Super Rugby 2015 Super Rugby discussion

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Great win for the Force against the Tahs. The Australian coach must be happy with that result:drunk:

First ever win in Round 1 for the Force to go with the Rebels first ever win overseas. Good signs.
 

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I attended the game and the Force completely outplayed the Tahs. They looked fitter, stronger, more focused and generally just more prepared for Super rugby. Which I guess is understandable to a point given the number of Wallabies who would have had relatively late starts to training and the Force's dearth of national reps as well as the fact that many of them had been playing together as part of the NRC side. The Tahs were ripe for the picking in that sense.

Tahs were still awful though, bad handling errors and couldn't convert many chances at all despite having a much stronger scrum (after Cowan went off, any word on his condition?). By the 60th minute, Folau was completely exhausted. My friends and I noticed every time he tried to get involved in the last 20 minutes he was noticeably short of a step and came away from each contest breathing very heavily with his hands on his hips. The Force generally looked more fit and ready for an 80 minute grind. Thought Ben McCalman had a really good game along with Nathan Charles. Rasolea in the backline was probably their pick and I like seeing Dane Haylett-Petty playing well, I've always liked him as a player.

For the Tahs, Will Skelton playing the full 80 and noticeably improving his scrummaging from his woefully poor showing in the Spring Tour was good to see. He ran the ball hard for a full game, disrupted numerous mauls as is his wont and hit hard in defence. All well and good to scummage well in Super rugby but I want to see it at Test level. Not many other standouts to pick from the Tahs. Hooper was OK and was given MoTM at the ground for the Tahs but I thought it was a bit of a guess. Folau tried hard as ever and set up a beautiful try to Rob Horne but wasn't at his best. Beale had a shocker, Dave Dennis struggled in his first game back from injury and the lack of pilfering ability in the backrow of Hooper, Potgieter and Palu showed. Hooper, for someone who gets to a crazy number of rucks and has such a good work rate, is so ineffective at the breakdown.
 
S120 said:
I attended the game and the Force completely outplayed the Tahs. They looked fitter, stronger, more focused and generally just more prepared for Super rugby. Which I guess is understandable to a point given the number of Wallabies who would have had relatively late starts to training and the Force's dearth of national reps as well as the fact that many of them had been playing together as part of the NRC side. The Tahs were ripe for the picking in that sense.
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It was noted on Offsiders that both the Rebels and the Force would be helped by having their teams together for the NRC to work on streamlining game plans and developing the younger players further which has been the case. Add in the Crusaders only back for 2 weeks and the Tahs having so many Internationals having short off-seasons and the results aren't that surprising in context.
 
Cheika has been rubbish all year. I'm sorry if he is THAT occupied with the Wallabies, go and do that. Can we stop playing a captain who is very ordinary! Why is the Australian captain NOT the captain of NSW....jeez!
 
There's a reason why national rugby union coaches don't coach Super Rugby teams at the same time. Bad move by the ARU to allow him to coach both imo. He's a good coach, but it's strange that they allowed him to head the Wallabies and Waratahs.
 
Experimental said:
There's a reason why national rugby union coaches don't coach Super Rugby teams at the same time. Bad move by the ARU to allow him to coach both imo. He's a good coach, but it's strange that they allowed him to head the Wallabies and Waratahs.
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I agreed with it last year, I don't now. It makes no sense making Hooper national captain and having him not captain NSW! Either he is a good enough national captain or he isn't!
 
LukeParkerno1 said:
I agreed with it last year, I don't now. It makes no sense making Hooper national captain and having him not captain NSW! Either he is a good enough national captain or he isn't!
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I liked the idea of him coaching last year too, and I still like the idea - but he should have given up the Waratahs position.

As for Hooper, I personally like him as captain but he certainly doesn't lead by example. He's more suited as a Super Rugby captain rather than an national captain. I do agree though that it's weird that he's captain of one but not the other, but who knows - the ins and outs of the NSW side may be different from the national side. Probably much the same now that the coaches are the same though ;)
 
Experimental said:
I liked the idea of him coaching last year too, and I still like the idea - but he should have given up the Waratahs position.

As for Hooper, I personally like him as captain but he certainly doesn't lead by example. He's more suited as a Super Rugby captain rather than an national captain. I do agree though that it's weird that he's captain of one but not the other, but who knows - the ins and outs of the NSW side may be different from the national side. Probably much the same now that the coaches are the same though ;)
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My issue with the different captain is it sends mixed messages. I'm not 'hating' Dennis but the bloke is solid at best. If you wanted a separate captain surely Ashley Cooper should be the one!
 
LukeParkerno1 said:
My issue with the different captain is it sends mixed messages. I'm not 'hating' Dennis but the bloke is solid at best. If you wanted a separate captain surely Ashley Cooper should be the one!
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Nah, * giving the position to a bloke who's ditching the club for more money at the end of the year. Even the NRC has different captains from the super rugby, and I suppose that's the reason why the Wallabies have a different captain too. To give others a chance.
 
Experimental said:
Nah, **** giving the position to a bloke who's ditching the club for more money at the end of the year. Even the NRC has different captains from the super rugby, and I suppose that's the reason why the Wallabies have a different captain too. To give others a chance.
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Well it would still be better than Dennis being captain. Even Pottengier could have been an option, or TPN. I don't get why Hooper isn't the captain though!
 
The Waratahs wouldn't allow Cheika to give up the Tahs coaching job. They only gave their blessing for him to take on the Wallabies coaching role if he took up his last year of his contract with NSW. I think the Tahs would have been decently served by having Gibson or Grey take up the head coaching role if they needed to but they demanded to keep Cheika. It's another example of how cut up into two powerful factions Australian Rugby is, the ARU had to bend to NSW to get their man. The ARU couldn't afford to get anyone who wasn't Cheika (maybe apart from Jake White, but I'm sure they preferred having an Australian) after the McKenzie disaster

I wouldn't give up hope on Cheika doing a good job of both on the back of week one of the Super Rugby season. A lot of Wallabies with a delayed start to preseason, Force fresh and fit, if you looked carefully you could have seen a loss coming in round 1. But yeh, give him longer than a week to write off the experiment. If the Tahs keep playing like they did last Sunday for a few more weeks, then questions should be asked but it seems far too early to be jumping up and down yet.
 

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And by the way, I'm not silly enough to expect the Wallabies to make the final of the RWC. I'm not that harsh on Cheika in terms of doing a good job. This squad just doesn't look good enough to me to win a RWC with a coach who will have had the job for less than 12 months.

National Rugby bodies try to execute 4 or 8 year plans sometimes to win a RWC; Cheika coming in with less than 12 months to go forms a nearly impossible task to win the whole thing.
 
S120 said:
I wouldn't give up hope on Cheika doing a good job of both on the back of week one of the Super Rugby season. A lot of Wallabies with a delayed start to preseason, Force fresh and fit, if you looked carefully you could have seen a loss coming in round 1. But yeh, give him longer than a week to write off the experiment. If the Tahs keep playing like they did last Sunday for a few more weeks, then questions should be asked but it seems far too early to be jumping up and down yet.
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Yeah well unless the captain (current one) isn't there that aint happening. We played better last year with Hooper captain. That is just an absolute fact. Dennis is just average, I was extemely annoyed when we resigned him.
 
I'm assuming that Hunt will be sidelined from the Reds game tomorrow given his cocaine charge :\
 
LukeParkerno1 said:
Actually it is we don't have many options there and if Toomoa is the option then my point stands he is pretty ordinary
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Goodwin, JOC, AAC are three better options to Hunt off the top of my head.

Plus why would the Wallabies miss Hunt at 12 when he was going to play 15??

Plus your forgetting the scrum which is THE biggest issue facing the Wallabies heading towards the RWC. But hey it the 12 that's the issue instead:rolleyes:

Your logic as always is flawed
 
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