Deans Sacked McKenzie To Be Named Coach Of The Wallabies

[TRF_Cymro]

http://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/w...ach/story-e6frf55l-1226676107697#.Udprc1K9Kc1

On the cards.

 

[lynam1104]

Was always coming, I hope it dosen't affect the Reds to much they've dropped off a bit recently which isn't great considering play off are up and they're losing their coach now.

 

[KAPman]

a bit surprised at how soon it is in the year, thought he would have been given until the end of his contract. with the way australian rugby is going he had to go eventually. His selections since the 2011 world cup have been near disastrous at times, he's never established a settled side since then, and his style with the wallabies has gone from being a nation with potential attacking superstars and hes tried to get them to play blunt one dimensional safe rugby, trying to play not to lose, more than play to win, which is not very entertaining. the situation has spread into the persona' and/or performances of the likes of kurtley beale, quade cooper, and now james o'connor.
I think Mackenzie is a good choice, he's right now coaching one of the best attacking teams in the Super 15, he'll have the respect of the players and he'll understand the australian philosophy.
Am certain now that Quade Cooper will get his place back at 10, cause O'Connor is not up to scratch in that position, and quade is the best 10 Australia have available. While Quade does still need to work on his defence, he has that X-factor, skills and unpredicability on the pitch that make the opposition defences afraid of him, and that ability to change a game his way single-handed. That's what Australia need back. That entertaining attacking rugby, which was estabilished into their game by the likes of Campese, Marc Ella and so forth.

 

[munstermuffin]

Was always coming, I hope it dosen't affect the Reds to much they've dropped off a bit recently which isn't great considering play off are up and they're losing their coach now.

Was he not always leaving at end of season anyway?
Im sure he will see reds season out

 

[Adakins]

If Ewen does get the job expect the Wallabies to be a force this rugby championship as they have something to prove with a coach who knows how to play. As a kiwi i have never been a fan of Deans. Hopefully he can get another job as i think most international teams already have their coaching team sorted.

 

[squid]

I completely agree with the previous posts. Its good to hear that people from other countries seem to have a good understanding of what has been happening. Deans has had a decent player pool to choose from but has chosen the wrong game plan, and its boring an 1 dimensional. One of his biggest problems is also his love of picking players out of position. O'Connor was never going to be the fiveighth we needed. He doesn't attack the line enough and his long passing/kicking isn't good enough. That being said, hes still a good player but should be in the back three, on the bench, or possibly 12.
What annoys me the most is that we were playing a good brand of rugby a few years ago (under deans) in the tri nations, not sure what year but it was the year beale slotted that penalty after the siren to win in SA. We may have lost a few games that year but i really enjoyed the rugby. I think there were a few scorelines of 40-30 or so. I can handle losing the bledisloe when we give it a real crack with running rugby but it doesnt sit well when we play one out rugby and still lose ugly. Not sure why deans decided to go this way, we've never had the tight forwards or big inside backs. Another thing is that recently we have conceded a lot of tries from aimless kicks, most of them come from positions where we could have run it from.
I can only hope mackenzie can make the step up...

 

[Gavin]

Won't be much difference with Ewan in charge. Australia still need to sort out their forwards to provide a platform for the backline. When that is done they will be a constant force.

 

[InsaneAsylum]

I think we have the talent to be the best again, easy said, but you are right... We need a competitive scrum. A world class tight head prop and Hugh Pyle to partner horwill in the second row. I know we have the backline talent, this is an area deans seemed to get horribly wrong all the time. I don't know who this world class prop will be but I'm sure somehow, somewhere out there in Australia, there is a fat kid eating pies like they are on sale, who can push a kenworth with his bare hands, and one day he will be identified as that player.

 

[Peat]

In fairness, that Lions front row was brutal, and there's not too many countries that can put out front rows that strong in the scrum.

 

[ratsapprentice]

I think it's more of a cultural thing, until they become more important to the Aussie SR teams, then it's not going to improve consistently for the Wallabies.

 

[Big Ewis]

when the FOOOOOK is Australia getting an up-to-par scrum for the quality team they are ?!!...I'm just EXHAUSTED as a fan from seeing them make up for the scrum with some insane effort from the backs. It's just not fair. They've got to score incredible tries with masterful improv. and creativity, and the European sides just smash em easily and systematically with their scrum, get all kinds of points from that: tries, penalties, penalty tries, general territorial advantages...

GET A GOSH DARN SCROOM guys.
Major props for that first (?) test's last scrum for the penalty, that was just simply heroic. Of course it didn't mean anything in the end, but still...

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

What Peat said - the fact that the aussie scrum was basically ok against all but the Lions' very strongest front row, tells us that its definitely come a way.

Sorry to be OT, but this tour has interested me quite a lot in the future of the Wales front row - the tour highlighted that Adam can only carry his loose-heads some of the way - he needs a good loose-head to get the best out of him. When Jenkins grinds to a halt, who is the most likely candidate to to take the loosehead spot? Gatland clearly doesn't rate James..

On another note, does anyone else feel it's wrong that a team should have a prop carded in addition to the penalties given against them? I think union has muddied the distinctions between illegal scrumaging and just 'weak scrummaging'. If a team is up against it in the scrum, by all means give a penalty or a penalty try, but why compound it by carding a prop!? Lots of 'illegal' scrummaging is arguably forced through pressure, rather than a deliberate tactic - and I think games need to be refereed so as to recognise the difference between the two.

 

[ratsapprentice]

I think you're fundamentally misunderstanding why they are carded/penalised.
If they are being dominated, then all they can do legally is go backwards.
Going to ground or standing up is done on purpose, they choose to not go backwards so they divert the pressure up or down.
It's no different to collapsing a maul, not releasing a tackled player/the ball or deliberately knocking down a pass. It is a professional foul.

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

I can understand that - but take Alexander's card: he held it for a good two seconds, before folding from the pressure coming in from both in-front and behind him. He wasn't driven backwards. A penalty is fair, but what does carding him really achieve? If you're carding a team's starting prop, its very likely that you'll make that scrum weaker and destroy any hope of a contest - surely that's not what you want to achieve?

 

[SelimNiai]

I can understand that - but take Alexander's card: he held it for a good two seconds, before folding from the pressure coming in from both in-front and behind him. He wasn't driven backwards. A penalty is fair, but what does carding him really achieve? If you're carding a team's starting prop, its very likely that you'll make that scrum weaker and destroy any hope of a contest - surely that's not what you want to achieve?

A ref can't win when put in that situation.

You card the offending prop, which as you say doesn't solve the situation when the bloke comes back on as then its back to square 1
You do nothing, which annoys the opposition who are calling for a card but winning penalty after penalty
You go for uncontested scrums which gets the team on the upper hand very annoyed as they lose their area of dominance

Although in regards to the first bit, as on Saturday the prop on the bench briefly neutralized the scrum dominance of the Lions.

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

A ref can't win when put in that situation.

You card the offending prop, which as you say doesn't solve the situation when the bloke comes back on as then its back to square 1
You do nothing, which annoys the opposition who are calling for a card but winning penalty after penalty
You go for uncontested scrums which gets the team on the upper hand very annoyed as they lose their area of dominance

Although in regards to the first bit, as on Saturday the prop on the bench briefly neutralized the scrum dominance of the Lions.

I mean you're right of course...but they only call for a card because they know referee's often will do it... penalty after penalty is quite a good return for any team, if it means 3 points per go, and 7 if it might have led directly to a try.

Thinking back to England Ireland last year... Ross came off and Court on. Ross himself had been under pressure; if carded, and Court comes on, then the referee would have been directly responsible for the ensuing clusterf*ck. That's the sort of situation that can happen a lot for teams with poor strength in depth in props.

But I see what you mean... e.g if the penalties are not kickable, yet they keep on happening...the referee needs a way to escalate the situation.

 

[ratsapprentice]

I can understand that - but take Alexander's card: he held it for a good two seconds, before folding from the pressure coming in from both in-front and behind him. He wasn't driven backwards. A penalty is fair, but what does carding him really achieve? If you're carding a team's starting prop, its very likely that you'll make that scrum weaker and destroy any hope of a contest - surely that's not what you want to achieve?

Again, you aren't getting my point.
If there is too much pressure coming from the other scrum, then he has to go backwards.
He wasn't driven backwards because he collapsed as soon he thought he was going to be.

It's the equivalent of hugging your opponent in boxing.

The whole point of trying to be dominant in the scrum is to push the other scrum backwards, if they collapse it, then they are illegally stopping you from gaining ground.
Both sides of the scrum are duty-bound to hold up the scrum, even if you are being out muscled.
It is completely illegal to intentionally stop an opposition drive by anything other than driving back.

 

[psychic duck]

What Peat said - the fact that the aussie scrum was basically ok against all but the Lions' very strongest front row, tells us that its definitely come a way.

Sorry to be OT, but this tour has interested me quite a lot in the future of the Wales front row - the tour highlighted that Adam can only carry his loose-heads some of the way - he needs a good loose-head to get the best out of him. When Jenkins grinds to a halt, who is the most likely candidate to to take the loosehead spot? Gatland clearly doesn't rate James..

Not really. The Lions were shunting about the Aussies in the first test as well until a coaching brainfart from whatever muppet thought it a good idea to remove the entire front row at 55 minutes.

Add to that the Lions even managed 9 points from scrum dominance once Vunipola overcame an early wobble in the 2nd. For a scrum that is "underrated" supposedly, the Aussies really do live up to their reputation, especially when that crap Slipper comes on from the bench. Just see the France match in November. This is the third coach in a row to see their tenure end after a scrum demolition. Jones left after Sheridan destroyed it in 2005, same for Connolly in 2007 RWC, and now this for Deans.

Not sure what your point is about the looseheads either. A stronger loosehead combined with a strong tighthead equals a better scrum than without a good scrummaging loosehead. No **** Sherlock!

Also Adam has carried Gethin who is an average scrummager his entire career. Gethin in his career struggles if anybody else is tighthead. Even with Carl Hayman he has been poor at the scrum, never mind with a crap one like Scott Andrews or Filise. Paul James and Gethin will be there until 2015 anyway. Bevington is great in the loose but is another who would just need to be carried by Adam.

 

[Jaguares]

Then again Quade Cooper, see Ewen does the Aussies Scrum

 

[Jaguares]

In fairness, that Lions front row was brutal, and there's not too many countries that can put out front rows that strong in the scrum.

You're right, the front row of Lions is too strong, not many teams with so many good props together. I think the Wallabies Scrum has improved significantly over the last year.