Waugh a worry for Boks
29 Aug 2008
The Aussie breakdown threat remains constant despite Phil Waugh’s elevation to the starting line-up, says Gary Gold.
George Smith has been the form fetcher of the 2008 Tri-Nations and yet Australia coach Robbie Deans has opted for Waugh to start against the Boks this Saturday. The Boks have had few answers to the Aussie back row, and the switch between Smith and Waugh might not change the fact.
“It’s so difficult to play against either of them and to be honest I was hoping neither of them would play this weekend,” Gold told keo.co.za. “I actually have no idea why Robbie has not gone with George as he was in great form.
“Having said that, it hasn’t made a difference to our preparation. They are similar players who are both very hard on the ball and are especially good in those defensive situations.”
Gold said the Boks have been working at fine-tuning their breakdown approach after a mediocre showng in Durban.
“We’ve been looking at a few micro issues at the breakdown and focusing on presentation of the ball and also the attitude in the collision. It’s going to be another big contest.”
The onus is not only on the Bok loose forwards but on the tight five as well. Gold said the Aussies will miss Dan Vickerman who is out with injury. In this area, the Boks may have the edge.
“Dan is in the mould of Victor in that he’s great at the lineout. I was surprised they didn’t use Dean Mumm a bit more, but Hugh McMeniman and James Horwill are quality players.
“I was also surprised they didn’t go with Nathan Sharpe as he probably knows Victor the best.”
The Boks will start with two No 5s in their second row once again, a stop-gap measure that’s been necessary since the injury to Bakkies Botha. Gold believes the pair of Victor Matfield and Andries Bekker aren’t far off from finding that balance.
“Andries has worked very hard on the physical aspect of his game and I don’t think it’s unfair to say that in a year he will be one of the best locks in the world.
“But we do miss Bakkies terribly. He led from the front in Dunedin, he’s really the silent assassin.
“Bakkies hists his 15 rucks but he hits them hard. Even the quality opensiders will think twice when they know a guy like that is around.”
By Jon Cardinelli, in Johannesburg
265 Comments
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29 Aug 2008, 19:54 pm
#232 Big Hit: I’m not 100% up to speed on technically exactly what the ELV’s are, and what the good ones are…only saw approx 5 S14 games this year, and not much of the recent rubble, care to share?
If you had to pick the 3 ELV’s going permanent, what are they?
29 Aug 2008, 20:03 pm
#251 Expatinus: there’s some good discussion on the ELVs on this thread, the main ones are the new lineout laws (numbers don’t matter anymore), the no passing back into 22 rule, the collapsing maul rule (you’re now allowed to), the 5m rule and the free kick sanction.
The 5m rule at scrums, lineout laws and no passing back into 22 are likely to discussed with a good chance of being made permanent.
29 Aug 2008, 20:17 pm
#252 Big Hit: tend to agree BH… think they are the 3 that actually do help the game… could probably get rid of the no numbers in the lineout, thus ensuring more space if teams elect to use a full lineout….
29 Aug 2008, 20:29 pm
#253 poppa69: yep
29 Aug 2008, 21:06 pm
#248 vindicated: Victoria you really do go on and on.
29 Aug 2008, 21:11 pm
#253 poppa69: I agree. But the rolling maul is terribly boring. The original idea was that it had to be stopped , and then collapsed – this is a good idea.
Other than that, I agree with the Big Hitter – helter skelter free kicks is too fractured and fragmented to add value.
29 Aug 2008, 21:29 pm
An interesting perspective from Planet Rugby. If you’re good enough you’re old enough.
Australian rugby is in rude health. Despite the eventual failure of the U20 team at the recent Junior World Championship, there were a host of names involved who are already either commanding or demanding regular starting spots in their Super 14 franchises.
A look at Saturday’s starting line-up also shows an exuberant vein of relative youth running through the side. The large proportion of Saturday’s starting line-up is in its early to mid-twenties, meaning that come New Zealand time (and assuming it sticks together) it will be a collection of experienced heads full of leadership, and bolstered by the likes of, say, Luke Burgess, Kurtley Beale, Quade Cooper, Sam Wykes, David Pocock, Richard Brown, etc. etc.”
29 Aug 2008, 22:24 pm
The difference between a coach and a GOOD coach is that the good coach adapts to the law changes faster than anyone else and coaches his men to exploit every advantage the law change offers.
The SA coaches are unable to think this out all on their own.
They sit back and wait to see what the antipodean coaches dream up, and then they try to copy what they’ve seen.
It’s like having to have a good joke explained to you. It simply can’t be as funny as it would be if you didn’t need that explanation.
29 Aug 2008, 22:33 pm
#257 TheTackler:
Explain?
29 Aug 2008, 22:51 pm
#257 TheTackler:
Another diffrence is, is that the **** coach insists on a four year contract & a world cup winning salary before accepting it because its only a matter of time before he’s found out to be an idiot & so needs to make sure that the early pay out is as much as possible.
29 Aug 2008, 23:10 pm
Even die hard supporters get to a stage where there are discussions on whether they sort of hope their team gets a hiding so the coach’s position becomes completely untenable.
For Ireland after the WC people really wanted change and ir took far too long
How many die hard SA fans are openly/secretly hoping Oz do a number in the next game?
30 Aug 2008, 08:18 am
#5 Tacitus: Yup the Oz first team are probably already doing drills for AB … this usless dic* is just underlining his level.
30 Aug 2008, 08:44 am
#171 Big Hit:
I will presume that that is a defacto admission that Kiwis are intellectually superior to Opium Pushing Slave Traders. Lol!!!!
30 Aug 2008, 08:56 am
I think that most are overlooking the politics of the IRB and the ELV’s. From time immemorial, the IRB has been dominated by the **** nations, because of the racist Gerrymander. This is possibly the first time that they have been over-ruled on anything. Most of the NH whinging is coming from the Opium Pushing Slave Traders, who are pissed that they are not running the game, from the bottom of their gin bottles.
This is a precedent and hopefully the OPST’s will get so upset that they will leave the IRB, allowing it to re-invent itself as a democratic organization, with the best interest of rugby as its focus.
Whinge all you like. The rest of the world does not care for your tyrannical and racist arrogance.
30 Aug 2008, 10:32 am
#257 TheTackler: Tackler our coach then was much better than you coach last year then? We never copied your coach thank goodness see what it brought us a World cup.
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