Wallabies 31 Man Squad
- Thread starter Bowside
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Chicken and egg stuff to me, was it all "Preistland" or was it partly the Wobs tactics. The suffocating approach gave him few opportunities. We can't continually blame the coach for all failures and negate his influence over the wins as well.
Based on what we've seen so far, it would appear that the test front row is likely to be Vunipola, Youngs and Jones. Hibbard has a chance but appears to be the likely reserve hooker.
Losing Cian Healy weakens their scrum substantially and I'd now favour our scrum over theirs.
I see the lineout as being an area where we will be behind the Lions but the scrum now seems to be an area where we'll have a slight ascendency.
Losing Cian Healy weakens their scrum substantially and I'd now favour our scrum over theirs.
I see the lineout as being an area where we will be behind the Lions but the scrum now seems to be an area where we'll have a slight ascendency.
lewisr
Bill McLean (32)
The BILs are just Wales on steroids in my opinion. They will be more physical, have more in form players, have Leigh Halfpenny kicking goals left right and centre and be able to throw the ball around a lot more effectively than we think. We may have frustrated and beaten Wales, but it was not what you would call convincing victories and with a penalty shot or two to halfpenny we may have been on the other end. Compare that to NZ who won 33-10 at millennium stadium.
On top of that we had an in form Barnes, Mike Harris kicking after the bell goals and the players had for the most part played a majority of their super rugby seasons. Absolutely we will want to limit their turnover opportunities but that does not mean we have to play the same repetitive and super conservative game plan.
I don't think we will win against them with the same approach. But even if we do, Robbie will still be 'digging his own grave' if Pulver actually has the tenacity to live up to his own statements. He has claimed this year on multiple occasions that he wants "fast, entertaining, attacking and running rugby" because fans have been 'disillusioned' in recent times. Surely this means Deans will be gone if he tries any boring crap again.
Hardtackle
Charlie Fox (21)
Hard to believe Palu is injured. He never breaks. 
I think the best we can hope for is parity, I expect both sides to have their moments at scrum time, but the Lions have been continually sucking up a penalty before releasing the ball
If it is winning "crap", I will not mind at all.
Brumby Runner
Jason Little (69)
If Deans is truly concerned about lack of match fitness for Digby et al, why are they even in the squad. They won't be getting any matches under their belts before the tests so their condition will only be expected to deteriorate from now on. Even if they make up the bench, Deans' history is that he makes very little use of the bench.
I think this was true a couple of years ago but certainly isn't the case now.
If you look through all our 2012 matches, our bench use would on average be more than our opposition's.
There are only a couple of matches where our opponent got more of their bench players onto the field than us. In most games we had more 'bench minutes' than our opposition.
The whole team has had their match fitness deteriorate, I wonder if there is actually a lot of difference between not playing for 6 weeks and not playing for 3.
I would assume that they have been thrashed physically for the last two weeks and the will taper this week.
I would assume that they have been thrashed physically for the last two weeks and the will taper this week.
Brumby Runner
Jason Little (69)
I admit that my comment was based on an impression only, but I can recall Nic White sitting on the bench for the whole Wales series and not getting a single minute of game time. So, are you able to verify your point with actual figures, or are you just stating your impressions also?
RedsHappy
Tony Shaw (54)
One thing we can confidently state: on present showings, Sexton is likely to be hugely better than was the then hapless Priestland in Australia last year.
I don't have time to go through and count up multiple matches at this point for a precise figure, but let's just take the last match of 2012 against Wales.
We got 218 minutes out of our bench and the entire bench got on the field.
Wales got 74 minutes and only used two of their bench.
... and then against Italy we got 122 minutes out of our bench and they got 167 minutes.
... and the All Blacks in Brisbane last year we got 167 minutes vs 150 minutes.
So I took three games at random and in two of them we had more minutes from our bench (one of them by a lot).
You'd need to go through the entire test season to get something more statistically significant but I think the pattern is certainly there (and I think was definitely needed. The lack of bench usage in past years has been really poor.).
White did sit on the bench for the whole Wales series last year, but Chris Whittaker sat on the bench for 240 minutes against the Lions in 2001 for far less reason (the first test was a blowout loss and the second a blowout win). At least in the Wales tests, all three were close and most coaches would struggle to take Genia off the field in those situations to bring on a debutant.
Brumby Runner
Jason Little (69)
Thanks. As I said it was simply my impression. A hypothetical question then arises. How many minutes were enforced through injury and how many determined by tactics? I agree, Deans needed to improve his use of the bench, and I expect that need will again be evident during this series, especially if he picks numerous players with little recent game time. I hope he is up to the task.
RedsHappy
Tony Shaw (54)
Surely the positive point to be derived from Braveheart's anecdotal analysis is that Deans is on a gradual learning curve wrt to the optimal rate of bench use over the 5+ years he's been Wallaby coach. 2012 showed progress in this regard.
Bench use is a funny one, I think it comes down to what the bench unit can add/change, and whether it has some thought about it - and that depends on who is on the bench.
So we change a prop or two, a hooker, a lock and a back rower regularly. But when to change a back? With more cattle back in the big numbers, we may be able to add some thrust, but that hasn't always been the case.
I can't ever see a reason for a healthy Genia, despite carrying his back up on the bench
Brumby Runner
Jason Little (69)
Athilnaur
Arch Winning (36)
I know it is practically heresy but I can recall a game or two last year where I found Genia's slow service benchworthy. But to be fair the egghatching seemed to be some kind of cocamamie plan. I just couldn't divine who's, genias, our first receiver's, or the coaches. I ~assumed~ it was not the coach's because what sane downunder coach says give the defense maximum time to reset defending the 22?
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