Fix the Wallabies

sparky

Broken beyond repair......

Siam

No Barbarian to stroll in and repeat that Aus rugby is in the best shape it's been in for years, that this is just a kiwi pile in and the publicity is good exposure against the other codes?

NTA

Its not BAD publicity because such a thing doesn't exist.
 
 
 
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Rancid Schnitzel" data-cid="610262" data-time="1472385703">
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Look, let's just agree that we're bloody lucky we don't live in South Australia and leave it at that.
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No-one really "lives" in South Australia.

Siam

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="NTA" data-cid="610267" data-time="1472386295">Its not BAD publicity because such a thing doesn't exist.</blockquote>
 
Nick Willis? Smiley thing 
That league guy that blew his dog or some such. another smiley thing

taniwharugby

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="NTA" data-cid="610250" data-time="1472383827">
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These players are about where its at, short of throwing in a stack of rookies to get eaten alive. Cheika has already capped 7 newbies this year alone. Partly, that was forced by three injuries in one position. Partly bringing on a couple of new people. 
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this is not a dig, but I think we have capped 5 new players (Dixon, Squire, ALB, Tamanivalu, Ofa) this year, which in itself is a testament to the forward planning of the ABs given they lost 6 long term ABs last year. Plus there have been others involved in the periphery of the AB sides for the past few years just to see what they need to do to get up to the level/
 
Granted Aus don't have that luxury, but this is what the likes of Giteau, AAC, Mitchell et al need to be in Aus for, to show the newbies the ropes, give them something to aspire to, shows them the levels they need to be at, but for now, they are taking their spot too, which is obviously a double edged sword in that they are blocking a spot of a youngster, but then there aren't really the youngsters to step in, or to get the opportunity.

Frye

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="taniwharugby" data-cid="610299" data-time="1472416483">
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this is not a dig, but I think we have capped 5 new players (Dixon, Squire, ALB, Tamanivalu, Ofa) this year, which in itself is a testament to the forward planning of the ABs given they lost 6 long term ABs last year. Plus there have been others involved in the periphery of the AB sides for the past few years just to see what they need to do to get up to the level/
 
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We've capped 7 too.
 
Kane Hames and Ardie Savea also debuted this year.

taniwharugby

I knew I was forgetting someone, canes fans will have me hung for forgetting Ardie!

jegga

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="taniwharugby" data-cid="610302" data-time="1472417480">
I knew I was forgetting someone, canes fans will have me hung for forgetting Ardie!</blockquote>
 
It's pretty hard to miss someone so tall

NTA

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="taniwharugby" data-cid="610299" data-time="1472416483">
this is not a dig, but I think we have capped 5 new players (Dixon, Squire, ALB, Tamanivalu, Ofa) this year, which in itself is a testament to the forward planning of the ABs given they lost 6 long term ABs last year. Plus there have been others involved in the periphery of the AB sides for the past few years just to see what they need to do to get up to the level/ 
Granted Aus don't have that luxury, but this is what the likes of Giteau, AAC, Mitchell et al need to be in Aus for, to show the newbies the ropes, give them something to aspire to, shows them the levels they need to be at, but for now, they are taking their spot too, which is obviously a double edged sword in that they are blocking a spot of a youngster, but then there aren't really the youngsters to step in, or to get the opportunity.</blockquote>None of the returnees look fit enough. Obviously now Giteau is broken. Mitchell hasn't even played. AAC is invisible. Kepu is pissing about off the ball, getting sucked into niggle from a fucking HALFBACK. Genia is OK but hadn't played a game all year. Cooper had bugger all game time. 
You could say Cheika shouldn't have selected any of them, that being the case. Maybe it was better to select rookies that have been playing here in Super Rugby and were up to speed. 
None of our rookies have been through a decent school system, or enough high quality domestic rugby. Clearly none of our players are as fit as their AB counterparts to start with. 
And you only need to look at the performances - forget the table positions - of our franchises to figure that out.

NTA

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Don Frye" data-cid="610300" data-time="1472416872">We've capped 7 too. 
Kane Hames and Ardie Savea also debuted this year.</blockquote>
Hames is a good example - despite being a latecomer at 27 (?) He had experience in a fairly tough provincial setup that taught him how to prop. Not just "hey fat kid! You're A prop now or you don't play!"

Immenso Rapido

Some strange shit may have happened on wobbles flight home? Player fainting in the plane ailes. Other people also fainting on flight. 
But my source knows nothing about sport or rugby. Could be Drummoyne 2nd xv on and end of season trip.

taniwharugby

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="NTA" data-cid="610315" data-time="1472420209">
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Hames is a good example - despite being a latecomer at 27 (?) He had experience in a fairly tough provincial setup that taught him how to prop. Not just "hey fat kid! You're A prop now or you don't play!"
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let it go man, let it go! ;)

KiwiMurph

There are some things outside of the Wallabies that are affecting them that our outside of their direct control, such as having too many teams in Super Rugby. Lets take a look at some things Cheika can control.

Hire fulltime coaches. Larkham is an assistant coach but is also the Brumbies coach. I think Cheika is let down by a lpt of his assistant. My option would be to hire a quality full time assistant coach and let Larkham learn at the Brumbies.
Play players in their proper positions. Start with playing Pocock at 7, 8 is a problem but you could at least try Houston there - given he is a proper 8 (until Holloway is back). Pick some proper wingers with some damn pace - Kellaway and Morahan come to mind. Try Hooper from the bench in the Ardie role and if he doesnt perform, play McMahon in that role.
Find a new defensive coach/system. Way too many missed tackles at present.

jegga

As usual the headline on the stuff article is quite different to the content , <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://i.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/international/83689594/Former-Wallabies-back-Rod-Kafer-claims-referees-are-biased-against-Australia'>http://i.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/international/83689594/Former-Wallabies-back-Rod-Kafer-claims-referees-are-biased-against-Australia</a>

NTA

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="KiwiMurph" data-cid="610462" data-time="1472442184">
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- Find a new defensive coach/system. Way too many missed tackles at present.
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No doubt its a similar system - and the same coach - to what held Wales out at RWC, won a Bledisloe match, and dished up an England side that was meant to run over us.
 
Sure, neither NH side was nearly as good as the ABs, but it still worked, and there seemed to be a lot more trust back then in the systems.
 
 
 
In hindsight, looking at the players coming back:
 
Genia - not played since January
Cooper - not played a lot this year
Douglas - injured all year
Mitchell - flew all that way, and not even fucking playing!
Giteau - crocked 10 minutes in
 
And besides that, none of the others played competitive rugby for around a month. I'm not sure that giving any of these guys a week off (as they have done) is helpful, or deserved.
 
A few of them should go play NRC and see if they're even the best players in Australia right now. Might help with keeping match fitness, and getting back a bit of confidence. Could also boost attendances. The games in NRC this week are:
 
Friday night: Rays v Spirit at North Sydney Oval
Saturday arvo: Brisbane v Rams at Ballymore 
Sunday arvo: Rising v QLD Country at Harlequin Oval, ?Ashwood?; Vikings v Eagles at Viking Park, Canberra

taniwharugby

Gits went off early in the RWC final too didnt he, wonder if his boss is keen to let him play real rugby anymore

ACT Crusader

Easiest way to fix Wallabies is for the final Blesisloe is we throw out a few Mitre 10 warriors

Prattley
Dixon
Kainga
Bird
C. Retallick
Shields
Lamborn
Pryor
Hall
Black
McNicholl
Ropiha
Aso
Lowe
Nanai 
Ohh wait....

Virgil

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="NTA" data-cid="610561" data-time="1472457356">
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No doubt its a similar system - and the same coach - to what held Wales out at RWC, won a Bledisloe match, and dished up an England side that was meant to run over us.
 
Sure, neither NH side was nearly as good as the ABs, but it still worked, and there seemed to be a lot more trust back then in the systems.
 
 
 
In hindsight, looking at the players coming back:
 
Genia - not played since January
Cooper - not played a lot this year
Douglas - injured all year
Mitchell - flew all that way, and not even fucking playing!
Giteau - crocked 10 minutes in
 
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Yet the 2015 coach of the year picked them.

NTA

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Virgil" data-cid="610576" data-time="1472459796">Yet the 2015 coach of the year picked them.</blockquote>
Hindsight is wonderful eh, Veitchy?

rotated

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="NTA" data-cid="610234" data-time="1472378682">
<div>I realise you don't rate Cheika, so now if we're talking overseas coaches - what's your plan?</div>
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I actually put a bit of thought into this and it's a pretty tricky thought exercise.
 
For example I reckon the ARU and it's subsidiaries have a poor reputation when it comes to being a good employer. That's going to make things hard for recruiting top tier coaching talent. So it's all well and good to give a list of names and say make a coaching staff from that - but truth is you've run off so many decent coaches with the politics and petulance amongst the playing group, ex players, stakeholders and management that it's going to be hard to give up a well paying job at the NTT Shining Arcs in the case of Rob Penny for a job where the pattern is well known - no support, factions, culture of player power winning the day. Especially if you are trying to get coaches from NZ and coaching the rival is a headache you would rather avoid all else being equal.
 
So you need to pony up big bucks to get the right talent. This is what England is doing now and unfortunately Aussie are going to have to do. Instead of having two assistants whose coaching experience is limited to 4 years of assistant coaching experience at the Super rugby level (now Larkham has one year of head coaching experience) - look at guys with extensive head coaching experience. There are dozens of them out there. Just as an example though I would say someone like Tana Umaga is ideally underqualified to be an assistant for the Wallabies for the type of rebuild they require. Like really you want guys that have at least 10-15 years of serious coaching experience minimum. At least three.
 
In terms of style of play I mean you can bitch and complain about refereeing, meetings, mental attitude, niggle etc but at the end of the day skills areas like transition between attack and defense, making tackles, and the line out are the worst I've seen from an Australian team. Those are all entirely within Australia's control. And you know what 10 months ago England were the worst I'd ever seen them in those key skill areas - plus a few more like kicking from hand and they turned it around pretty quickly. But I don't think it's even worth getting into the style of play and tactics before those key areas are addressed.
 
The first training sessions for Daniel Anderson had with the Warriors are legendary. He started with having them running with ball in hand. Just running using correct form - many couldn't do that. Then they progressed to passing with correct form - and shockingly they discovered many of the forwards couldn't even throw a decent pass. Anyway they quickly moved on from there and made the finals that season, won the minor premiership the next year and went to the grand final. Not saying Australia's issues are as basic as that but when our locks have better passing form than your outside backs and our outside backs generate more power and dominance in the tackle than your loose forwards and locks I think the basic skills are a really good place to start. Maybe have Moore work on his throwing - that kind of thing.
 
And really they need to review that right through the Super franchises, ideally you would have the assistants working with the franchises to make sure those skills are getting passed down. The quality of Super Rugby is further from international standard than ever before so it's easier to thrive while still having gaping holes in your game cough Quade cough Pocock cough.
 
Unfortunately it is a very tough place to return to after you spent last year selling the message that you are breathing down the neck of the ABs (or the New Zealand men's national rugby team as Cheika insists they be called) and next year things are going to be even better! Now you have to tell the guys who you just were lauding that they seriously need to improve their basic skills. That's why you need a new coach, a smart coach and one who doesn't drink his own kool-aid.

The Silver Fern

Fix the Wallabies