Autralian Rugby - what is wrong?

 according to rugby guru Phil Kearns, it is the new scrum rules that is hampering the Wallabies - it's all good everywhere else across the park!

 http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/ewen-mckenzie-says-club-cared-more-about-calendar-than-winning/story-e6frepm6-1225791584088

nickoldschool said | September 8th 2013 @ 6:09pm | Report comment

For what’s worth, when Ewen was sacked at stade Francais, Max Guazzini the president said that ‘all Ewen was doing was eat sandwiches and be on the phone. He was lazy.’

You know you’re in trouble when a French call you lazy! Just sayin!

 There you go Mike, support the Aussies.

You can say nothing about the Boks victory.

Boks thrashed them and when things are so bad it's hard to see how to fix the problem..

Oz press are mouthing every solution possibe: some blame the coach, some say that the young players are spoilt brats who don't know the value of the jersey,blah, blah.

IMO:

1. They can't fire the coach (yet at least, lol) so they have to fix the team. Team problems include a lot of change in players and game plan so time will fix that. The players will get used to the game plan & Mckenzie says he is going to dumb it down anyway. Some injured players will be back and this will help but they also need to get the right attitude. On Cooper, he is not playing well but he has been out for a while and always plays like a scared chicken against a tough forward pack. Coach has to decide who starts & build the player up.

2. Oz simply missed too many tackles (16 to 8) and turned over too much possession (17-5). You have to think that can be fixed.

3. Positives for Oz: they won the rucks and maul 67-57, the off-loads 11-zip they ran the ball 79 times to 55, covering 415 metres to 284, forcing the Boks to make 118 tackles to 84.

The Boks kept massive pressure on the Wallabies who folded like a pack of cards but in the last 1/4 Oz tried to win the game and failed even more so the stats (and score are inflated).

In short, things are not as bad as they seem for Oz and they should be competitive again soon. Hopefully they will do better against the Argies or else morale will be even lower & solutions even harder to get in place.

Where is Redsman, what is his solution? Still getting  over the hangover, eh mate? lol

 The wallabies coaching management is clearly running out of options as to what needs to be done especially in the scrum, week after week it hasn't improved and in the lions tour it was even worse. I expected the boks forwards to dominate the wallabies which they did just that, they're backrow forwards can't cope with the boks physical presence. From what i observed the wallabies backline didn't function as well. With Isreal Folau making a transition to fullback and Cooper being selected i thought they would've been more elusive in backline play but i was wrong, the boks backline made use of the opportunities they had and scored some good tries with vision. McKenzie has alot to consider who is the key flyhalf and what flyhalf deserves the first choice spot, in my opinion i would'nt select Cooper or Toomua to begin with, i would've include Bernard Foley to start, he is a real class flyhalf. It is evident that Genia is overrated and hasn't been consistent, I noticed just before the De Villers try Morne was the Decoy runner which caused Genia to react and leave a gap for De Villers to go through, Genias defence wasn't good on Le Roux as well which lead to another try. Perhaps Nic White should start at scrum half, i think he should!

gasp - shock-horror - so it wasn't Dean's fault after all????? Wasn't that the drawcard that Link used to get the Wallabies Coaching job? and that Deans lost all those Tests because he did not include Cooper in his Team! Ironic really - NOW he will have to "DUMB IT DOWN" what the heck does that mean?????? Confused yet?

 Hakwa: right on mate, lol

I love it when some scheming bastard gets his comeuppance (as Homer Simpson famously said,  lol). McKenzie  may work out as a coach but for the time being he is taking his lumps and deservedly so.

 The confessional is in the topic: "For the record...". We all have to go there sometime, lol

 Mr. Mozard, any one can make a mistake, but then like Denny own up. Mike you talk abour Mr.Mozard but you swear at him like a sailor. 

Aus will come right  it is hardly for us Saffas to worry about their issues now, ne.

I myself said it will be a difficult one with SA scraping home, fuck-yeah, they surprised many of us. The only player that did not play to his ability was Flip, not that he was vrot. 

The Springbok win was pure luck against a poor Australian team the Allblacks will put 30+ points on this team . Kolisi would be in my starting team. 

@mikey,

i like that comment that of 15 individuals but no team, there are 15 very good wallaby players, but the team is poo.

i think the Boks win while impressive and good is going to do nothing but raise expectations, look for the ref to get blamed next week wafter the All Blacks win, par for the course in these waters.

but back at the topic in hand, there are twoplayers who are just shit at the moment, genia and mowen. genias crap performances in 2013 are very bad for the wallabies cause, cos hes such a key player.
genia has lost his mojo, hes been with fat boy mackenzie for three games now and hes gotten worse, so i have no idea how he plans on getting his mojo back, o_O

i think the wallabies shot themselves in the foot also, fundamentals have been sorely missing in the RC/4nats and that trend continued last night.

there was no anwser for the Boks rush defence, but to be fair, there were plenty of times the Boks were offisde in thier redzone, this was even more obvious when the Boks were scrambling back for cover.
but for the vast majority of the time, the rush defnece was really employed weel by the Boks and they suffocated any good ball or forced them to play it under pressure.

a few kicks in behind would helped negate that and christain should have taken charge a bit, cos cooper was too busy being kak.

wallabies need to get some outside help with their scrums, cos they are getting man handled and the pumas will be no different this coming weekend.

bring in sitalkei timani right now, he can help beef up a much needed tight 5 and hopefully horwil is back too, but horwill needs to pull his finger out his ass, cos hes in the same boat as genia. world calss player, but 2013 has been a huge let down for him.

not too sure what else they can do really.
i would try something completely drastic, move leilafano to flyhalf and bring will tapuaii, they need an enforcer type of a center and hes the closest thing they have got on both attack and defence.

 Given the different body types required for Rugby I think the player pool for the Aussies is not as small as some think ,not too many props in a soccer team !

Look no further than the "Wardads Big Day Out" thread!

I think he mentions just about everything that is wrong.

- Lack of confidence

- No communication (too quiet)

- Comfortable or at ease with losing

- Stupid decisions (the points not taken)

- Lack of leadership (coach and captain (on the day))

@The_truth: I agree absolutely, Wardad nailed it!

The only thing I would add is that Redsman’s concern about the Ozzie gene pool is also sort of right, there is too much convict in it mate, i.e. shady shifty players without backbone, lol.

Given the gene pool, shouldnt the Ozzies be good at stealing possesion at the rucks?

Not many turnovers gained from the big South African backrow.

Sharkbok: good one mate, lol

But Oz won more rucks and mauls than the Boks (67-57 (source below) but given that the Boks were almost as good it makes me wonder how  many convicts are on the Boks team. :)

http://www.theroar.com.au/2013/09/08/links-lip-service-spot-on-wallabies-diabolical/