Lorenzo
Colin Windon (37)
There's no evidence we have an attack coach at all. Larkham is trading on his rep from his playing days - the brumbies don't have a particularly notable attack.
The two playmaker thing is gash. We sacrifice too much size in the midfield for the purported benefit of a diverse attack that on most of the evidence available, is not actually any more diverse than playing a genuine centre at 12. I keep getting told it relieves pressure from the 10 (because the defence has to worry about two 10s and not one) but they still play like they've got a back-rower buried in their ass constantly, so I don't buy that at all.
Guys like Foley, Giteau, Berrick Barnes etc look really good in the centres playing Super Rugby (and other club comps OS and at times some of the weaker test teams) and that's because at those levels running around people is viable, and it works well in conjunction with their (excellent) ball playing skills. It isn't viable when playing the very best because they are big and fast - whether its the backrow or the backline - and can shut these guys down.
Every damn time we play a test that has high intensity levels (the tests in NZ or SA come to mind) our small backline gets smashed and our multiple playmakers just find new ways to fuck everything up.
We need to move some of the players around - maybe Folau to 13, maybe TK to the wing, maybe Hodge somewhere and maybe DHP to 15, but for god's sake lets quit trying to reinvent the fucking wheel and put a 10 at 10 and two physical centres that can tackle outside of him.
Let's see if we can play the game at the correct end of the paddock (Hodge may be helpful with this) and if we can put more than 4 phases together without dropping the fucking ball. If we can do those things and tackle a bit, we'll be shitloads better than we've been this year so far.
The two playmaker thing is gash. We sacrifice too much size in the midfield for the purported benefit of a diverse attack that on most of the evidence available, is not actually any more diverse than playing a genuine centre at 12. I keep getting told it relieves pressure from the 10 (because the defence has to worry about two 10s and not one) but they still play like they've got a back-rower buried in their ass constantly, so I don't buy that at all.
Guys like Foley, Giteau, Berrick Barnes etc look really good in the centres playing Super Rugby (and other club comps OS and at times some of the weaker test teams) and that's because at those levels running around people is viable, and it works well in conjunction with their (excellent) ball playing skills. It isn't viable when playing the very best because they are big and fast - whether its the backrow or the backline - and can shut these guys down.
Every damn time we play a test that has high intensity levels (the tests in NZ or SA come to mind) our small backline gets smashed and our multiple playmakers just find new ways to fuck everything up.
We need to move some of the players around - maybe Folau to 13, maybe TK to the wing, maybe Hodge somewhere and maybe DHP to 15, but for god's sake lets quit trying to reinvent the fucking wheel and put a 10 at 10 and two physical centres that can tackle outside of him.
Let's see if we can play the game at the correct end of the paddock (Hodge may be helpful with this) and if we can put more than 4 phases together without dropping the fucking ball. If we can do those things and tackle a bit, we'll be shitloads better than we've been this year so far.
