Wallabies v Ireland, Sun 20th Nov 7am AEDT

[qwerty51]

Weren't the Brumbies the most penalised team in Super Rugby? Maybe I'm being too harsh on Rennie, it's not a good look for McKellar and Fisher.

 

[Tex]

Sacking Rennie would be the most Rugby Australia thing to do. Self-defeating and just puts us right back at day-zero. His selections vs Italy deserve spite, but to go toe-to-toe with very good teams and have the total points difference split by fewer than 10, I'm not too stressed. It's sport, it sucks, sometimes it doesn't fall our way.

I thought the refereeing was nit-picky but fairly consistent, so again, not too stressed.

 

[qwerty51]

The refereeing was fine, which means it's our players being ill-disciplined with zero care in the world. That's on the coach - especially as it keeps happening. We weren't this bad under Cheika, who you'd expect ill-discipline from (and Argentina are pretty bad atm too).

 

[Tex]

Yeah it's not a criticism, he ruled pretty fairly. The head and neck are sacrosanct and his penalties reflected that. Technique (e.g. Valetini's front-on tackle) and discipline (neck rolls again and again) gave him no option.

 

[stillmissit]

I understand the Rennie issue and up to France and this game, I was in the get-him-out camp. IF he sticks with some of those who have stood up and replaces the poorer ones when the injured become available, we are in with a chance.
What if RA bring is Scott Robinson the same as we did with Robbie Deans (a good coach) and we are still shit?

 

[Tex]

That's exactly what will happen, imo. Might get a sugar hit from a culture shakeup but the structural problems of depth and quality remain

 

[stillmissit]

The refereeing was fine, which means it's our players being ill-disciplined with zero care in the world. That's on the coach - especially as it keeps happening. We weren't this bad under Cheika, who you'd expect ill-discipline from (and Argentina are pretty bad atm too).

Agree regarding O'Keefe very strict but very correct in most calls.
Rennie appears to be soft on the players but we've not heard anything like that from someone who would know. So strange that we cannot control what should be controllable.

 

[Sir Arthur Higgins]

We’ve obviously seen through ABs, SA, France and now Ireland games that we can mix it with and beat the best.
the question is consistency. We are unable to be consistent due to 1) injuries and 2) ’ll discipline and 3) some bad execution (line outs etc that costs us possession one way or the other.
Injuries is either bad conditioning or bad luck.
Ill discipline is on the coaching staff and players for not stamping it out. The leadership group takes most blame here for me.
Bad execution I think is mostly cattle. Terrible hookers and no fly halves.

I personally think rennie is a good coach who gets great results inconsistently and given the revolving wallabies door and the lack of great results (I think link would’ve done great things to be honest) I’m more inclined to blame the cattle.
So many lost to league and overseas tho funnily none of those are probable test 10s or even 15s!

 

[Derpus]

Sacking Rennie would be the most Rugby Australia thing to do. Self-defeating and just puts us right back at day-zero. His selections vs Italy deserve spite, but to go toe-to-toe with very good teams and have the total points difference split by fewer than 10, I'm not too stressed. It's sport, it sucks, sometimes it doesn't fall our way.

I thought the refereeing was nit-picky but fairly consistent, so again, not too stressed.

It would be the least RA thing to do. Actually holding someone to account for their fuckery? unheard of.

 

[stillmissit]

In the first sentence your blaming Rennie for not expanding on the disciplinary issues with the WB, then you go ahead and say FF (Folau Fainga'a) (Folau Fainga'a) is "just fucking dumb". Make up your mind, is it the coaching or the player.

Could be both but both hookers are hard as a wooden post dumb.

 

[Sir Arthur Higgins]

Sacking Rennie would be the most Rugby Australia thing to do. Self-defeating and just puts us right back at day-zero. His selections vs Italy deserve spite, but to go toe-to-toe with very good teams and have the total points difference split by fewer than 10, I'm not too stressed. It's sport, it sucks, sometimes it doesn't fall our way.

I thought the refereeing was nit-picky but fairly consistent, so again, not too stressed.

Fully agree. It would be a moronic move. He’s a great coach and the options outside of him are poor unless you can get schmidt, Joseph/Brown, Robertson. All kiwis!
This was a frustrating but largely good tour Italy aside which was poor selections but also like fuck me the players were horrible on the day.

 

[molman]

Could be both but both hookers are hard as a wooden post dumb.

I get people are upset, but I think it's a little unfair on Porecki. His body of work doesn't flag him as a silly player. If anything, he's been pretty solid in his role. He's also still pretty new to this level. How many caps does he have now? 7..8? He'll learn from this I have no doubt.

 

[stillmissit]

I get people are upset, but I think it's a little unfair on Porecki. His body of work doesn't flag him as a silly player. If anything, he's been pretty solid in his role. He's also still pretty new to this level. How many caps does he have now? 7..8? He'll learn from this I have no doubt.

Jesus! I hope so but he cost us 8 or 10 points in 9 mins at the start of that game.

 

[dru]

I'm curious on the sentiment regarding Rennie and the coaching team. If you step back and look at things, do we really feel it's just a change of coach that is the difference between winning or not?

The unforgivable Rennie error was Italy. That was a must win game. The largest Rennie Coaching responsibility is the discipline. The Rennie culture problem is inculcating the honourable loss - not by his words, but by the team (coach and players) actions.

It is dumb to consider replacing Rennie - he is achieving things with this team albeit the above issues. That said, a coaching/selection overview is well due. Similarly RA need to have their skates on for re-considerations after the RWC.

 

[Namerican]

Sacking Rennie right now is absolute madness. They had a kick to tie at the end, but went for the W. Losing to Italy with a 4th string lineup is annoying, but not worrisome in terms of the overall team. They have cleaned up their breakdown work as evidence by multiple times with 10+ phases today. That's good news.

The sheer volume of player unavailability has been staggering. You saw Ireland today without Sexton. That's one player. The Wallabies are or have been missing: Korobete, Cooper, Kerevi out injured, Tupou, Pisami, Foketi, Banks, Arnold, Skeleton, Philip, Leota, Hooper, Banks, Kellaway, Rodda, Swinton, Perese, Harrison, Johnson-Holmes, Bell, Sio etc.

That's a staggering number of players, yet they are running the best teams within a few points. The discipline has been poor and is the consistently the most worrisome aspect IMO aside from lack of quality depth in certain positions (#2, #10, #15). You can't win with that many brain fades.

Moving into the next season and RWC the players themselves have improved drastically. Valentini, Holloway, Frost, Neville, Mark N (Nawaqanitawase), Samu, non-carded Swain, Leota, Paisami, Ikitau, Petaia have all taken big steps forward. Either as stars, capable starters, or excellent depth players.

Skeleton and Arnold have put their hands up and played well IMO.

I feel like if a full team or close to it can play together they can beat anyone in the world. They should also have legitimate talent coming off the bench.

Need a bit of luck with the injury bug and better discipline.

That's not bad.

 

[Adam84]

Latu needs to find God or something, and soon.

When people are twisting and turning at the breakdown it is inevitable that there will be contact with the neck. They need to look at it and find a way to rule on those instances. I thought it was tough on FF (Folau Fainga'a) (Folau Fainga'a). He realised and released, but too late. The Irish had a couple of similar let go.

Those bagging Foley obviously did not see his two try saving tackles and the rest of his mostly very good play. I’d guess that if Lolesio was at 10 we would not have had a look in.

I didn't mind Foleys performance and like you say he made some nice tackles, certainly don't think Noah would have been any better, defensively against the Italians he was bumped off a few times.

As for Fainga'a, he has always sailed close to the wind when it comes to the collision, occasionally it works but the penalties are just too punishing these days to keep doing that.

 

[Adam84]

As for sacking Rennie..

Nah.. There's no one better ready to take over, and it's too close to the RWC to allow a new coach sufficient time to make their mark.

 

[Namerican]

The unforgivable Rennie error was Italy. That was a must win game. The largest Rennie Coaching responsibility is the discipline. The Rennie culture problem is inculcating the honourable loss - not by his words, but by the team (coach and players) actions.

It is dumb to consider replacing Rennie - he is achieving things with this team albeit the above issues. That said, a coaching/selection overview is well due. Similar Rugby Australia need to have their skates on for re-considerations after the RWC.

They are playing 5 games on this tour and the Italy game was a deliberate capitulation. They still should have won, but they trotted out a C level lineup to preserve the better players. They need the game for $$ so they basically trotted out Australia A. It is what it is, but the ultimate goal is the RWC and that game doesn't impact that IMO.

They already have too many injuries so piling on more game time wasn't the smart move IMO.

 

[qwerty51]

I mean he's gone but yes I'm not sure anyone would bother taking over except McKellar in an interim role, and he probably has a lot of responsibility for the ill-disciplined behaviour too.

He's a dead man walking next RWC.

Robertson will probably hold out for NZ or England but I'd go after him now with Ronan O'Gara as an assistant - although it's likely he wants his own head role.

 

[dru]

I get people are upset, but I think it's a little unfair on Porecki. His body of work doesn't flag him as a silly player. If anything, he's been pretty solid in his role. He's also still pretty new to this level. How many caps does he have now? 7..8? He'll learn from this I have no doubt.

It is not the slightest harsh on Porecki. That quantity of knock rolls with the Ref being utterly up front and obvious - it just isn't acceptable. If Porecki comes off from this game anything other than utterly disgraced in his performance, then he really should not be invited back.

Personally I think he will be more than embarrassed and will take responsibility. I'm beginning to think though, that learning starts with Rennie and who knows whether the issue of discipline is actually sinking in? I just doubt it. Words words words, penalties penalties penalties. In action this team as coached and put on the field is utterly brainless.