Good Rugby Reads

voodoo

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Nepia" data-cid="524582" data-time="1444193479">
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No wonder he can have tits for hands on occasion, he needs to be wearing his hand jandals.
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Probably been done to death during my absence, but do you guys rate Fekitoa? I mean, clearly he has some skills, he is a dynamic runner, and has a very good work rate. But do you think he is a world class midfielder?
 
I really have reservations about him. I can't think of a single time where I have seen him draw and pass before contact. His instinct always seems to be to beat someone first, then pass if need be. Not to run the line that draws the extra defender and creates space for his outsides. Just doesn't strike me as a natural ball player.

gollum

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="voodoo" data-cid="525382" data-time="1444386096">
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Probably been done to death during my absence, but do you guys rate Fekitoa? I mean, clearly he has some skills, he is a dynamic runner, and has a very good work rate. But do you think he is a world class midfielder?
 
I really have reservations about him. I can't think of a single time where I have seen him draw and pass before contact. His instinct always seems to be to beat someone first, then pass if need be. Not to run the line that draws the extra defender and creates space for his outsides. Just doesn't strike me as a natural ball player.
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That tends to be a skill players learn, Nonu couldn't distribute for shit when he was Fekitoas age. Its probably easier to get a guy with a step & gas & teach him how to run heads up & pass that it is to get a guy who runs heads up & teach him gas & to step.
 
The biggest issue he needs to work on is he's probably always been strong & fast right from 12 years old, so his instinct is to put on the gas & go around defenderrs on the outside, in in ternational rugby that just means you run your wing into touch. Again, looking at Nonu he runs VERY straight lines, which creates huge space outside him. I think thats something Fekitoa can learn. A centre that has the gas to burn guys outside & the step to prop off his outside foot & go inside is a fantastic asset. He reminds me a bit of a more solid Jonny Schuster.

reprobate

by no means the finished article, but his reading of the game, maintaining space outside and distribution have already improved noticeably. threw a nice skip pass in his last outing (as did sbw which we haven't seen much of before). neither is anywhere near approaching nonu in that facet, but in fekitoa you've got a whole lotta time and a whole lotta talent to work with.

red terror

<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.therugbypaper.co.uk/features/columnists/nick-cain/24100/nick-cain-column-kiwi-coaches-rule-and-thats-good-for-game/'>Nick Cain column: Kiwi coaches rule â€“ and thatâ€™s good for game</a>
 
<img src="http://cdn.therugbypaper.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Wales-cartoon.jpg" alt="Wales-cartoon.jpg">

MiketheSnow

Timely piece from Eddie O'Sullivan
 
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<div>Eddie Oâ€™Sullivan</div>
<div>Last updated at 12:01AM, October 9 2015</div>
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â€œI donâ€™t paint dreams or nightmares, I paint my own reality.â€ â€” Frida Kahlo
 
The Mexican artist, famous for her self-portraits, hardly had Stuart Lancaster in mind when she uttered those words. But Lancaster would surely identify the irony in them. The stress and pressure etched on his face last Saturday night, as Englandâ€™s World Cup dream slipped quietly below the waves, was a portrait in itself.
 
For a Tier 1 nation to exit the World Cup before the knockout stage is a catastrophic event. I know where Lancaster is right now; I was that soldier in 2007.
 
Back then Ireland were primed to achieve great things at the World Cup. In the previous year we had put Australia, South Africa, Wales, Scotland, Italy and England to the sword. Only losing out on a grand slam by the bounce of a ball against France. We were playing adventurous rugby, averaging three tries a game.
 
Brian Oâ€™Driscoll and Gordon Dâ€™Arcy were in their pomp and widely regarded as the best midfield pairing in the world. Ronan Oâ€™Gara and Peter Stringer were pulling the strings at half back. What could go wrong?
 
In Ireland, expectations of World Cup glory were at fever pitch.
 
But we met with the same end as England by not getting past the pool stage, albeit again in a â€œgroup of deathâ€ containing France, the host nation, and Argentina, losing our final match to the Pumas 30-15. Both those sides went on to reach the semi-finals.
 
The problem was that we had led the Irish public up the garden path, promising a party, only to turn out the lights when we got there. The anger and indignation was unprecedented. As a nation, Ireland was in the middle of the greatest economic boom in our history. The public were awash with disposable income and felt entitled to a party. The recrimination that followed was harsh and relentless.
 
Before the World Cup, I, like Lancaster, had signed a long-term contract, in my case going past the 2011 World Cup. After our early exit at the 2007 tournament, that was just gasoline on the fire.
Back then the Irish RFU took a similar approach to the one that the English governing body has just advanced. No kneejerk reactions, there would be a full review and lessons would be learnt. On the back of that review, I was told that I still had the confidence of the players and to proceed with caution.
 
We dragged ourselves battered and bruised into the Six Nations of 2008, the players mentally scarred by the events four months earlier. I knew that nothing short of a grand slam would save me. I was being referred to as â€œdead man walkingâ€ by all and sundry. What followed was Irelandâ€™s poorest Six Nations of my tenure. We won two games against Italy and Scotland. At that point, falling on my sword was not the most difficult decision of my career.
 
There is no hiding place for Lancaster and England now. An event of the magnitude of a World Cup shines a very bright light into every corner. That England are also the hosts just exacerbates the crisis.
 
It is important for Lancaster to accept the cacophony of criticism will continue for the next few months. Expecting things to blow over any time soon would be extremely naive. There will be huge pressure after England decamp for Lancaster to resign. But it would be wise for everybody involved to measure twice and cut once in this situation. It may be worth considering, even with modern technology, maybe Rome still cannot be built in a day. And if Lancaster were to stay on as head coach, it would not be unprecedented.
 
Graham Henry survived the onslaught of the New Zealand public after the All Blacks exited the 2007 World Cup at the quarter-final stage. Four years later, Henry led New Zealand to success at their home World Cup and it is fair to assume that New Zealand has now forgiven him for 2007.
 
England have a similar record in this regard. When Martin Johnson held the William Webb Ellis Cup aloft in 2003, nobody remembered Jannie de Beer booting them out of the 1999 World Cup with five dropped goals.
 
During the blood-letting that followed there were many who called for the head of Clive Woodward. But common sense prevailed and when England arrived in Australia in 2003 they were grand-slam winners and had defeated all the Sanzar teams in the previous 12 months. They were the best rugby team in the world. The difficult decisions to afford Henry and Woodward second chances proved to be inspired.
 
A few months ago when they extended Lancasterâ€™s contract to 2020, the mandarins in the RFU must have believed that their head coach was the man with the plan. How does losing to Wales and Australia change everything?
 
Well eventually, as we all know, it comes down to results. It doesnâ€™t matter too much how you achieve them as long as they appear. In professional sport the antidote to failure is change . . . or to be seen to change . . . or change of some description . . . even for the sake of it.
 
But if the RFU believes Lancaster is its man it must be brave in its decision-making. As brave as it was in 1999.
 
Should Lancaster, like Woodward and Henry before him, get the opportunity to paint his own reality again, he will be a wiser man and the self-portrait that emerges may well be more jubilant the next time around.
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<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/rugbyunion/article4580371.ece'>http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/rugbyunion/article4580371.ece</a>

KiwiPie

On the All Blacks and Newcastle
 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/rugby-world-cup/11923359/New-Zealand-vs-Tonga-St-James-Park-wooed-by-All-Blacks.html'>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/rugby-world-cup/11923359/New-Zealand-vs-Tonga-St-James-Park-wooed-by-All-Blacks.html</a>

MiketheSnow

Angus Morrison take a bow

Morrison: An open letter to the RFU and those diehard England fans

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OPINION: An open letter to the RFU: Dear gentlemen,
 
Terribly bad luck on your early exit from your own World Cup, old beans. It's a shame. You brought something a bit different to the party with your 1980s style of play and that intoxicating mix of over-confidence and under-performance.
 
I thought you might like to know where you went wrong and how you can avoid a repeat in Japan in 2019. Indeed, how you can be one of the title favourites. It's quite simple, really.
 
1. Sack Stuart Lancaster. Immediately. If he hasn't fallen on his sword after a mighty win against the Uruguay Amateur XV overnight, throw him on it. Then jump up and down on him. He has done a sterling job in turning 2011's dwarf-tossers (you can actually delete the "dwarf" part) into polite, well-behaved young men. But they're still ordinary at rugby. And blaming his "inexperienced squad" is ridiculous. He picked the bloody squad! That's like me blaming the smooth road for my speeding ticket (which doesn't work, by the way). Sack Andy Farrell while you're at it. Nepotistic twerp. And Mike Catt. Just for the hell of it.
 
2. Find a No 7. Any No 7. Find the third-best opensider in New Zealand or Australia, pay him Â£100,000 a year (which is about $NZ45 million) to play in the UK for the next three years and then select him on residency. Job done. Or change the rules and select overseas-based players such as Steffon Armitage, who can get to at least one ruck before the fulltime whistle. Michael Cheika changed the rules to get Matt Giteau back in, and that's not exactly backfiring on him.
 
3. Sack your back row. Australia ripped you a new one last weekend because they had two No 7s out there. You had none. Tom Wood, Ben Morgan and Chris Robshaw looked like three arthritic sloths jogging through a knee-deep field of peanut butter. Robshaw made NO turnovers. My mother made as many turnovers as he did against the Wallabies, and she wasn't even in the country. And she's, like, 70-something. Robshaw was as much use as Anne Frank's big-band record collection.
 
4. Take the captaincy off Robshaw. It makes it so much easier to not select him.
 
5. Sack anyone who had anything to do with Brad Barritt's selection. A coach putting Barritt in the midfield is not trying to win the game. He's simply trying not to lose it. Which pretty much sums up English rugby at all levels. Ditto Owen Farrell. He kills a game faster than Rob Andrew.
 
6. Send Sam Burgess back to Bath to learn how to play union. Selecting him in the squad may have sold a few tickets early on but it's not going to help sales in the knockout stages. Because he's watching it on the telly.
 
7. Stop selecting players with the surname Youngs. It's not working.
 
8. Find all the England fans who left Twickenham when there were 10 minutes left in the Australia game and ban them for life.
 
9. Get rid of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. It's embarrassing. The world is laughing at you. And fans only know the words to the first two lines.
 
10. Slap Mike Brown. Hard.
 
11. Get Dylan Hartley and Manu Tuilagi back in ASAP. They've got the discipline and intelligence of a three-year-old with ADHD (or whatever naughty children are being "diagnosed" with these days), but at least they can play rugby at the highest level.
 
12. Ignore Clive Woodward. On everything. His coaching credentials were emasculated in 2005 when his 500-strong Lions team were smashed by an All Blacks side who didn't have to get out of second gear.
 
Lastly, hire a foreign coach. Someone who can do the above without getting all emotional and British about it.
 
Kind regards,
Someone who followed John Hart's All Blacks in 1999 and â€“ until last weekend â€“ didn't think anyone could cock up a World Cup campaign quite so spectacularly.
 - Sunday Star Times
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<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/opinion/72813885/Morrison-An-open-letter-to-the-RFU-and-those-diehard-England-fans'>http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/opinion/72813885/Morrison-An-open-letter-to-the-RFU-and-those-diehard-England-fans</a>

LagerLout

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote">
 
 
3. Sack your back row. Australia ripped you a new one last weekend because they had two No 7s out there. You had none. Tom Wood, Ben Morgan and Chris Robshaw looked like three arthritic sloths jogging through a knee-deep field of peanut butter. Robshaw made NO turnovers. My mother made as many turnovers as he did against the Wallabies, and she wasn't even in the country. And she's, like, 70-something. Robshaw was as much use as Anne Frank's big-band record collection.</blockquote>
 
ROFLMAO

nostrildamus

Great bit of writing.

dejo

Moving piece on O'Connell in the guardian. <a class="bbc_url" href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2015/oct/13/paul-oconnell-injury-ireland-world-cup">http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2015/oct/13/paul-oconnell-injury-ireland-world-cup</a> 
Funniest part (if you can call it that): 
"I looked up at the clock and it said 2 minutes 19. I told the doctor: â€˜Mick, Iâ€™m not coming off after 2 minutes 19 seconds.â€™ Mick said: â€˜Thereâ€™s 2 minutes 19 seconds left of the half. Youâ€™ve played the whole half. You scored a try.â€™ I argued with him: â€˜I didnâ€™t score a try. Youâ€™re only saying that to get me to come off.â€™ Thatâ€™s when he said: â€˜Look, youâ€™re not going back on.â€™ I saw the video later and I did score but I have no recollection of itâ€

Crucial

Some scrum analysis from the France/ Ireland game that is interesting for this weekend.
 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.the42.ie/ireland-france-scrum-analysis-2-2385386-Oct2015/'>http://www.the42.ie/ireland-france-scrum-analysis-2-2385386-Oct2015/</a>

RaGe_X

<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28142445/12106975_722977211067842_8166477604996593051_n.jpg" alt="12106975_722977211067842_816647760499659">
 
Interesting infographic. Aus with 9 foreign born players!

red terror

+ 5
-39
 
Combined +/- is -34.

SammyC

I quite enjoyed this article
 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.theroar.com.au/2015/10/14/the-rugby-world-cup-stats-they-dont-show-you-on-tv'>http://www.theroar.com.au/2015/10/14/the-rugby-world-cup-stats-they-dont-show-you-on-tv</a>

taniwharugby

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="SammyC" data-cid="528342" data-time="1444941312">
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I quite enjoyed this article
 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.theroar.com.au/2015/10/14/the-rugby-world-cup-stats-they-dont-show-you-on-tv'>http://www.theroar.com.au/2015/10/14/the-rugby-world-cup-stats-they-dont-show-you-on-tv</a>
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The best TOW/T team is New Zealand. In an amazing nine per cent of tackles, the All Blacks have won turnovers. This is one reason it is so difficult to build momentum against them if it takes more than a couple of phases. Wales, 8.4 per cent, and Ireland, 7.6 per cent, are also high on the TOW/T chart. The least productive in TOW/T? Scotland (3.9 per cent).

SammyC

it's interesting to see that stat, because watching the games I always thought the other teams go for the turnover a lot more.
 
We seem to stand back and fan out, and pick our moments to contest. 
 
How wrong I was

KiwiMurph

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="SammyC" data-cid="528367" data-time="1444946560">
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it's interesting to see that stat, because watching the games I always thought the other teams go for the turnover a lot more.
 
We seem to stand back and fan out, and pick our moments to contest. 
 
How wrong I was
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Sam Cane, McCaw's understudy in the seven jersey, explained the reason for the skipper's absence on the turnover list was the All Blacks not trying for turnovers in the first place.
 
Coach Steve Hansen has said throughout the tournament the All Blacks were using the first four matches to rehearse scenarios they will likely face when the tournament is into the knockout phase.
Hansen has put a curb on kicking for territory as one way of putting pressure on themselves and Cane revealed they were also testing new defensive strategies.
"We can vary how we want to defend," he said.
"You will see in a lot of pool play we're not contesting rucks a lot but we're putting teams under pressure through our line speed and physicality that way forcing teams into errors and trying to cut down their time and space.
"We can change that because obviously we've got guys who are good (at the breakdown) as well so it's just depending on the opposition that we're playing as to how often we try and contest the breakdown."
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://tenplay.com.au/news/2015/10/13/all-blacks-say-lack-of-turnovers-part-of-their-plan '>http://tenplay.com.au/news/2015/10/13/all-blacks-say-lack-of-turnovers-part-of-their-plan </a>
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taniwharugby

so they are still going for (and getting) turnovers, just not the more traditional way that is visible and easier to quantify (as a fan just watching)

Immenso Rapido

Depends what the data source they used for their stats analysis - on how they define what is a turnover. It isn't always consistent. 
That was the most glaring stat that doesn't equate to eyeball evidence. 
Therefore did turnovers also include knock-ons coughing up possession etc? Held up mauls resulting in opposition scrum feeds. Etc. Or is it reduced simply and only to Pocock style jackaling?

MiketheSnow

Barnes must have had a memory wipe to erase the two very different WC warm up matches against England
 
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If Dan Carterâ€™s game is as inaccurate as his observations on France, Philippe Saint-Andreâ€™s team could just have the ghost of a chance once again in a Cardiff World Cup quarter-final. According to Carter, France â€œcan be poor one week and awesome the nextâ€. No they canâ€™t, Daniel.
 
This is the worst France team of the professional era. The results leading into the World Cup showed Saint-Andreâ€™s winning record at a pathetic 42.5 per cent, it showed France up as a bottom-half Six Nations side in the past four years. Three fourth places and one ignominious sixth place two years ago. France are a clichÃ©, not a force.
 
I can remember France being good against Australia a few years ago but â€œawesomeâ€? Forget it. Of Saint-Andreâ€™s 17 wins in the lead-up to this tournament, eight of them had been against the combined might of Italy and Scotland, their Six Nations lower-tier colleagues, with another one each against the three Pacific nations.
 
As for Carterâ€™s claim that â€œthe French can beat anyone on their dayâ€, well, they havenâ€™t beaten New Zealand on any of the four occasions since the last World Cup final. The All Blacks have won their past eight consecutive clashes. It is true that, even so, France have a good record against the All Blacks compared with the rest of Europe, but that is more to do with Kiwi dominance than a secret French recipe for beating them.
 
New Zealand were fortunate in the final in 2011, but nerves and a crisis at fly half were as much the reason for the narrow margin as Gallic genius. Carter is right to have dismissed 2007 memories, these are â€œfor the public and the press . . . itâ€™s [New Zealand] a new teamâ€. Heâ€™s not the only player to have noted the fact. Thierry Dusautoir, magnificent in the 2007 and 2011 games, admitted this week: â€œIt was a different context in 2007 and a different team.â€
 
And a different coach; Saint-Andreâ€™s appalling tenure in terms of results and performance will come to an end tomorrow night, an end that should have come earlier had France been realistic about winning the World Cup. Instead, Serge Blanco, the man who appointed him while busy sinking Biarritz, his club, was recalled to assist the former France wing. Only the French could be quite this obtuse.
 
Is it any wonder that the rugby journalists from the land that gave us liberty, equality and fraternity are screaming for revolution on the part of the players? The head coachâ€™s analysis of the hammering at the hands of Ireland is indicative of the delusional thinking that has scarred his regime. This France team have bulk. They are picked to bash. Yet in the aftermath of last Sundayâ€™s defeat by Ireland, Saint-Andre said: â€œThe only thing that worried me is that in the last 20 minutes we were no longer able to make the right decisions.â€
 
The last 20 minutes are the ones when the lungs of half the team not replaced start to burn and when the fresh additions have to settle quickly into the system. If there is not an adequate system for the players to adopt, chaos will reign. Whereas Ireland were attuned to the nth degree, the France players were a rabble, unaware of any particular system except a tenuous demand for â€œpatienceâ€ from their head coach.
 
After four years of failure and a series of selections that have made France ever more ponderous, Saint-Andreâ€™s only demand is for â€œpatienceâ€. It is one of those words adopted by people who have run out of any new ideas. You will hear former players talking of the need for patience, to recycle the ball, to â€œgo through the phasesâ€. â€œGoing through the phrasesâ€ more like; teams cannot keep the ball forever. This is a Utopian dream, one beloved of coaches who believe that union can be made into rugby league without the sixth-tackle rule.
 
Size is one of the not so secret or subtle assets for the â€œpatienceâ€ devotees. None has been more trusting than Saint-Andre. Blessed with big men and a solid scrum, he has built his sandcastle around it and pretended that the 42.5 per cent winning ratio is down to any number of other factors other than his not so much flawed as non-philosophy.
 
France get heavier, turgid and less ambitious while New Zealand have focused on speed, dynamism and penetration instead of patience. Teams who are patient cannot afford many mistakes because it takes them so long to create an opening. Penetrative sides can throw the odd speculative pass to no one, knowing that the chance will come again.
 
Whereas Saint-Andre has seen his side slump, Steve Hansen, the New Zealand head coach, has been on the rise since 2011. The All Blacks have lost three times in 51 games. On average they lose one in every 17 games. At the moment they are on a five-match winning run. Defeat would be a statistical anomaly.
 
France folded in the most important final 20 minutes of their tournament against Ireland last Sunday. New Zealand found their best form against Argentina in the gameâ€™s last quarter. Saint-Andreâ€™s side hunt ploddingly for patience, Hansenâ€™s men a repeat of the pace and penetration that blew away an impressive-looking Argentina side. Carter will need the worst game of his life if France are to have the remotest chance of a 2007 repeat.
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<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/rugbyunion/article4586993.ece'>http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/rugbyunion/article4586993.ece</a>

The Silver Fern

Good Rugby Reads