Woeful Aussies sink to new depths

[mudskipper]

Greg Growden | August 30, 2009

WHAT an embarrassment. The Wallabies were at their dunderheaded worst at Subiaco Oval last night when they were made to look like a pick-up park team and were deservedly put away by the Springboks.

Not since the horrors of Johannesburg last year have the Wallabies played so badly, as they suffered their sixth straight Tri Nations loss.

Even though Australia finished with three tries, two were late charities, and for most of the night they were a rabble, with it clearly obvious team morale is at rock bottom.

A dejected Wallabies coach Robbie Deans attempted to keep his composure after the match.

''We contributed again to the result with some soft tries scored against us. You shouldn't have set-piece tries scored against us,'' Deans said.

When asked if the scoreline flattered the Wallabies, Deans replied: ''That doesn't concern me.''

Australia should have been beaten by plenty by the world champions, as apart from a few minutes of reasonable play, they were right off the pace, and most of the night offered silly, mistake-riddled, aimless football.

The Australian Rugby Union is not getting value for money from this dishevelled mob.

The Wallabies were disgraceful in the first half, receiving the ultimate football lesson from the South Africans to be down 22-6 at the break.

But the Springboks must have also been astounded at how incompetent the Wallabies had become, playing the most hideous form of fumble-football to be right out of the Test after just 10 minutes.

It was as unappetising as an old, cold piece of strudel.

The only players to show any form were flanker Rocky Elsom, as he was the solitary Wallaby to be an honest ball-runner, industrious prop Benn Robinson and two-try-scoring five-eighth Matt Giteau.

Deans should have been far more brutal, hooking several players, in particular halfback Luke Burgess, who had a horror stretch when he started throwing passes in every direction.

Giteau's playmaking role had turned into a nightmare. How could he show any consistency when his his halfback is unable to properly pass the ball to him?

Will Genia should have started because Burgess in recent weeks has dramatically lost his confidence. That Genia did not come on until the 56th minute was crazy.

The farce started in the opening seconds when Richard Brown dropped a high ball over the sideline, and it just got worse.

The mental capacity of this team was severely questioned in the fourth minute when Springbok halfback Fourie du Preez scored the easiest of tries when he took a quick tap and scored. As lazy Wallabies ambled back to their marks, du Preez just skipped past them.

Then centre Jaque Fourie scored in the ninth minute because the Wallabies midfield defence fragmented, easily skipping between Giteau and Adam Ashley-Cooper, who was also way off his game.

Judging by the opening 15 minutes, the Wallabies should have stayed in the dressing rooms.

They picked their act up momentarily, but it was a quick glimpse, as the Springboks scored their third try in the 32nd minute when winger Lachie Turner fumbled a high kick, allowing his opposite Bryan Habana to grab it and scoot away.

It was getting crazier by the minute. The only way the Wallabies were able to stay in faint touch was through penalty goals, but Giteau also struggled with several of those.

The magic water at half-time certainly worked, as the Wallabies turned from zombies into competent beings, when Giteau took the South African defence on by himself and scored in the 43rd minute.

But it didn't take long for the Springboks to again take control, guaranteeing a Test win when Habana scored under the posts to give the visitors a 29-13 lead.

http://www.rugbyheaven.com.au/news/n...394635830.html

No doubt the Wallabies played some very poor rugby... However if you stand back and take a closer look at the points scored... Burgess turning his back when the Boks had a 10 metre penalty was schoolboy allowing an easy quick tap try, I don't think he was the only one caught out there... And if Gits didn't miss a relatively straightforward penalty (which he usually nails) and missed the quick drop goal in front... The Wallabies could have won the match or lost it by a close 31-32...

[Cowboy]

I thought that the knives would really start to come out if we lost last night, glad to see that the media is nice and reliable.

[KenyaQuin]

Does that put to rest the poor argument that the Boks can only win ugly?

I hope a number of you are enjoying your slice of humble pie.

[The Man]

WHAT an embarrassment. Yeah, pretty sums up Growden...and yet idiots are reading and posting his crap on this site?

Let is no issue die the painful death he deserves and NEVER post anything from him on the site again!

[James]

Does that put to rest the poor argument that the Boks can only win ugly?

I hope a number of you are enjoying your slice of humble pie.

I have humble pie often enough you get used to the flavour. Its an acquired taste.

I would like to know though, if the Boks can string together a fluent attack like they did last night why did they serve up such an affront to rugby in Capetown? Why didn't they run it at us all night instead of having Morne in there with the boot. The fans would have loved it. The players would have loved it. Why not put Ruan Pienaar permanently in the 10 jersey and really revolutionise rugby with blitz attack to match the blitz defense and a masterful set piece. I would like to see the Boks play like they did last night against the All Blacks in their game but I don't think it will happen I think they will crawl back inside their shell and I think that's a shame. Of course I could be wrong. You may pre-heat the pie.

[welshrugbyfan]

I have humble pie often enough you get used to the flavour. Its an acquired taste.

I would like to know though, if the Boks can string together a fluent attack like they did last night why did they serve up such an affront to rugby in Capetown? Why didn't they run it at us all night instead of having Morne in there with the boot. The fans would have loved it. The players would have loved it. Why not put Ruan Pienaar permanently in the 10 jersey and really revolutionise rugby with blitz attack to match the blitz defense and a masterful set piece. I would like to see the Boks play like they did last night against the All Blacks in their game but I don't think it will happen I think they will crawl back inside their shell and I think that's a shame. Of course I could be wrong. You may pre-heat the pie.

Maybe just maybe PDV is a brilliant rugby coach and not plainly insane.

Maybe he researches the best strategies to beating a team. Aussie Bob and his team researched the way to beat a team that is going to constantly bombard a team with up and unders. The wallabies were waiting for it, you could tell by how off guard the were when the Boks started playing expansive running rugby.

Who knows what strategythey'll go with next week and in saying that how do you prepare?

[pieter blackie]

So who can we blame for the Aussie loss

A. The venue
B. The crowd
C. The ref
D. The coach
E. The players

[Darren]

E. and D. - in all but the most extreme cases the other 3 options are external and should be taken into account and nullified as the game is played

[travelling_gerry]

F. All of the above?

[pieter blackie]

I say "E "

The Wallabies have the best coach in modern day rugby but their lack of dissipline, courage(mana) and the ability to put your body on the line is their downfall

How many Aussies can do something like this



---------- Post added at 19:45 ---------- Previous post was at 19:43 ----------

or this

[James]

If I had a choice between an Australian Bakkies or no Bakkies it would take the latter. I would find it too difficult to feel pride about a player like him.

The players are really the only ones to blame. But I don't think it was courage or discipline or putting their bodies on the line that held them back. The Boks were insurmountable in that first half but as they tired Australia gained a bit of the upper hand. Giteau and Steyn both missed a few kicks at goal so at the end of the day it came down to one converted try. The rub of the green just didn't go our way. That Lachie Turner spill or both of Richard Brown's abyssmally fielded kicks that moments later resulted in Bok tries set the result in stone. I wonder if we would be berrating the Wallabies performance so much if, for example, Turner hadn't spilled the ball and had cleared it to touch and the game had resulted in a draw. All hypothetical I know so I think I might go put $20 on the Wallabies winning in Brisbane by 12 points or more (20 or more if they allow that bet).

[welshrugbyfan]

If I had a choice between an Australian Bakkies or no Bakkies it would take the latter. I would find it too difficult to feel pride about a player like him.

He's just a SA hard man. Any team would love to have him. The bloody wallabies should take a leaf out of his book. You guys got smashed at the breakdown "Again".

[James]

He's just a SA hard man. Any team would love to have him. The bloody wallabies should take a leaf out of his book. You guys got smashed at the breakdown "Again".

Dan Vickerman was a hardman in the Bakkies Botha mould. But the difference between the two of them is that Vickerman's aggression was controlled and he didn't pull off any of the weak-arse shit (or at least to the best of my memory) that Botha has done like biting or eye-gouging. Bakkies may have cleaned up his act a bit but he is still on the whole a cheap shot merchant. I don't understand how you could intentionally eye-gouge someone.

[Burgs]

At school the rumour was if you had to guess a multiple choice answer to always go for (C). Just a coincidence there Pieter?
Just kidding, 99% of the blame, so no, we aren't talking about how good the opposition was etc, comes down to the players in this one.
The Coach can't catch the ball for you, or shout out "no, don't kick it through", or kick a drop goal conversion from ten metres out in front, or stop you from turning your back on a known try sneak with ball in hand on a penalty mark ten metres out from the line.
The Ref had a pretty good match I believe and it (should) go without saying that blaming either of the first two is pretty lame.

[travelling_gerry]

Wayne Smith | August 31, 2009
Article from: The Australian

IT made for a change at least, the novel approach of starting poorly and finishing strongly, but in terms of the overall result, nothing had changed at all.

The Wallabies still came out on the wrong end of a Test against one of the two sides ranked ahead of them in the world and it is now 53 weeks and seven agonising Tests since Australia last defeated either the Springboks or All Blacks.

Indeed, so low have expectations slumped that one South African media outlet actually managed to work this observation into its Test wrap-up: "They may have lost but the Wallabies may just be more cheerful about the match than the Springboks."

Ah yes indeed, it must have been the hurrahs of the happy throng outside the home team's dressing room that blotted out the cheerful strains of Advance Australia Fair as the Wallabies celebrated thrashing the South Africans in the scrum and dominated them on the penalty count. True, shame about the final, flattering scoreline, but hey, what about the way Bryce Lawrence pinged those Boks in the set pieces.

No, however far the Wallabies might have fallen, they and their supporters have not yet come to that, rummaging through the trash can of what, until five minutes from full-time, was shaping as the heaviest home defeat ever to the Springboks for such meagre crumbs of comfort.

As Rocky Elsom had said on the eve of the match, the Wallabies believed they could "go" the Springboks, however great John Smit's team might be. It wasn't just machismo speaking but genuine belief. So, no, the Wallabies weren't cheerful at all about how the match turned out.

Certainly, no nourishment is to be taken from the match statistics which may just be the dodgiest set of figures released since the old Soviet Union published its last five year plan. OK, so the Australians dominated 61 per cent of possession. That simply means that where the South Africans scored with effortless ease early in their tackle count, the Wallabies witlessly went about their work, each new phase bringing them closer to a turnover than to a try. Mistakes? They buried themselves under an avalanche of them.

Watching high up in the Perth press box was Jean-Francois Beltran, who at various times has coached Perpignan, Castres, Beziers and Bayonne, earning such a reputation for running rugby that last year he was asked to coach the French Barbarians. Even allowing for the fact his English and my French elevate "un petit peu" to a whole new level, he still had no difficulty telling me what was wrong with the Wallabies: "Too predictable. Too direct."

Few teams beat the Boks by shirking the hard stuff, but the Wallabies gloried in bashing away fruitlessly on the fringes of the ruck where the South African defenders had laid down overlapping fields of fire. And it hardly helped that Matt Giteau has taken to standing deeper and deeper in attack, no doubt to buy himself as much time as possible to retrieve whatever Luke Burgess might throw at him.

It is possible to scapegoat Burgess where Giteau's attack is concerned, but he is blameless when it comes to Giteau's defence. Australia's highest paid player - and whatever else John O'Neill might have done by sacking Lote Tuqiri, he at least has removed all confusion on that front - looked distant and distracted in defence. Robbie Deans was dead right. First-phase tries should never happen. There is no excuse, yet the Boks bagged three of them on Saturday night, each time because of Australian laziness.

Jacques Fourie, who scored his by literally running straight past Giteau in the 10th minute, revealed afterwards the Boks had deliberately targeted the 10-12 channel early in proceedings because they were aware the Wallabies had changed their centre pairing for each of their past three Tests.

The South Africans figured they'd get only one chance to exploit any Australian confusion before the Wallabies defensive pattern settled down, but they were wrong. A full 43 minutes later, they revisited the same channel for the same result, this time Bryan Habana cruised through without a hand laid on him.

Throw in Fourie du Preez's opening tap-and-go try when Burgess, Richard Brown and Adam Ashley-Cooper all turned their backs on him, mistakenly anticipating a penalty goal attempt, and the Wallabies conceded 19 of the softest points ever scored in Tri-Nations history.

Where the turnaround comes in all of this is impossible to say. Sure, there needs to be more tinkering, starting with a completely new halves combination of Will Genia and Berrick Barnes, with Giteau pushing out to inside centre. But it goes way beyond exploring new permutations of mostly old personnel.

Like Australian rugby in general, the Wallabies appear to be wading in diving boots - a lot of effort and energy being expended for very little progress. There is no spark at present and tempting as it must be for Deans to flog the side this week in the build-up to Saturday's return Test against the Boks in Brisbane, this might in fact be the time to ease off and freshen up his sore and sorry squad.

It's both scary and inspiring to reflect that the last time these two sides met at Suncorp Stadium (2006) the Wallabies prevailed 49-0, their biggest win over the Boks. Yet barely a year later, South Africa was world champion.

This time it is the Australians who must rebound from a record defeat, the 32 points conceded at Subiaco being the most they've ever let in against the Boks at home. So before we turn our thoughts to a Wallabies revival, let's offer up a prayer that they have in fact bottomed out.

They've now lost six Tri-Nations Tests in succession, they've dragged Deans's winning percentage below 60 per cent for the first time - that's getting into Eddie Jones territory - and their support base is eroding alarmingly.

Saturday's Test allegedly drew 36,148 spectators but it seemed there was room for far more than the 7300 people needed to bring Subiaco Oval up to full capacity. And how many viewers switched off their sets and walked away long before the belated fightback.

These are grim days for Australian rugby. Self-belief has to be the starting point. If the Springboks can reinvent themselves, why not the Wallabies?

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html