With the vultures now circling the Tahs season this year and the team showing no signs of improvement from week one, I thought I would give Coach Chris Hickey a plan to re-build the Tahs’ waning fortunes.
Sure the Tahs still sit near the top of the table but any realistic appraisal of their performances this year surely shows that they won’t be for too much longer if they continue to meander through games.
The Forwards
They are performing well at the scrum and line-out however the problem lies with them not being able to turn this domination into either sustained pressure or points. What the Tahs’ forwards are not doing is providing a link between themselves and the backline.
The Tahs only have one ball-runner, Cliffy Palu, and let’s face it, he isn’t the type of player who likes to run wide. In other Australian teams, the flankers are the link, think Smith, Pocock and Higginbotham, they are constantly running at the opposition around the 2nd or 3rd defensive channel, creating breaks and/or providing quick ruck ball.
What needs to be done is for Mumm to move back to the 2nd row and let either Mowen or new signing Luke Doherty play the number six. These guys are ball runners who can get wide and find gaps in midfield. This lack of link play was glaring obvious last night when Luke Burgess found gaps and took off only for the movement to fizzle out due to a lack of primary support. Phil Waugh has never been that sort of support player so it is unrealistic to think that he can adjust his game to fill this role.
The Backs
This is where major surgery is needed.
Firstly tell Luke Burgess to forget about both the short-side and finding forwards for hit ups and to start distributing the ball. All too often promising situations are wasted by giving the ball to a tight forward who trucks it up to yet another ruck. Start giving this ball some air and see what the Tahs backs can do when the opposition defence is on the back foot.
Give Portley and rest for a few weeks and let Sam Two-Dads run the show. It is apparent now that Two-Dads provides at least some spark and is able to throw a decent pass to his outside backs, something Portley cannot. Most telling is when Tahs try and go wide from first phase, Two-Dads is the architect, not Beale.
Bring Hangers into number 12, give the Tahs two ball playing options like the Reds have with Barnes and Cooper. Hangers showed last night with his first touch of the ball that he can take the line on, get through it, and then have the skills to off-load. The monster, crash ball inside centre option isn’t working so why keep changing around Carter and TimTam in the hope that it might?
Lote into outside centre. Although he has been found out playing this spot before, he is by far the most destructive of the Tahs backline and needs the ball. Bring him into the centres and let him work off either Two-Dads or Hangers. The fact he made nearly 15% (66mtrs out of 445mtrs) of all running metres gained by the Tahs against the Saders, proves the more you get the ball to him, the better off the team will be.
Lachie Turner to full-back. He will provide a legitimate counter attack option and perhaps give opposing teams pause for thought before they kick the ball to the Tahs. Lachie is a busy player who seems the only one at the moment who is interested in making the effort to get into an attacking position.
TimTam to the wing. He’s not a centre, he needs space to wind up to full pace and maybe on the end of a revamped Tahs backline he would get that space. If he was prepared to make the effort and link with Turner from fullback, things would start happening for him.
On the other wing should be Peter Playford, he is a good solid player who can provide cover for Lachie at fullback and let him tear off on his dynamic bursts.
So that’s it, instead of the current death march to another unfulfilled season, implement the Cote plan and at least provide some entertainment, and maybe some wins into the bargain.
One thing is for sure, Ewen McKenzie was boned last season because of the perceived lack of endeavour by the Tahs. This wouldn’t fill Chris Hickey with any kind of confidence that he will see out his full contract the way the Tahs are currently playing – particularly with the Machiavellian Michael Foley waiting in the wings.
If you’re going down, at least go down swinging.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="1931 https://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/?p=1931">21 Comments
you should be farked up the anus for the pun, you just lost any aussie cred you may have had!
Agreed with most of that. Unfortunately the biggest problem is that the Tahs have employed a mediocre coach and I don’t know if we’ll go down swinging – but we’ll definitely be going down.
When the ARU went looking for a coach for the Wallabies they splashed the cash for Robbie Deans as there wasn’t anyone available locally to compete at that level. So too the Socceroos when they recruited Guus Hiddink and Pim Verbeek – remembering how limited they were under Farina (wrong sport I know, but you get the picture). Unfortunately, NSW looked as far as Eastwood and it shows. They are playing like a Sydney club side and we all know the gulf in standard.
As a result we have one of the most expensive back lines ever assembled in this country and they can’t string a few passes together.
What is more alarming than this however, is that Hickey shows absolutely no interest in developing players. Beale is without doubt playing with less confidence and much less effect than last year. Tahu, who has been identified as an electrifying talent by Glen Ella and Robbie Deans is yet to play a full game. Burgess played his best game last night after stringing together a number of shockers etc. These are all players of undoubted talent who are regressing under Hickey.
Unfortunately, as the old saying goes, a fish rots from the head down.
Epi – you got in while I was replying. Totally agree.
Epi,
I guess you are right about Hickey.
He did seem like a strange choice when he got the job, especially when you consider who else was in the running.
Care to name a replacement?
Michael Cheika?
had him pegged to take over from Mitch at the Force.
A Randwick boy so he ticks a few boxes but these days NSW rugby seems to be run by Uni.
What about Foles?
agreed. its also good to point eastwood havn’t been good in years
JC – how satisfying that must have felt!
Not sure I go with all the radical surgery though. I’m with Ed and Epi on where this problem is coming from – my sense is the coaching.
Everything looks very – badly – pre-programmed. As Ed said, EVERY midfield ball is flat. Look at all 3 other Aussie S14 teams and they mix it up with flat decoys and runners from deep. We only saw that for the first 20 against the Brumbies and that’s it. Very easy to defend against.
It all feels over-simplified and while this uni-dimensional approach might work at club level, S14 teams have worked it out very quickly.
The Burgess / Tuqiri obsession with the blind this week was a great example of what looked like some very heavy handed instruction. You could see both of them running crossfield to get to it.
What the Reds, for example, do have is the ability to play heads up in the loose, and varied set play.
I’d love to be a fly on the wall in the Tahs team room to see what’s really happening. I reckon if Tahs had one quality experienced head in the mid-field you would have had an on-field mutiny by now.
I don’t know if satisfaction was the emotion I was feeling, more like a sense of prophecy fulfilled?!?!?
As much as I enjoy seeing NSW rugby in the doldrums, this is becoming the equivalent of kicking a dying dog.
In the words of Buddha Handy “There’s just no passion, Gordon!”
I’m really keen to see hangers in the side, but maybe 12 would be better for the team.
I’m slightly concerned about SNK at fly-half, he seems to have regular brain explosions under pressure. I’m unsurprised to see him kick it out on the full now. But, he reminds me of Larkham in a way and he could be a revelation given time. He certainly deserves more time than he’s been given, he played a game there for the wallabie under connolly and didn’t look too bad. Took the ball to the line, slipped inside a couple of players with a step just like bernie used to.
Think horne needs to stay in the team, too much pace to burn, perhaps on the wing. As Gagger said, if there was an experienced centre in the side changes would be made and i think horne would learn quickly. He just needs a mentor.
I just don’t get how it can go so wrong, when all of us see glaring flaws in the way their playing. I really would like to know what the tactics are behind the way their playing.
“I really would like to know what the tactics are behind the way their playing.”
Word for word what Campo said on The Rugby Club.
I believe it translates to “what the fuck are the coaches up to?”
OK, I’ll ask, what the fuck are they up to?
At least Campo’s not whinging about Gregan any more… finally got something worthwhile to say.
Shame on you Warratahs.
Letting the feral inbred sowrdshirts back into the competition like that.
Disgraceful
The inbreeding capital of N.Z. is GORE (Highlanders country) Not Little England.
where abouts in Tasmania are you from mate?.
Leonidas,
Gore is an insignificant farming town where, admittedly, they probably do strange things to sheep.
But the utter Village of the Damned is Christchurch.
With their booing fans, the stupid white horses, the bizarre 14th Century biblical refrences, their long history of cheating, the fact they mostly have red hair, the fact they’ve dominated NZ selections for 20 years, the flat foreheads, the little ginga kids who hold up “I Hate Auckland” signs at matches, the way they beat up African immigrants at the beach for a bit of fun on a Sunday afternoon, their robotic rugby style, the smog and so many other things that I can’t be bothered typing right now mean they are the Feral Inbreds and must be beaten by everyone.
Even the Warratahs.
And I’m from NZ, bt not from the Village of the Dammed (or Auckland for that matter)
Leg Break’s last blog post..Oram the Saviour??
well, as a born and bred Aucklander, living and studying and playing in Christchurch, I have to say I’ve not come across much of what state. Yes, bad shit happens to tourists here but no more than any other (N.Z.) city, yes a section of the fans have a fucking GIANT chip on the shoulder, but not significantly larger than an A.B.’s fan and the Blues/ Crusaders/Akl./Cant. Rivalry pales in comparison to the Red Sox/ Yankees rivalry.
Burgess just telegraphs his intentions, he always seems to fake what he’s about to do just before he does it. This might work from time to time, but looks terrible when it fails.
Pedro’s last blog post..Socceroos Team List For Uzbekistan WCQ (Kewell Included)
He’s thinking about it too much this year. Last year, he just did it.
Was a lot better vs the Saders I thought though
No, you’re mistaken, he isn’t faking at all. Rather the thought process is as follows:
LB: Ok, I’ll swing it right, we’ll punch it blind..[moves hands leftwards to gather power for a right pass]
LB: Oh, shit, Lote’s triple-marked there [stops mid-pass, looks left]
LB: Beale is on the other side and Horne is already level with him! [scratches head]
LB: fuggedaboutit it isn’t as if we will score anyway [passes right to Lote, shrugs]
Wow, I actually saw him think that.