Being ranked 7th doesn't mean you beat the teams below you every time and lose to the teams above you every time. 7th is a pretty fair reflection.
What is probably concerning is that the grouping from 6th - 9th is now really close and has dropped away from 5th place.
A little while ago the grouping from 3rd or 4th to 6th was really close and then there was a gap.
Tomthumb
Peter Fenwicke (45)
I agree that Rugby works on world cup cycles, which is why it infuriates me that almost 3 years after he got the job we still haven't developed a 10 or a 15 and are recalling 33 year old Kurtley Beale and 32 year old Bernard Foley to save the day
He's throwing mud up against a wall and hoping it sticks
He's throwing mud up against a wall and hoping it sticks
A mutterer
Chilla Wilson (44)
You're operating on the assumption that the younger 10's could be coached to the same level that quade has played in his games which hsd proven to be untrue. More game time isn't going to magically turn lolesio into a quade level of talent, not in the space of 2 or 3 years.
Lolesio has been a mixed bag, and Harrison was next cab off the rank prior to being injured. I like Harrison, and the other tah 10's a lot, but it's a bit of a reach to expect that they would automatically be better 10 options than quade, lolesio included. Experienced heads are required in the backs, weve got this covered in sapdes in the forwarda.
Tomthumb
Peter Fenwicke (45)
Well putting all their egg's in the 34 year old injury prone players basket didn't really work out did it?
We were never winning a world cup with Quade, so I don't see the down side of building with the young guys from 2020 onwards. We are already at an all time low, how much worse could the young guys be?
Tomthumb
Peter Fenwicke (45)
Scotland only has 38,000 registered players. This is a weak excuse
This argument is a bit of a cop out. A lot of the countries above us are also competing with other sports.
England have 7 professional Soccer leagues including the most watched sports league in the world. Ireland have Gaelic Football, Soccer and Hurling. France are the current Football World Cup Champions.
Rugby is the number 1 sport in both Wales and NZ but Australia has more than 3 times the population of those two countries combined.
South Africa the only country with no excuse really.
Past a pretty early age though there isn't competition for the talented players though.
There aren't exactly a whole bunch of English kids deciding whether they'll sign a pro contract with a rugby club or a football club. They have some competition from league but the profiles of the two sports in the UK are reversed and league is only really big in the north of the country.
Same goes for Ireland and France.