I'm not convinced that I agree with this.
I agree that there probably needs to be a change to the coaching. Some of the tactics have left a fair bit to be desired, but potentially half the problem was execution.
With a slew of new coaching staff this season, I think it would be unreasonable to think everything was going to gel perfectly. I think they are owed another year to see if they can get things together. Our backs have struggled, but we have also been missing key attacking players for the whole season. Missing Bernard Foley for three games was costly enough.
Ball skills have been a bit of a problem for a few years. As much as I've always been a fan of Scott Bowen, maybe his position should be in jeopardy. Some of our players have amazing ball skills such as TPN and Benn Robinson, but others, particularly in the backs are making too many simple errors.
I think leadership has struggled this season, but there was always going to be issues when Phil Waugh left because he was such a dominant and controlling leader of the club. Rocky Elsom clearly hasn't worked out because he has been injured for so much of the season. Having a guy who is the leader of the club who has barely played was always going to be problematic.
In terms of culture, I don't know how you can say it is all wrong. If we'd won four out of the six close games against the Reds, Highlanders, Force, Crusaders, Bulls and Stormers and were now well and truly in finals contention, would anyone be claiming that the culture is broken? I think it is an easy thing to blame because it is hard to quantify.
As an outsider looking in, it seems like there are plenty of passionate people involved. Chris Webb is seemingly the heart and soul of the Tahs. Are you suggesting that he needs to go? I wouldn't have thought so.
As a passionate Tahs supporter, this season has undoubtedly been a disappointing one. I don't think it is a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater and starting again though.
2012 Strengths
- Our scrum has been incredible this season. Possibly the best in the competition.
- Our lineout has improved, mostly due to improved throwing from TPN and John Ulugia. Whilst it is still not perfect, this used to be a major weakness for the Tahs and now we are probably average. John Ulugia has turned into a reasonable Super Rugby player and is certainly strong in the scrum.
- Kane Douglas has had a great season. After a superb 2010, he was quiet last year. This year he has been a consistent performer. He is still 22. He could become a Waratah great. We should do everything to hang onto him and keep building him into a better player. Together with Sitaleki Timani, these two could form a formidable locking combination for years to come.
- Dave Dennis has continued to improve and is well and truly in Wallaby contention.
- Cliffy Palu is back near his best and is a good chance to be the first choice Wallaby 8.
- Brendan McKibbin has improved greatly this season and his goalkicking has been excellent. It has become a selection headache between him and Sarel Pretorius, but post Burgess, our halfback stocks seem alright.
- Tom Kingston has had a great year and is developing nicely. He could be a key player in the next few years.
- Bernard Foley has been our most dangerous player and has been superb at fullback. His decision making far exceeds his experience and I think this guy should be our 10 next season. I think he could be a 10 we could build a championship side around.
2012 Weaknesses
- Discipline. We have gone from being one of the best disciplined teams to one of the worst. Part of this must be the departure of Phil Waugh. Previously players were scared to give away a penalty.
- Giving away points after scoring points. So often this season we have made an error off a kickoff after scoring points and given points straight back. This has been unacceptable and results in us taking 2 steps forward and 1 step backwards at every turn.
- Leadership. Senior players calling for McKibbin to kick against the Reds in Round 1 cost us the game. A stupid scrum move against the Bulls cost us that game. We are making dumb choices at key times and it is costing us wins.
- Lapses in concentration. Seemingly in every game we have a lull where we let in most of our points. Often it is either side of half time. This is where we are losing games.
- Injuries. For the second year in a row we have struggled greatly with injuries. Having Elsom and Vickerman on our books and not playing has been costly. TPN and Palu have had pretty good seasons injury wise, but are injury prone. We have to make recruitment decisions that take this into account and recruit players who should be available for most of the season. One of Dean Mumm's best traits was his resilience. He has missed very few games in his entire career at the Tahs (I think 3 games out of around 80).
- Maul and red zone defence. We have let in too many soft tries close to our line. Our defence off 5m lineouts has been atrocious. We used to be a great side at holding teams out, now we seem to be easy to score against when a team has the ball close to our line.
- Red zone attack. We have really struggled to score tries with possession close to opposition lines. With a dominant scrum and good crash ball runners like Tom Carter and Rob Horne, this should be a real strength. We are just not executing and getting points in positions where we have to be putting points on the board.
That's probably enough of a rant. I don't think all is lost and we need to sack the board, the coaches, the players and start again. I think there are plenty of things to work on but overall things aren't desperate.
