Ireland v Australia

[no.8]

Ireland:
1 Marcus Horan (Munster), 2 Shane Byrne (Saracens), 3 John Hayes (Munster)
4 Donnacha O'Callaghan (Munster), 5 Malcolm O'Kelly (Leinster)
6 Simon Easterby (Llanelli, captain), 7 Jonny O'Connor (Wasps)
8 Dennis Leamy (Munster)

9 Peter Stringer (Munster), 10 Ronan O'Gara (Munster)
12 Gordon D'Arcy (Leinster), 13 Andrew Trimble (Ulster)
11 Tommy Bowe (Ulster), 14 Shane Horgan (Leinster)
15 Gheordan Murphy (Leicester)

Res:
16 R Best (Ulster), 17 S Best (Ulster)
18 M McCullough (Ulster), 19 N Best (Ulster)
20 K Campbell (Ulster), 21 D Humphreys (Ulster), 22 G Dempsey (Leinster).

Wallabies:
1 Greg Holmes (Reds), 2 Brendan Cannon (Western Force), 3 David Fitter (Western Force)
4 Hugh McMeniman (Reds), 5 Nathan Sharpe (Western Force)
6 John Roe (Reds), 7 Phil Waugh (Waratahs)
8 George Smith (Brumbies)

9 George Gregan (Brumbies, capt), 10 Mat Rogers (Waratahs)
12 Morgan Turinui (Waratahs), 13 Lote Tuqiri (Waratahs)
11 Drew Mitchell (Reds), 14 Mark Gerrard (Brumbies)
15 Chris Latham (Reds)

Res:
16 Tatafu Polota-Nau (Waratahs), 17 Al Baxter (Waratahs)
18 Mark Chisholm (Brumbies), 19 Scott Fava (Western Force)
20 Matt Henjak (Western Force), 21 Lloyd Johansson (Reds), 22 Wendell Sailor (Waratahs).

Date: Saturday, November 19
Kick-off: 14.30 GMT
Venue: Lansdowne Road
Referee: Chris White (England)
Touch judges: Tony Spreadbury (England), Tappe Henning (South Africa)
Television match official: Huw Watkins (Wales)

[Chief]

Great to see Dave Fitter in there. A well earned and deserved starting cap.

[.X.]

hmmm lets see

does anyone want to guess what Irelands game plan will be? If you said Scrums and Line Outs all night. You are well on the way to being able to apply as Coach of the Wallabies. The Good Rugby gods know we need a new coach, why doesnt the ARU?

How is it that one man can take over a team with every single trophy available in World Rugby sitting in the trophy cabinet. And now around 3 years later the cabinet is empty. Totally bare. Even the dust has moved out in shame.

If anyone knows Rod McQueens telephone number or email address or has a friend who knows a guy who drinks with a mate of Rod. Please ask him to come back. Its 2 years for the World Cup and the way we are playing right now, we would be lucky to qualify.

Tho, it should be noted that because we lost the final we automatically qualify.

[Burgs]

Just playing the devils advocate for a moment here tcie, but your sentiment is to suggest that another coach would have done better with the same or similar squad members.
Jones did help the Wallabies to overchieve in '03 by making an amazing World Cup Final which was lost by a drop goal from one of the best kicks in the game. Australian rugby would have been better served if we had been knocked out in the Quarters than to go on an lose the Final anyway.
He has also had to meander through 2005 with a major injury list of his 1st and 2nd string players.
I'm not out and out trying to defend his record, other posts attest to that, I am just suggesting that we should try and keep a little perspective in the circumstances.
While I do hate the place we are in with win loss statistics and have roundly criticised individual game plans and player performances, I would argue that no other current coach would have done any better in retaining trophies and that any replacement would/will have a huge leg up from the renewed squad depth with (I think) our 14th debut for the season tonight. Does this mean that any coach will take us through to another "Bill"? Probably not, but I do think that once Spring 2005 is behind us, regardless of the results over the next two games, Australia will be in a far stronger position going into the 2006 Test Series than we were twelve months before, And, even begrudgingly, some of the credit for that does need to go to the coach.
Do we need a new coach? Possibly.
Are there still passengers in the current squad? Definately.
Is it fair to make direct comparisons between Jones and McQueen? I don't think so.
Will we win in France '07? Highly unlikely, regardless of any actions taken after this tour.

For better or worse re the future, Australia to break the drought tonight by a couple of tries.

[Chief]

Was good to see Australia top Ireland last night by a decent margin. Was happy to see the Australian scrum was quite strong (until Baxter replaced Fitter), and the line outs were not too bad, however deteriorating as the game progressed. Was good to see Force recruit Dave Fitter scrum well, and Scotty Fava and Matty Henjak getting a bit of game time.

[.X.]

In response to Burgs excellent post, I wish to make a couple of points.

I believe, and i have said so since before the 2003 RWC, that George Gregan should have been dropped in 2002. I believe that Chris Whitiker is a much better half back, and has been for some time. I also believe that George doesnt have the respect of his team mates, as a player. For a player to have his hands on the ball in 80+% of all plays and no never feature in the top 6 players player votes for the last 3 years is testement to that.

While my support for Chris Whitiker was strong during the 2003 RWC, both he and George should have never gone on this current Tour. Matt Henjak should be the Wallabies number 1 pick at Scrum Half from now until the 2007 World Cup

Burgs correctly pointed out that with the number of injuries that the Wallabies have encountered this year and last year any coach would have struggled. I believe that the Wallabies tour squad should have been made up of more rookies and that a lot of "older and experienced" players should have been left at home. If Australia was to have any chance at the 2007 Rugby World Cup, it needed to give its RWC squad 2 years worth of top line experience.

I believe that Gregan, Larkham and a couple of other players should be waved off in to the sunset, they have been great servants of the game and have given me many countless hours of viewing pleasure. But its time for some new kids to play in the big matches. I believe that the great Rugby League experiment with Matt Rodgers and Wendel Sailor is a failure and they should be sent back to League. Lote Tequiri can stay he has the makings of a great player, but not at outside centre, and he needs to do some serious work on his defence.

The Wallabies played very poorly against Ireland, they were very fortunate that the Irish were worse.