Wallabies, Impressive.....NOT

[chook]

Or at least paved, that way decent players from the Force and Brumbies don't need to get their boots muddy on the way to the pitch...

Tahts a good analogy really. The Tahs doing the hard slog, they are the roots of Australian rugby. I like it!

[Burgs]

You have missed your calling Chook, surely a life in politics awaits

[Flamethrower]

Did Chook just say the Tahs had rooted Australian Rugby

[Burgs]

I think more than anything, the questions Jenkins asks highlight the importance of the current Pacific Nations Championship in allowing Australia to trial players at an International standard without the pressures of Test results hanging over their heads.
I have no doubt that Norton-Knight, Huxley and Ashley-Cooper would all have had strong showings against Tonga on the weekend. Likewise Giteau would have been better served spending the week trialling Scrum Half in that company too.
All four would have had the opportunity to gain confidence in new roles (and even as a midfield unit) before being exposed to the blow torch of Test Rugby.
The Test arena is not for trying new ideas.
That must be done before hand, with Test selection to be based on facts and known performances.
I guess to be fair, Knuckles is in a bit of a no win situation with only a handful of matches remaining before the RWC however, in my mind, this underwrites even more greatly the need to use known quantities in known roles and leave the experimenting to whoever takes over in 2008 to undertake with the Australia A Coach.
Australia desperately needs to be able to fast forward to November so we can put all this behind us and start recovering from our "Rugby Recession" that has gone on far too long:
http://thewholeforce.com/showthread.php?t=6505

Selectors can take backline blame

Comment by Peter Jenkins
May 28, 2007

THE Australian Rugby Union together with Test selectors past and present must shoulder the blame for the backline bumbling against Wales on Saturday night.

Shooting the messengers - in this case, the players - is a far too simplistic way out.

A more significant issue is the question of how the Wallabies arrived at this point - just six games away from a Rugby World Cup campaign with serious problems in key positions.

The finger-pointing can start with the ARU. Why did they let Mat Rogers exit at the start of the season?

New faces were trialled at five-eighth, inside centre and full back against Wales.

Rogers played all three positions during his five-year term as a Wallaby, but the soft-centred ARU yielded when he applied for a clearance and let him walk away from the last year of his contract.

While the Wallabies were struggling with previously untried combinations against Wales, Rogers was guiding Gold Coast Titans to victory over South Sydney in the NRL.

Then the question also needs to be asked: Why have the past two tours to Europe not produced enough options so the Wallabies could avoid having to blood new players at the highest level just four months before the start of the World Cup?

Previous Australia coach Eddie Jones, fighting for survival, stuck to experience in 2005 because he craved results. Taking risks for the future was not a priority.

Current coach John Connolly made changes last November but was never satisfied with the end results. So the experimentation continued against Wales: Sam Norton-Knight at five-eighth and Julian Huxley at full back were on debut, while Adam Ashley-Cooper, out of position at inside centre, was making his first appearance in the starting side.

Norton-Knight, replacing Stephen Larkham, struggled to bring the direction that Larkham provides.

But will he be given more time in the job or will Berrick Barnes be handed the gig as selectors hunt for a back-up to Larkham?

However they turn, the selectors are cutting it fine to get another playmaker up to speed for the World Cup.

Huxley, after a nervous start, grew in stature as the Test wore on. His kicking in the second half was quality, and his Rugby World Cup stocks, despite the early flutters, should have risen.

Ashley-Cooper - who was largely invisible during the first half as Norton-Knight bypassed him with cut-out passes to widen the attack - must also be given another chance.

[JediKnight]

"Rogers played all three positions during his five-year term as a Wallaby, but the soft-centred ARU yielded when he applied for a clearance and let him walk away from the last year of his contract."

Yeah, but was he any good at any of these poitions....???!!!!

It's the Eastern States bias in the selections that is causing such mediocre performances!

[hopep]

Burgs! The rugby recession we had to have ?
very astute and succinct observation, but I hope we can do a little better in RWC than we did Saturday.

[JediKnight]

Burgs! The rugby recession we had to have ?
very astute and succinct observation, but I hope we can do a little better in RWC than we did Saturday.

Hang on, the Wallabies won on Saturday! How can they do any better than that in the RWC?

[hopep]

by playing rugby from whistle.
I'm still trying to work out what they were playing for the first 30 minutes.