Another reason to fire Cheika

The following from  News24:-

"Wallabies and former Melbourne Rebels flanker Sean McMahon has confirmed he has signed with the Sunwolves for the 2019 Super Rugby season, and effectively closed the last door on a World Cup berth by saying he wants to stay with Suntory as well.

It was revealed last week on Rugby Australia's official website that McMahon had overlooked offers from Australian Super Rugby franchises to sign a one-year contract with the Sunwolves.

The 24-year-old confirmed that deal to Kyodo News on Saturday but revealed it is still dependant on a medical, due to a foot injury he is carrying.

McMahon left Australia to play in the Top League at the end of 2017 but a competition hiatus in Japan 2019, to accommodate the Rugby World Cup, opened the possibility for Japanese-based Aussies to return home for a crack at making the Wallabies squad for the World Cup.

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika wants McMahon to be in the mix but while the hard-running flanker elected to get back into Super Rugby, he wants to do it for the Japanese side.

"It was a tough decision but I love being here in Japan and the opportunity was there and I just went with it," McMahon said after Suntory progressed to the Top League semis with a 28-26 win over Kubota.

McMahon had not played since September due to a “Lisfranc” foot injury, and he said it may still be an obstacle to playing for the Sunwolves.

"My foot still needs a bit of work to get back to the level where I want to be playing at," he added.

The last remaining option that would allow McMahon to play at the World Cup for the Wallabies would be to sign, at some point prior, with an Australian rugby side for the 2020-21 seasons.

But the 26-cap flanker also appeared to confirm the speculation he intended to re-sign with Suntory instead.

"I would love to continue on here especially with Suntory," said McMahon.

"It's a great side, the staff, the facilities, the way we play. It's a great place to be playing footy and I've been loving it.

"There's a lot of young talent that I enjoy playing with and I am trying to teach them what I have learnt from my playing experiences."

This guy is an excellent blindsider - one of the best I have seen for years.   He had injury problems and instead of getting him to lay as blindside flank -  Cheika chose a player not even one-third of the quality this guy brings to the game.  He has had some injury problems in the past - but he should have been on the Wallaby list of all players all the time.

In a way he reminds me of what Meyer and Coetzee did to the SA loosies  - so Cheika is no worse than those two were,but should still be fired as an incompetent.     

Is there a single thread where you don't mention Meyer? Your need to be caught with your pants down is most unbecoming of someone of your advanced years. Please, I implore you, keep those sissy knickers on. When in doubt, always refer to the Book of Auge, that grand and mighty tome: Das Weisheit der Äon. 

Now, to Cheika. The man has no perception of what Wallaby rugby was all about. That is his first mistake. Secondly, playing Pocock, arguably the best loose forward in world rugby, out of position for Hooper was another. I used to feel sorry for him, but he has done little to justify his position. A typically stubborn Aussie. A bad trait when one is bereft of ideas and out of one's  depth. The ARU should have kept hold of Deans. Since they fired him, they've been in free fall. 

AO

I think that Cheika buggered  up selections and that is where the reference to his SA counterparts became appropriate.      Insofar as selections are concerned he is on par with Meyer and Coetzee - they discarded decent players and put in duds like happened in the2015 and subsequent seasons. 

There is no problem with Pocock - being played at 8 is no problem - he is very good in that position and nobody argues about leaving him out of contention.   He is the best loosie in the world at 8 - so let him stay there - the argument is about why Cheika did not use McMahon as blindside flank.   

Irrespective of what the dissenters on site comes up with  our own loosies - other than Du Toit are under-performers and I would play McMahon ahead of any players both Meyer and Coetzee came up with.    

He is an emotionally immature, tantrum throwing bully ... ignorant ... on par with Meyer ... and like Meyer, should have been fired before his term was concluded.

It's too late now as the WC is less than a year away.

Ummm ... I thought Oupa Mohoje was the greatest loosie in world rugby ... wtf ??

Well, that shows what you know. You too should have followed the sound teachings of Auge. At least you know better now. 

AO

I prefer real performance in players and I differ from your fairy tales when it comes to Meyer and some preferred  players by you.   

Only stupid members would go for your nonsense when it comes to rugby issues.      .

Straeuli was fired after the 2003 WC. Jake had a few games to conquer the Tri Nations, handing New Zealand their last Bok walloping in the process. The mediocre use time as an excuse to by more time. A competent candidate will identify the problems and rectify them. What do Australia have to lose? They won 30.8% of their games this year. That's 4 wins in 14 tests. It should have been 3, but we bumbled the Brisbane test. Under Cheika, the Wallabies have the worst attack of any Wallaby side for the past 40 years. Shocking given the attacking power they possess. They've actually only won 10 of their last 29 tests.

So, the bottom line: Cheika is sinking fast. His assistants haven't been any better.

Since the last World Cup, Australia have lost 6 consecutive tests against England, 3 of 4 to Ireland, 2 of 3 to Scotland, 1 of 3 to Wales. They've won 2 of 6 against the Boks and 0 against New Zealand. Who would fear the Wallabies going into the World Cup? They have nothing to lose firing Cheika. Particularly when there is a candidate who is guaranteed to steady the team immediately. 

Bluebok

I am one who was upset by White not getting a  contract renewal in 2008,   However, I have problems with him as to subsequent developments.   His best performance was with the Brumbies - but he broke his contract with them because he did not get the Aussie coaching job.  

He was always credited for building up the Sharks in 2014 - but did it really happen?   My contention is NO  - he did not at all.   The Sharks in 2012 was in the final  of the SR series in 2012 but had a serious injury crisis in 2013 - which caused huge damage to their results.   The situation was so bad that -

*    at one stage in the series the Sharks only had 17 players out of a squad of 36 to select teams from; and 

*     as a result Plumtree had to borrow players from CC teams of other franchises  to get to 23 players and even some CC replacements had to be replaced due to injury  

In 2014 White inherited the 2012 squad - the number of injuries in 2013 was not repeated - and the result was that they got to the semi-final where the team lost badly - and very much so.   

That I believe was the final nail in the coffin for White - who was then effectively fired by the Sharks.    

I am afraid the Aussies based on the above two issues would hesitate  to bring in White as a coach to replace Cheika, 

The 2014 Sharks were the best Sharks team since 2007 and counting. Ende. It's that simple. Plumtree squandered the prime years of a Bok laden team. He scraped his way into the playoffs by pure luck, as several results had to go in the Shark's favour on the final day. That's it. The highlight of Plumtree's Shark career. Even better, the five or six game losing streak of 2015 which was the dawn of a new golden age of rugby in Durban. 

What team has improved post-Jake? He has left every team in better health than when he arrived and his successor always produces lesser results. Do note Jake's involvement in the 2001 Sharks team. He was Straeuli's assistant. In hindsight, we can safely say Straeuli rode on the backs of better coaches, like Muir in 2008 when he was made backline coach, on the back of a reputation built by the work of Campese - who was subsequently discarded. 

AO

You are indeed stupid beyond belief.   The Sharks got to the FINAL in 2012 and got there by out-performing comprehensively the Reds and the Stormers after travelling from SA to Brisbane to beat the Reds easily - travelling back from Brisbane to Cape Town  and beat the Stormers easily in Cape Town.   They then had to travel from Cape Town to New Zealand for the final.

In 2014 they had the play-off game in Durban against the Highlanders and manage to scrape through to the semi.   Earlier in the Round Robin phase they lost by a wide margin against the Highlanders and the main reason was an absolute disastrous performance by Fat Fransie.

I fail to see how your rating of the Sharks in 2014 can be justified,  It is another airy-fairy story, with zero value to it. 

Fact is that John Smith made a total balls-up by firing Plumtree - and he admitted it subsequently,   He made an equally big balls-up by appointing White without providing him   with strong back-up - eg in respect of backline play.  The end result as that White was effectively fired and Plumtree is now the Hurricanes head coach - after being a coaching assistant for the Irish team - and where are White now?  

No dimness - I like Jake White - but a wonder worker he never was and he needed assistance iro backline coaching badly.   To his credit he realized that deficiency - hence the appointment of Eddie Jones in 2007.   He also and the benefit of Larkham as backline coach at the Brumbies,   He had none when he coached the Sharks and the result was an ultimate  catastrophy .            .  

Bluebok

Don't get me wrong - I would rather have White than Cheika as a coach - but will that happen?   I doubt it very, very much.     The Aussies was already bitten by the Brumbies saga and his attempt to get a telephone conference going to propagate his attempted appointment without a vacancy was available - was a huge mistake.   

I do not think the Aussies will buy in on appointing White - they know he is not an easy character in his relations with his employers and have a serious defect insofar as backline coaching is concerned.   

However, I hope he gets appointed if the Aussies fire Cheika, but thee is no news yet of it happening.    If it does happen they will probably use Larkham as coach a nd appoint one of the previous coaches to assist him.   They could then formally advertise for a replacement coach in November/December 2019.  

Jake has a history of implementing attacking structures from Australia, he was using Brumby plays from day 1. That's one of the reasons why he has such a close friendship with Eddie, they see alot of things the same way. There's mutual respect. Now, one can only work with the tools available. With a dynamic centre pair Jake has a history of tries being scored. He knows how to feed the back three, not have the back three feed the centres. 

Mozart

Can you read English at all.   I credited White because he realized he had a backline coaching deficiency and brought in Jones.   That helped a hell of a lot in 2007.

He went to the brumbies and had Larkham as backline coach  and that helped a lot.

He did squad in improving the Sharks - fact is he inherited the players from 2012 - who were in the FINAL of Super Rugby and could only get them to the SEMI-FINAL of Super Rugby in 2014.  I gave the background as to what happened in 2013 as to injuries - the reason for the 2013 collapse.  It had nothing to do with coaching.   So did White leave the Sharks in a better position in 2014 than they were in 2012 - and only a simpleton like AO would claim that.  

I went on to say that I believe Cheika should be fired and also that it is highly unlikely that the Aussies would appoint White if they do fire Cheika.    White has some complex problems in HR and it can be seriously destructive in practice.    All the above reflect the true situation - not the dreams of members.       

That never was a topic for discussion raised before.   What was claimed is that White took the Sharks and turn them around getting them to the semi in SR.   The fact is that the team of 2014 virtually totally comprise of players from 2012 and did better in 2012 than they did in 2014..   It was the latter story that was always raised on site.

The problem at the Sharks resulted from HR problems - players would not renew their contracts with White in charge as a coach.   The drainage of players started at the end of 2014 and continued at the end of 2015.   Gold - one of the wors t coaches imaginable - was appointed and he together with Smit continued with the destruction of the team and they were much worse in 2015 than they were in 2014.

The problem  with the players leaving was partly the result of the year White was in charge.

Can you read English dimwit Mozart.   The situation was outlined above - but as per mnormal you refuse to understand English when you see that you are being foolish:-

"He was always credited for building up the Sharks in 2014 - but did it really happen?   My contention is NO  - he did not at all.   The Sharks in 2012 was in the final  of the SR series in 2012 but had a serious injury crisis in 2013 - which caused huge damage to their results.   The situation was so bad that -

*    at one stage in the series the Sharks only had 17 players out of a squad of 36 to select teams from; and 

*     as a result Plumtree had to borrow players from CC teams of other franchises  to get to 23 players and even some CC replacements had to be replaced due to injury "

The other problem the Sharks had is one of the players that was available was the totally useless Fat Fransie - so fat, unfit and useless that after four games Plumtree came clean and mention that he was -

*    the main reason for the under-performance of the Sharks backline;

*    grossly overweight at 118 kgs and  needs to lose at least 10 kgs  to get over the problem - which he failed to do; and

*    he was no center at all,

so the available useful players were actually 16 - not 17.   Incidentally I think Montpellier has reached he same conclusion - Fatso has been playing at fullback in their two latest games and unlike him at center - he was in both game quite good at fullback.

Do you understand now why the Shark did not perform adequately in 2013 or are you going to blame Plumtree for the massive player injuries that hit the team in 2013?   Why did I ask a silly question - obviously you and birdbra ined AO would.  

Can you never understand why there was a problem in 2013 or are you too vague to realize what happened on the injury front and the impact it had on performances?   No - ignore the injury problems and built on a non-foundation to prove something.   

It is the same dim attitude to compare the second year of coaching of Coetzee with Erasmus's first year of coaching and your dimness in commenting on games you have not seen.

Reading your descriptions on what happened in games and believing them is so flawed that one can only believe that you are either refusing to recognize facts or distorting facts to fit your own prejudiced agenda.           

Frans Steyn in 2014 set the following record as well - possession handovers and penalties given away 42 times in matches played.    That was circa 2,5 per match.    He ruined the Sharks backline and they made virtually no contrition  to backline play and made the most stupid kicks I have ever seen on the field of play - like kicking turnover balls away and most of the turnovers came from aimless and irection BS kicks straight iout of the field whemn the Sharks were outside their 22.  There was NO successful "BEST RECORD"

The Sharks problems against the Saders away was caused by a red and a yellow card - and they only had 13 players on the field of play because  Jannie du Plessis was as stupid as possible and picked up a yellow,

The Sharks won despite the near to zero contribution of Steyn.   He made a famous line break which came to ZERO - one of the extremely limited breaks he made throughout the season.   The problem was to of  your pet hate players - Reinach and Jordaan made major contribution through individual tries being scored,

This farfetched stories about Fat Fransie must be put in reality    He never was a good enough flyhalf in any team \and mostly flopped at center,    Plumtree said he was no center - he was NO center when he returned from France - a continuous flop at flyhalf  because like Morne he was a slow decisionmaker and lately his club plays him at full-back and not at center.

One of the worst disappointments I have seen in rugby - a brilliant youngster becoming an early serial flop probably caused by ridiculous overweight, unfitness and pace-efficiency.    By the age of 25 he weighed as SB said 127 kgs - does that indicates anything at all bar for a backline player TOTAL FAILURE.               

No Mozart 

Fat Fairy carried the ball and ran for crica 50  meters because Crotty fouled up.    I can still remember his small hands waving with his huge lard load behind it - but the movement died with him.  Where is his defensive stats in the game dimness - afraid to provide them????? .   

Reinach scored a try and Jordaan made a major contribution to scoring of the winning try.   I rate contributions to tries and scoring of tries - you do not rate tries scoring at all.   So one can understand where your brain ceased functioning when looking at rugby.  .     

Watch the last try and you will see what happened and why and how the try was scored.

Where is Fatso defensive stats and while you are busy trying hard to avoid providing it - provide Jordaan's defensive stats as well  

Where is fatso's defensive stats, BSter.

So what happened in the final try in that game?   There was a maul that came to a dead stop and the ball ended up on the ground.   Jordaan came from the back. picked it up  and carried the ball towards the line and made sure that he drew he defender and got the ball to the hooker who scored - if he did not get involved there would have been no winning try,.     

That was the first try BSter - referred to the last try.   Where are the defense stats I asked for?  

Wonderful how you have a selective memory.  Remember how your precious Fat Fransie buggered up in the 2015 Sharks game against the Crusaders in Durban?  How a Crusader player got red-carded and they were down to 14 players.   

What did brainless Fat Fransie do - he promptly made an extremely dangerous tackle - which got him red-carded and a subsequent an of five weeks.   Remember how you scream and shouted about how unfairly Fatso was treated - but fact is he leveled the playing field and despite all odd against them the Sharks won the game.   And who was directly responsible for the win?   Toyur [et hate Lambie.

You are hiding something about Fatso's tackling stats in the game in 2014 you shouted and screamed about.    WHY - because as per normal his defense in that game was piss-poor?  

And as to misusing FATSO it would have been shocking if they used him.    He failed in the tests in 2012 - when he was so fat he could not see his feet when trying to make relieving kick, they rolled on the grass.   In which position should he have played?   He was absolutely worthless as a center in Super Rugby as well and his poor kicking game and ball possession losses while playing at flyhalf was notorious.       

Fact is playing Fransie with his questionable performances was what ultimately cost White his job at the Sharks - so in your case all the calculations and praise-singing, Fatso eat him out of contention to play in any backline position.