Where did we go wrong? Wallaby Recovery thread.

[Gnostic]

The OP was pretty good. This was pretty ordinary and I hate to say it Link was channelling Hickey fairly strongly when he spoke about the statistics saying the Wallabies dominated in many areas just not on the score board. Sorry Link, I pushed strongly for you to oust Deans, and do not back away from that but that statement is just utter crap.

The Wallabies were beaten in most facets of the game excepting the lineout. I do not care if you think they made more line breaks, because those line breaks were pretty much going no where because nobody was in support or they were poorly positioned.

Three things to look at IMO:-
1) JOC (James O'Connor) - three tries and maybe a fourth were directly attributable to him being out of position or coming off his wing to defend when not required.
2) The Rucks - The ABs were able to dirty up the ruck as usual playing the ball off their feet, driving from the side (precisely what Simmons was penalised for) and not one Wallabies player did anything to stop it. If they have hands on the ball, ruck the ball, with force. Do you think there will be hands there again? Secondly on this point - How can a single AB player forward or back win a ruck when three Wallabies players are there? Thirdly on this point - Genia - the ball comes out of the ruck you pick it up and pass it or kick it. Do not stand there looking at it. Three times on hard attack the ball was turned over because Genia was so ponderously slow with ruck ball. Some will say he had no runners or options, well he needs to organise them quicker and that was just not the case a couple of times. The last turnover to McCaw under their posts came because of weak cleanout by three Australian forwards and Genia standing there looking a McCaw picking up the ball.
3) Defence - regardless of the statistics the Wallabies defence rushed up at 13 and the ABs made easy metres down JOCs wing simply by driving it up in 10 and 12 and then going wide quickly. The defence was just totally unresponsive to this fact. The ABs also made metres off every single run, forward or back. It has nothing to do with size or speed and everything to do with technique. A. Smith and Cruden made as much distance in contact as any of the big ruuners of the ABs. The fact is that nobody other than AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) made anything near the metres and certainly never found any real attacking threat after their "linebreak" unlike the ABs linebreaks which required luck and scrambling defence to contain.

The only area the Wallabies get a pass mark from me is for the Lineout. Some would argue the scrum as well but IMO they were a shambles and I am hoping the new laws settle in very quickly because that was a joke.

 

[gel]

What's the background of this obsession people have with the 10 "taking the ball to the line"?

I thought To'omua played a fine game and principally it was because he didn't hold onto it for any longer that he had to.

I'd quite like them to persevere with this reasonably simple approach of giving the centres some space and time to do their thing, rather than having the 10 hang on to it for eternity a la leaguie halfbacks.

I was sitting behind the goal line and all I saw was sideways running and shoveling. That was also what lead to the last AB try.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Haha, that was brilliant!!! With one sentence I got two people to not only disagree with me but also disagree with each other.

Go me!

 

[Quade Cheapshot]

From the Kiwi perspective, that was very, very poor.

I can't recall the last time I've seen the ABs play so badly. Letting in exceptionally soft penalties, allowing easy line breaks.

 

[Gnostic]

Oh the trolls have come out to play. How funny.

 

[gel]

Oh the trolls have come out to play. How funny.

Relax a bit, please - my first post was serious and in fact included a condensed version of what you said, particularly about the forwards. The responses I got were, quite frankly, hilarious to me given how polar opposite they were in content.

Just keeping it a bit lighthearted, and not getting butt hurt like some on here.

 

[p.Tah]

From the Kiwi perspective, that was very, very poor.

I can't recall the last time I've seen the ABs play so badly. Letting in exceptionally soft penalties, allowing easy line breaks.

If they were on song would they have scored a bazillion points? Would candy floss have fallen from the sky? Would Richie leave the stadium on his flying unicorn?

 

[lewisr]

I think he's talking about the kiwi troll, gel

 

[Gnostic]

Relax a bit, please - my first post was serious and in fact included a condensed version of what you said, particularly about the forwards. The responses I got were, quite frankly, hilarious to me given how polar opposite they were in content.

Just keeping it a bit lighthearted, and not getting butt hurt like some on here.

I wasn't talking about you. Have a look at the post directly above mine. Yours didn't rate a mention in poor trolling stakes, it would have to sink much further. SO don't get all faux upset.

 

[hughbert]

A 10 who does more than just pass the ball out to the centres, who asks questions of the defence, is what gives them more space and time.

I have no problem with the 10 changing things up, running every so often or whatever, in order to keep them guessing. What I don't like is the idea that the 10 is best served by hanging onto it long enough to attract a man on every phase. Because now your centres are in traffic before they get a touch.

If anything, catch-pass should open up holes for the 10 to run through occasionally.

 

[gel]

Fine, I saw the plural and presumed it meant me as well.

Anyway, back to my original point: there is not any real reason to talk about the backs until the forwards are sorted. Waving arms and appealing the ref is shit and doesn't work.

 

[Quade Cheapshot]

The Wallabies are a rabble. That's your problem, not ours.

From the Kiwi perspective, we don't care about that. What matters for us is that the ABs lift their game because a better opponent, such as the Springbok and the Pumas, will be a serious contender to inflict a defeat if the ABs continue to play like that.

The ABs need to improve their scrum, their discipline, their line defence and above all, their lineout. Smoking the Wallabies tonight is just inconsequential: what matters is lifting standards before the ABs face a contender.

 

[Bairdy]

From the Kiwi perspective, that was very, very poor.

I can't recall the last time I've seen the ABs play so badly. Letting in exceptionally soft penalties, allowing easy line breaks.

Thank you, All Blacks, for giving permission to the Wallabies to run through their defence as often as they did. And for showing us how to infringe in their red zone, so we may replicate this in future games. Sincere thanks to the almighty All Blacks!

 

[Paradox]

For mine, the Wallabies lacked organisation and pressure was simply transferred to other players in worse positions. I think there are points in this Wallaby side however they were really poor at getting out of their own half.

Genia did dither at the rucks. He also needs to fight for the ball more often. To'omua was solid but not inspiring. Mogg was really poor and couldn't even kick the ball cleanly. Quade made a few Quadish errors but he looked really good on the front foot and struck the ball well getting the Ws out of the danger zone. Mind you, that was at the end of the game and Nick White also looked sharper than Genia when he arrived.

I have to say I'm not convinced by Horwill as a captain. Too many poor efforts with him in charge going back to the WC. Hope he proves me wrong.

I think the W's are going to be a lot better than this next time around.

 

[The Rock]

I would like to see Alan Jones brought in as a Coaching Director Roll. Jones coached the Australian team for 4 years with 86 victories from 102 matches including 23 victories in 30 Tests.[15] When he took the team on it included Mark Ella, and it soon recruited Peter FitzSimons and James Black, both Manly players, and Nick Farr-Jones. Also in 1984, Australia's national team, the Wallabies, won the Grand Slam victories over England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland, and a Barbarians side made up of the best players of those countries and France.
In 1985, Jones was awarded Coach of the Year from the Confederation of Australian Sport.[7]
The 1986 Bledisloe Cup victory against New Zealand in New Zealand was the first time that had been achieved in 39 years. He has Proven himself as someone the ARU should have.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Because just shovelling does not commit a defender, defender can just drift on to the next defender preventing any overlap.

and there was a lot of shovelling,,,,
and too much crossfield running,,,,,
JOC (James O'Connor) awful in defence

 

[p.Tah]

The Wallabies are a rabble. That's your problem, not ours.

From the Kiwi perspective, we don't care about that. What matters for us is that the ABs lift their game because a better opponent, such as the Springbok and the Pumas, will be a serious contender to inflict a defeat if the ABs continue to play like that.

The ABs need to improve their scrum, their discipline, their line defence and above all, their lineout. Smoking the Wallabies tonight is just inconsequential: what matters is lifting standards before the ABs face a contender.

Perhaps you should start a thread on how the ABs can improve rather than posting it in the Wallaby thread.

 

[TOCC]

Simmons seems to suffer from reputation more than anything here. I wondered about his selection, but for a lineout lock he did a fine job around the park. His two blemishes were the intercept pass and penalty to give away three points.

No tackling stats yet, but from early stats Simmons had 8 runs for 42m, 11 rucks & mauls (2nd only to Horwill in the Aus forwards), 2 lineout steals.

http://www.rugbystats.com.au/matches/rugby/match22218.html

Sometimes I wonder if people don't watch what certain players do in a game, and instead fall back to preconceived notions.

Yeah exactly, by no means did Simmons have an awesome performance but he was definitely a 'pass mark' in my book, his pressure at the line-out was attributable to two line-out steals and arguably the reason for the AB's overthrow which lead to Genia's try. The line-out was the one shining light in everything which occurred tonight, but for some reason Simmon's get labelled absent....hmmmmm

 

[barbarian]

I thought we picked a team that lacked size in both forwards and backs. I hoped we would play an innovative, fast game plan to maybe take advantage of this. We did not.

Outmuscled in every facet. Need more punch from the backrow- both Mowen and MMM were very poor. Fardy, maybe McCalman should be considered.

In the backs- come in Honey Badger. Move JOC (James O'Connor) to fullback, Mogg back to the bench. Need some physicality, some mongrel, some line-bending.
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[cyclopath]

The Wallabies are a rabble. That's your problem, not ours.

From the Kiwi perspective, we don't care about that. What matters for us is that the ABs lift their game because a better opponent, such as the Springbok and the Pumas, will be a serious contender to inflict a defeat if the ABs continue to play like that.

The ABs need to improve their scrum, their discipline, their line defence and above all, their lineout. Smoking the Wallabies tonight is just inconsequential: what matters is lifting standards before the ABs face a contender.

The Wallabies are a rabble. That's your problem, not ours.

From the Kiwi perspective, we don't care about that. What matters for us is that the ABs lift their game because a better opponent, such as the Springbok and the Pumas, will be a serious contender to inflict a defeat if the ABs continue to play like that.

The ABs need to improve their scrum, their discipline, their line defence and above all, their lineout. Smoking the Wallabies tonight is just inconsequential: what matters is lifting standards before the ABs face a contender.

See ya, fucktard.

 

[TOCC]

I know someone has already mentioned it, but JOC (James O'Connor)'s positioning was twice attributable to a AB's try, he may be talented but he hasn't been playing wing for quite a while and struggled there tonight.

We need some more size in the backline, id like to see Tomane back in the team and Izzy needs to be injected much much more.