Wallabies 2024

[The Ghost of Raelene]

Campo is feeling neglected again…

David Campese criticises Joe Schmidt and labels All Blacks ‘very ordinary’

Legendary winger David Campese has criticised the appointment of Joe Schmidt as head coach following the Wallabies’ last-place finish.

www.rugbypass.com

He's just such a fuckwit. It's funny but it's a shame really. He opens his mouth and it's just disregarded. If he wasn't a Winger who couldn't tackle tackle you might say CTE but it's just a stage 4 case of being a idiot.

He's not even a douchbag like Warrick Capper that makes you laugh and shake your head.

What game does Australia have the players for? Rennie was too complicated, Jones was too much of a change, Schmidt is too Ireland....what is the game plan that suits the Australian player?

I really don't think it's a priority concern right now. I think it's finding 25 players who are up to competing in the Test arena. A lot were used against Wales and Georgia and not seen again which I like. Lets find out who has it in them. The style will come with who is in the squad as much as Schmidt.

Rennie tried to transplant Club footy to Test footy. Can work if you have exceptional talent across the park (we don't) then it got stale and he looked like he had no next move. He's not a bad coach but it wasn't a good fit really.

Jones was celebrating himself as much as anything and tried to create a siege mentality which didn't get buy in from the players (surprise, surprise)

Schmidt brings a persona that I think is good for a group in a learning phase. He's trying to teach them and he holds respect over demanding it from it seems to me. He has a bit more leash as well when RA want stability with the Lions and a home WC coming up and we just went out of the last at the pool stages. Not like coaches are bashing down the door for the job.

 

[cyclopath]

What game does Australia have the players for? Rennie was too complicated, Jones was too much of a change, Schmidt is too Ireland....what is the game plan that suits the Australian player?

Playing Portugal.
Portugal B to be safe.

 

[TSR]

Campo is a predictable and relentless voice of doom, and has stagnated in about 1994, but it's crazy to assert he would have been incapable of being a very good player in this era.
He was way ahead of others in terms of seeking physical development, getting bigger and stronger and so on. His skills and vision for space would be a big asset in any era. Not to mention his right boot. He punted the ball a mile.
Now, if he would just shut up a bit...

I’d also add that he seems to do a lot for grassroots - from my perspective at least. I am up in CQ and over the years he has been here a bunch of times doing clinics and promos of rugby at all levels. As far as I understand most of these were done at not much more than covering his travel costs.

I don’t say this in support of any of his comments at all, but he does appear to me someone very willing to put his own time back into rugby.

 

[cyclopath]

I’d also add that he seems to do a lot for grassroots - from my perspective at least. I am up in CQ and over the years he has been here a bunch of times doing clinics and promos of rugby at all levels. As far as I understand most of these were done at not much more than covering his travel costs.

I don’t say this in support of any of his comments at all, but he does appear to me someone very willing to put his own time back into rugby.

Good to hear. I didn't question his commitment to the game, just a bit sick of his commentary about the game at times.

 

[Pfitzy]

And Rennie won back to back super titles from memory too - we seem to have coaches coming in with previous success that leave us with their stocks lowered

Gee... wonder what the common factor is?

 

[TSR]

Good to hear. I didn't question his commitment to the game, just a bit sick of his commentary about the game at times.

Sorry - I didn’t take your comment that way and didn’t mean to imply you did. My comment was just adding to your bit about his ability as a player.

 

[capalaba]

And my concern with Schmidt is whether he is capable of adapting his style to suit the players he has. He seems to be trying to play like Ireland 2.0 but we don't have he players for that. Hopefully he will evolve but at the moment it feels like a sqaure peg in a round hole

This is a very good point and something I had not considered. I have been extremely frustrated with our performances although we were decent at Super Rugby level. I have had issues with Schmidt's gameplan, he needs to change and get away from that Northern Hemisphere style of game. We need to get back to running rugby with a mobile and at times loose forward pack.

It feels like the creativity and flare has been sucked out of the players and we are over coached. This is where disillusionment sets in.

 

[TSR]

What game does Australia have the players for? Rennie was too complicated, Jones was too much of a change, Schmidt is too Ireland....what is the game plan that suits the Australian player?

Depower the scrums, get rid of lineouts, hold the ball for 6 tackles then kick for territory.

Either that or just get rid of tries all together and put some extra posts at the end of each field and revert to a kick heavy game.

We’d probably have to change our squad a bit but I feel like we’d adapt better than most.

 

[Pfitzy]

What game does Australia have the players for?

A better development system. That's it. That's the post.

 

[rugbyAU]

Skelton has reported he’s keen for the EOYT and has talked to Schmidt

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

And I think he's a walk up start or at least into the 23 whenever available. We need some size in the middle. LSL (Lukhan Salakaia-Loto) brings it at times and you see the benefit. Williams has been great and I think earn't a starting spot but we can't have two guys like that. One worker and one to throw weight around.

 

[rugbyAU]

And I think he's a walk up start or at least into the 23 whenever available. We need some size in the middle. LSL (Lukhan Salakaia-Loto) (Lukhan Salakaia-Loto) brings it at times and you see the benefit. Williams has been great and I think earn't a starting spot but we can't have two guys like that. One worker and one to throw weight around.

Ideally start Skelton and LSL (Lukhan Salakaia-Loto) together

 

[stillmissit]

Eddie wasn't too much change, though it was a lot in a short period and probably could've been more successful if it was staged. His biggest issue was a terrible coaching team, made up of coaches who either weren't up to it or were being made to coach a discipline entirely different from their skill set. They had no hope of ever being able to effectively communicate his plan in such a short time frame, or respond on the fly as the situation evolved.

Wilson. I normally enjoy your posts but this little gem has to be replied to. Eddie doesn't need any other coaches he knows it all - check the lifetime of England assistant coaches. He did the opposite of what he did with McQueens team, he knew a better team by osmosis and left out our best 13 a quality backrower and decided he would lay the foundations of a great Australian team - as long as they did exactly what he asked them to do. They couldn't do it. So Eddie V2 was as bad for Australia as the worn out wreck with weird ideas about scrums, lineouts and breakdowns he left behind in 2003.

 

[stillmissit]

Depower the scrums, get rid of lineouts, hold the ball for 6 tackles then kick for territory.

Either that or just get rid of tries all together and put some extra posts at the end of each field and revert to a kick heavy game.

We’d probably have to change our squad a bit but I feel like we’d adapt better than most.

Is that you Eddie?

 

[fatprop]

Gee... wonder what the common factor is?

Yep, Aus doesn't employ shit coaches, but we do have a reasonable 1st 15 when they are all fit, and big bunch of mediocre players as the second choices

 

[Wilson]

Wilson. I normally enjoy your posts but this little gem has to be replied to. Eddie doesn't need any other coaches he knows it all - check the lifetime of England assistant coaches. He did the opposite of what he did with McQueens team, he knew a better team by osmosis and left out our best 13 a quality backrower and decided he would lay the foundations of a great Australian team - as long as they did exactly what he asked them to do. They couldn't do it. So Eddie V2 was as bad for Australia as the worn out wreck with weird ideas about scrums, lineouts and breakdowns he left behind in 2003.

Eddie has always relied on extensive support teams in his assistant coaches, and ostensibly values quality input from a diverse team of rugby brains, which is why it's so frustrating that he put together such an ill suited team when he was here - it's the major difference between his previously successful stints elsewhere and his failure here.

The longevity of those coaches in his setup is a separate issue, but I don't believe it's due to Eddie not wanting dissenting opinion in his coaching staff - as far as I'm aware most of his assistant coaches have left rather than been sacked, you'd think if Eddie was unhappy with them standing up to him and challenging him he wouldn't hesitate to sack them. I'm not for a second defending the working environment he builds, clearly it's not something that many can tolerate for a long time, but that doesn't mean he's handpicking yes men. From what I can see he (usually) goes out of his way to find ambitious and capable coaches, exactly the sort that will challenge him, and many of them go on to bigger and better things.

 

[Braveheart81]

Eddie has always relied on extensive support teams in his assistant coaches, and ostensibly values quality input from a diverse team of rugby brains, which is why it's so frustrating that he put together such an ill suited team when he was here

This was always close to the biggest problem with installing him when McLennan did. The timing meant that it was out of cycle and the talent pool of coaches who would be either available or willing to join would be minimal.

You could make a reasonable argument that Eddie Jones was set up to fail but in order to do that you'd need to believe that Eddie Jones didn't want to put himself in the position exactly when he did.

My overarching take is that the hubris of both Jones and McLennan meant that they both ignored all the obvious warning signs and history as to why what they were doing wouldn't work and did it anyway.

The sliding doors moment is what would have happened to all the relevant parties if we'd just stuck with Rennie to the RWC, appointed Eddie Jones after the World Cup giving him a normal hiring cycle to put his coaching team together and then essentially what was the start of Joe Schmidt's tenure was the start of Eddie Jones'.

I think it's very difficult to argue that we would have been in a worse state when we played our first test for 2024 if Rennie had remained coach throughout 2023. I'm not saying our test/RWC results would have been better but surely we'd have avoided several self-inflicted wounds.

 

[Strewthcobber]

The sliding doors moment is what would have happened to all the relevant parties if we'd just stuck with Rennie to the RWC, appointed Eddie Jones after the World Cup giving him a normal hiring cycle to put his coaching team together and then essentially what was the start of Joe Schmidt's tenure was the start of Eddie Jones'.

Eddie had an offer on the table from USA rugby I think though? So a post WC role was never really an option - especially as he was already talking to Japan.

edit - was an 8 year role with USA apparently - https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-...join-usa-for-record-term-20221120-p5bzps.html

 

[Braveheart81]

Eddie had an offer on the table from USA rugby I think though? So a post WC role was never really an option - especially as he was already talking to Japan.

edit - was an 8 year role with USA apparently - https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-...join-usa-for-record-term-20221120-p5bzps.html

Sure, but on that basis we should have just missed out on signing him.

If the offer of a 4 year contract with the Wallabies that included a Lions series and a home RWC weren't enough of a carrot to entice him to not take up the USA offer then we should have passed.

 

[stillmissit]

Eddie has always relied on extensive support teams in his assistant coaches, and ostensibly values quality input from a diverse team of rugby brains, which is why it's so frustrating that he put together such an ill suited team when he was here - it's the major difference between his previously successful stints elsewhere and his failure here.

The longevity of those coaches in his setup is a separate issue, but I don't believe it's due to Eddie not wanting dissenting opinion in his coaching staff - as far as I'm aware most of his assistant coaches have left rather than been sacked, you'd think if Eddie was unhappy with them standing up to him and challenging him he wouldn't hesitate to sack them. I'm not for a second defending the working environment he builds, clearly it's not something that many can tolerate for a long time, but that doesn't mean he's handpicking yes men. From what I can see he (usually) goes out of his way to find ambitious and capable coaches, exactly the sort that will challenge him, and many of them go on to bigger and better things.

Just look up Roger Gould's review of his time with Eddie (not the only asst coach to mention this), and you might be surprised. He took little advice from his assistants, combined with his ridiculing and just plain Eddie (ish) my view or the highway nature of the little worm and you will get the full story.