What Quade should have been doing

[cyclopath]

youve highlighted the issue right there..

As ive pointed out in the other threads the All Blacks defence was focussing on the backline, the loose forwards were fanning out from the rucks and they were leaving only minimal number in close. Its why when the Wallabies sucked in one or two defenders from pick-an-go's they were making easy meters, its also why KB (Kurtley Beale) was able to exploit a gap in close to the ruck.

The Wallabies forwards needed to suck in more defenders before going wide, every time the ball went wide the Wallabies were either outnumbered or at minimum facing a 1:1 defensive ratio.

In general play, the fowards didnt lay the platform for the backs to attack off.

The space in close was noticeable. I was surprised countless times when we made good metres up the guts, yet seemingly abandoned that tactic. I have to believe it was in the game plan to go up the middle, since they did it a bit, but they looked like they lost their nerve to keep at it. If they truly played what's in front of them, someone with a cool head should have been getting them in tight and saying "Let's commit some of these ugly bastards in tight, so we actually have more space wide when we go there."
It was also why I was so annoyed by the cross kick off 1st phase on that 5m scrum. Digby had about a 5% chance of getting that ball. A few phases in close, get towards centre field, then have options right and left for guys like Cooper, Beale etc to strike. The Reds actually played more patiently than this. The cross kick, per se, is not a bad option, but not when a set defence has a defender standing on the sideline and goal-line, and the attacking winger is 5'9" at best! Better when the defence has been drawn into centre field as a few bodies get committed to rucks.
Maybe Cooper was less confident to tell the forwards what he wanted, as he seemed to do with the Reds? In any event, he looked rushed and flustered. He can be much better than that, I think.

 

[cyclopath]

Went back and looked at the tape, and I saw him do the following things:
- inside ball to Kepu, clean break
- long ball to O'Connor, clean break
- a shite load of composed, level-headed decisions to pass it wide early to where the space was rather than try something "tricky"
- a sweet grubber kick to the corner that found touch, 5 meter lineout from AB line
- flat ball to Kepu, half break
- an attacking kick to the other corner for a flying Kurtley Beale, only just gathered up by Sivivatu.
- an attacking kick from a scrum, slightly too long for Digby to get to but clearly the right decision given the AB wingers were up

You must have fast-forwarded a lot of stuff.

 

[Waylon]

Quade can be king or clown

I think he is potentially the best number 10 the wallabies have ever produced. His skill set is complete and he has freakish attacking talents with pace, stepping and deft passing and ball skills.

If he plays behind a badly beaten pack, he can't deliver.

The wallaby pack scrummed well and the lineout was effective. We recycled our ball well but we were trying to play the game behind the ad line because the allblacks were fantastic at offensive defence. the allblack defence was savage and they flooded our breakdowns foring us to commit bodies to the breakdown

We had 60% of possession which suggests we played a reasonable game but we played a game on the back foot due to the hostility of the defence

The wallabies looked good on the odd occasion they pick and drove and offloaded in tackles. Our backs will hurt them if they get front foot ball.

I think the side was very nervous and the group will benefit immensely from the exposure to a fully pumped Allblack side hell bent on blood on their home turf at the venue for the world cup final.

I think our young team will be better for the experience.

We can still win the Tri nations if we win with a BP in Durban and beat them with a BP in Sydney

I saw enough in our troops to believe we can beat them

We created plenty of chances and missed many kickable goals. We left the winning margin on the field wheras the Blicks only bombed one chance from memory. That was the difference.

tactically, the wallabies were poor. I'm all for an occasional short contested kickoff but to telegraph 100% of them was stupid.

The only way is up

Plenty of positives for mine but we were second best

 

[Newter]

Newter - its great that those things payed off, but you ignore how much ball was dropped and the bad things. as ive said, im not calling for him to be dropped but he didnt have a good game last night.

the wide balls as has been said where a false economy, the all blacks where forcing the wallabies wide, time and time again we went there and time and time again it went into touch, they patted each other on the back and thought they were great, they were being outplayed and out coached.

"Time and time again" is an exaggeration. Once, that I can recall. Most of our sideline efforts were either kept in play or knocked out by an AB. We took good advantage of the wide plays IMO.

I have no doubt the AB defence was showing space out wide to shepherd us to the sideline. This was clearly their strategy, to make Quade a little less unpredictable. But it was only damage control. We still got through them, and made plenty of yards.

 

[Newter]

You must have fast-forwarded a lot of stuff.

Cyclo, if Dan Carter played as much rugby as us on the night he would have made a few errors too. We could have kick-chased it to buggery too, and only attacked off turnover ball - then Quade's ledger would look a lot better. But who'd watch that shite.

 

[#1 Tah]

Quade should have been growing some balls and getting in with the physical stuff:

I dont have any stats but:
I never saw him make a dominant tackle
I never saw him make any impact whatsoever in any ruck.

Now I know I might be a bit harsh, but if you contrast this to how Dan Carter or Berrick Barnes plays....... Thats how we are going to win world cups, we cant have defensive or physical weak links in the side.

 

[crangs81]

Watching the replay and i must say i've never seen a player so scared of contact. He threw a couple of forward passes and an interception cos it looked like he didn't want to get hit.

 

[Gnostic]

Quade should have been growing some balls and getting in with the physical stuff:

I dont have any stats but:
I never saw him make a dominant tackle
I never saw him make any impact whatsoever in any ruck.

Now I know I might be a bit harsh, but if you contrast this to how Dan Carter or Berrick Barnes plays....... Thats how we are going to win world cups, we cant have defensive or physical weak links in the side.

1 Tah the two best 10s Oz has produced are IMO Ella and Lynagh (Larkham comes 3rd IMHO as he was not reliable with the boot) and they were far from stellar defenders. It is a case of swings and roundabouts with QC (Quade Cooper). I feel that all the backs are suffering from a lack of any real structure. They had a pefect set piece to run a set move off last night and did they? No they threw it to one of the "X" players and basically said you do something with this, then recycle it and throw it to another "X" player and said you do something with this. That is about all the tactics are really. so how did the ABs work that tactic out, they didn't commit to the breakdown, they didn't stack the sides of the breakdowns against pick and drives, they had a flat line defence which advanced quickly (often offside as they were against the Bok - not that it would have made any real difference) on QC (Quade Cooper), and interposed defenders between him and JOC (James O'Connor)/Beale. The few breaks Genia made are a testament to his skill in beating a backrower and his opposition 9.

Now ask if the ABs could have done this if they Wallabies actually had a backline structure that had support runners in depth and a second wave of attack which would have brought the "X" players in from depth removing the ability to trnaspose a defender between them and QC (Quade Cooper).

QC (Quade Cooper) has been left hanging by the tactics employed like a calfs nuts at docking time. Hence he stood deeper to try and get some space and that made the issue worse as the ABs then picked off the second reciever as they had more time to assess who that would be while stacking two or three on QC (Quade Cooper) to make sure he didn't run.

A fix would be to have some forwards actually getting over the gain line but apart from Horwill and Kepu none of the "workrate whores" in our pack are capable of that.

 

[Bullrush]

Went back and looked at the tape, and I saw him do the following things:
- inside ball to Kepu, clean break
- long ball to O'Connor, clean break
- a shite load of composed, level-headed decisions to pass it wide early to where the space was rather than try something "tricky"
- a sweet grubber kick to the corner that found touch, 5 meter lineout from AB line
- flat ball to Kepu, half break
- an attacking kick to the other corner for a flying Kurtley Beale, only just gathered up by Sivivatu.
- an attacking kick from a scrum, slightly too long for Digby to get to but clearly the right decision given the AB wingers were up

- inside ball to Kepu, clean break. Big deal - any international 1st-five would have given that ball.
- a shite load of composed, level-headed decisions to pass it wide early to where the space was rather than try something "tricky". ' shite load'??? Must have been too many to count huh. Great decision to pass it wide early - just try not to pass it to Conrad Smith. He plays for the opposition.
- a sweet grubber kick to the corner that found touch, 5 meter lineout from AB line. Nice play - but nothing outstanding. And the only one all night.
- an attacking kick from a scrum, slightly too long for Digby to get to but clearly the right decision given the AB wingers were up. I wonder if the backs in between Cooper and Digby (and maybe including Digby) wished he'd kept that ball in hand. I reckon the forwards would have.

Newter, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck - it's probably Stephen Donald. Not unlike Cooper who was made to look pretty average last night and here's what I find interesting about it. Some people think it was a tough night for him behind a forward pack that didn't go forward while some others think the forwards did a good job last night and statistically were on par with the ABs.

 

[Bullrush]

Cyclo, if Dan Carter played as much rugby as us on the night he would have made a few errors too. We could have kick-chased it to buggery too, and only attacked off turnover ball - then Quade's ledger would look a lot better. But who'd watch that shite.

Bahahaha....you wish. Quade should try a tackle or two like Carter's and STILL play as well as he does on attack.

 

[Garryowen]

Cooper wasn't terrible last night, but some of his decision-making and execution was poor, eg that cross field kick off the scrum. However, I'm happy to label the performance an aberration.

His chief failing last night was the defensive confusion that was a direct result of the back line reshuffle to manage his inability and unwillingness to tackle. Weepu's blindside burst and Sivivatu skinning Kurtley on the outside were the result of players playing out of position so Cooper could stay out of the defensive channel.

 

[cyclopath]

Cyclo, if Dan Carter played as much rugby as us on the night he would have made a few errors too. We could have kick-chased it to buggery too, and only attacked off turnover ball - then Quade's ledger would look a lot better. But who'd watch that shite.

AB fans. I think they enjoyed it too. Can't imagine why.

 

[Mojoman]

Test rugby is a whole lot different from Super Rugby. Cooper's game is tailor made for Super Rugby but his flaws get shown up against the good test sides. He had a poor game lastnight but no worse than most of his team mates.

 

[gecko]

Quade had a poor game, but with his style of play you get that. On average he performs well. He had poor games for the Reds as well but they did the job.

He's got plenty of work to do on his game, option taking and defence need work, he's not yet the complete package. He is our best option and as long as he and the coaching staff work on it he'll improve.

 

[Jethro Tah]

Quade lacked composure and the vision to assess all options. His poor decision making has been well documented so I won't go into that. A more experienced 12 of Barnes or Gits alongside him would have helped steady the ship.

With regards to comparisons with Dan Carter and other Wallaby 10s of years past, let's not forget that this was only his second attempt at The Bled Cup and is only his third 3N campaign. Time is on his side. Just imagine what he will be like in years to come! His failings here will only help him for the WC.

On a slight tangent, that incident with Ali Williams on Quade should have been punished. Quade was taken out allowing Weepu to charge down his open wing and they scored shortly after. I missed it during the game but only saw it on Bob Dwyer's post on the blog. That was unfair play!!

 

[Ruggo]

If Quade was following instruction, he is a bit hard done by. If not he was poor. Maybe this comes back to having a shit captain. I expect the captain to show some Balls and say "this isn't working. We need to change".

 

[Skippy]

I tell you one thing... irrespective of whether he had a good game or a bad game against NZ, I don't think the Wallabies need to be overly concerned at the negotiating table when 'Ive been offered a rugby league contract' gets thrown out by Quade and his people.

No NRL in their right mind will be seriously looking for Quade next season until he demonstrates more maturity and control. As I said, whether he played well or not the bottom line is he is far far away from being the finished article.

THe bottom line is Quade is still serving his apprenticeship and will be for atleast another 24 months in union before being the best 10 in the world. Hopefully within that 24 months, aside from improving his maturity, game management and controling his arousal levels, he will develop more 'balls' and accept contact both in attack and defence is a part of the game.

Quade Cooper got schooled by Carter last night who did nothing more than the basics. He made his tackles, he stripped the ball, he caught and passed, he kicked his goals, he backed up and supported, had a little dart himself and just generally pulled the strings like a puppet master.

Sadly, whilst Quade is brilliant in many areas and unique like a Campese, his flaws at the top international level will undermine his freakish abilities time and time again, especially against the best in the world.

 

[Skippy]

Test rugby is a whole lot different from Super Rugby. Cooper's game is tailor made for Super Rugby but his flaws get shown up against the good test sides. He had a poor game lastnight but no worse than most of his team mates.

I do think you are onto something.

Look at the most successful 10's in the world at the top level... Carter, Wilkinson and Larkham. All strong defenders, all steady heads and all in their own unique ways brilliant at some things but 'stable' in their weak areas. But these three for me are the complete package.

Compare them to brilliant 'revolutionary' attacking and highly skilled players like Freddy Michalak, Carlos Spencer, David Knox, James Hook perhaps and our own Quade Cooper.

And then you have the 10 man rugby types... the kicking tens like O'Gara, Stephen Jones etc.

I think it's obvious rugby union produces 3 distinct types of number 10s. You take the good with the bad because at the end of the day Carters and Wilkinsons and Larkham only come around every 25 years. Quade's redeeming quality is that he is young and with time, committment and quality coaching as he matures as a person, develops more physically hopefully he can leap out of his current category of fly halfs and into the elite class.

 

[Riptide]

Cyclo, if Dan Carter played as much rugby as us on the night he would have made a few errors too.

I've read several of your posts and frankly dont know whether to take your comments as an effort at being serious or to regard you as a mere wind-up merchant. I'm sure you will not lose too much sleep either way, but if you do, I suggest you take advantage of the time and re-watch the game and then take a peep at other informed opinion (Bob Dwyer's blog for example) as I think you'd benefit from it.

 

[da_grubster]

as an ab fan I am happy for quade to run the wobbly backline in a rwc knockout high pressure match. He wilts under pressure