April Wallaby 30 Man Squad

[Bowside]

The 2010 backline clicked on attack but not on defence. There needs to be a balance and 2010 was not a good year for the backline. Robbie rightly introduced McCabe to sure up the defence in WC year and it worked.

It didn't work it just created another problem. And before you ask I would have bought in O'Connor, Barnes or AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) at 12, and then probably replaced them with Tapuai last year.

I dont think we would have won the world cup but I think we would have put in a better performance.

 

[TOCC]

But on the contrary it always gets me how the the anti-QC (Quade Cooper) camp are so desperate to blame the wallabies poor performance on Quade. He is such a small part of the problem.

Based on all this criticism you would have to assume that the wallaby forwards put on a dominant display against Ireland and New Zealand or that none of the backs missed tackles....

Oh wait neither of those happened, but heck lets just blame Quade anyway...

 

[qwerty51]

It didn't work it just created another problem. And before you ask I would have bought in O'Connor, Barnes or AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) at 12, and then probably replaced them with Tapuai last year.

I dont think we would have won the world cup but I think we would have put in a better performance.

It didn't work!? We had the best defence at the World Cup. In the games we lost there, we conceded 0 tries to Ireland and only 1 to NZ. I'd give our defence a massive tick. Quade lost us the game by kicking the ball out on the full, we had a great chance (via the kick off) to put pressure on NZ immediately in that game, instead they had us on the back foot from get go and we never got a look in. Anyway, it was the Ireland game where he self destructed which cost us the WC ultimately - not the NZ game. We needed to be on the other side of the draw so NZ faced SA in the semi. The SA game physically wore us down.

 

[TOCC]

It didn't work!? We had the best defence at the World Cup. In the games we lost there, we conceded 0 tries to Ireland and only 1 to NZ. I'd give our defence a massive tick. Quade lost us the game by kicking the ball out on the full, we had a great chance (via the kick off) to put pressure on NZ immediately in that game, instead they had us on the back foot from get go and we never got a look in. Anyway, it was the Ireland game where he self destructed which cost us the WC ultimately - not the NZ game. We needed to be on the other side of the draw so NZ faced SA in the semi. The SA game physically wore us down.

So what your saying Is the poor performance by the wallaby forwards ultimately cost us the World Cup?

 

[wamberal]

We were just not good enough to win the last World Cup. I do not make a habit of knocking brilliant players, and Quade is a brilliant player, but when he kicked off into touch against the Blecks I knew that it was all over, red rover.


Quade has a touch of genius, however, he is not good in adversity. I would not say that everything needs to go his way, but he needs a fair bit of support to show his best.

 

[meatsack]

It always gets me how the pro-QC (Quade Cooper) camp are so desperate to blame anyone other than Quade for Quade's errors. It's Robbie's game plan. Or it's a poor forward pack

I get your point on some things, but game plan and forward pack can have a huge influence on games, way more than any individual player! And they both have a huge impact in how a flyhalf plays, so how are they off limits in your eyes?

 

[qwerty51]

So what your saying Is the poor performance by the wallaby forwards ultimately cost us the World Cup?

Nah mainly Deans' fault in the Ireland game I believe he didn't take it seriously enough, obviously I don't know the full details of their injuries but I wonder if he regrets not playing Pocock and Moore if he had his time again. Then of course the case of McCalman playing 7 and not a proper openside. Despite it being very obvious what the Irish tactics were going to be, the team had zero response to the 'choke tackle'. We had even possession and more territory and Cooper didn't do enough with it, we failed to score a try.

 

[wamberal]

Losing to Ireland did not cause us to lose the World Cup. Sooner or later we had to play the Blecks. How often do we beat them in New Zealand? Blue moons do not come all that often.

 

[qwerty51]

If NZ played SA in the semi we had a really good shot. Quade stuffed us in the quarter vs SA by choking us off possession and tiring our forwards so that's why I blame him massively as well.

 

[Athilnaur]

I'd like to see the actual squad posted, what Red's are in it? I don't think we should write off Quade just yet just because of a logistics camp.

It's a 5 horse race right now to run on 10 - JOC (James O'Connor), Lilo, To'omua, Foley, Barnes. Beale is gone as far as I can tell but if he gets back in a week or three it is a six horse race, barely.

I actually suspect JOC (James O'Connor) will do really well at 10. He is rock solid under pressure, thrives on it in fact. With the Rebels he has a lot of pressure to get metreage because fact is he is one of the few who can. Surrounded by players giving him options I think he will distribute a lot more.

Still got my side wager on To'omua though, I reckon that dark horse will shape up nicely. Not sure on Foley. Blip or new level?

 

[wamberal]

Forget Foley.

 

[qwerty51]

I took a stab at the 30 squad on the first page, I can't see why it wouldn't be that give or take a couple players.

 

[meatsack]

Nah mainly Deans' fault in the Ireland game I believe he didn't take it seriously enough, obviously I don't know the full details of their injuries but I wonder if he regrets not playing Pocock and Moore if he had his time again. Then of course the case of McCalman playing 7 and not a proper openside. Despite it being very obvious what the Irish tactics were going to be, the team had zero response to the 'choke tackle'. We had even possession and more territory and Cooper didn't do enough with it, we failed to score a try.

The way your wrote this, you put it 50% on the team and 50% on Cooper. May not have been your intention but your 'more territory and Cooper didn't do enough with it' really seemed to be you tipping it back into his lap. You didn't mention the multiple, kickable, scrum penalties that our pack gave away though did you.

Look, I'll admit Cooper was a shocker in the semi final, might have cost us the game (I'll grant he cost us plenty of points, but I'm not sure if others would have made up the difference in NZ vs NZ after a semi vs SA). I'm also tired of arguing against people just arguing that 'Notcooper' take over flyhalf. Its really hard to have a discussion when one side is arguing for someone who has made mistakes vs a side arguing for 'anyone but them'. Fight for someone so I can have counters or agree! In fact I'll gladly put up To'omua! If the Brumbies continue their winning ways (ignoring a recent speed bump) I'll be fine with him in 10 and Quade or X on bench. Instead I have to argue against people saying Barnes made less mistakes, yes he did, but how many games did we win?

 

[Athilnaur]

Forget Foley.

Like To'omua his chances of being the run on 10 are really low, but if Foley has somehow clicked into a new level and puts in 4 more games like last week he has a great shot at the squad, if not the 22.

 

[qwerty51]

It was mainly Cooper's game against SA than against NZ that fucked us. He ruined our forwards by his errors.

 

[Brumbieman]

I had a look at a few season stats for the potential #8 and #6 candidates-

Mowen - 560 minutes played. 48 runs, 8 tackles bust, 2 offloads, 2 linebreaks. 50 tackles, 10 missed (83%). 6 errors, 28 lineout takes.

Higginbotham - 539 minutes played. 39 runs, 6 tackles bust, 4 offloads, 3 linebreaks. 65 tackles, 10 missed (86%). 1 error, 26 lineout takes.

MMM - 427 minutes played. 62 runs, 7 tackles bust, 3 offloads, 1 linebreak. 33 tackles, 8 missed (80%). 29 lineout takes, 6 errors.

Auleau - 297 minutes played. 41 runs, 7 tackles bust, 3 offloads. 34 tackles, 5 missed (87%). 0 errors, 7 lineout takes.

Palu - 140 minutes played. 24 runs, 1 tackle bust, 4 offloads, 1 linebreak. 22 tackles, 5 missed (81%). 2 errors, 2 lineout takes.


In my eyes Palu is still our best #8, for the fact that everyone seems to overlook- his work rate. In gold it is consistently high (on the EOYT he lead the forwards in runs for every game he played, and was second in tackles made to Hooper in every game).

When it comes to #6, in my eyes it is a three-way race between Mowen, MMM and Higgers. Each offers different things. MMM can also play in the row.

Ultimately it comes down to balance, and I'm not sure how you would play it. We certainly have the quality there though, which is nice.
.

Auelua shits all over Palu in those stats.

 

[Brumbieman]

Who was the 10 who beat England and Wales recently, who was the 10 that lost to Ireland in the WC?




How many Kiwis were there on the Gold Coast vs Argentina when he delivered the most horrendous display of Test match rugby ever?

The fuck? He created a try, almost another and had a good 2nd half. Poor first half sure, but the 2nd was good.


Have you forgotten Beale's effort in NZ? I didn't know whether to laugh or cry!

 

[TOCC]

It was mainly Cooper's game against SA than against NZ that fucked us. He ruined our forwards by his errors.

Thought you said it was the Ireland game that lost us the RWC?

 

[qwerty51]

Thought you said it was the Ireland game that lost us the RWC?

I was just comparing his game against NZ to the SA one.

 

[Bairdy]

Auelua shits all over Palu in those stats.

You can't be serious. If Palu played for double the amount of time, which is about equal to Auelua's total playing time, he would have more runs, more tackles, more offloads, and more linebreaks.