Rugby Union

16x years…

Have to admit to some nerves at half time.

Why are we so hopeless. Have we run out of private schools or something.

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With no end in sight.

They seem to lack the fitness to maintain the game plan. They were out on their feet for most of the second half. I don’t rate Cheika as a coach. Tactically naive and I don’t remember an international team losing so much ball in the set pieces as the Wallabies did yesterday. If you can’t coach a team to get the basics right then you are starting at the wrong place

Development pathways are diluted due to League, Aussie Rules and now soccer competing for players within the footy codes. NZ focus on Union first, second and third. Junior coaches are coached to develop players with a view to All Blacks level and their pathways are designed to achieve that goal.
Plus, the Australian style is too high energy to maintain against top level opponents. NZ kicked away with 25mins to go because (a) they’re better but also (b) we were knackered. We need to be more controlled in our tempo.

Basically.
Rugby Union has 50-60k registered players in aus.
About the same number as do archery or play baseball.
It’s almost entirely due to league that we’re even competitive, internationally.

Gordon Bray copping it for his describing one of the players haircuts as “like a golliwog”. As if the commentary wasn’t stupid enough. The barracking in the commentary is at new levels.

Archery. Yipes.
I actually keep forgetting there are domestic franchises

Yep. Rugby Union has been poorly managed for years in Australia.

From memory there are more participants in ballroom dancing than rugby union (not that I’m bagging ballroom dancing).

Rugby had so much promise when the amateur to professional transition took place but it’s been steadily downhill since the early 2000’s.

What went wrong?

I read an article by P Fitzsimmons the other day saying the crowds at club level in Sydney regularly exceed League crowds yet hardly anyone is turning up to Super level games. He speculated that people crave the tribalism that club sides have and that the Super sides haven’t been able to tap into this.

As pointed out above, everything in NZ is geared towards representing the country in rugby.

Australia has been blessed to have had some of the world’s best players represent the country in the past but it might be time to concede that this had more to do with good luck than good management and that the best we can aspire to in future is to be the 2nd best side.

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The ABs are going through a golden period but it won’t last forever. Australia needs to throw money and energy into looking term planning and grass roots rugby.

No free to air coverage in Aus hurts the popularity

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What a great time the late 90s to early 00s were for rugby in this country. It seemed like every other week John ‘Nobody’ Eales was hoisting a trophy above his head.

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The glory days…

True story. My old high school used to play in the 5-Highs cricket competition. IIRC, in 1986 it was held in Brisbane and my mate was billeted with the family of John Eales.

That was uglier than last week. Koroibete could tackle when he played for the Storm. They have killed him.

If Pocock wasn’t playing that would have been a record thrashing. Pocock was the best player in the ground.

I hear whispers that before today’s game, Cheika had 3 games to show something. They better turn up against South Africa. If they lose, Australia drops to number 7 in world rankings.

I didn’t watch it and am surprised they scored at all to be honest.

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