The 'How is Fozzie going?' thread
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@booboo said in The 'How is Fozzie going?' thread:
I was initially prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I'm teetering on the edge.
To my mind he's fucked up twice:
- Selection: Picking four players out of position, and bland placeholding type players
- Performance: if the above team had performed it may have excused the selection. But it didn't.
I was wanting to do a longer rant but don't have time, but to me it seems he wants to be a bit cutesy and reinvent rugby. By that I mean he seems to have picked two 1st 5s, playing them in numbers 10 and 15, and two fullbacks at 11 and 14 to cover the 2nd 1st 5/8.
Over complicated?
Rugby has developed the positions it has over 150 odd years as that seems to be the best way to play it.
His midfield pissed me off no end.
And Ardie as our heavy hitter.
I am very neutral on Fozzie at the moment.
So I've g9ne from neutral to slightly in favour and potentially a little optimistic.
I'm still not a fan of shoehorning the best players into the XV. Which is what seems to be happening with the selections currently
Would prefer the best specialists get picked for their positions.
But I fairness to Foster today I reckon ie attack was faster than theirs.
And I have to give them credit for selection in picking Vaa'i. They obviously saw something in the bloke which was apparent this arvo. Looked the goods to my eye.
Defence, knocking their organised attack backwards needs to improve
But I'm back to 70/30 in favour of Fozzie..
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Very good performance from the ABs, even if helped a bit by poor Australian decision making in the 2nd half.
Good to see the coaches getting the most out of some of the young guns (Clarke and Vaa'i) and experienced players (Coles, Cane, Nugget, ALB, BB).
Not sure I'd call this performance yet "a marker" as Foz did. The Bledisloe isn't yet secure for 2020.Still looking to see Sotutu, Akira Ioane and Will Jordan given more game time as I think they could all be excellent. But much better than Wellington.đź‘Ť to Foster & co.
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@ACT-Crusader said in The 'How is Fozzie going?' thread:
@NTA said in The 'How is Fozzie going?' thread:
Foster for PM
Better chance than Collins...
I thought he meant for Australia. Could well have a chance when they win the bled back.
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@ACT-Crusader said in The 'How is Fozzie going?' thread:
Hansen backed in Foster a while ago. I’d be genuinely interested in what the motivation was. Just as Henry backed in Hansen, there were doubts there too.
I wonder if there was a bit of an Alex Ferguson / David Moyes dynamic there - carefully choosing a successor who you know is not up to it so your legacy as a legendary coach is secure
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I've gone a bit with @booboo. In fairness to Foster, despite his apparently awful selections, his debutants have played well.
Frizell was a Hansen choice originally, but is growing into his role. If he was a year older, he could have been really useful at the RWC!
But in fairness Vaa'i came from nowhere, and has played well. Ditto with Hodgman - good selection, and stepped up on the day. Sotutu and Clarke were just obvious.
So, I still think we don't have a great coach, but I'm slowly giving him a bit more rope. Need another few wins in Aus to really stamp his mark on the team and get his record
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Seems like Fozzie can coach a little bit. He got the team up for that game. He does, however, have to go to Oz and win one there to retain the Bledisloe, but that does look doable.
Meanwhile, today, this test coaching lark doesn't look quite as easy as it seemed for Dingo Dave - two tests in and yet to win one!
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Narp still no good. Yes the players were more agressive, but I haven;t seen anything tactics wise that show we can deal with a team that smashes us. Same tactics, just worked this time cos more players played to their potential. We also don’t know what the team would have looked like without injuries forcing changes.
A long way to go before I think this is a decent coaching crew
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@Chris-B said in The 'How is Fozzie going?' thread:
Seems like Fozzie can coach a little bit. He got the team up for that game. He does, however, have to go to Oz and win one there to retain the Bledisloe, but that does look doable.
He didn't seem that pleased with the performance either, just acknowledged the improvement from the previous week but stressed there were areas still requiring improvement.
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My biggest concern is that the good performance came somewhat in spite of what they wanted this week and because the hand was forced.
Also that we seem to need to get angry before producing physical performances.
I know there is a fine line in getting fired up but we have had too many games recent years where we aren't finding that balance. -
@Crucial said in The 'How is Fozzie going?' thread:
My biggest concern is that the good performance came somewhat in spite of what they wanted this week and because the hand was forced.
Also that we seem to need to get angry before producing physical performances.
I know there is a fine line in getting fired up but we have had too many games recent years where we aren't finding that balance.You can’t underestimate the human element to this and what motivates individual players. The key will be how the coaching group harness that for a common outcome.
I think it’s to early to tell with this coaching group and the players. Lots of new combos at varying stages of their careers. Some seemingly trying to stake their claim, others that have been around for a while but in and out of starting lineups, some more longstanding pieces that are part of the leaders in the squad.
Cane will be learning too.
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@ACT-Crusader said in The 'How is Fozzie going?' thread:
@Crucial said in The 'How is Fozzie going?' thread:
My biggest concern is that the good performance came somewhat in spite of what they wanted this week and because the hand was forced.
Also that we seem to need to get angry before producing physical performances.
I know there is a fine line in getting fired up but we have had too many games recent years where we aren't finding that balance.You can’t underestimate the human element to this and what motivates individual players. The key will be how the coaching group harness that for a common outcome.
I think it’s to early to tell with this coaching group and the players. Lots of new combos at varying stages of their careers. Some seemingly trying to stake their claim, others that have been around for a while but in and out of starting lineups, some more longstanding pieces that are part of the leaders in the squad.
Cane will be learning too.
All true.
I'm talking more about a pattern that we have were it takes a loss/draw/close game to wind up.
Not saying we can be at full tit every game but it often seems up and down.
At 90% our performance is usaually good enough and we can step up for the real important ones. Trouble is that we seem to drift into these 80% spells where we aren't coming forward, the defence is passive etc. -
@Crucial said in The 'How is Fozzie going?' thread:
My biggest concern is that the good performance came somewhat in spite of what they wanted this week and because the hand was forced.
Also that we seem to need to get angry before producing physical performances.
I know there is a fine line in getting fired up but we have had too many games recent years where we aren't finding that balance.To be fair, Clarke over Bridge was probably the only change that was really forced and made a big difference. And also being fair, last year we got a similar AB reaction at Eden Park when George was brought in and played well (though this won't be a popular point).
But, the real point is that Fozzie and Co. did make some important and unforced adjustments that worked out for them.
Bringing Leinert-Brown in to start was a significant improvement and he played one of the best games I can recall from him.
Swapping Coles and Taylor worked well for them - Coles looks in better form and played like it.
And bringing in Hodgman for Big Karl turned out to be an excellent change IMO.
Vaa'i was a forced change and he went well, but I don't think Sam Whitelock was a big part of last week's problems and if he's fit he'll surely be back starting for the next test and rightly so. I'd say the same for Rieko (back on the bench) over PUJ.
They wanted to start Beauden last week, so he was always coming back if fit.
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@Chris-B said in The 'How is Fozzie going?' thread:
And also being fair, last year we got a similar AB reaction at Eden Park when George was brought in and played well (though this won't be a popular point)
He did, no doubt. But what's damning is, does yesterday's game go as well if Bridge had played? I would say no given the positive impact Clarke had on the side. Bridge is a good player, but he's not what this team needs.
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@mariner4life Probably not - though the ABs did win by an even larger margin last year. Case could be made that we could have done better yesterday if George had shifted to the right wing.
I'm not going to argue for him over Clarke though, because that's a loser - and anyone who has followed the tenor of my posts here over the years knows that I'm a big fan of size and power in rugby.
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@Chris-B said in The 'How is Fozzie going?' thread:
@mariner4life Probably not - though the ABs did win by an even larger margin last year. Case could be made that we could have done better yesterday if George had shifted to the right wing.
I'm not going to argue for him over Clarke though, because that's a loser - and anyone who has followed the tenor of my posts here over the years knows that I'm a big fan of size and power in rugby.
The thing about last year was the Perth performance was abysmal, way more abysmal than last weeks performance. And in the Eden Park game the team, played a lot better than this weeks performance. So basically what I'm saying is the wings had little to do with the improvement last year, but it's arguable Clarke had a huge bearing on the improved performance this week.
Edit: Should have read the post above yours @mariner4life basically said the same thing.
