Welcome fellow G&GRs it’s Hump Day. We have until midday to continue with reflections of the weekend and then we can start looking forward to the upcoming match and start wondering how our team will go this weekend. Will we prevail or will we go down? Either way it’s international rugby so let’s enjoy it.
Referee Corner
Bit of a mixed weekend this week, and as pointed out by BLL in Monday’s news the refereeing seemed to drop off compared to the opening week. Certainly for me Andrew Brace and his ARs looked to be a bit out of their depth and appeared to not be in control of the game. A telling point was the kickoff after the first try when both the referee and AR got the decision wrong and called a lineout. After TJ (the mouth) pointed out their mistake they then went back for the scrum. This just demonstrated that they’d let the occasion get to them and weren’t in control. Of course this was after the incorrect try decision as well, so not a lot going right in the first part of the game. I’m not as harsh as some on Doleman. I agree he lets a lot of things go, but for me he’s consistent with both sides and it’s on the captains to make sure they read his game and adapt to it. Complaining because one side does that and the other doesn’t is to me not a referee problem.
The decision to award that try was pretty poor and what got me more about it was the refusal to use the TMO. Now I get that we don’t want excessive TMO interference in the game, but the very first reason the TMO was introduced was to assess a try/no try so that the correct decision could be made. Of course then we stuffed up by getting it involved all over the field until the rebellion made World Rugby calm down and reduce the input. Personally, I think the TMO should be there for two things only. Firstly, they are there to confirm a try or no try. If the referee is in any way unsure then they should get the TMO to review, and in fact I believe the TMO should approve every act of scoring to provide certainty. If neither the referee or TMO can absolutely confirm a try, then it shouldn’t be awarded. Secondly, I think the TMO should watch for clear and deliberate foul play. Not the accidental collision, but something that is clear and deliberate that the onfield officials miss. Other than that I think the TMO should stay away. Sure it means some things will be missed, or get called incorrectly, but I’m OK with that and I think those two things provide a good balance.
There’s been a fair bit of comment about the lost time in a match with suggestions that perhaps we should stop the clock a bit more and have the time used for scrum resets and the like not counted towards the 40 min playing time. I have a few issues with this because I think it would be incredibly hard to manage and would be so inconsistent that it would create even more complaints. Let’s look at the time off when a scrum is awarded to time on when the half feeds the ball. So time off seems easy, referee blows his whistle and time stops. But, what about where he is playing advantage? Does it go back to when the incident occurred? Does it stop once the players walk back to the mark? Or does time go off once the players are all at the mark and start setting up the scrum? So many variables and so many ways for the clock to start differently. Then time on. Does this start when the referee calls Set? Does it start when the ball is put into the scrum? How do you decide if the half has the ball in but doesn’t release immediately? What happens when the scrum starts but then collapses and is reset? Does the time then go off again and come on when the scrum resets? Honestly, we’d need a separate time manager and because so much of the points are subjective we’d just open the game up to more controversy.
There’s one change that I’d like to see. We know a dominant scrum will keep playing with the ball at the back to win a penalty and I agree that this probably isn’t the best way to manage things. I don’t think a scrum should be permitted to hold the ball at the back unless they are within 10 metres of the goal line. It’s highly unlikely that a scrum will advance more than 10 metres without breaking up or going off track; so more than 10 metres out, the ball should be played. If the scrum collapses or stands up then that is ignored and the ball is to be used or lost to a free kick. I think that would speed things up a lot and would also stop teams from milking penalties. As Nutta will no doubt expand upon, it’s not that hard to force a penalty from a scrum and you can fool the referee to think it’s the other side if you’re canny enough.
Cheika urges RA to exit Super Rugby and ‘go it alone’, says lack of strategy killing game in Australia
In a post I read on that shouty site here, Cheika discusses Australia pulling out of Super Rugby and running a domestic only competition. Cheika has urged Rugby Australia to strongly consider blowing up Super Rugby and “going it alone”, believing the success of the national team is no longer enough to see the game thrive Down Under. He added to this saying that “Australians enjoyed the “rivalry and connection” that only home domestic competitions like the AFL and NRL provide.”
He went on to question the current strategy from RA arguing that the uncertainty about the game’s direction meant it was difficult for the Wallabies to have a clear Overseas Eligibility Policy. “I feel like it’s absolutely imperative not to give up on the game at home,” Cheika said adding “That’s where the growth of the game should be. Then from there, you can make your decisions around picking players from everywhere.” but cautioning this with “If I do let players go overseas and then pick them all for Australia, the game at home will struggle a lot.”
He then used the South Africa example saying “If you look at South Africa how they do it, they’ve got a strong provincial set up, they’ve got Currie Cup set up, players in Europe, but they’re home-based, so they’re still home games and then they still can pick players in Japan et cetera.”
I struggle with the concept of a domestic only competition, especially as Australia doesn’t have the local version of the Currie Cup to grow players. RA can’t afford the 4 teams it currently has so how are they going to pay for more teams? If it is just 4 teams then what would the competition be? I think anything more than a single home and away game would get boring pretty fast so the competition wouldn’t be that long. I can’t see Stan or any other broadcaster paying much money for what would become a low level extended club competition. If RA reduced wages to allow for more teams then all that would mean is more players going offshore, or going to NRL and AFL.
I think if rugby here went domestic only, then in a few years we would look back on when we were 9th in the world rankings and hope we could get back that high one day. We’d miss out on the RWC stuff because we’d struggle to qualify for the tournament and the Lions would take there game elsewhere because playing the Wallabies wouldn’t mean anything.
I do agree that rugby here needs to do something to get things back on track, but I don’t think it can shrink to greatness.
Wallabies back defence to step up as stats show Schmidt improvement
Reported here by Nathan Williamson on rugby.com.au, the Wallabies are displaying signs of improvement this year under Joe Schmidt. The Wallabies have missed almost 10 tackles less in 2024 (17 per game v 27 per game) in their first six games of the season compared to the same mark in 2023. It’s translated on the scoreboard with the side conceding seven points per game less than last year, including two games holding the opposition under 20 points.
“I think there’s been definitely a joint effort to focus on the defensive side of the ball for us the last couple of weeks,” hooker Matt Faessler said adding “They made a few good line breaks, particularly off kick return but our ability to make those covering tackles and then get our D-line set as quick as possible was, for me, really good to see.”
The Wallabies are excited to return to dry and warm conditions in Santa Fe for this week’s Test after back-to-back monsoons. No one was more pleased than Faessler, who controlled the lineout well despite the downpour. “The weekend’s conditions were nightmarish for a hooker. You wake up in cold sweats,” he joked.
I must admit that at the start of this season I, like a lot of people, was not expecting a complete change in fortunes. We know that after the disaster that was Jones the Wallabies were always going to take time to both get over his BS and also relearn some of the things that he didn’t and couldn’t (because he’s a crap coach and stupidly had AFL and NRL assistants instead of rugby assistants) get the Wallabies doing.
At the start of this season I stated that what I wanted to see was an improvement. Not just an improvement, but an ongoing improvement where we would see things get better and continue to get better as the season developed.
I think we are getting that from Joe and his team. Sure, things could be better. But after the last few years they could also be a lot worse.
I’m still comfortable that the ABs will continue to hold the Bledisloe Cup this year, but I can also see that as time goes on, and as if this team continues to develop, then the time it’s won by the Wallabies is getting closer.
