The Silver Fern

And even the days when coaches weren't allowed to talk to team at halftime etc, though with sneaky comms etc we know that can't be done. Watching the Uruguay game this morning, they had 5 coaches in the box, so perhaps even tier 2 teams have plenty too.

Not sure where to post this but a bit of negative talk about Rob Penny being appointed as Crusaders coach by one poster in particular, putting some perspective on his time at the Waratahs instead of saying players bagged Penny which I have not seen this below from an article out of Sydney after Penny was let go.

Former Wallaby Drew Mitchell tweeted on Sunday evening: “The coach was never the biggest issue … just a case of making a decision to make it look like something is being done.”

Did you hear the one about the rugby team who let veteran players go, spent well underneath the salary cap, and then sacked their coach when they didn’t win any games?

If that was a hypothetical scenario, it would be laughed off as unrealistic. Yet it is exactly what has happened at the Waratahs this season.

It’s still hard to fathom how anyone could look at the Tahs at the moment and come to the conclusion that Rob Penney was the problem.

In each of his seasons in charge, the Kiwi was put in the unenviable position of leading the roster hit hardest by player departures out of all the Australian sides.

The post-World Cup exodus ahead of 2020 saw the likes of Tolu Latu, Sekope Kepu and Bernard Foley leave, before Kurtley Beale followed before the season restart.

This year, Penney was deprived of the services of Michael Hooper, Rob Simmons, Ned Hannigan and Karmichael Hunt, none of whom were replaced by a player of equivalent skill as a sixth of the salary cap went unspent. Injuries to captain and scrumhalf Jake Gordon, Wallabies prop Angus Bell and promising centre Joey Walton only exacerbated the squad’s lack of depth.

@kiwiwomble said in The All Black's current midfield balance.:

@bones said in The All Black's current midfield balance.:

@nostrildamus said in The All Black's current midfield balance.:

I wondered about Bridge - if he was told to always do that, lacked confidence, or if it just seemed the safest thing to do.

It was so single minded, I'm pretty confident that he was under instruction. He wasn't, however, told to fix buckets where his hands should be.

yeah. little to discuss re his efforts under the highball

His efforst with the ball in hand are more interesting, to me ti looked like he was under direction, someone was trying to "fix" his game by hammering into him to always run to support and really it just made things worse, before he went between invisible to ineffective....in that game he topped the list for almost losing the game

edit: writing this made me think, Its something i noticed clarke doing last year, at first i thought "good, safe play from the new guy" but then as it became more obvious i started thinking "back ya self mate!" and getting a little frustrated

Im wondering if its someone in the coaching team thats preaching it....and i dont like it for a left winger. most peoples dominate pass is right to left and so the left winger should have the luxury of as much space as he likes and so should be looking to get outside his man or stretching the defence to make a hole midifield, left winger defaulting to running out to in just seems a waste

De Allendhe is an example.

@bovidae said in Hansen/Foster's recent selection philosophy & the consequences it has on team balance (back-row, back-three, bench etc..):

@pakman said in Hansen/Foster's recent selection philosophy & the consequences it has on team balance (back-row, back-three, bench etc..):

Sotutu is excellent in lineouts, and has superb passing skills.

The problem has been that Sotutu sometimes doesn't pass when he should (for example, ignoring BB right before HT vs Fiji). Jacobson has always been used in the lineout in any team he has played for.

We should just be happy that we have some depth in the loose forwards, and there are options.

Agree , I think Ardie is miles better than Sotutu when it comes to passing/ decision making from the base of the scrum.