Rugby - Tours Tours Everywhere!

[finbar]

The scrums were backwards and forwards the whole match. While obviously a poor French pack, sometimes the Wallabies seemed not to be concentrating. When they did, they coped relatively well, by their standards. Some in the Australian media think Nathan Sharp's absence helps the Wallaby pack on the basis that he doesn't work nearly hard enough come the hit.

And Matt Giteau, on song, is getting up there with Dan Carter, possibly even more dangerous inside the 22. Whether he will have either the time or opportunity when his pack is going backwards is another matter.

I would assume the ABs have, by now, started practising drop goal scenarios. I still maintain that had Aaron Mauger been playing in Cardiff, he would have called the option. It didn't help McCaw's cause that he didn't have a drop goal kicker on hand. Both Carter and Nick Evans were off the field at the time. The only option was probably Luke McAlister and I've never seen him kick one.

[finbar]

Andy Goode off to Brive?

[Havak]

Apparently so - we are as vulnerable to the seemingly endless pockets of French rugby as the tri-nations are.

He has been a great servant of the club - but he has also limited how we can play. It was time for a change - but I was hoping that change would be a genuine world class stand off rather than a centre we poached from Newcastle that we felt could fill a ten shirt.

As for the ABs if Neil Back and Matt Dunning can kick drop goals McAllister has no excuses surely?

Giteau has huge talent - it is no surprise the new franchise crossed his palm with gold. But will French rugby tempt him North?

[LDiCesare]

I hope French clubs will stop relying on foreigners, particularly for props and fly halves. This is in part due to the international season which means the best teams have to play a few matches without their internationals (6 nations), and to the fact the season is so long you need more good players than there are in France.

[finbar]

Originally posted by LDiCesare
I hope French clubs will stop relying on foreigners, particularly for props

Ditto English clubs.

I suspect the only place Matt Giteau will be going is back to the Brumbies. His massive salary package at the Western Farce was made up largely of third-party funds from Firepower, a shonk business that was marketing a magic "pill" that improved car engine performance. If you can credit that anyone on earth would still believe in that sort of thing. Well, people did. And invested many millions in the business. Which has now collapsed. The Farce are scrambling around trying to find replacement money for Giteau. If they can't or don't, he'll be back at the Brumbies.

[Joe Kick Ass]

If Brive really had endless pockets they'd sign Tom Varndell.

[finbar]

Messers Ojo, Brown, Care and Strettle would go down well in France. If you'll pardon the expression.

[Havak]

@ Finbar

Did you notice Mr Varndell made the cut for the 32 man Senior squad jka? Would be nice to see him and Shame Williams on the wings for the Lions next summer? If Shane isn't in a retirement home by then of course.

Obviously I know you'll want a Welsh player there instead but McGeechan is a smart cookie and won't repeat the mistakes of 2005.

Things are really looking up for the Lions anyway as SuperGav won't make the start of the season and if there is any justice in the world therefore won't get near the Lions squad - single handedly increasing the Lions chance of winning the series.

[Andydog]

Hi chaps, I hope you are enjoying the controversy surrounding Thorn's "unsportsmanlike conduct". His dumping of Smit was stupid, and deserved a yellow card without doubt. Instead he faces a 1 game ban instead of 10 minutes in the bin, so he's been a little bit hard done by in that respect. But I do find it funny how the Saffas, who like to run around being the 'tough guys of rugby', start bleating when they are 'out-toughed'.

Anyone who has watched the Bokke open a test match against the ABs knows that the Bokke going to come storming out all fired up on raw meat, the weight of history, and a fierce pride inspired by a belief that their jersey that matches those who wear the black.

Most of the time that fire and brimstone manifests itself as intimidating and fierce play, but sometimes it's downright brutality and thuggish play. Matfield on Kelleher back in 2005/2004, Bakkies Botha with the elbow to Nonu's face at about the 12 min mark, Butch James attempting to turn himself into a human catapult anytime he got near a ruck or Dan Carter, Smit's head shove on Thorn, Conrad being taken out with the clothesline about 8 min into the game. Thing is, the ABs took all that - the fierce start and the moments of thuggish old school - and instead of letting it rattle them, they soaked it up and gave some of it back - Thorn's dumping of Smit. Ali dropping the shoulder into James at the 12:20 mark. They stayed calm under that pressure and played the better rugby. That's what won them the game.

Another thing - Smit is still crying about missing the next test due to his groin injury thanks to Thorn's dump. Did anyone notice that there didn't seem to be any change to his waddle around the park pre and post dumping? How does landing on your back give you a groin injury?

My advice to the bokke is to stop whinging and spend more time on getting the scrum sorted, devising a tactical kicking plan that works, and a way to get the ball to Habana quicker.

[finbar]

There you are! We haven't seen you since about the time you declared yourself a Sarries supporter. I'd've hidden myself away, too.

That aside, couldn't agree more about Smit's bleating. Pots and kettles. I lost count of the number of times Butch James tried to decapitate Dan Carter.

[Andydog]

Never did go to another Sarries game, and got bored trying to keep up with their season. I found myself gravitating back towards the Super14, having grown up in Christchurch and supporting the Crusaders for as long as I can remember. I just find it a more exciting brand of rugby, especially with the ELVs being introduced.

Speaking of the ELVs, after watching the Super14 season I've concluded that the ELVs (that is the S14 version of them) have generally done good things for the game. I note however that they didn't really fulfil the objective of simplifying the game and removing referee subjectivity, and I'm concerned that while the ELVs are all well and good for professional players and maybe even high grade players, the faster pace of the game could be detrimental to the lower grade, amateur and social leagues where there are less players fit enough to be able to keep up.

It's going to be interesting to watch the Tri-Nations version of the ELVs, in particular the collapsing of the maul. I've been against this rule - I read it was trialled in the Aussie Championship this year and that it ended all mauling from further out than 5m. I guess the rule is an attempt to achieve 2 things:

1. Simplifying the game for ref and spectator.
By legalising the maul collapse, the ref no longer needs to make a judgement call about whether the collapse was a deliberate effort by the opposition or just bad technique by the attacking team. Simplifying the game was one of the core reasons for trialling the ELVs (and the other ones so far have pretty much all failed to do so as I mentioned above) so I imagine this is a key reason for them trialling this.

2. Reducing the prevalence of the so-called unstoppable rolling maul.
It is admittedly very hard to defend against, especially from 5m out. This law, coupled with the no matching of numbers, is probably intended to significantly reduce the effectiveness of driving from an attacking 5m lineout.

[finbar]

Rather than be a Sarries supporter, do as I do. Support whomever happens to be playing Leicester.

I think the S14 ELVs worked pretty well, too, on the whole. All the NH doomsayers who wept that they were to spell the death of the scrum were always going to be proven to be idiots. There were, in fact, more scrums under the ELVs than there were in the non-ELV season before. More scrums, many more tries. The law I don't like is the one that draws the offside line at the tackle point prior to a ruck - that is, what used to be broken play.

The only reason Paddy O'Brien has ever given for the pulling down the maul ELV is that mauls are too hard to defend against. And I don't think that's a good enough reason. What next? A law against Dan Carter pulling the trigger in the AB backline because they're too hard to defend against? A good maul requires skill. A poor maul can be defended against. Recognise the skill.

I don't think any law changes are ever going to remove ref subjectivity. The breakdown has always been the contentious area and nothing in any of the ELVs (that have been trialled) does anything to simplify the breakdown. The closest they come to such - in their written form - is to stress the policing of offside and killing the ball. But they remain the ref's opinion. About the only (untrialled) ELV that could possibly help the ref - and the crowd - is the one allowing hands in the ruck. It would remove one frequently grey area. Though I can't see it happening.

Then again, I didn't think they'd ever trial the pulling down of the maul.

[Havak]

Subjective refereeing has already massively impacted scrums in the last decade I think? As for LVs in my opinion the downward spiral that neutered scrums started with the ALV that limited their progression to 5M.

As for club rugger I tend to gravitate to the English Premiership myself - I prefer it's more intense, competitive and above all unpredictable nature.

* So Brown and Ojo are guilty of misconduct, whilst Strettle is told "to be careful in future not to put himself in any compromising situations which may lead to him bringing the game into disrepute".

Such as pretending to be the Duracell Bunny?

[finbar]

I'm just waiting for the TV advert. Mr Strettle still hammering away while Messers Ojo and Brown have long since come to a conclusion.

Simple solution to ref subjectivity in relation to scrums: every time a scrum in which the Wallabies are involved collapses, penalise the Wallabies. Because they will have collapsed it.

[Andydog]

Originally posted by Havak

As for club rugger I tend to gravitate to the English Premiership myself - I prefer it's more intense, competitive and above all unpredictable nature.

I agree completely. Expect for the bit about it being more intense and competitive.