Yes, we had a week off. So sue us! But we’re back this week to look at the weekend that was in rugby, slightly hungover because after what we saw on Saturday night we decided the best course of action was to try and drink it from memory. It didn’t work. So we’ll take a look at the good, bad and ugly from the All Blacks come from behind win, check the bank accounts (sort of), do a double take at what was being said before, during and after the game, talk domestic rugby and check in on our old friend the Bean.
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Good –I’m drawing a very long bow here, but we showed that we can score tries. Yes, the All Blacks had switched off, but at least the ball stayed in our hands long enough to get to the try line a few times (even if one was dead lucky through a terrible pass that happened to bounce off a leg into someone’s hands who just happened to be in a good position to get to the line)
Bad – No matter which tackle stats you look at (the numbers are vastly different on different sites) they look bad. Very bad. And that isn’t even taking into account the players that didn’t even get close enough to attempt a tackle, only the ones that actually made the effort. I love that if a player side steps and lets the attacker through or falls for the dummy, it doesn’t count in the stats against him, but the player that throws himself at the guy with the ball, only to fall off the tackle gets the poor stats.
Ugly –The state of Australian Rugby at the moment. The ARU is in strife, the Wallabies … well, we all saw that display. Local clubs might be doing ok, but they aren’t the ones being reported about in the international media.
Show me the money!
So with the dollars dominating Rugby conversations of late, a comment from Nutta (thank you!) in the match report comment section really resonated with me and is really worth some consideration. Each one of the 23 Wallabies players was paid $30K. That’s $690,000 on top of their contract salaries. Un-deserved, overpaid? It does beg the question about the approach of the ARU in an alleged tight fiscal environment, as there could be a reasonable argument made for a “moneyball” approach. Let’s face it, there are plenty of young fringe players like Powell, Paia’aua, Banks, Ruru, Gordon, Parese, Hardwick just to name a few that would be stoked to be pulling on the jersey, willing to play for a third of the current match fee and arguably would have put up no worse a performance than we saw on Saturday night.
If the ARU are serious about cutting costs, looking at the ARU-Wallabies set up at the moment you can’t help but question the management approach which seem to be out of step with the current business practice in this fiscal environment. While businesses and Governments are cutting costs where possible like travel and even cutting back on staff, the Wallabies are spending up on camps with 50+ players for weeks at a time racking up travel and accommodation costs. This in addition to recently adding Larkham and Grey on to the full-time payroll. This is adding to Mick Byrne and Ledesma. Rod Kafer has also recently been appointed in to the ARU set up.
So, when you switch on next Saturday to watch the Bledisloe we will be at $1.38mil; without factoring in the cost of flights, accommodation etc.
All of the above is in addition to the ARU top up deals like with Genia who is reported to be on a $800k deal with the ARU paying for at least half of that. Is he worth it? Before you answer that you need to consider Sam Carter who is sitting in chilly ole’ Canberra on an ARU top up deal to sit at home and watch the games.
I won’t go on about the costs once when get to the end of year tour.
One thing I will say is for all the $$$ that are being pumped in to a select group, all this supporter wants is see some decent rugby played by some decent players and right now I would rather see a team of absolute rookies get carved up by the All Blacks but show passion, bleed and learn from it and give us hope.
I for one am sadly over this expensive pantomime with its cast of thousands and predictable storyline.
Lip Service
I get that commentators and those in the media have to try and be positive. It’s not in their best interest, or in the interest of trying to promote Australian rugby for them to be as honest as us plebs who fill up blogs and comments sections.
But c’mon … a little bit of reality, please!
I think sometimes they go a little too far in trying to build up our chances.
I’m fairly sure I heard Tim Horan say before the match “This is the strongest team since the WC”
I’m sorry Tim, but no – no, it isn’t. You are just plain wrong. In that one statement, you imply that Hannigan is better than Fardy (LOL!!), and without Pocock in there, well do I really need to say it? Is McMahon, with hardly any Super Rugby behind him this year, better than Pocock in any form?
Phil Kearnes said during the match something along the lines of “not many teams can score 34 points against the All Blacks”.
That may be true, but no Australian team has let in so many points before half time against the All Blacks. It’s all well and good to shut the gate after the horse has bolted, and in this case the horse was nothing more than dust on the horizon. Yes, we scored points, but it was too late.
Greg Clarke said after the match “No one saw that coming”
This is one of the most ridiculous statements I have heard. Sure, we all had a tiny glimmer of hope that the Wallabies could win (actually I was surprised at just how many people were saying they would get up). But did you watch Super Rugby this year? It was very rare that any Aussie team got within Cooee of any Kiwi team. All season we were saying we were doomed come Bledisloe, and guess what?! We were right!
Way back before the June Test matches, Michael Hooper said Australia’s poor Super Rugby season would mean nothing, that Super Rugby doesn’t reflect the Wallabies hopes.
In retrospect, he was dead wrong. Saturday night certainly proved that. The biggest carry over from Super to Test Rugby? Well … does this sound familiar? Let the opposition score a plethora of points in the first half and try and run over the top of them in the second. It may not have been the game plan, but it sounds like so many Waratahs matches we saw. The big difference? This wasn’t a 25-point lead to the Rebels at half time, this was a 40-point lead to the All Blacks. Defence in the first half was just as optional for the Wallabies as it was for the Waratahs this year. I wonder why that could be …….
And just as a counter, there was this from Michael Lynagh “I can’t over-estimate how angry I am at seeing an Australian team who have skills that are non-existent,”
“Passing and catching and making tackles and trusting the bloke beside you are pretty basic even at schoolboy level.
“Australia had a month together to try and create stuff … and they come up with that in the first half. Very, very disappointing.”
Truth. How refreshing.
Domestic Rugby? Sorry, but we only have South African of Kiwi on tap!
Seriously, it can’t be right? Well it is sadly. Turning on the telly over the weekend I was excited at the buffet of domestic Rugby on offer to me. Round one of Kiwi domestic competition, the Mitre 10 Cup, and the round 5 games of the Currie Cup.
On Sunday afternoon, the MST’s settled on the couch to half watch a Mitre 10 game while we neglected the children and discussed ideas for the Top 5. The conversation many times dropped off as we watched players like Julian Savea, Milner-Skudder (now called in to the All blacks squad) and Brad Shields, just to name a few running around the park. All Black standard players not on form or not needed at the time playing in the domestic competition.
But then there are the other young players trying to forge their palace in the game. Otere Black who from the Mitre 10 performances a few years ago was at the Hurricanes behind the Barrett’s in 2017 and is touted as the new starting 10 for the Blues come 2018. One player that showed he does have some skills at 10 was another young bloke called Garden-Bachop. He had a really good game and looked really good prompting Mrs MST to ask what the Rebels did to him to make him look and play so badly.
But all that aside, it did make us ask one question and had us scrabbling on the internet googling information. When does the NRC start?
Now don’t get us wrong, we really enjoy the NRC but it’s done so quickly like a flash in the pan and it’s not really a national domestic competition now anyway with a Fijian team in it. But where is it?
Now I know some will bang on about Shute Shield on TV and on occasions in the past I have watched a few good games. But in reality, it’s a NSW product and niche at best. Shute Shield history and tradition and all that; yeah, no. If I want to watch local rugby I would be either at or streaming the JiD. I would guess it would be the same for those in QLD with Premiership Rugby.
So where is the NRC? Why is it not on?
It not hard to see when you are watching the Mitre 10 or Currie Cup games while waiting for the NRC to start in 2 weeks time to realise that most likely the reason that Kiwi and South African Rugby is better could simply boil down to that fact that they have more players playing more often in a proper fully fledged national domestic competition building depth, skill and experience while we are on holiday at the National level and most of our players are playing at state level.
But this is not about the fact the most of our Rugby players are playing a level below the competition, this is about me, the viewer wanting some decent rugby on TV that’s home grown and at a national level!
The Mitre 10 game has ended, so flicking over to the AFL……….
ARU and the Beanstalk
Well to be honest I just about put this one to bed when the ARU made their announcement regarding the Force, sadly I came very close to taking out my emotions about the decision on my poor innocent bean plants and neglected to water them for a few days. But then I realised it wasn’t their fault, they are just caught up in this as innocent victims, like so many Australian Rugby fans, so I have made sure to keep looking after them, and will do so until all the court cases, injunctions, appeals, resignations and restructures are complete.
Well we finally heard from the ARU, and like most I wasn’t happy with what I heard. I won’t go into it, other than to say I believe quite strongly that they have got it wrong.
The Force are still fighting, taking it to the courts again, and with the financial backing of Forrest this could prove very, very costly for the ARU. Add to that the WA Government stepping in and threatening to bankrupt the ARU, well just hold on while I get the popcorn. This looks to be something that will drag on for a while yet.
Meanwhile, small incident of neglect aside, the beans are thriving and ready to be potted.
Yep, they are still healthier than the state of Rugby in Australia, while the goings on at the ARU remind me a little of this …
