Sack Bernard Foley
Hanson is king
https://www.2gb.com/all-blacks-coach...ledisloe-test/
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Sack Bernard Foley
Hanson is king
https://www.2gb.com/all-blacks-coach...ledisloe-test/
I like Alan Jones when he discusses Rugby, not particularly sure on where he stands on politics as I don't follow that part of him. However I enjoy his rugby brain. One thing I like is that he is happy to throw ideas out there even if some of them are quite honestly shit. Like expanding the shute shield to be the premier second tier comp- errrrrr naaa, but hey, atleast the guy has the guts to put an idea on the table and I respect him for it. He also can be swayed when someone brings him new information or clarifies something, he doesnt just immaturely stand his ground refusing to have his oppinion changed. He is a progressive learner and thinker and has great rugby smarts.
In saying that he has alot of really really good opinions and ideas on Rugby, alot of them, and is the only one with a voice of reason in this horrible rugby debate on Australia's future..
I think he needs to come to WA next year half way through the WSR comp and do a couple of shows on the back of some of the major high rating games and engage with the Western Australian Rugby community a bit because he has won alot of fans and is more than welcome for helping put our voice forward. I hope he doesnt go soft/ or fold and then backflip like Wayne Smith did in the Australian paper. I cant wait to hear Jones next write up on the RA administrators or Super Rugbys future. He did a great interview with Steve Hansen recently where the two of them were basically agreeing super rugby was a joke in it's current format and that the players are basically living breathing zombies from the huge travel that goes from New Zealand all the way past South Africa to Argentina and then up to Japan, basically travelling the world over and over again and then expected to play test rugby. They both believed that moving forward super rugby couldnt be administered by 4 parties and needed a single party determining its future and also had to enormously reduce travel. Basically everything Andrew Forrest is doing with World Series Rugby right now is what should be happening and that Super rugby is doing the complete polar opposite
IMHO The Wallabies Cheika Super Rugby Failure on the field etc are all symptoms. The Virus is the RA administration. You can change what you like but if you don't attack the Virus the symptoms will return. A radical change in the way Rugby Union is run is required with Passionate Innovative Inspired individuals at the helm....not inept self serving sycophants.
Will this happen....unlikely . So expect more of the same ….even those who think everything is fine and the future rosy.
ARU have lost the SR supporter base. Crowd numbers validate that fact. It started with the axing of the WF and continued on with in fighting in the Reds and the blatant financial support of the Rabble.
RA are now loosing the Wallaby supporter base. No supporters no money. Its simple math.
We have a defensive coach who has overseen 83 missed tackles during the first two Bledisloe's
We have a Fijian scrum coach.....not sure Fiji is renowned for its scrummaging....
We have a Head coach who is the sole selector
We no plan B for a coach, #10 or #9 in the Wallaby squad and we have not been developing a plan B over the last 3 years under Chieka.
We have a RA CEO with no gumption or will to change anything....
BUT we have Twiggy and we have WSR, that's enough for me until the shower of shit above is sorted out.
All of these problems were starting to show towards the end of Eddie Jones's reign, and no-one at the national body, nor the rugby fraternity, had the foresight to plan for it. We have become something akin to Windies Cricket.
I worry ( as an outsider Rugby Fan ) that WSR is going to be obstructed by these Twits where ever they can . The whole concept should have been endorsed embraced and supported by RA at the very start without hesitation Instead we get Castle saying negotiations are ongoing . Why ? This is the innovation and commitment that Union needs across the board . AF is prepared to resurrect rugby in West Sydney.....there can be no downside for Rugby.. Yet here we are after a year with lip service only from RA
And very little of that ....
The "downside" as they see it, is that they don't want a new "rebel competition" to come in and compete with their "cash-cow" competition of Super Rugby. So they have to "negotiate"
https://img-cdn.brainberries.co/wp-c...-and-TV-11.gif
Steve Tew said the new Super Rugby format will be announced in November good luck selling to teams that are broke.
They'll probably include the Western Force. Playing out of the new Western Sydney Stadium
One of his best here.
How can Wallabies fire when RA is a shambles
ALAN JONES
RADIO BROADCASTER
4 MINUTES AGO AUGUST 31, 2018
NO COMMENTS
Time to circle the wagons, Michael.
Not so much as a result of the performance of the Wallabies, but as a consequence of the incoherent observations made by the CEO of Australian Rugby, Raelene Castle. Surely she now must go.
What on earth does it mean when, after the game, she commented on Wallabies coach Michael Cheika and the team: “He’s got a plan. We’re across the plan. We’re comfortable with it. But clearly you can’t ignore the performances. They are not acceptable. There’s (sic) different parts of the game we haven’t performed, particularly around defence. That would be something that we’ll be having a conversation about.”
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What’s behind Rudd’s rant?
THE MOCKER
Such an incoherent rambling is evidence, in my view, that the lady has no clue about the game.
What rugby supporters make of this, I don’t know, but it is time for her to go and the board to go with her. I have written for weeks now that Rugby Australia has been and is dysfunctional. The two opening Bledisloe Cup performances by the Wallabies are a reflection of the organisation as a whole.
You can’t expect our national teams to be firing against the best in the world when rugby headquarters is a shambles and when the CEO, who was appointed last December, hasn’t a clue what she’s talking about.
Remember the incident involving Israel Folau being yellow carded earlier this year following a contest for the ball in the air? What was her mind-blowing observation?
“The analogy I use is of a cat … if you throw a cat in the air, it works really hard to find its feet (God knows what that means) and so do the players.”
If this is not embarrassing, it is time we were embarrassed.
When is someone going to be half-concerned that our Australian Schoolboys team struggles against New Zealand and England, winning only 15 per cent of their games over the past ten years. Our Men’s Sevens team is currently fourth in the world. Our under-20 men’s team is totally uncompetitive.
Since the inception of the under-20 World Cup in 2008, we have never won it. This year, we were fifth, behind France, England, New Zealand and South Africa. And, now, our Wallabies are fifth in the world.
Under Cheika, our track record against New Zealand is 2 out of 11, dating back to 2015. None of this should be acceptable to administrators or supporters.
Michael Cheika must take his share of the blame but so must those charged with the responsibility of running the game.
A simple game requires simple language to explain it.
And the only simple conclusion I can draw is that the people running the game are running it into the ground. And that is what we saw last Saturday. 78 points against us in two games. Who is accountable? Cheika is a proven coach. He has won major trophies in both hemispheres. But well may we ask how long he has in the job, now that the CEO has incoherently come out to bat for him publicly, saying he has her full support.
And what does the support mean of someone who knows nothing about the game?
Who should go under the bus first? When Castle talks about rugby, I maintain she knows nothing about it. Are we meant to believe this doesn’t affect the performance, the morale and the attitude of our players?
I picked up the rugby program for the Test match last Saturday in New Zealand. The world of rugby was present at the game. They would read the program. And some hack, Beth Newman, is writing on Australian Rugby. You guessed it — she’s a paid mouthpiece for Australian Rugby.
How the hell would her utterly irrelevant musings represent an appropriate evaluation to the world of the state of the Wallabies? And what on earth must the rest of the world think about us when such drivel passes for authoritative comment. And Castle makes matters worse when asked about Cheika.
“He’s got a plan. We’re across the plan. We’re comfortable with it. But clearly you can’t ignore the performances. They are not acceptable. There’s (!!!) different parts of the game we haven’t performed, particularly around defence. That would be something that we’ll be having a conversation about.”
If those comments are to mean anything, she has turned the gun on Nathan Grey, the defence coach. It is time that someone is going to have to address our defensive limitations. In the world of international rugby, we have the worst record, by far, when it comes to defending ball that we turnover/give to the opposition. Forty one per cent of the time we do this, a try is scored.
Compare that with England — 18 per cent;
New Zealand — 26 per cent;
Ireland — 25 per cent.
So what does this mean?
Well, between 2016 and 2018, all up, Australia have conceded 109 tries in 34 games.
England — 52 in 33 games;
Ireland — 59 in 31 games;
New Zealand — 66 in 31 games;
Wales — 76 in 32 games;
Argentina — 71 in 29 games;
France — 72 in 29 games;
South Africa — 86 in 31 games.
Australia — eighth in the world between 2016 and 2018 — 109 tries conceded in 34 games. But when 41 per cent of our tries are conceded defending in broken play, there is something seriously wrong with our defence.
Are we defending against broken play at training or are we too focused at defending from set play? We can’t be conceding three-plus per Test match and expect to be anywhere near the top of the world. But does that mean the administration is free of all responsibility?
Cameron Clyne’s board have presided over the decline in Australian Rugby by failing to invest and grow the game at the grassroots level; by allowing Australian Schools rugby to drive their own agenda ahead of what ought to be the policy of the governing body; by failing to invest in talent development for our best young players when they leave school; by failing to have a credible coach development plan, designed to grow successful candidates for the national job; by deserting the Western Force and alienating a potential investor in our game, namely Andrew Forrest.
We are reaping the harvest of a litany of spineless decisions made by a mediocre crowd who call themselves the custodians of the game.
So how does Cheika respond now that the media is on his back and the CEO is starting to publicly grill him and his coaching team — from a position, I might add, of ignorance.
Circle the wagons! It is, literally, a fight for survival.
There are plenty of world-class coaches who have mastered the art of the siege mentality.
Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho, Wayne Bennett, Steve Hansen himself — they had to galvanise their teams when they were under siege.
We had problems on Saturday. I don’t believe the team on the paddock is our best team positionally; and I don’t believe we can win playing pick and drive rugby. Those issues must be addressed.
The Wallabies, as a group, need 100 per cent clarity about what they are seeking to achieve and how to achieve it. They need not Plan A, but Plan B and Plan C. They must train as they expect to play. That is why the All Blacks succeed.
Our players must feel that when they go on the paddock, there is no circumstance they will meet that they haven’t already addressed at training. One overused word in relation to the Wallabies is “turnover”.
A “turnover” is when you’re in possession and, through an absence of skill, the opposition claims the ball. One such turnover is one too many. But that is an entirely different proposition from gifting the ball to the opposition by kicking it down their throats.
The All Blacks are world class at attacking from this gifted possession. What is our plan of defence for counter-attack? And when we win their ball, do we think attack? How quickly do we use it?
And is our alignment such that we can spread it. Or is our attack butchered by forwards getting in the road of backs. The players give me the impression that they are worried about what they are meant to do, worried that some analyst with a laptop is going to judge their worth.
Rugby is a simple game. You don’t need all these extra “blazer brigade” people sucking the life out of the players. So where to, tomorrow week? My advice to Cheika is simple, hang in there! Change, urgently, personnel, preparation and performance. But trust your instincts. Analyse the weaknesses. Circle the wagons. Success is not elusive.
It is methodology that is often difficult. When the boys run onto the paddock tomorrow week, I want to see an urgency and a belief and a proof that the defeats of the past two weeks have not been in vain. The mistakes have been yours; but so too can be the revival.
The All Blacks are world class at attacking from this gifted possession. What is our plan of defence for counter-attack? And when we win their ball, do we think attack? How quickly do we use it?
And is our alignment such that we can spread it. Or is our attack butchered by forwards getting in the road of backs. The players give me the impression that they are worried about what they are meant to do, worried that some analyst with a laptop is going to judge their worth.
Ben Smith an NZ scribe (I think) wrote a great piece on the wallabies attack. Wallabies do all these rehearsed attacking moves but start so deep that the moves are complete and we still hadn't engaged the AB defence. Is was actually comical. Surely that falls squarely on Foley as he sets the attack line.