Magic! Foley and Link coaching combo! Now That would be a great coaching team!
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Link already has a huge job at hand, he's planning the rebuilding of the Crusaders.......I mean Christchurch ;)
Back in the day when Perth Gold were winning the Australian Rugby Shield, who was the coach? Are they still around, and can theymake the step up to Super Rugby coaching?
Thankfully the Force instigated pain is almost over.
Then it will be on to the Wallaby instigated pain...
I completely disagree with this not just from what my eyes saw, but the stats disagree too. Our scrums are below average and early on in the season were out-right terrible; we finished the season 10th on the ladder for winning our own scrums at 85%. Our lineouts costs us way too many points as we couldn't win a 5 m lineout consistently. We finished 12 on the ladder for Line out success at 82.7%. Part of Foley's mantra is great defense, yet we were 14th on the ladder at tackle success with 83.6% (which I'm guessing more than half of the tackle attempts are by the forwards). Then only good stat I could find was Ruck success where we tied for first with 96%; but this is where the data doesn't tell the story. Because my guess is that the vast majority of our rucks occured within 5 metres of the previous ruck since we don't move the ball wide.
As a front-rower, this is part of the game I watch with a keen eye that most may not. I don't feel there is anyway to justify that Foley has done a good job. I agree whole-heartly with the issues everyone is saying about needing a dynamic #10, etc.; but I feel the forwards (and forwards coaches) got way too much of a pass for a lot of the blame on this season.