Waratahs 2012

[fatprop]

Critics wrong about NSW Waratahs' style

• by: Bret Harris
• From: The Australian
• February 20, 2012 12:00AM

THE critics are already savaging NSW Waratahs' style of game under new head coach Michael Foley and the Super Rugby season has not even started.
A headline in a Sydney newspaper on Saturday read: "Foley's folly - Tahs must end reliance on kicking."
The columnist ridiculed Foley's tactic of "attacking kicking", which is designed to regain possession from tactical kicks.
"Kicking to get possession back is an oxymoronic tactic, in my view," he wrote.
Perhaps the kindest thing that could be said about that particular point of view is that everyone is entitled to their opinion.
Anyone with even the slightest appreciation of the concept of total rugby, as opposed to simply running rugby, would know that tactical kicking can and does play a key role in an attacking game.
Foley has been open about his plan to have the Waratahs emulate the Queensland Reds' contestable kicking game, which was the strategic foundation of the Super Rugby champion's success last year.
To praise the Reds' "win smart" style and at the same time criticise tactical kicking, as this certain columnist did on Saturday, is a massive contradiction.
It is certainly true that adopting a game-style which includes the dreaded four-letter k-word is a hard sell in Sydney where some Waratahs fans would rather see the team lose than not run the ball.
But there is much more to the team's strategic approach under Foley than just kicking, as important as that aspect of play will be.
The Waratahs' varietal approach was clearly evident in their 52-0 win against Tonga in a trial game in Sydney on Friday night.
To be sure, Waratahs five-eighth Berrick Barnes did kick the ball with his first few touches, but there was a strong intent behind it. Barnes would kick the ball up-field, aiming for it to land in the "tram lines" between the sideline and the five-metre line.
This enabled the Waratahs to either regain possession or to isolate the defender and force a penalty or pressure the opposition to kick for touch with no angle to secure an attacking line-out. On other occasions Barnes and replacement five-eighth Daniel Halangahu would put grubber kicks in behind the defence, particularly if the opposition winger came up too fast. But it certainly was not a kick-fest.
When Tonga kicked off deep after the Waratahs' first try to fleet-footed South African halfback Sarel Pretorius, Barnes caught the ball in front of his posts and spun it wide to the left side of the field to launch an attack in the 22 with the ball in hand.
This was not the mindset of a conservative, "win ugly" team.
It was very obvious that the Waratahs intended to create space for their two key strike weapons, outside centre Rob Horne and fullback Adam Ashley-Cooper, out wide.

 

[Swat]

Let's all take a moment to remember how fucking awesome mitchell was before his injury:

Let's hope he can make it back to this level

 

[Inside Shoulder]

I'm told Elsom is out for 4-7 weeks also. Hence why they are keeping Hoiles around.

Longer

 

[qwerty51]

Mind telling us how you know this?

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Uh... what?

Its a pretty good point isn't it? they've had 3+ half backs in the squad for the last few years and, whatever the mix of their respective experience they arent good enough to take over or they've gone elsewhere: lack of planning means Pretorius is brought in.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Mind telling us how you know this?

Intuition - its the vibe

 

[qwerty51]

So in other words, NFI.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

depends on whether "I" means intuition or not......
The facts as i recall them are: he's been playing with the injury for 3 years and put off the surgery for each of those seasons; he was prepared to play with the problem last year and play li 1(?) S15 game rather than have the surgery. And he missed all the other games because of the very injury.
Why would that be?
Because he knew if he had the surgery he was no chance to go to RWC 2011. So, after RWC 2011 he has the srugery....guess what? if there was an RWC this year he wouldn't make it.
QED.

 

[suckerforred]

And my litle birdie has told me that 4 weeks is the minimum. Will need to wait and see.

 

[cyclopath]

depends on whether "I" means intuition or not......
The facts as i recall them are: he's been playing with the injury for 3 years and put off the surgery for each of those seasons; he was prepared to play with the problem last year and play li 1(?) S15 game rather than have the surgery. And he missed all the other games because of the very injury.
Why would that be?
Because he knew if he had the surgery he was no chance to go to RWC 2012. So, after RWC 2012 he has the srugery....guess what? if there was an RWC this year he wouldn't make it.
QED.

I'm guessing he's not the only one missing out on RWC 2012.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Good point


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[fatprop]

depends on whether "I" means intuition or not......
The facts as i recall them are: he's been playing with the injury for 3 years and put off the surgery for each of those seasons; he was prepared to play with the problem last year and play li 1(?) S15 game rather than have the surgery. And he missed all the other games because of the very injury.
Why would that be?
Because he knew if he had the surgery he was no chance to go to RWC 2011. So, after RWC 2011 he has the srugery....guess what? if there was an RWC this year he wouldn't make it.
QED.

If you listen to the ruggamatrix podcast interview with Rocky, the key reason was that the doctors weren't 100% sure what was the actual problem until they went in and had a dig around.

Rocky understandably was not particularly comfortable for quite a while with the "dunno" approach. He finally found a surgeon who was comfortable (and correct) with his diagnosis and went under the knife

 

[Swat]

Just looked at the Tah website. Its a marketing disgrace! The thirty man squad is photographed (badly) in the sky blue jersey except that:

1. AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) is in all yellow
2. Bernard Foley is in green and gold (maybe a sevens jersey?)
3. Vickerman is in a dark blue Waratahs windcheater.
4. And the absolute doozey of them all ..... Pretorius in Cheetahs ORANGE!

There are no photos for the extended squad.


I want the marketing manager dismissed instantly. How can he run a department that allows Waratah team members to be dressed up in other teams' outfits. (The Cheetahs FFS, as if I want to be reminded of round five.) I've been a marketing manager in my previous working life. I would have died of shame if I had been responsible for that going up. And its been like that for months.

Just thought I'd bring this one back. The website still hasn't been fixed and the season starts in 3 days, what an absolute joke!

BTW that quote was from November 4 last year...

 

[fatprop]

As long as they win on Saturday night they can be wearing speedos for all I care

 

[Bruce Ross]

Just thought I'd bring this one back. The website still hasn't been fixed and the season starts in 3 days, what an absolute joke!

BTW that quote was from November 4 last year...

Rush, rush, rush. People expect things to be done yesterday. Look, as soon as we can get someone to draw up an ad we'll be in the market for another unpaid intern, this time to run the marketing department, and this matter will be placed in one of the in-trays that they will be directed to as soon as they start.

 

[Braveheart81]

They should send Lachie Turner off to a 2 day web development course.

He can be in charge of the website.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Just thought I'd bring this one back. The website still hasn't been fixed and the season starts in 3 days, what an absolute joke!

BTW that quote was from November 4 last year...

Is that the "intern" marketing person's job?
Everything that need to be said about the Tahs is summed up in the Finger Twins thread: the Reds have 28,000 members to the Tahs 8,000.
They market like a joke and we Sydneysiders treat them accordingly

 

[Braveheart81]

It doesn't matter how good your marketing department is, nothing will sell memberships like winning a title.

 

[Swat]

It doesn't matter how good your marketing department is, nothing will sell memberships like winning a title.

Obviously, although improving your marketing department can have a significant impact. The Brumbies are roughly equal with us in membership numbers and look at the season they had. The force have much more than us and look at the season they had. The rebels are not that far behind us and they have a small state with a market flooded full of AFL nutters. Seriously, the Tahs need to pull their finger out and invest in something that is likely to give them returns. It wouldn't be that hard. Hell, just release a heap of footage from games where tahs play well and do a competition for best ad. Do something FFS, who's running this business because they seem to have fuck all sense on how to make money.

 

[Braveheart81]

I agree completely. As a member and a fan I find it disappointing how poorly the Waratahs sell themselves.

I think one area they should push is discount memberships to school leavers. Obviously offer it to all school leavers but market particularly towards the GPS/CAS school leavers. Kids who are turning 18 and will no longer have to watch their First XV on a Saturday. Market it as something great to do on their Friday/Saturday night out and they should hopefully sell plenty of memberships.