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![Not allowed!](images/buttons/down_dis.png)
![Not allowed!](images/buttons/up_dis.png)
The $50m was to keep the Force plus there was $20m for the ARU to use to defend itself against SAANZAR for going back on their promise to go to four teams if they were taken to task, plus he was also underwriting the Force until at least 2020 end of current broadcast agreement so there was no cost to ARU to keep us, so the entire package was really well over $70m as far as the benefit to ARU goes.
80 Minutes, 15 Positions, No Protection, Wanna Ruck?
Ruck Me, Maul Me, Make Me Scrum!
Education is Important, but Rugby is Importanter!
I wonder if any clubs got this?
Starting a letter like that with an impersonal “to whom it may concern” speaks volumes to me. A heartless organisation pretending it is caring.
Do they know how far Sydney is for some of these communities? And where will these ‘lucky’ people stay in Sydney? They can hardly afford the feed for their cattle so they surely aren’t going to be able to afford a Sydney hotel room on a Bledisloe weekend.
Having just agreed to pay Hooper $1.2million a year, I think the ARU could have afforded to put a few thousand dollars into the farmers’ relief fund instead of giving them free tickets that will cost the ARU nothing as nobody else is buying them anyway.
Oh and while I’m at it, why do they always spell the word ‘rugby’ with a capital ‘R’? It’s grammatically incorrect (unless it’s in the title of the organisation) and annoying.
Last edited by Alison; 12-08-18 at 11:27.
Proudly Western Australian; Proudly supporting Western Australian rugby
Um, rugby is a proper noun as it's the name of a specific sport.
You could argue that it can be used as a common noun as well, but Rugby Union is also known worldwide as Rugby, otherwise Rugby Australis, World Rugby Rugby WA etc are grammatically incorrect
C'mon the![]()
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'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne
Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca
https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board
One thing is for certain. Raylene Castle is not a real Rugby person.
All real Rugby people that are writing a letter about Rugby sign the letter the same way.
"Yours in Rugby, "
Exile
Sydney
"Pain heels. Chicks dig scars and Glory lasts forever." Shane Falco
I do not like Alan Jones politically. But if any of you don't know a lot about his love of both codes of Rugby and the individuals involved watch Sunday Night With Matty Johns on Fox League (plenty of replays if you missed it). Its a brilliant interview.
I'm starting to respect the person a lot despite his politics.
Last edited by shasta; 12-08-18 at 20:58.
Japan and the Pacific Islands for Aussie Super 9's!
Let's have one of these in WA! Click this link: Saitama Super Arena - New Perth Stadium?
Jones reminds me of Bernard Laporte. No one in French Rugby outside of the blazers likes his politics however he gets results. He addressed the national team's discipline, got consistent results which hasn't happened since, Toulon only really had real success under him and there have been massive improvements in French under age Rugby which is what Jones has been hammering on about (so have I on The Roar). This year France's under 20s won the Six Nations Grand Slam, won the JWC and their under 18s hammered England last week 41-21 after leading 31-0 at half time.
'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne
Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca
https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board
Geoff Stooke gets a shout out. Raiwalui played a fair bit in Europe don't know about his coaching experience. Coaching the pigs in attack at maul time is about keeping tight and at the right body height so the opposition can't go through, under you or drive towards to the touch to cut space out. Very few Aussie tight forwards can do this at test level. In defence off the lineout stop it at source so it doesn't go to the back, go through the middle or don't attach so the maul isn't formed.
Eden Park hoodoo takes pressure off, so let’s play with abandon
ALAN JONES
RADIO BROADCASTER
10 MINUTES AGO AUGUST 24, 2018
NO COMMENTS
We can’t go to Bledisloe II without some observations about Bledisloe 1.
In broadcasting, I have always said that my listeners are my best researchers.
When I was a coach, I always felt that the dyed-in-in-wool rugby supporter talked more sense than nonsense.
READ NEXT
EXIT STRATEGY
How colleagues deserted PM
GREG BROWN, AAP
It would be foolish to ignore what Wallaby supporters are now saying.
For example, given the collapse of the set piece, one diehard, West Australian Geoffrey Stooke, whom I might add has played more than 700 games of rugby, wrote: “It beggars belief that our set piece coach is a former Fijian international. One would suggest that Fijian rugby has some strengths, but the set piece is not one of them.
“Enough has been said about the results achieved by the defence coach.”
Another correspondent wrote: “Our inability to progress our driving maul or stop that of the All Blacks was noticeable and we showed little drive in attack and a limited ability to break the line.”
One person who’s been writing on the game a long time talked about the “magnitude of the catastrophe” in the light of the scoreline, 38-13.
“It will take a Herculean clean-up record to restore Australian rugby, starting at the grassroots, moving up through club rugby to Super Rugby and ultimately the Wallabies, who are just the tip of a melting iceberg. The most alarming aspect of the Wallabies’ performance against the All Blacks was not the disintegration of their set pieces, which was poor enough, but the absence of vision and ambition in their game plan.”
It’s all very well to put these comments aside, but these are from people who may never have pulled on a jersey, but their observations derive from years of labouring over disappointment, defeat and excitement from many, many Wallaby sides.
One writer captured a central component of the dilemma: “In the second minute of the game, Wallaby No 8, David Pocock made a steal at the breakdown, but instead of counterattacking from the turnover, the inside centre, Kurtley Beale, kicked the ball away. Conversely, four of the All Blacks six tries originated from turnovers, the best attacking opportunity in a game.”
This is serious comment.
How often do Wallaby supporters shake their heads and emit cries of exasperation when the ball, which is the bank, is kicked back to the opponent, especially when that opponent is an All Black.
When you see a player kicking a football, rest assured it is most probably because his head is empty of other options. We lost seven lineouts on our own throw. Both hookers are poor throwers.
There is no rule in the book which says the hooker must throw the ball into the lineout.
Who is the best thrower?
And if you’ve got “short arses” at the back of the lineout, then your options are limited and it means you are forced to throw to the middle — and that’s where the All Blacks are strong.
In fact, Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock, (the first second-rower in All Black history to play 100 Tests) are among the best ever.
A not irrelevant question is asked: why don’t we produce *Whitelocks and Retallicks?
We have one playing in Bordeaux: his name is Luke Jones. I’ve most probably finished his international career now by actually mentioning him.
As I have said, you have to be a good selector before you are a good coach. Many of our supporters feel “conned”. There is a lot to be learned from the comments.
Another was critical of Bernard Foley: “No flair, sits back in a hole, never challenges the defence, never throws a cut-out pass, puts his outside support under too much pressure.”
If we don’t have a number 10 who can challenge the line, but rather is there to kick the ball away to secure “territory”, I would question whether he is the man we want.
If we do this week what we did last week; if we pick this week as we picked last week, then we may well get last week’s result. Last week, I wrote about playing Michael Hooper in the centres.
I would also play Beale at No 10. And I would certainly play a young man you may not have heard of, Tom Banks, at fullback — now and forever. The best way to defend against the All Blacks is to attack and he will attack.
We did some very good stuff last Saturday.
The opening 30 minutes were, on several fronts, outstanding. Defence and ball control were superb and the All Blacks were rattled. But there is a difference between good defence and being defensive.
Good defence is an attacking instrument and we should have been thinking attack, even when we were brilliantly defending.
When we took the shots for goal to give us the 6-0 scoreline, were we thinking attack?
But if you kick for touch, you face the potential of being hammered in the lineout, because you’ve got no height at the back and the All Blacks are outstanding in the middle.
There is nothing wrong with playing to the front all day and setting up a maul off the front, drag the opposition forwards in; and the virtue of that is your outstanding backs have the whole field to play with.
So, tomorrow. Where to from here? If you can’t score tries against the best and you can’t defend what they throw up, questions have to be asked about the attacking coach and the defensive coach. I think the modern game has too many people calling the shots and there is an element of confusion in players’ minds.
Michael Cheika is a fighter and he will be, this week, seeking to fight his way out of this corner.
Our set pieces were ruthlessly exposed. I have written how that should be addressed.
Alarmingly, many people think that we can’t win at Eden Park. That is absurd. But it does take the pressure off Australia.
So with the lessening of the pressure, take a few risks, shake things up. Rob Simmons seems to be the bloke who runs the lineout. Start with him. Put Hooper at *inside centre and Beale at No 10. And by putting Hooper at inside centre, we get another jumper into the pack.
There is almost no point in talking about back play unless we are going to give our backs room in which to play.
And that means we have got to do more than play pick and drive rugby. All that does is send opposition forwards into their defensive backline.
In the last five minutes of the first half, I began to wonder whether we weren’t running out of petrol. In the second half, we looked decidedly unfit. It may well be that too much gym work has diluted our speed and you can’t do anything in modern sport today without speed.
One not so minor point. Halftime is very important. You have to strike a balance between praising a team and firing them up. The score*line was good. It is something to lead the All Blacks at the break. It is a barometer of the fact that we were in the game.
But sometimes a bit of reverse psychology is good at halftime. Rattle a cage. Forget the first 40. Send them out to believe that the game is starting now and you want territory and points.
And if you thought you saw the whites of their eyes in the first half, then you want to see them again in the first minute of the second half.
There is a simple truth in rugby. The only thing that can cause you any damage on a rugby field is the football. That is why the All Blacks try to keep the ball alive.
We are too conservative.
People will say “you can’t change a skillset overnight’’. It is not the skillset that needs to change; it is the mindset.
Forget about patterns of play and maintaining possession for long periods and all this rubbish talk about how many “phases” we’ve had. Back yourself.
What have we got to lose?
As one dedicated rugby supporter pointed out: “Last year, the Wallabies rebounded from a heavy defeat in the opening Bledisloe in Sydney to all but beat the All Blacks in Dunedin the following week. Something the Kiwis will not have forgotten.”
Well, that is something to take on to the paddock. There is high responsibility here.
High responsibility comes with heightened opportunity.
Australian rugby needs an injection. Let’s hope we can get it *tomorrow or the crisis will deepen further.
Alan Jones will be a part of the Macquarie Sports Radio commentary te
'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne
Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca
https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board
Stookie was a real scrum expert. Any team, which he coached or coached the forwards in scrumming, had a dominate scrum.