Who do you want kicking for the Wallabies?

[barbarian]

Yeah I agree H. I hate when we start to play around with the ball inside our own half. I am OK if the opposition defence is broken and we are getting quick ball, but when it all breaks down and the opposition defensive line is set then you have nothing to gain and a lot to lose.

My favourite passage of play from Saturday showed this perfectly. Beale caught a bomb on our 22, beat a few defenders and popped a ball to Diggers who went to ground about 35 out from our line. Then we had a forward crash it up over the 40 while the Bok defence was still backpedalling. Then the ball came back to Quade who used the extra space and time to kick into the Boks corner, where the ball rolled into touch 5m out. Great skills, great physicality and great game management.

 

[H...]

Yeah I agree H. I hate when we start to play around with the ball inside our own half. I am OK if the opposition defence is broken and we are getting quick ball, but when it all breaks down and the opposition defensive line is set then you have nothing to gain and a lot to lose.

Like the obsession with running the ball for 5 phases off the kickoff to gain 10 metres before kicking it anyway?

Ruck penalties can be difficult to predict and avoid. Many are awarded against players who had the best intentions and thought they were playing within the rules. I predict that this will hurt us in the RWC, as Australians attach a particularly strong stigmatism to kicking the ball.

Then again, Cooper did show some tactical nous on Saturday with that excellent kick in behind Habana in the first half.

 

[Scotty]

I think the idea of running for a few phases off the kick off has merits:

1. It keeps the defensive team 'honest' - ie they can't drop extra players back to have a 4-5 man counter attack, because they are unsure if we will run it or not.
2. It is much easier to get an effective clearing kick from 8m out than on or behind your own goal line.

 

[H...]

I think the idea of running for a few phases off the kick off has merits:

1. It keeps the defensive team 'honest' - ie they can't drop extra players back to have a 4-5 man counter attack, because they are unsure if we will run it or not.
2. It is much easier to get an effective clearing kick from 8m out than on or behind your own goal line.

I think that's probably true.

 

[tommyjay04]

Not enough emphasis

From where I'm sitting, the problem with Australian goal kicking is that it is seen as an aside or an extra 'string' to the bow of one of a young talented backline player who can run, pass, tackle (in some cases).

It doesn't seem to be respected in its own right as much as in other international teams. I mean for God's sake, the reason Morne Steyn is so good at slotting goals is that this is all he is good at (especially lately).

I cant comment on Dan Carter as he is freakish and seems to be able to do it all but I think on the whole, it just isn't given enough value as an individual skill in the Aussie team. We would rather have an all rounded backline of talented players than ones' assigned specific jobs in which they are the best going around

 

[BDA]

The box kick is becoming too predictable. My golden rule of rugby = > do what the opposition doesn't want you to do. Gifting away possession is exactly what opponents want. Opening up counter attacking opportunities is exactly what opponents want. Box kick in small doses.

I agree, although It actually worked ok last week against the boks.The bok back three were having shockers under the high ball, but i wouldn't expect the same from the blacks next week.

One thing i do like about the box kicks is that if its done in the right part of the field it allows you to realign your defense just inside the opposition half. That is a great position for us to be if we trust our defensive patterns. I think it could be quite effective at the world cup when we are going to be playing NH teams who prefer to attack from close and wont be as effective from inside their own half. Probably our best attribute is a back-3 counter attack so while we dont want to kick away too much, we have to create counter attack opportunities.

 

[RuckinGoodStats]

Some analysis on this


http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/stats-who-should-kick-for-the-wallabies/

 

[txoxmxaxsx]

JOC (James O'Connor) for the short to medium range, KB (Kurtley Beale) for the longer stuff.

Have to agree with this. JOC (James O'Connor) was solid till the All Blacks debacle a couple of weeks ago. It's the right move to give him the confidence to continue with this duty.

 

[hughkh]

Could draft Dunning in and get him to drop kick all conversions and penalties?

 

[Dam0]

I go against the tide on the issue of box kicks. I think they are quite an effective weapon if executed properly. The key is to get the ball sufficiently high, travelling about 30-40 metres, to land within 5-10 metres of the sideline and to let all your team mates know the plan before the kick. I don't have any statistics but I am sure that the chances of getting the ball back from a box kick is much better than from kicking it into touch and having a lineout.