Posts filed under ‘Rugby Union’
Spent Force?
The performance from the Emirates Western Force at the weekend will no doubt be given some positive spin to show that the side had spirit to fight back against the Melbourne Rebels after being 26-15 down at half time, but questions have to start being asked.
Richard Graham was dispensed of to all intents and purposes by the playing group after he announced that he would be leaving at the end of the season. A decision that gave a very clear sign as to who was running the club, as the CEO and board had to reverse an announcement that he would be coaching until the end of the season.
When he announced he would be leaving Graham stated he was looking forward to going back to a state with a rugby culture, Queensland, and that was probably the key comment that he made and yet it has been brushed over by many.
It would appear the lack of leadership off the field is costing the team dearly on it.
The team have not won a game since Graham was stood down. In fact they have not looked like winning a game since then. Many may say they lost by one point yesterday which was unlucky, having fought their way back and actually taken the lead with three minutes remaining, but in truth the Rebels were the better side and always looked more threatening.
Post game the Emirates Western Force Skills & Defence Coach Phil Blake said “It was a game of two halves as they say. We certainly didn’t get off to the start that we wanted to and that put us on the back foot.” Yet the start was predictable by simply watching the intensity and the commitment of the two teams warm up. That again comes down to leadership, Coaches, Captains and senior players.
We could also question the selection, leaving Alfie Mafi on the bench seemed bizarre and when he came on as a substitute late in the first half it was he who sparked the Force’s revival. However selections can always be questioned and often hide the real issues.
The Force have done well to attract big name players to Western Australia, but their recruitment has not changed the form on the paddock.
If they are to become a Force – and you will hopefully excuse the pun – the new coach needs to create a whole new culture at the club. He also needs to somehow have that culture permeate throughout the whole club, not just in the dressing rooms. It will be a tough task but given the power to do so there are several people who can do it.
Unless there is a cultural change the Emirates Western Force will continue to chase games and finals berths, rather than leading the way in games and on the ladder.
Player Power Needs to be Turned into Results
In modern sport there are many who believe player power has become far too strong, and it would appear that the Emirates Western Force may well be a case in point.
The Emirates Western Force and coach for 2012 Richard Graham had a contract in which there was a clause that at the end of the 2012 season either party could terminate the agreement. Many speculated that if the Force finished bottom of the Australian Conference the management would have invoked that clause.
Richard Graham, however beat them to the punch by announcing in the week of their bye that he would be leaving at the end of the season to go to the Queensland Reds as Coach with current incumbent Ewen MacKenzie moving into a Director of coaching role.
The Force at the time of the announcement stated that Graham would remain at the helm of the Force for their last eight games of the season, and gave the impression that they were grateful that he was up front and announced his intentions leaving them plenty of time to source a replacement.
The players however felt very differently, and many inside the club felt that their dis-satisfaction had started rumbling earlier than Graham’s resignations. Captain David Pocock along with the retiring Nathan Sharpe lead the players viewpoint that they no longer had faith in Graham to the board, which has subsequently lead to him being told that his services will no longer be required for the rest of the season.
Many feel that Graham has bitten the hand the fed him, but they fail to take into account that sometimes in life it is the right time to move on, Queensland is after all his home state, and also that of his wife, and they have spent ten years away from there. He had worked with the Reds previously and as most Australian Rugby fans know there is a very proud history and loyalty in Queensland,and when faced with a dream job, one feels he no doubt felt all the planets were aligned.
It appears that there is one rule for players and another for coaches. It will be interesting to see if any of the players who are out of contract and who have agreed terms with a new club prior to the end of the season are ousted from the starting 15, should news get out before the end of the season.
Loyalty and commitment are words that are banded about in modern sport, yet are not these athletes and coaches professionals now, who just like those of us in regular jobs are expected to work out their ‘notice’ putting in the same level of performance?
Fans will always feel aggrieved when a coach announces he is moving on, but one cannot feel that whether the players feel hurt or not Richard Graham did the right thing by the club by giving them plenty of notice of his intentions.
The players have made a strong statement, and now must show on the park with their performances that they were justified in forcing him out prematurely. A failure to perform now will see many questions raised in relation to how much power they deserve in the future.
The Job No One Wants
Nine Years ago England were crowned Rugby World Champions in Australia. The coach received a Knighthood and the players also received awards from her majesty the Queen, so long had it been since England had conquered the World in a team sport.
Yet the English Rugby Union is looking for a new coach, the current incumbent, Scotsman Stuart Lancaster is only an interim coach, as the powers that be did not want to rush their decision after Martin Johnson’s resignation, and the leaked inquiry into their poor form on and off the pitch at the World Cup in New Zealand.
Lancaster oversaw a magnificent win for England in Paris at the weekend; it was the first time they had won three away fixtures in the same championship season, and lifted them to fourth in the world.
Despite the Scot having righted the ship it appears very few are interested in taking on the role full time. Jake White withdrew and opted to stay at the Brumbies, Graham Henry chose an assistant’s role with Argentina over England. Word has it there were only two serious candidates who applied, Stuart Lancaster, and former Springbok and Italy coach Nick Mallett.
According to insiders Mallett is still the favourite for the job, but why does no one want the job? Is it the expectation again built up by the media? Or is it a lack of talent coming through? Surely it can no longer be answering the board of English Rugby? Whatever the reason it is a sad state of affairs.
Like this:
Fine Takes the Bacon
The Rugby World Cup may well be a thing of the past but the post-mortems continue. England’s supposedly confidential report by the players finding its way into the public domain adding more fuel to the smouldering fire after their poor performance.
Samoa too were disappointed with the performance that their players put on the park and they too have looked into what went wrong.
Whereas the England players were fined, or dropped the case of Samoan rugby manager Mathew Vaea certainly takes the bacon.
The Samoan manager was fined 100 pigs for misbehaviour at the tournament, by his home village. Accusations abounded that the management of the team had treated the World Cup like an all-expenses paid holiday.
Despite the verdict of having to pay 100 PIgs, Vaea chose to pay a monetary fee instead of the symbolic fine.
Black Magic
From the French National rugby team’s response to the All Black Haka, last night’s Rugby Union World Cup final surpassed all expectations. Most finals are like a woman in labour for eighty minutes, a lot of huffing and puffing, but no real quality action, until eventually someone is declared the winner.
2011 was to be a completely different spectacle with so many other stories being played out within the drama.
The All Blacks had been waiting 24 years to claim a trophy they feel is rightfully theirs. Going into so many World Cups from 1987 to the present day they have been the best team in the World only to fail in one game and come home without the title of World Champions. Now they deservedly can call themselves that for the next four years.
This time around they had so much to play for, the Pike River mine disaster, the victims of the earthquake that destroyed Christchurch, as well as all of the All Blacks who had gone before and failed to bring back the World Title. The pressure must have been enormous.
The final saw their resolve bitterly tested, third choice fly half Aaron Cruden – a survivor of testicular cancer limped from the field after hyper-extending his knee only to be replaced by Steven Donald making his World Cup debut in the final. A man who was fishing a fortnight ago and thought his call up was a wind-up.
Their Captain Richie McCaw was a true leader just as many of those who have gone before him and been afforded the honour of lifting the William Webb Ellis Cup, players such as John Eales, John Smit and Francois Pienaar. He was heroic battling through his own personal pain barriers to deliver what a nation craved most.
It was McCaw who with ten minutes remaining hurled himself horizontally to tap Alexis Palisson’s legs as the winger surged towards the corner. He did not want to let his nation down.
France fought valiantly and showed that they too deserve to be regarded as one of the great rugby nations; many said they were lucky to be in the final but their performance on the day said that they did.
McCaw was asked prior to the match if he had ever handled the World Cup, he replied: “No, you shouldn’t touch it unless you’ve earned it.”
He has earned that right of which there can be no doubt and he has also earned his place among the legends of not only All Black rugby, but the game as a whole.
Rugby’s Rules Need a Tweak
As much as we are enjoying the Rugby World Cup it is hoped that after this tournament the IRB will sit down and look at certain areas of the game, which are extremely frustrating to the spectator.
To start with if a player wants treatment or a physio has to come on the park, let us see like football the player have to leave the field, as long as he can walk. Rather than having players receiving treatment while the game goes on around them.
In football the goalkeeper is the only player allowed to receive treatment on the park, as he is a key position. The same applies for the front row in rugby union, so have a rule that only the props and hookers can receive treatment on the field of play. Or if you don’t like that, while they are off the field scrums are uncontested.
That is not the best option as obviously if a side is losing all of its scrums they will then have their front row constantly going off the pitch so that they can win some ball.
As for whether a player should be allowed to be replaced if he has had to go off because of bleeding, we are not sure about this. Obviously a lot of players end up bleeding is such a physical contest, and it may well be unreasonable to say that a team should play a man down when he has a genuine and unfortunate cut.
The other area which has become increasingly frustrating, and was seen in abundance in the quarter finals, is when a player is caught the wrong side of the ball in a ruck. The time it takes him to get out of the way of the attacking player who is trying to retrieve the ball and set up another attack. This is sheer gamesmanship.
It is so obvious that it is a form of obstruction and also restricting the attacking side to only be able to play the ball in one direction. No doubt the coaching staff have advocated such an approach to slow the ball down and limit defensive exposure, but it is incredibly frustrating to watch.
Finally, they have to look at the maul and the player at the back with the ball tucked under one arm simply resting his hand on his teammates as they drive forward. The player at the back is in all reality not part of the maul even though the rules say that he is, and those players in front of him are simply obstructing the defending side from gaining access to the man and the ball. If there is be a rolling maul, make it that where the ball carrier rolls off the side and then the next player takes the ball off him and does the same, let us go back to the way it used to be deployed. That was a spectacle and also showed a higher level of skill and co-ordination.
Scotland Wilts
Sport at the highest level is about fine lines, the one percenters as coaches like to say, and despite an heroic effort in what has probably been the most thrilling encounter of the Rugby World Cup so far, Scotland lost out not only by one point, but possibly also because of those one percenters.
Having secured the lead in dreadful conditions in a tight encounter, which Scotland was edging, they let Argentina back in the game when they missed tackles and Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino crossed for a try which when converted gave Argentina the lead, with the clock showing seven minutes left.
Prior to this try many were surprised that Scotland coach Andy Robinson substituted young fly half Ruaridh Jackson who was having an outstanding game and brought on Dan Parks. Why is it rugby coaches feel they must empty their benches?
Scotland had a chance to pull the game out of the fire, and this is where the one percents come in. Amorosino could so quickly have turned from hero to zero. He followed his try with a grievous error, which gave Scotland hope of retrieving the match. He dropped a kick into touch a metre from his goal line in the 79th minute, allowing Scotland to regain possession from an attacking lineout.
Scotland manoeuvred themselves into a good field position, and Parks’ opted to attempt a dropped goal, which skewed wide of the posts, rather than possibly keeping possession and gaining a better position.
Argentina captain Felipe Contepomi admitted post game that he had crept offside to put pressure on Parks’ drop goal attempt, the referee did not spot it and Argentina’s victory means that they now have the better chance of progressing to the quarter finals.
Contepomi was outstanding after the game paying credit to the Scots, admitting that his team was lucky to win, but stating that “They were probably better than us, but rugby is an 80-minute game. We were probably better than England, but there were 30 seconds in that match when we lost it.”
That last comment should give the Scots heart as if they can beat England, which one would not bet against now, they could still progress. It will probably come back to those one percenters again!
The Burden of Being Special
In every sport there is no doubt that the fans want to see that player who is a little different, who can show skill that most of us can only dream about. They are the players who thrill the crowd and have them on the edge of their seats. They are the same players the opposition fans curse but wish were playing for them. They are the players that we talk about long after they have hung up their boots.
Quade Cooper has the potential to be one of those players. He has undoubted gifts as a rugby player, but has sadly not yet learned when to play it safe and when to try that millionaire ball that if it comes off will be sublime, if it doesn’t could be extremely costly.
Then again is that not what these players are all about, backing themselves. Who can forget one of the true greats David Campese against the British and Irish Lions? He backed himself but cost the Wallabies the game and ultimately the series. Then there was the miss-out pass that Carlos Spencer tried in the semi-final of the 2003 World Cup that saw New Zealand fail again in their quest for the World Cup when it seemed it was almost within their grasp.
Cooper is copping a lot of the blame for Australia’s defeat against the Irish, but one man should not have to shoulder all of the blame, even thought his judgment at times was questionable to us mere mortals. The truth is Ireland played with greater intensity, their pack dominated and they played as a team, they deserved to win. It could however be a blessing in disguise as it may galvanize the Wallabies to pull together and continue their march to the final.
Wear Your True Colours
We have to say that we are loving the rugby world cup and the fact that the second tier nations have become so much more competitive, although a lack of depth and high-level fitness appears to be the only thing holding them back at the present time.
One thing that we would like to see restored, if only to make it easier when watching games is the referees wearing the socks of the country they come from.
This used to be the norm in rugby internationals, an Australian referee would wear the Wallabies socks, a Scottish referee, the Scotland socks, and instantly you knew the nationality of the referee.
Now that they are all kitted out in ‘corporate colours’ it makes it very hard to identify the referee’s nationality, and you have to wait until he speaks and hope that his accent is the giveaway. However maybe this is why it is called the ‘game in Union,’ but it would be nice t see this back in the game.
What World Cup?
Those of us who have lived in the most remote city in the world have been well aware that news takes a little longer to travel across the Nullabor, let alone, the Indian or Pacific Oceans, but one would have thought that with a World Cup being hosted by our arch rivals New Zealand news may travel a little faster, especially in the electronic age.
It is remarkable to pick up the state’s leading newspaper on Monday , The West Australian, following a full weekend of World Cup rugby and only find two stories, both on the Wallabies victory over Italy, which should have been a given anyway.
With thousands of South Africans, New Zealanders, Scots, English, Welsh, Irish and Italians living amongst Australians one would have thought the paper would have catered for supporters of these countries. It is not as if you need a journalist there at the event, as most of the news is syndicated anyway.
Shame on you. This is a World Cup, it only happens every four years and after the Football World Cup and the Olympics is the biggest sporting event in the world
