A lot of journalists in the press box tonight stopped concentrating on the game early in the second half and started writing their match reports – those guys just don’t believe!
Not me, I stuck it out making notes of what was happening. I even kept some basic live stats as I watched the game to support my assertions of what the Wallabies needed to do better. The notes and the stats were all pretty negative and the draft I wrote this afternoon was actually quite positive, so I knew I’d have to start again.
As most people had finished writing their story by the end of the game it really didn’t matter what was said at the press conference (sorry RugbyReg, I mean presser). Then I realised that because they’d finished their stories, by the time I got my match report finished and uploaded it’d be old news! Now I know how a junior reporter feels – I’m sorry Mr. Gagger the Editor.
What to do? I decided to go the presser and see if I could find something that the others might miss. They were all there of course but as they’d finished their stories, I might still be okay.
Early on I thought I had found an angle I was sure no-one else would come up with – whilst every other journalist would be posting articles tonight saying how bad things look, it turns out that it’s not all doom and gloom here at Etihad Stadium tonight, well according to Robbie Deans.
Robbie reminded us that the Wallabies “showed a lot of courage to essentially win the second half, apart from the last score, with 14 men”. Never mind that because of that last try the All Blacks actually took that glory away from the Wallabies.
Asked whether conceding 32 points in the first half was bordering on being alarming, Robbie gave us all hope for the future by conceding “that it wasn’t ideal but we showed that with 15 men we can be competitive but with 14 we weren’t. At that point the game at this level becomes a bit of a nonsense.”
One of the New Zealand journalists asked Robbie whether he didn’t think the contest was over at 32-14 before the red card but no, Robbie didn’t think that – he thought the Wallabies showed they were capable of scoring points, so it wasn’t over at that time.
Again our New Zealand friends jumped in to commiserate with Robbie but also to point out that it wasn’t a good night for the Wallabies with that being the second highest points tally by the All Blacks against the Wallabies and it being the eighth loss in a row against the All Blacks. When asked how he coped with that as a coach on a personal level, Robbie said ”Your heart rate goes up and then you go back to work and we get an opportunity next week in Christchurch and you keep going and try to find some solutions because a lot of our challenges in the game was the little stuff”.
So there you have it, just fix the little things, keep 15 men on the park and the Wallabies will be competitive. Do you feel better yet?
Those pesky Kiwis were obviously worried that the Wallabies were a real threat so they started playing the man and pointed out to Robbie that he knew what would happen back in New Zealand if the All Blacks lost eight in a row to the Wallabies and asked whether he was now feeling under the same sort of pressure as the Australian coach. “Of course” said Robbie. “You deal with it”.
Okay, things are still looking good – you just deal with it and at that stage I thought I could write something positive from all of those inspirational quotes. I should have left at that point but before I could pack my bag Graham Henry, Steve Hansen, Wayne Smith and Richie McCaw were coming through the door.
No matter – there were some more positives – Richie McCaw thought “the ref was pretty good to be honest” and that “the Wallabies played a bit better with 14 men than 15″.
In other positive news it appears Cowan will struggle to be right for next week and Graham Henry hasn’t seen the photos from the game that show Wallaby fingers in Mils Mullaina’s eyes in a tackle, so probably nothing to worry about there!
Unfortunately Graham Henry then ruined my positive vibe when one of those bloody Kiwi journalists asked him a Dorothy Dixer, “Robbie Deans has now coached the Wallabies to eight straight losses against the All Blacks, how would you feel if you’d coached the All Blacks to eight straight losses against the Wallabies?”. His answer, “Very sad! I would be very unhappy” and suddenly reality came back to bite me – it was a bit sad, wasn’t it!
Here’s some other news from the presser.
When Robbie was asked about the problems with getting possession from the kickoffs, he said “You’re right, the little things are important in test rugby and we gave them a lot of assistance along the way”.
When asked about what he thought about the red card for Drew Mitchell, he answered “Damaging”. He went on to say that he didn’t want to comment on the circumstances and fair enough but when pushed for what he thought of Mitchell’s actions he expanded saying “Costly”.
Having now sat down to wade through my notes, I realise that my ‘Positive Article’ was a pipe dream. What I also realised listening to my recording of the presser was that Robbie Deans sounds like a politician.
I read this morning that people are getting frustrated with Julia Gillard because she just won’t answer the questions she gets asked and instead just keeps reciting things that her spin doctors tell her will make people feel better, particularly that we’re moving forward! I might have missed Robbie saying ‘we’re moving forward’ but it would have fitted nicely, wouldn’t it.
So, in the interests of stopping fans getting frustrated let me tell you what I really think Robbie should have done and said tonight. The first thing that should have happened is that Jim Williams and Richard Graham should have attended the presser to show they are all in this together. Then I would have suggested a statement like this:
‘Our performance tonight was not acceptable. We didn’t compete well enough in the key areas. Our defence lacked the aggression we showed last week and our attack looked disorganised. The match was all over before the red card and that just compounded our troubles. As a group we are all very disappointed in our performance and we all need to go to the room of mirrors and take a good look at ourselves. Only once we acknowledge the host of problems we have, can we start to fix them. This includes the coaches too and I assure you that we know we haven’t got it right yet. We are going to draw a line in the sand tomorrow morning and start fixing things. If we, as coaches or players, can’t make the necessary changes then we don’t deserve to be here and we fully understand that we are accountable for improving the situation.’
What do you think? Or should he have just said, ‘We apologise – we will be throwing out all of our current plans, logging on to GreenandGoldRugby.com tomorrow and downloading all articles from the last twelve months and starting again.’
Share on Facebook
Tags: all blacks. bledisloe cup, rugby, Wallabies
An ex player who's now a coach, Austin is one of our analysts who brings you video and statistics to highlight some of the more technical issues of the game. 
What i am struggling with is the stupid mistakes the backs keep making…..not innocuous offsides but really mind dumbing stupidity…Cooper last week and Mitchel this week.
I wonder if there is something wrong from the top down…..there is almost no point getting into mitchel this late in the problem….like me timing out my kids who have just burnt the house down…what were they doing playing with matches. There is something these young kids dont understand or not being communicated because it is week after week.
The positives i thought were all over the forwards who played hard…never quit which was amazing. The scrum was much better than expected. BAM BAM was amazing and so was rocky.
If you take teh 2 tries Carter and McCaws tried that really never should have happened…then the score was a little more flattering.
The stupidity has to stop….this is DEANS Fault….something is not getting through…..it is seriously poor management to get a Kid that is a talented as mitchel and Cooper and not have an environment where this sort of thing is tolerate EVER.
You wonder how the discipline would be with Link in charge…problems would be delt with a lot earlier i suspect than in the middle of the game.
Whats the point of dropping mitchel now…..only will hurt the team.
To be fair, it wasn’t really Mitchell’s fault for getting sent off. The first yellow card was an absolute joke & it wasn’t until after the game that anyone could figure out what it was for & the second one was for something you normally see at least a dozen times a game. However, Rocky complained about that exact same thing & then when the ref warned him & McCaw what did Rocky do? Nothing. He said nothing to his players & then you see the confusion on Mitchell’s face when he gets sent off.
Put that down to poor captaincy. I don’t think Rocky is the right guy to lead the team. Perhaps it’s time for Genia to be given a shot.
what did Mitchell get carded for in the first place ??
Supposedly dangerous tackle without using his arms. On the replay he looked like he was going to run into the AB player so he basically pushed him away.
Was cited for it too & no further action taken.
Joubert actually had a good game, he was consistent too. Unfortunately, the other 3 muppets ruined what would have been a cracker of a match.
Hey Batmann did you see an actual real replay of the incident? Because FTA had no coverage of it then, half time, full time, or tonight on any news I watched! I’m seriously starting to question my sanity…
I agree that Rocky’s struggling to captain well, and he didn’t warn the players, but it wouldn’t have made a difference – Mitchell wasn’t on at that stage anyway!
You’ve got to play the ref. You could sense Joubert was going to be like that, so you’ve got to adapt to the ref. There were a number of comments about Richies captaincy recently – he plays the ref, adapts, leads his players and they stay on the right side of the law.
Austin, thanks again for an insightful report.
Spot on, and so honest an account. Your confrontation of the real issues and what these coaches should have openly conceded (in plain speak, not politician-like mumbo jumbo tutored by PR specialists) is an example to all Australian rugby journalists. GAGR team at your best.
And, I think, tonight’s unfortunate performance will prove vindication of the excellent detailed KPI analysis you have done for us re the last 5 Wallaby Tests this year. So, Wallabies not well done, GAGR, well done.
Btw, the no-show of Williams and Graham, in a such a situation as this, is a gesture of weakness and poor values.
Excellent report. I agree with the last bit – they should jump on here and broaden their perspectives. Because what they’ve done clearly isn’t working. So look outside the box you’re living in…
The more I think about the McCaw try, Mitchell’s send off… The more I think that Robbie should’ve hooked AAC. Not for playing badly, but because of his head knock. McCaw’s try was scored because AAC took the ball into contact in a low percentage situation. He ran into a tackle that was 2 on 2, with the ball in front of the ABs pack and behind ours. That’s always dangerous. And Mitchell’s card came because AAC looked to counter rather than clear, at a time when he had little support. These are little mistakes that AAC wouldn’t make if fully fit and clear – he’d either play a bit safer, or be quicker between the ears in the contact. It makes no sense playing an injured bloke, especially one as valuable as AAC. He had a quiet game after that by his standards – he scored, but half of that was because of the poor pass he received (he had to step in and stop to catch it, which got him inside the defence), not because of a trademark run.
When you have Beale sitting on the bench you would not replace an outside back unless he was dead.
Rob Horne was that dead player
Reluctantly agree… I am a big fan of Robbie Deans… the way he has developed all these young players is great… I wish he had made a statement closer to the one described above… BUT… I think he does say what he really thinks is the truth of the situation and he still has my 100% backing… I think we are improving… with a very young set of players… these are the baptisms of fire which will put iron in the soul of these guys… they are already able to beat every team in the world apart from the ABs… so keep the faith… our day will come!
“they are already able to beat every team in the world apart from the ABs”………….and Scotland.
…and… (how quickly we want to forget)… the Poms, in our own backyard. Ahhhhhhhh!
And Dingo didn’t develop all these young players. They stood up and shouted whilst playing in their S14 franchises. Credit to those coaches for making them available. There would have been calls for his head if he had not given them test experience (and lost with another bunch).
Baptism of fire? What about the esteem head f*ck they’ll have to carry after recent losses? Anyone coach can put a team on the pitch, but…
Yes, a set of young players, but are we improving, and fast enough? I get the feeling that we’ll be having the same experiences in 12 months time.
Send him home.
(Not a big fan of Dingo)
Absolutely agree Doug. It is like we expect to beat everyone all the time. The Nineties spoilt us and the Naughties have gutted us. Must admit though eight straight is tough to swallow.
We are ranked third and it is possible we could be ranked second before this season is out. Admittedly second or third we are well behind the AB’s. But either the standard of world Rugby is in terminal decline, except for the AB’s, or we are turning into hard arsed whingers, just like those we complain about in other lands.
We are asking a team with about 20 tests on average under their belt to be capable of beating the top ranked team in the world. It ain’t going to happen very often.
Bloody good report, full of quotables, good piece of journalism.
“the no-show of Williams and Graham, in a such a situation as this, is a gesture of weakness and poor values.”
Couldn’t have said it better myself RH.
Watching the Wobblies is masochism personified.
It was a very disappointing performance all around.
There was no real substance behind thinking we would win but many just had that feeling that these blokes were ready to pull off one of those games. It didn’t happen.
It is not all doom and gloom but the most frustrating aspect was the small mistakes and opportunities not taken. The early Giteau break should have been a try. Missed tackles at crucial points……etc etc.
All fixable things but none which seem to be getting fixed week to week.
Where do we go next week? Changes in the back row maybe? Certainly the back 3 need to be fiddled with as does the mid field.
Mourinho said that post match press conferences have nothing to do with the game that has just been played. It is the first opportunity as a coach to start your pre-match prep for the next game. Dean’s couldn’t come out and go over the obvious magnitude of the loss, he couldn’t bring up historical stats and add more weight to compound the disappointment.
He simply had to cling to the stats and facts that we failed in a lot of simple departments we have control over as a team. Implying we can tweak things in seven days.
We all know as arm chair pundits/coaches/tacticians/psychologists that this team seems to shadow box with itself at the same time as playing the opposition. Why is there a vortex of self doubt at the centre of this team? That is the real question I can’t answer.
I think it revolves around some bloke, hangs around 10-12, thinks he oughtta be captain/God, bad case of crabs…
i think they didnt do to badly considering they were a 14 man team for 50 mins and we still managed to put points on the board. hope genia is ok, deans should have given A fiangaa more game time for the experience. i thought rob simmons held his own quite well.
Your suggested statement was exactly what needed to be said to us fans by all three of them. I do believe Deans has done some great stuff in Australia and started the process by which no player will feel safe in the side and unearthed some great players. However, the excuses and spin I read suggest that he is not as deeply angry about that performance (especially first 40) as ought to be the case and this may translate into another stuffing next week when through lack of motivation.
Frankly a midnight full metal jacket code red soap in the sock is probably called for on one to two wallaby players recently impersonating Private Pyle to give them “the proper motivation”, as the good Gunny would say. God knows the headlines don’t seem to make any difference.
The ABs showed as well that a yellow card is not a disaster, just a moment for a world class side to adjust their pattern immediately and keep scoring – clown prince of SA take note! No conspiracies needed.
First a spray for doomsday commentators. Last week the Wallabies were wonderful? This week terrible? Just nonsense. They were outstanding last week. Slightly off that this week, but not far off.
Restarts were horrible but apart from that there were only positives.The discipline? come on! We are now seeing some of the tightest reffing ever – good to see, but what DM did would not have drawn a penalty in any game before this Tri-Nations. So doomsday commentators – suck it up!
Perhaps I only see the positives but to a man I thought the Wallabies were very good! DP was outstanding, my man of the match. He now ranks alongside Richie, if not 1 notch above. The tight 5 did their job well. One mention, Dean M. Where were you in the Super 14? I didn’t think he’d make the Wallabiy squad after a very mediocre season, but he was very good last night. Good to have Steven Moore back too. The loose, well Rocky and Brown had very hard games & no penalties. You can’t ask for more. The backs with 1 short played out of their skin in attack and defence. Wallabies were patient and retained the ball – played several long phases – more than the ABs did, yeh, perhaps because they didn’t have to. Would have like to see WG have a snipe around the side – by his standards a quiet nite but excellent passing as usual. Wepu was quiet too, so …
One question, does Rocky enjoy the captaincy? DP had a bit to say to the players last night…perhaps its time!
As for the score – with 14 men it means nothing!
looking ahead – Wallabies still building to the WC. AB’s already peaking. Are they peaking too soon? he wonderful thing is they will aready be asking themselves the question!
Nice spiel Simon H, but Pocock will only be better than Richie McCaw when he’s the best openside flanker in the world for 8 years straight. Until then, he’s just a young upstart.
Wallabies were terrible in defence, had bad discipline and their scrums were woeful. Not to mention all those missed tackles which allowed the AB’s to score 7 tries.
Simon H, you watched a different game to me… Our forwards couldn´t take a restart, and our tight five went backwards, even when the opposition was down a prop.
I think it’s the first time I’ve woken up sore all over just from watching a game.
I couldn’t watch the game for a while after Rococoko scored. This was not a hiding it was utter humiliation and what I just can’t get over is that it’s not for the first time in the last two and a half years that the Wallabies have been so humbled under Deans.
All my Kiwi mates are saying how relieved they are that he wasn’t made AB coach three years ago. But Deans is not the only one under the spotlight here. Williams and Graham are equally culpable in this and maybe they need to go first.
But sanity must prevail and when I think about it clearly there are two issues concerned with Dean’s post match comments. Firstly they are gobbledegook. If he talks like this to his players, no wonder they are serial offenders at the second gate and only manage one winning game a tri nations season. Secondly, as much as it is gobbledegook, he was (I believe) saying it for the players not for the public. He’s already had one awful episode where he accused his side of rolling over and he must know the magnitude of a statement like that. He knows that they, the players, have to know that he still believes in them. Or at least that’s what he thinks he knows.
As for his two assistants not being there, he may well have told them that he would handle it himself; in case one of them made a freudian slip and dared to be critical of the team. Nonetheless, they should have all fronted.
All in all there is a real problem with this man Deans getting real about quite a number of things, not just the performances, but the selections, using the bench and understanding that some of them have to go back to school on the basics and spend a long intensive period there.
Dick Brown once again showed his frailties on cover defence and off the back of the scrum. A solid copy book tackle by Brown would have stopped Cory Jayne from scoring his try, but instead Jayne just shoved Dick away like he was a kid. Berrick Barnes is just not up to it at the highest level although he did pull off some good tackles. The ledger went the other way though when his kick was charged down and Carter scored. Time for some grunt at 12 and time for Anthony Faingaa. Horne is not up to it at centre either. Don’t know who you put in there. And what do you do with Mitchell now? As for Beale, he has to be pushed off the end of the bench too. All of this, however, is fluffy cloud stuff because everyone knows that Deans, injuries permitting, will put exactly the same team back out on the paddock next week.
Meanwhile no new blood is being tested and the old blood is in serious haemorrhage mode.
Robson, always great to read yr posts.
I cannot begin to express how dirty I am with myself. For the first time in a long time: getting falsely seduced by a sense that something new and shiny – from both Deans’ and the Wallabies’ display of intensity – had been unearthed in Brisbane vs the Boks.
I suppose I yearned to be positive, I was desperately looking to believe (again). The heart arose, the head went missing. The perils of a Wallabies rugby patriotism instilled since school.
It was, sadly, nothing but a chimera. There was no ‘hard mind’ last night, just the usual mental indiscipline and fragility and poor team culture. Virtually none of the ‘Austin KPIs’ were improved upon (from visual intuition), the golden basics of the game bore no respect from these Wallabies, yet again.
It’s not meant as idle parochialism, but I do quite sincerely believe that the mid-season Reds of this year, coached by Link, would have played better and gained a better result (not a win, but a lower PD), than these second-rate, hapless Wallabies, 2010 edition. (Btw, I also see no improvement whatever from the Wallabies, 2008 edition.)
How anyone could consider there are no serious, systemic coaching deficiencies in what was on display last night, is beyond comprehension.
Unfortunately, I have heard that same storey after each of the past 8 losses to the All Blacks. All we are moving forward to is another loss!
Perhaps next weeks team should be
15: Beale
14: JOC
13: ACC
12: A Fainga
11: Mitchell
10: Gits
9: Genia
8: Rocky
7: Bam Bam
6: Higgers
5: SHarpe
4: Simmons
3: Maafu
2: S Fainga
1: Benn R
Bench:
Mumm
Barnes
Slipper
Houston
Valentine
Horne
McAlman
In the absence of TPN, I would start Saia Faingaa – his tree lopping tackes for 80 min would have gone a long way to halting AB momentum. Notice the change when he was thrown on the field? His brother Anthony was also needed for some direct running to give the wallas some go forward. The 10 min he got was a joke. Barnes was awol last night and gifted the ABs a try…
Concerned about the loss of power players like Diggers Ioane, Palu and TPN… When is Palu and TPN due back..?
Albeit and illegal one as Carter was clearly offside from the chargedown.
The more important question was, why the hell was he even trying to kick in that situation in the first place.
Diggers out for the year due to a shoulder recon ..
Palu , I thought was out for the year
not sure about TPN
Batmann, I guess he was trying to kick in that situation because that’s what he always does. He kicks, he kicks, he kicks he………………………
Well on that play it should have been Gits who kicked but he passed the buck, giving the defence more time to get up, and we all know how that ended. In the situation he ended up in perhaps he should have taken a tackle, but he was completely isolated, so it was a catch-22. Either way Barnes looks the fool and Gits rides off into the sunset.
Thanks for the quality site and excellent commentary. Clearly the ABs are superior at the moment but worst mistake by Australia will be to sack deans, how would that improve the team? Wallabies have improved immensely since a year ago — at that time impossible to beat the Boks. Good suggestion to have all the Wallabies’ coaches face the music at press time, why only Deans?
Last year, when we played the Boks in Brisbane, we beat them – and kept them tryless. This year they put two tries on us. The other games? One was in SA, and one was in Perth, where the Boks have a winning record. I can’t see us winning either game in SA, so that’s pretty much the same as last year.
Last year, the first Bledisloe Game we lost in Auckland 22-16. This year, at home, we lost 49-28 – a margin of 21 points, and I believe our second biggest loss ever..?
Now, there are improvements in certain areas of our game. There are some quality players out there, and some injured. The rise of Pocock and Genia has been wonderful to watch. But the numbers clearly show that we’ve not improved significantly from 12 months ago – certainly, compared to both the Boks and ABs, we’ve made less progress.
It’s no coincidence that we can’t beat the AB’s with Robbie calling the shots.
Quite simply he can’t bring the hate.
We’ll beat any other team in the world but we’ll never beat the All Black’s with him as coach. Get ready for 11 losses in a row. It’s going to happen.
I agree with that comment. It’s psychological against the Abs when Deans is coaching. I think the accent may have something to do with it.
How the he’ll can matt hodgson not get a run at the expense of dick brown! Clearly the best Australian forward of the super 14 and the guy hasn’t been given any opportunities. It’s clearly obvious that barnes game is never going to bring a win over the top sides with the current preference to keep the ball in hand – even if his defence is superb – the same can be said of ant faaingaa. He has to be picked. Hell I’d even be picking Scott Staniforth ahead of Drew Mitchell. As for positives from this it’s hard to spy any when you concede 49 points. Fark me that’s disastrous
When was the last time any team scored 28 points against the all blacks?
ummm…ireland against nz earlier this year scored 28 (conceded 66 though). thought i might feel better about this until i saw that…
And Ireland only had 14, just like us too.
There seems to be a massive focus on the wallabies here which I guess is understandable, but to me there seems too little recognition that the opposition actually also makes a contribution to the result! Wallabies absolutely fantastic last week and absolutely disastrous this week. Maybe their performance wasn’t so starkly different and the different results had more to do with the quality of the opposition….
just a thought…..
The evidence is clearly there in two AB-SA games.
Perhaps a glance at this context (sure Robbie would call it “background”) might temper those people calling for wholesale sackings, replacements, riot acts etc
yeah i actually agree with this. aussies have been so used to having our own way in international sport across the board for so long i think we can sometimes become ungracious in defeat and believe that unless we’re number 1 all the time somebody is not doing their job properly. if we’re not careful we’ll turn into whingeing poms. we are not worldbeaters when we win nor are we deadbeats if we lose. the truth lies always in between. aahhh. i feel better already. breathe in…and out…
Nah, I disagree on that one.
I say keep the passion (and the positive criticism). We have the artillery (but not the Generals) to be, deservedly, number one in another sport (this one). What your proposing is accept these defeats – against this opposition, is acceptable. It’s got the stench of mediocrity all over it.
The AB’s are (always) great, but so are the WB’s, and we deserve to beat them more often.
You guys have done this before. Fooling us into a false sense of complacency like that.
BTW; anyone seen a side-on replay of Jane’s chip kick that set up Mils’s first try? Would’ve thought it was worth a check.
Me thinks Deans’ pace-is-stress game plan is fine for all opponents except the Black. Pace and width plays to their strengths, as they have the best athletes in the game. To beat the Blacks? You have to frustrate them, and then they make mistakes, their discipline goes etc (a la Eddie Jones in the 2003 SF). How to frustrate them? Give them no quick turnover ball and no quick line out ball. Play the side lines, not the middle (they love the middle as they can go both ways), and kick the ball every time into the bleachers so no quick throw ins. Play it tight to the ruck, many phases, a combination of EJ’s pick and go and the Reds driving forward play, and force them backwards. Then when we run, run the blind side all the time so we generally face lineouts, not knock-ons or turnovers, and then seriously compete on their line-out throws.
For this we need Saingaa throwing to our line-outs, and Higgers, Simmons, Sharpe and Rocky seriously challenging theirs. Add Pockcock, Robinson (not great to date!!), Slipper and Daley and you have the pack.
The FB should be someone the Blacks dont wont running back at them, so they also are encouraged to kick for touch. So perhaps Shep with AAC at 13.
I went to the game as I’m a Mexican now. It was a great opportunity to invite a bunch of new mates and contacts to the rugby and at least it was an open, entertaining match. I only hoped for a famous and stirring victory, knowing that the odds were stacked against us as the ABs are in hot form and we’ve got a string of injuries.
That said, I think the scoreline was somewhat flattering to the ABs.
Many of the tries, especially first half were opportunistic and in the second they had an extra player for 37 minutes.
I think we did well to score 28 points. Besides the major decisions of Mitchell’s yellow and red (refer to my post on the Mitchell not suspended thread for a taste of my anti-jaapie refs bile), there were a couple of other instances where the Wallabies were unlucky – Carter chargedown try (offside), S Faingaa’s knockdown to Beale in the clear. etc. It clearly wasn’t our night and sure there were a few clangers (Brown’s miss on Jane, Gits not putting the penalty into touch, line-out prior to McCaw try, at least one shambolic scrum). But you often get away with that number of mistakes. The ABs were clinical and took every opportunity, along with the South Africans at home, you always run the risk of the scoreline getting ugly if it’s that sort of night.
Some games, a lot of 3N tests, settle down quite quickly into forward exchanges. This one didn’t, both sides took half opportunities and the scoreline racked up quickly. It was open, fast and opportunistic. It suited the ABs current good form. It would have been interesting to see Quade out there in that type of fast, free-flowing game.
There was a period in the second half where I though our structured forward play was pretty strong. The support play and cleaning was effective and we had a lot of runners making hard yards up the middle. That was encouraging. So too was a scrum 5m out from AB line where we gave them a big shunt and it made me wonder what Joubert’s (or any other international refs) reaction would have been if that was a scrum 5m out from the Wallaby line and it was us getting that type of a shunt??? Have another look – the AB scrum completely disintergrated and were backpeddling when they deliberably collasped. How different was that really from the two penalty tries awarded to England recently???
The biggest problems for the Wallabies, I believe are:
1. Passion, intensity, mongrel, fucking pure anger
2. Giteau – yes I see some have him in the 3-2-1 and again he was involved in a few opportunities, but he is a curse, a technically poor goal-kicker and a crossfield crabbing five-eight. His record in 3N matches as a number 10 are appalling and I don;t think he’s the answer at 12 either. Very talented good player but the Wallabies need to drop him to move forward.
I agree with most other selection, except Brown. I’d have had Hodgson somewhere in the backrow as he was the form forward of the Super 14. I wouldn;t have picked Mitchell either but I think he played well and was extremely unlucky to even be penalised for either offense, let alone carded twice.
3. Leadership – Elsom’s a piss-weak captain. I think it should of gone to Sharpe after Mortlock. Pocock and Genia might become strong leaders through adversity – we can only hope! We really need someone to manage the refs and inspire on the field.
Wobbly is spot on about Rocky.
He is not a Captains arsehole. He is good as support by example and that is it.
I am fed up with his one line grumpy responses and he carries that into the game. When Joubert pulled both captains out for a talk and then sent them to their teams Richie went back and layed down the law, Rocky had a sulk and as a result Drew got carded because he didn’t know about the warning.
Yelling at the ref when he has just awarded you a penalty and marched the oppostiion ten is stuff kids don’t do in the U12′s. No surprise that Joubert changed his attitude after that and marched the Wallabies.
A captain is John Eales, Nick Farr-Jones, Sean Fitzpatrick et al, people who lead by example but remember what they need to do to ensure their team has the best opportunities available. Not a self centred hot head.
You don’t win a world cup without a standout leader (Smit, Johnson, Eales, NFJ, Pienar), Rocky aint it.
PLease send Matt Hodgson a pair of knitting needles, give him some purpose!!!!
Agreed! Hodgson is so underutilized by Deans it is insane. You cannot tell me that Rocky and Brown have been playing so well as to warrant keeping them out there for 80mins each game. Or give Pocock a break. The toll on his body must be huge as he is doing the same amount of work as Rocky & Brown combined.
Hodgson has won Force Player of the Year the last 2 years consecutive. If you are selecting based on form then be consistent Deans. Pocock and Hodgson have huge work rates and combine well. They have also both played against the best 6,7 and 8s in the competition during Super 14. They have played and shone against the All Black & Springbok best in these positions. The only thing Hodgson lacks is opportunity. The bloke is a machine who just never stops. His stats speak for themselves even before his team mates heap the awards on him.
I think he should be starting at 6, with Rocky at 8 and Pocock at 7. But at least bring him on for a solid 30mins when once again Rocky and/or Brown look flat and slow (again).
And let’s not entertain the idea of Higgers. He gets shown up at Sydney club rugby every other week by even none Super rugby players. There are holes in his performance and he is consistant. Great for training and in time he may get there. But Hodgson is already there and playing test level rugby. Or should I say, WOULD be playing test level rugby if Deans remembered that he always has him on his bench.
Problems with Wallabies…
1. Your Captain is good player but a poor captain.
2. Deans can no longer claim the building phase…Wallabies have shown minimal improvement since he was employed, in fact by throwing the young pups with zero experience to the wolves, they have gone backwards. The second highest AB score against them, reflects that.
3. The win against the Boks was another false dawn. I knew this would be the last game the Wallas would win as soon as the final whistle sounded. You played a team bashed by the AB’s, mentally drained and unsure of it’s game plan at Fortress Brisbane. It will be interesting to see the reverse results on the highveld.
4. Matt Giteau….Has he ever won a game playing 10, for the Wallabies. (apart from the Zimbabwe game in the 2003 WC.
5. Eight games in a row, represent a serious mental hurdle, and it will be nine after Saturday night.
1. Agree
2. Disagree, we still have a lot of 1st choice players out injured & the new guys are extremely inexperienced at this level. As for the score, it’s not hard when you are only playing against 14 men for the second 40.
3. Disagree, the Boks are in a mess generally & while they will be better at home are still vulnerable unless they alter their game plan.
4. He has been a great player in the past, but needs to be dropped & given a wake up call.
5. Totally agree.
You are probably right Batmann, I am being pretty harsh. But seriously no Saffa coach would survive 8 games in a row against AB’s, that’s a serious mental hurdle.
Deans is now hanging on by reputation alone.
South Africa went thru a similar phase in 2001-2003. We couldn’t beat the AB’s regardless what we tried, and when we were bundled out of the 2003 WC in quarters surrendering meekly to the ABs the then coach Strauli said the players had a mental block and would never beat the All Blacks. His excuses fell on deaf ears, and he was sacked. Of the players that Strauli said would never beat the All Blacks, a lot are gone, but you might remember these guys…Matfield, Smit, Burger and Bakkies. Sometimes it’s just the coaching….hey?
I don’t think you can compare where Australian rugby is at the moment with any other precedent Suzy.
Rugby in Australia is rebuilding phase, no doubt. It is rebuilding in the sense that the game went backwards for a while (ARU made serious losses for a while), not just in the sense of new players coming through.
Unlike SA or NZ, rugby has to battle 3 other codes for talent, wallet, share of media, grounds and any other resource. We don’t have a large pool of high level professional players (but Rebels will help over time). We need an intermediate level comp, but do not have the cash to get it up. The only way Deans can build depth is to pluck these players at a young age and get them exposed at the highest level – and guess what? We’re going to lose a few games, and more than a few against the best team in the world. But that’s the only way we will be able to put together a competitive squad for the WC. I’d rather the WBs be competitive all the time, but this rebuilding NEEDS to happen and Deans is the man, for the future of this sport in OZ. Sounds dramatic, but thats the situation as i read it. The mental hurdle may get worse before it gets better, but with our first-choice players all on the paddock at the same time, this mental hurdle is less so. Some of those 8 losses were very narrow, and a few we should have won, so there is some confidence to be gained there.
Hopefully, it will all come together by WC time, with his current crop blended and bolstered with some old hands in the form of Baxter, van humphries, Hoiles, Waugh, cross, sheehan et al.
Interested to know where AB fans see issues – haven’t shown any real weaknesses so far. Been very controlled and composed. Can you shed any light Suzy?
Think everyone is going in a bit hard on the wallabies. Sad to see them lose by that much, but finally seeing balls on the boys is a positive welcome.
Joubert was absolute crap. Mitchells yellow and red were ridiculous.
Carters try was offside, and unless McCaw is hung like an elephant, would seem to be a try.
AB’s are the better side, there is no doubt about that – but when they start winning sticking to the laws and not having clearly biased refs, I’ll appreciate them much more.
Rocky, not a captain – but who would be the alternative??
Deans – without him, the poms probably would have crushed us, so would the irish – and Brisbane would not have been enough for the Boks game…
Before all the wining tossers start crying about Bledisloe, we’ve still got another three matches and I reckon we’ve got a chance.
Antony
“Rocky not a captain – but who?”
Someone who will be talking to the ref often like Genia or Pocock, or even SMoore. But all will be needed to be schooled in the Sir Richard the Untouchable’s ref influencing methods. Senior players, like Rocky can still be inspiring even when not the captain (ref. to his form in the UK)
Without Deans? I would have liked Link’s chances against the Poms, esp with a team full of Reds that he new how to direct.
I hope that history judges the era of the non-Australian Rugby coach as a disaster that we should never revisit. But will more hidings in this series be enough to let him go. I fear not.
Yes thanks, another serve of humble pie please.
Our so called best players are our biggest problem. They are stop the whole team progressing into something that can play with spite.
We are trying to building a team around gits. We can’t. He just does not fit. He is ordinary at 10 and has no punch at 12. Too small for fullback. A roving commission on the wing or would he be too sensative for that?
Rocky is not the toughest man in Aust rugby. He is at best reasonable. He complains, he drops the ball half the time and he stops at the line prentending that his hit and spins actually make ground. They do not. His defence is not damaging.
We need a really intiimdating No 8 or No 6. . we have neither right now. Hard men do not complain or miss wingers. Willi-o, Kefu, Finnegin, Tony Shaw would be ashamed.
both fia’ingas have spite and inhuman respect for their bodies.Pocock is angry, Higginbotham has spite, Simmons plays like a forward in western qld. No respect for himself only his team.
We can win. We scored 21 points for crying out loud. (Cooper would have done even better)
Harden the defence, push it forward, get angry and you win the game even with the other errors.
Gee, the wallabies are probably the second best team in world rugby at the moment – sack the coach!
2nd best team in the world, is living in dreamland, Number 8.
You have lost two home games this year, to England and you got trashed by 7 tries, at home by New Zealand. I doubt the current Wallabies team can beat England, South Africa, New Zealand in their countries, I mean you lost to Scotland in Scotland, that pretty much sums up, your away from home form. Currently the Wallabies are about 4th in my books.
Put rebuilding and experimentation aside, and put our best 15 on the paddock at that time, I don’t feel number 2 is unwarranted, though 3 is deserved.
Oh where to start.
1. Deans is a myth. Trotting out how successful the Crusaders were with the cattle he had at his disposal is a falsehood. Canterbury were winning before Deans took over and are still a great side. His input to me is questionable
2. A KIWI coaching Aust is an abomination unto God. I know for a fact I am hurting more after a loss to the AB than Deans ever will.
3. Evidently after each loss he tells me we are learning something. What that is I don’t quite know but if we keep learning like he says we will be the smartest team knocked out at the quarter finals
4. Deans has brought no-one on. Phil Mooney however has chanced Genia, Cooper, Horwell et als. These are the visionaries. I would have Link coach Oz tomorrow.
5. The ineptitude of an international side at restarts is a disgrace. My club is more organised.
6. 2 years of watching good players kicking the ball at every opportunity was awful. Now we have then running from their own try line. An insane dichotomy. Play what is in front of you? A maxim that had no meaning 2 years ago and less now
7. His flagrant disregard of the honour of a Wallaby jersey as he issues caps to bums just to see how they will go is unbelievable. It seems all he gives a rats about is the World Cup but for me every Test is one we need to win
8.His record is as bad as any I have seen in 40 years of involvement in the game, his tactics a mystery and his inability to communicate clearly a problem.
9. Don’t blame him completely how about driving to North Sydney and rogering O’Neill who held the Deans ‘coup’ up as a victory in itself when all it has done is murder a once great team.
Sorry I am going to have to stop writing the keyboard is getting dangerously wet from my tears.
I think Link said on the Ruggamatrix podcast that being a national coach, you have no say in the choice of players available to you. You get what is given to you from the provinces.
You don’t get to go out and scout a great young lock or inside centre, sign him & develop him like the provinces can.
As coach of the Crusdaders he was able to develop that talent & get them to play the game he wanted. With the Wallabies he gets guys who are already set in their ways, defects and all.
He’s not the one who taught Barnes to kick the shit out of the ball etc. etc.
He did however have a hand in developing the majority of the guys who are available to Graham Henry and are kicking our ass. He was the one who brought along Dan Carter, developed Brad Thorn from a mungo to an ALL Black and so on.
You can’t polish a turd and our team has a lot of turds at present. However, when we get back the guys that are currently unavailable and add a few of the guys we are currently blooding, we will be a better team.
“We’re still in consultations as to how we apply our programme. In our decisions this week, you’ll get an insight into our thinking.”
Robbie Deans talking about tomorrow’s Wallabies’ team naming.
WTF does that even mean?
Agree “All Black Fan”, the man is a nutter. You can have him back anytime you like. So much gibberish. How about nailing your set pieces, string some phases together and be brutal in D. Simple game really
What utter self indulgent crap. We haven’t had a great team since 99-01. I haven’t seen anything worse in a Gold Jumper than the rubbish we displayed under Jones and JC (though he just inherited the mess).
If you want to shoot someone go find Eddie Jones and that idiot Flowers and his crew that nearly sent the ARU into oblivion and made even the English think of the Wallabies as their “Rabbits”. That was humiliating. This is just a painful coming of age.
Agree 8. This time for Deans to go crap is just bullshit. The whingers say there has been no progress since he came on. Crap have they forgotten the rubbish served up in the RWC07 or the absolutely mindless drivel Eddie had them putting on the paddock and pretending it was Rugby. I’d rather watch these kids play than any other team we’ve put on the field since 05.
If we shoot Deans in the back of the head we shoot ourselves in the balls at the same time. Link may well be a good coach but he hasn’t yet won a Super 14 title. There is no-one else worth thinking of unless Bob Dwyer or Rod Macqueen suddenly become available. The rest of our Super 14 coaches shouldn’t be coaching even at schoolboy level.
Robbie Deans is Australia’s Capello. What’s more when Graham Henry retires after NZ win the cup next year, Deans will replace him-knowing everything there is to know about Australian rugby.
Give Ewen Mackenzie a call.