RedsHappy
Tony Shaw (54)
To that excellent post, I would add:
Half (if not more) of the problem is that Cheika has long decided that he will be Wallaby Forwards Coach (other than as to scrums).
Is it not obvious to us all that, after 2 years as Wallaby HC, whatever his other positive attributes, he does this job poorly.
Our forwards selections are erratic and inconsistent, their work equally so, their technical astuteness and accuracy in loose play and particularly at the breakdown is often all that you say, both in terms not only relating to laws and refs, but just as much to the cleverness and finesse needed to legally and consistently clean-out, work effectively as a group off the ball, realign fast for support play, slow opposition attack and pilfer effectively.
The Irish backrow (and Ireland's forwards generally) schooled ours in most encounters and did so with a typically low penalty count; in fact, this was a, perhaps the, key a to their win (together with faultless place kicking and the high self-inflicted Wallaby penalty count, the score difference being 1 penalty kick made). Is the Irish athletic prowess in rugby forwards superior to ours overall? I don't think so, the clue is superior coaching, trained-in technique and good mental preparedness and composure. YC-inducing brain farts of the type we are often seeing in Wallaby forwards work typically arise from the opposite of these attributes.
Just as Byrne and Larkham seem (at last) to be building some coherence and better skills into the late 2016 Wallaby attack, the next evolution of this team must be within our forwards skills and playing capability. That such an evolution has clearly not emerged since late 2014 and MC's arrival highlights that the problem is significantly one of management and low levels of technical and skill development.
I have said for some time that as the Australian rugby system as a complete system does not as yet build adequate levels of technical skills into its elite players so, until this systemic malaise is repaired, there is a large premium to be placed upon our Super and national teams all having world-class rugby coaching capability in depth and in all key support disciplines and positions.
It was recently and quite openly stated by MC to a News journalist that (paraphrasing): 'I mostly leave analysis of the opposition, game plans and tactics and so on to Byrne, Larkham and Grey, I concentrate mostly on the players, helping them give their best performances.'
I found that admission very revealing in its broad daylight confirmation that MC is principally not a technically or detail-driven HC but is mostly focussed upon man-management, motivation, 'team identity' and team spirit. That's all good and to the good and we see huge evidence of his superiority in this key leadership domain over (say) Deans, we today see a Wallaby team far more intense, motivated, driven and working hard for all of 80 than we ever saw under Deans, which is a huge positive provided the team's total, all-players, technical and tactical skills are suitably improved in parallel.
Such improvements are very gradually being made, but there are not enough being made fast enough or in all critical areas of elite team skill and that is essentially why we no longer can beat the ABs (who improve at a faster rate than we do), lose 0-3 to England, and lose crucial close games as we did to Ireland.
For all the above both immediate and strategic reasons, Cheika must in early 2017 recruit a crack, full-time, matured Wallaby forwards coach. This will greatly aid better forwards selections and individual forwards development, let alone the creation of enhanced forwards skills and the related disciplines. I predict (as I have before) that until the Wallaby coaching team is complete with excellence in all the essential Assistant positions, we will be a compromised, erratic, and inconsistent team with a mediocre w-l ratio - and we will fail the Australian rugby public is so being.
L Fisher would be a near-perfect choice.
