Wallabies v Fiji, Canberra

[Slim 293]

Sharpe hit the advantage line every time he got the ball. He has played this way all season for the Force which leaves me to believe he was picked for the Wobs to do this. This is the way Sharpe plays, he wasn't disobeying the coaches and the way he mixed it up in attack and defense suggests he wasn't at all being lazy.

Leave the man alone, he serves his purpose.

This is the attitude that has resulted in the Wallaby forwards getting hammered in recent years...

His job is not to be a ball runner... he's a fucking lock... he needs to be using his size in the rucks, mauls and scrums...

History is going to repeat itself if the Wallaby forwards don't man the fuck up...

 

[Grandmaster Flash]

Don't think Elsom has copped enough flak for his Reuben Thorne-esque performance. With him and Brown in the backrow playing like they are Pocock is going to be pretty worn out come the Tri-Nations.

 

[en_force_er]

Don't think Elsom has copped enough flak for his Reuben Thorne-esque performance. With him and Brown in the backrow playing like they are Pocock is going to be pretty worn out come the Tri-Nations.

Brown is playing like a man that doesn't want to fuck up. He knows a few more penalties or a yellow card could be the end of his Wallaby career.

He will become more comfortable over time.

 

[Gagger]

I have stewed for a day or so over the direness of Aus's forward play against Fiji, but enough is enough.

We were rubbish, if it wasn't for shit throwing by the Fijian hooker we would have had no ball for the first half.

We failed to attack their scrum, we failed to protect the ball, we failed to clean out. We seemed afraid of the contact area. They were setting up better rolling mauls that we were FFS.

We had Sharpe playing 10 on the blindside for most of the game and we continue to not commit forwards to the breakdown. We had Fijians coming through the middle of the ruck and disrupting the ball.

We know that for the next few weeks we are playing an English side that will attack the breakdown. Do we plan to just go lateral against them? Who is going to protect the ball?

As for the backs, we lived off inside passes against lazy defenders not working across, that space won't be there in future games against fully professional teams.

I felt the same watching it

, but it's the same tactic Dingo ran last year in most of the 3Ns and for which he has form for with the Saders. Rather than chase the pill he fills the midfield with defenders. I assume it's because feared the Fijians in too much space, but in the meantime the Fijians had uncontested breakdown ball and a free 5m whenever they wanted it.

Can you remember an Aussie counter-ruck? It was the same against the ABs in Wellington last year and didn't change until Hong Kong.

As for Sharpe - who the fuck else in the pack was getting go forward?

 

[Reddy!]

AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper)...oh wait he is a winger.

I find it funny that our main man to pass the ball to and make the metres is a winger.

 

[DPK]

AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper)...oh wait he is a winger.

I find it funny that our main man to pass the ball to and make the metres is a fullback.

Fixed.

 

[Lee Grant]

Can you remember an Aussie counter-ruck? It was the same against the ABs in Wellington last year

At last - somebody mentions something really important. The Wallabies have the Tahs Invercargill syndrome as I said they would. Although they scored a lot of points in the 2nd half the Oz forwards allowed the Fijians to walk (almost literally) through the ruck in the same period. The Tahs and the Wallabies aren't the only Oz teams with the Invercargill disease; remember the Crusaders scrummie scoring a try in Perth this year and looking over his shoulder for Force tacklers who weren't there?

Clever Dick defences not using a couple of defenders tight to the ruck are bound to fail and deserve to. As for not counter-rucking: with the crackdown on the laws being observed by referees this year and the consequent more frequent pinging of ball killers, the counter-ruck is more valid than it has been for 20 years. Oz teams should be doing this more and more now, but I see less and less.

A part of that is the natural aversion of Oz forwards for tight work but part of it must be due to coaching, not only at the professional level, but also before they get there.

I wonder what the response of players will be if a coach says the week before a game: "We will be doing stats on the number of cleanouts you do on the weekend, how effectively your cleanout was directed, what power it is executed at and how you are able to combine with another arriving team mate to have a combined hit." This defensive combined attack on the ruck is done by other teams, especially South African ones and it's effect on the ruck is noticeable.

The players would look at each other bemused but they may improve in that area when they find themselves watching their mates play from the bench - or the stands.

No, not all rucks should have 5 forwards throwing their bodies at them, but you know what I mean.

 

[Gagger]

A part of that is the natural aversion of Oz forwards for tight work but part of it must be due to coaching,

No, not all rucks should have 5 forwards throwing their bodies at them, but you know what I mean.

I'm completely bemused as well Lee but I think it's a game plan instructed by the coach.

I asked Link after Wellington why the fuck we ceded the breakdown and he said "Probably the tactic of not chasing the ball but defending wider" (I paraphrase)

So it seems to me that this is a tactical decision made by the coaching staff / leadership group rather than just an aversion to work / lack of skill. This bamboozles me because unlike in this Fiji match where it strangled their running and ended in a 49-3 score-line, against packs like the one coming this weekend it's a sure-fire recipe for disaster, as we saw all through last year's 3N.

Having said all that, when I asked George Smith on the EOYT why our breakdown work had improved so dramatically he just said "I guess we just concentrated on it more"
Go figure.

 

[DPK]

[video=youtube;CXE5hh3ChsU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXE5hh3ChsU&feature=player_embedded[/video]

Around the 1:48 mark, Giteau is hit in backplay. Then Cooper goes after the offender one on one, and Giteau stays down (and didn't convert the eventual try). That, combined with the other hits, clearly shows an essential part of the Fiji gameplan- smash Giteau, no matter how.

 

[Reddy!]

I blame those hits on Burgess for taking his sweet time to dish the ball out, allowing the Fijians to rush up and make the hit.

...I may or may not be exaggerating here haha

 

[Scotty]

Around the 1:48 mark, Giteau is hit in backplay. Then Cooper goes after the offender one on one, and Giteau stays down (and didn't convert the eventual try). That, combined with the other hits, clearly shows an essential part of the Fiji gameplan- smash Giteau, no matter how.

Didn't Fiji have the Brumbies defensive coach or something? So he maybe saw Giteau as the weak link, that could be pressured? That says something.

 

[DPK]

Maybe. He was the most experienced head in the backline, along with AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper), so that could be another strategy.

 

[TOCC]

good pickup DPK, i didnt even see that little scuffle at 1:48, that was completely unecessary though, the ball had already been given to Horne, not only was it a late hit it was a hit without arms..

 

[Brumbies Guy]

Didn't Fiji have the Brumbies defensive coach or something? So he maybe saw Giteau as the weak link, that could be pressured? That says something.

I would have thought you would opt to distrubt your oppositions stregth rather than wasting your time with late hits on their weak link