Interesting piece by Greg Mumm on the Roar.
http://www.theroar.com.au/2015/09/09/two-halves-make-a-whole-but-the-breakdown-will-make-it-work/
Essentially that the pack did not adapt to a defence that didn't commit to the ruck. Meaning the gaps are inside not wide. And the game play was getting the ball wide. Phipps with fast delivery is better at the wide game.
The pigs could have adapted to pick and go to ease this but so could have Phipps by running more through the middle and better feeding the pack around the scrum.
Which is a style that Genia is more suited to. Ideally you want a half with excellent skill sets at both of these, but it hasn't happened yet so don't expect it in a couple of weeks.
Which is why neither Genia nor Phipps has a lock in this preoccupation that the fans have with a first 15. Cheika will change the selections based on the opposition.
You could say the same about the 10s. And while it doesn't quite work Gitts and Beale. QC (Quade Cooper), Gitts, and Beale have spent time out of position which to me suggests who Cheika sees as his "finishers". But the team will be selected for the opposition.
This is NOT "depth". It's Cheika using the material available to him to create depth in the playing style through the tournament.
I like it. Plenty of pressure though to get it right.
The big disappointment being the lack of adaption in that first half.
Between the experienced players and the water boy/coach it shouldn't have taken 40 minutes to adapt
I note Paul Alo-Emile started for Stade Francais on the weekend. Seems the injury didn't rule him out of the RWC, albeit it would have been a huge risk to take him.
Should we have managed him better? Would he have been a better option that Toby Smith?
It is a very good article, it highlights our challenges in the first half.
The big disappointment being the lack of adaption in that first half.
Between the experienced players and the water boy/coach it shouldn't have taken 40 minutes to adapt
I think part of that was the lack of leadership we had on the field on Sunday morning. Missing Moore, Hooper and Pocock in the forwards makes a big difference.
You'd have hoped that Slipper, McCalman and Giteau could have provided that change in direction in the first half but it never really happened.
Playing devils advocate, how long do you play your Plan A gameplan before trying a new one? When do you cut your losses that the game plan you wanted to execute from the beginning never really got momentum?
England may play 10 man rugby against us, but we're certainly not going to be playing 10 man rugby against them.
Unless Michael Cheika has inadvertently swallowed John Connolly in a mad Jabba the Hutt moment.
Or has otherwise lost all his marbles.
It is a very good article, it highlights our challenges in the first half.
The big disappointment being the lack of adaption in that first half.
Between the experienced players and the water boy/coach it shouldn't have taken 40 minutes to adapt
We put a couple of tries on them pretty early as well so it wasn't as if thing were going bad right from the start. Plan A was working, at least initially.Playing devils advocate, how long do you play your Plan A gameplan before trying a new one? When do you cut your losses that the game plan you wanted to execute from the beginning never really got momentum?
Playing devils advocate, how long do you play your Plan A gameplan before trying a new one? When do you cut your losses that the game plan you wanted to execute from the beginning never really got momentum?
I note Paul Alo-Emile started for Stade Francais on the weekend. Seems the injury didn't rule him out of the RWC, albeit it would have been a huge risk to take him.
Should we have managed him better? Would he have been a better option that Toby Smith?
Playing devils advocate, how long do you play your Plan A gameplan before trying a new one? When do you cut your losses that the game plan you wanted to execute from the beginning never really got momentum?
I think this highlights a problem with the wallabies for the last 5 years. They have all the skills to execute multiple game plans but they fail at adapting to the opposition especially when the current game plan is being nullified by the opposition.
Seems to me like players are unwilling to stray from the game-plan, and it takes Cheika to blast them at half time to change.
Reminds me of all the chip kicks creeping into the game a few years back, then suddenly they completely stopped. I remember playing a team with fast rush defence thinking "well this is the time to chip kick - they bloody did it aimlessly all the previous games and now when it might actually work they refuse to try it". Like the coach said "knock off the chip kicks" so they completely take it out of their game.
Looks like the same thing with the USA. Gameplan = play wide, which clearly wasn't working and they failed to identify to play tight, or didn't have to guts to change the game plan mid game.
You keep hearing players say "just stick to our structures and our game plan and we know we should get results". As bad as Dean's was I prefer the "play what's in-front of you" attitude.
The game plan should be changed at any moment depending on how the opposition is playing and not on how we think the opposition will play.
In the first half of 2014 the Waratahs suffered losses and I remember Chieka saying something along the lines of the players needing enforce the game plan, to stick with it and trust it and not be bullied out of it and forced to play differently by the opposition.
In the first half of 2014 the Waratahs suffered losses and I remember Chieka saying something along the lines of the players needing enforce the game plan, to stick with it and trust it and not be bullied out of it and forced to play differently by the opposition.
Presumably the top dogs for this are Squeak and Hooper. On Soldier Field the job was Slipper, McCalman and Gitts. I thought Slipper and McCalman played well but really need to think through the decision making. Unless the coach was dictating positional issues as part of building themes and styles. It was after all a warm up.