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Deans Sacked McKenzie To Be Named Coach Of The Wallabies
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<blockquote data-quote="smartcooky" data-source="post: 582386" data-attributes="member: 20605"><p>And therein lay one of Deans' key problems; the lack of a decent front row. Winning rugby starts up front; it might be an old adage, but its as true today as it ever was. You might be able to win the occasional match with 20% possession and brilliant back play, but you aren't going to win consistently that way. </p><p></p><p>The front row of the Wallaby scrum has basically been owned on and off by just about all their major opposition for the last several years. It started with Al Baxter when he was cruelly exposed in only his third test by the England scrum in the RWC final in 2003, and again in 2005 at Twickenham when he was yellow carded for a deliberate collapse. Things have not gotten any better since as they selected a succession of front rowers that just could not cut the mustard. They were exposed by England in the quarter-final of the 2007 RWC and again by England in 2010, then by Ireland at the 2011 RWC. I haven't even mentioned how often they have run into scrum trouble in the Tri-Nations.</p><p></p><p>Many times they have been able to avoid trouble by avoiding scrummaging, firstly by not competing on the opposition's put-in, and relying on their superior backs to tackle the oppositions backs, and secondly by dropping the scrum on engage at their own put in, to take the steam out of the opponent's hit, then quickly feeding the reset scrum and getting the ball out as quickly as possible. Sooner or later, however, they would run into a referee (Rolland. Jutge, Poite) who would insist that they stay up on their feet and participate in a proper contest, and that is when they would be in trouble.</p><p></p><p>I'm not sure why Australia has had so much difficulty in developing front row forwards. It never used to be like that. Perhaps if they spent less money buying flash-harry ex-rugby league backs with million-dollar price-tags, like Tuiqiri, Sailor, Rogers, Folau etc, they might have more money to put into the development of front row forwards.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="smartcooky, post: 582386, member: 20605"] And therein lay one of Deans' key problems; the lack of a decent front row. Winning rugby starts up front; it might be an old adage, but its as true today as it ever was. You might be able to win the occasional match with 20% possession and brilliant back play, but you aren't going to win consistently that way. The front row of the Wallaby scrum has basically been owned on and off by just about all their major opposition for the last several years. It started with Al Baxter when he was cruelly exposed in only his third test by the England scrum in the RWC final in 2003, and again in 2005 at Twickenham when he was yellow carded for a deliberate collapse. Things have not gotten any better since as they selected a succession of front rowers that just could not cut the mustard. They were exposed by England in the quarter-final of the 2007 RWC and again by England in 2010, then by Ireland at the 2011 RWC. I haven't even mentioned how often they have run into scrum trouble in the Tri-Nations. Many times they have been able to avoid trouble by avoiding scrummaging, firstly by not competing on the opposition's put-in, and relying on their superior backs to tackle the oppositions backs, and secondly by dropping the scrum on engage at their own put in, to take the steam out of the opponent's hit, then quickly feeding the reset scrum and getting the ball out as quickly as possible. Sooner or later, however, they would run into a referee (Rolland. Jutge, Poite) who would insist that they stay up on their feet and participate in a proper contest, and that is when they would be in trouble. I'm not sure why Australia has had so much difficulty in developing front row forwards. It never used to be like that. Perhaps if they spent less money buying flash-harry ex-rugby league backs with million-dollar price-tags, like Tuiqiri, Sailor, Rogers, Folau etc, they might have more money to put into the development of front row forwards. [/QUOTE]
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Deans Sacked McKenzie To Be Named Coach Of The Wallabies
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