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Waratahs 2015

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Hawko

Hawko

Tony Shaw (54)
Ash said:
For an Australian team to win it this year, I reckon that they will need similar luck with injuries. We don't seem to have the depth that NZ teams do, they seem to cover key players so much better than us.
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I guess I want to see the results over a two to three year period, but I think that the S&C at the Tahs last year was light years better than in previous years. If we see a bucket of injuries this year then I'll admit we were lucky last year; but until then I put it down to differences in conditioning and training regimes.

Every year pre-2014 the Tahs seemed to get significantly more major injuries than the good NZ teams and I never could understand why this would be so. Now I just think its that "the harder you train the luckier you get."
 
Scrubber2050

Scrubber2050

Mark Ella (57)
All players are important but some are crucial

Hooper is one of those guys at the Tahs.

I cannot believe his durability. Bloke tackles hard. Runs hard, covers an incredible distance during a game AND doesn't seem to get injured.

To me the only criticism warranted is captaincy at Wallaby level but as a player he must be one of the most durable ever and so important for the Tahs
 
Braveheart81

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
Ash said:
The Tahs also had some wing injuries early on in 2014, I thought Betham was out frequently during the season, Crawford started the season injured and Alofa was gone for a few games at times.

However, Foley and Beale and Folau and AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) stayed fit in the backs, and somehow TPN lasted the season, along with Hooper and Palu (I think he also somehow played the whole season?). All the Tahs really lost in the pack that maybe mattered was Chapman prior to Dennis going down.
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We lost Folau for about three games due to his throat injury and the drama with the ARU pulling him out despite the specialist that saw him declaring him fit.

Palu missed about three or four games, firstly from an ankle injury and then because his father passed away.

Betham was injured for most of the season.

Dennis got injured in the third last round.

Chapman missed the entire season except for the finals.

That was about it for players that were in or around the matchday 23 which is quite incredible as far as a season goes.

I believe Kepu, TPN, Douglas, Hooper, Phipps, Foley, Beale, AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper), and Horne started every single game. Others such as Robbo, Skelton, Potgieter were in the 23 every single game.
 
fatprop

fatprop

George Gregan (70)
Staff member
Scrubber2050 said:
All players are important but some are crucial

Hooper is one of those guys at the Tahs.

I cannot believe his durability. Bloke tackles hard. Runs hard, covers an incredible distance during a game AND doesn't seem to get injured.

To me the only criticism warranted is captaincy at Wallaby level but as a player he must be one of the most durable ever and so important for the Tahs
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Just think how good he would be if he was a "proper 7"
 
Braveheart81

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
The different training regimes they used for each player based on the IBM/Sparta Sports system seems like it was instrumental in avoiding soft tissue injuries.
 
fatprop

fatprop

George Gregan (70)
Staff member
The thing that did impress me about the Tahs last season was that when a replacement was called on, he knew his role and got stuck in.

And the machine kept rolling on.

Oh, and that they only played really, really well in one game (against the Chiefs in NZ, they just smashed them off the park)

I do expect to see them improve this season, but there is more video of them now and sides will be working out their plans and underlining each Tahs match.

The questions for me is can they improve enough and can Cheiks keep their intensity up.
 
Ash

Ash

Michael Lynagh (62)
The small number of injuries could be linked to the new techniques or increased fitness focus, it's hard to tell after just one year. If there is a similarly low number of injuries this year, then there's likely a link.
 
Braveheart81

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
Ash said:
The small number of injuries could be linked to the new techniques or increased fitness focus, it's hard to tell after just one year. If there is a similarly low number of injuries this year, then there's likely a link.
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What I found most interesting about it is that Horne and Palu (both players who have had many recurrent injuries) were given completely different training regimes to what they had been doing previously based on the data provided by the system.
 
Ash

Ash

Michael Lynagh (62)
Yeah, I will pay that. It is amazing that not just Horne and Palu, but TPN as well made it through the season when you consider that all three had been walking injuries in years past. Beale is another that has had injury problems in the past but made it through fairly unscathed.
 
fatprop

fatprop

George Gregan (70)
Staff member
Ash said:
Yeah, I will pay that. It is amazing that not just Horne and Palu, but TPN as well made it through the season when you consider that all three had been walking injuries in years past. Beale is another that has had injury problems in the past but made it through fairly unscathed.
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TPN changed his style, he stopped being a kamikaze and played some of his most consistent rugby.
 
Braveheart81

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
fatprop said:
TPN changed his style, he stopped being a kamikaze and played some of his most consistent rugby.
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There was an interview with him at some point last year where he said as much. He'd either come to the realisation (or it had been brought to his attention) that the team needed him on the park game in game out far more than they needed the kamikaze plays that were equally likely to be destructive on his body as they were on the opposition player.

Toning back his aggression worked wonders for him. He still had a very strong physical presence but there was a whole lot less of him stumbling around like he was punch drunk (or snapping his arm on the opposition's shinbone).
 
fatprop

fatprop

George Gregan (70)
Staff member
Braveheart81 said:
There was an interview with him at some point last year where he said as much. He'd either come to the realisation (or it had been brought to his attention) that the team needed him on the park game in game out far more than they needed the kamikaze plays that were equally likely to be destructive on his body as they were on the opposition player.

Toning back his aggression worked wonders for him. He still had a very strong physical presence but there was a whole lot less of him stumbling around like he was punch drunk (or snapping his arm on the opposition's shinbone).
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Yeah, all of a sudden he doesn't look like a punch drunk boxer trying to clear his double vision at lineouts
 
Jagman

Jagman

Trevor Allan (34)
I'm not sure if this is unusual but it's possible for 10 players to make individual milestones this year.

-McCutcheon needs 18 games to make 50 Super Rugby caps
-Hooper needs 18 games to make 50 Waratahs caps
-Tilse 15 games to 50 Super Rugby,
Ryan 6, and Foley 3
-AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) is 4 games from 50 Waratahs caps
- Chapman is 15 from becoming a Super rugby centurion.
- Hoiles is 6 games 50 Waratahs caps and 8 from a century of Super Rugby
- Beale is 1 game from 100 caps plus another 14 from 100 waratahs caps
- Ben Robinson is 12 games from over taking Phil Waugh as the most capped Waratah

Plus Folau "only" needs 9 tries to surpass Tiquiri as the Waratahs highest try scorer.

I just thought this was telling of the experience in the squad and their commitment to the Tahs. Normaly it's only a couple each year who reach a mile stone.


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Jagman

Jagman

Trevor Allan (34)
Pretty sure he got more than 15 caps last year. Do you think Mike A will take his spot on the bench?


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