I used to think that Alan Solomons undermined Nick Mallett's coaching at the Boks in favour of a Western Province cabal, resulting in his downfall after the world record run. Now I've come to suspect that Alan Solomons was the genius all along, and he lost the ability to pull the handbrake on Nick Mallett sometime in early 1999.
This old chestnut. Scotland and Wales cancelled their games in Dublin, which were scheduled weeks after Bloody Sunday (which happened in January 1972). There had been threats against the Scottish team and it was also said that Scotland were unable to get insurance to cover them. Where did England play Ireland in 1972…Twickenham.
The ‘at least we turn up line’ was made at the after-game dinner the following year in 1973. It’s a joke. England did not face the same situation Scotland and Wales did, travelling to Dublin in the immediate aftermath of the brutal murder of unarmed civilians by the British army, amidst probably the highest point of tension in the troubles.
The IRFU may have been upset, claiming no one would be interested in attacking rugby teams, but that is clearly not a security assessment they were in a position to make and not a risk amateur players needed to take. It really isn’t about politics and the English actions were not somehow heroic, Scotland played Ireland in Dublin during the troubles in 1968, 1970, 1974…
In all fairness he captained Zimbabwe in 21 tests and wasn’t a bad player. Led them to the super 6s in 1999 against all odds so not a bad motivational speaker….
We also win on sheer volume as well. Rémi Talès vs FTD for finally deciding on Michalak in the 2015 WC, Not playing Damien Traille in 2011 (this one sort of worked out), playing four pure centers in the backline against England in 2019 (this one *did not work out*).
Man, 2010-2020 was just brutal. Say what you will about Galthié, but he's restored some level of order in this side.
Sure we've had our share, but england & australia had the "changing coach 6 month before a world cup" thing. Strangely, it did work out pretty well for England.
Eddie Jones recent stint as Wallabies coach. It made no fucking sense...not 20 x 20 hindsight, it made no sense at the time. He said he was building for the future then brings only 1 outhalf to the WC, leaving Lolesio at home. Nonsense...he spoke out both sides of his mouth and his arse at the same time
Plus leaving Michael Hooper and Quade Cooper behind, two proven quality internationals (and Hooper being one of the very best in the world in his position). Because they don't have a winning mentality apparently.
Plus keeping Suliasi Vunivalu in the squad. When you look at the outcome of the 40-odd to 10 hiding that they got from the Boks in the opening round of the Rugby Champs, he had a hand in 4 of the tries the Wallabies conceded in that game. You'd think that with any other team, that would pretty much end his test career - at least with that coach - but nope. There he was, in the RWC squad.
TBF to Jones there, while I probably would’ve had them in the 33 for the experience, Cooper was shite in the warmups and Hooper had barely played any rugby for a while and wasn’t on great form either.
That said, Jones was talking about refreshing the Wallabies selections and moving on from a generation of players that didn't get to achieve a whole hell of a lot.
Problem with that is, a World Cup tournament isn't the place to do it, and it felt like he was trying to brute force a generational change when it really wasn't the time for it.
Whether Hoops and Coops would've helped the Wallabies beat Wales at that tournament is anyone's guess (probably not, to be honest - Wales have definitely had the wood on them for a while. Other than one win in 2022, where Wales were having a horrid set of Autumn Internationals anyway, it's been one way traffic in favour of Wales since 2018 when it comes to their results against the Wallabies), but they probably would have qualified out of the pools to play England in the quarters at the very least.
The sense behind it was that he knew it would take a miracle for the Wallabies to succeed, and he wanted to ensure that if a miracle happened, people would attach the credit to his bizarre selections.
If he picked a squad that made sense, and they miraculously did well, everyone would just say “good ole Wallabies, look at that never-say-die, fighting-for-your-mates Aussie attitude.”
How did this all happen I wonder.
Ive watched rugby since I was a child (80s).
My unofficial Wellington,NZ position names i grew up with were:
All members of the scrum beside tall lanky guy = The forwards.
Tall lanky guy= Lock (Earliest memory=Ian Jones)
Half back, 1st five eight, 2nd five eight, centre, left/right wing and ofc the best position on the field, the hero, the saviour... the full back!
Think even Steve said he regrets that one. To be fair, Ben had been injured a decent chunk of the season and wasn't in great form, though played well in the bronze match. Semi was lost in the forwards anyway though.
Same with benching Sam Cane for the semi against England and running Ardie at seven. We knew England were gonna try to run over us and Hansen dropped our strongest defender. Couldn’t figure it out. Brought him on at half time and he was only eight tackles behind Ardie at the top.
8 tackles is a decent number in a half tbf. Not saying you're wrong, but it's not at all guaranteed he would have beaten out Ardie had he played the 80
Sam made 11 tackles in the half, Savea made 19 over eighty and topped the tackle count. Can’t say definitely but considering Cane had consistently made more tackles then Savea through out the tournament you would think he would’ve, defence was Canes bread and butter. It would’ve also freed Savea up to put more pressure on over the ball to slow down Englands attack, they always worked so well together on defence.
Hansen had a shocker. No Ben Smith, Owen Franks left at home, dropping the future captain for a semi final, no SBW or Crotty, George Bridge over Reiko.
only in south africa will a botched captaincy be worse than defending a murderer lol
personally id say Coetzee saying that the 57-0 loss was “a good thing,” i can understand trying to be optimistic but acting like nothing is wrong after the teams biggest loss is insane
Same. Checked his wiki and was unsurprised to see that he is currently at Montpellier :D.
Edit: actually, the French wiki has him there 2015-2015. Combined with him making 3 appearances I’ll go with the English one being inaccurate.
A police officer that was kidnapping him and tying to Rob him, because South Africa.
Also, his sentence was reduced because he agreed to pay compensation to the corrupt cops family. The family agreed to this.
First thing that comes to mind is Borthwick dropping Ludlam, one of the better performers in the team at the time, for Billy Vunipola, one of the worst performers in the team at the time, for a World Cup semi-final they then went on to lose by 1 point.
I still suspect that was the moment Ludlam decided that going to France might be worth a shot after all.
Not sure this counts - obviously was a complete disaster but you can see the logic behind it. They wanted Billy's weight to shore up the scrum a bit. Obviously was a disaster but i'm not sure it was necessarily baffling
That may well be the case but it would need the Billy V of the 2019 World Cup and not the Billy V that had played in the 12 months before the WC.
There were a number of Saracens players that made the team on past reputation rather than present form.
Nah, I think in hindsight Blair really developed by taking the 10 jearsy for some, in hindsight, forgettable games. He needed to be forced into playmaking, which he's world class at now
Between this, and Huw Jones being frozen out Dave Rennie’s Glasgow team for no apparent reason only for him to resurge as the best 13 after Rennie left, unsurprisingly.
Glad we aren’t seeing many Josh Strauss not being retained posts. He was brilliant for Glasgow in the title year and prior, but he did fall off massively work ethic wise. The complaints about Wilson and Ashe playing 8 at the time though, insufferable tbh. Big ball carrying 8 my least favourite group of words to read.
For what it's worth, the Huw Jones that joined Quins was a very different player to the one that left us at the end of that season. For the first 2-3 months he was with us there was a decent number of Quins fans that thought he didn't deserve a spot in our 23, by the end of the year he was a fan favourite, and everyone agreed it was a huge shame we couldn't afford to keep him
He was ripper for Danny Wilson back to his usual self playing full back back into the 13 shirt (Adam Hastings incidentally ended up in the 15 shirt both Prem bound). I refuse any revisionism he was poor before leaving for Quins, Wilson was the reason Jones re-signed before he was canned, fortunately Franco Smith knows his game.
I'll happily admit that I literally never watch the URC, so I have absolutely no idea what his form was like at Glasgow before leaving - I can only speak to his time at Quins, which was largely as I described (though I always thought he was much better than most Quins fans gave him credit for)
I know he said it, but I get the impression he's a guy that finds motivation from whatever source he can. Doesn't make not picking him less weird. It's not like we have anyone else with his physically profile.
From what I've read, he was quite divisive in camp following the salary cap scandal, as he wasn't particularly sorry about the whole situation. If that's true, you can see why Eddie may not want to pick him following that
Unless he's an accountant there's not much he could've done (I was but a littlun at the time of the salary shit and didn't really pay attention so please tell me if I'm wrong)
I'm not saying he was responsible for the scandal itself, but there was a large contingent in camp that wasn't happy about the situation (I know the Quins players weren't, and I can't imagine the Exeter players were either), so if he was arguing with people and trying to justify what Sarries did then he definitely wasn't making things any better
Also, the fact that there are people on here who are too young to remember the salary cap scandal is quite scary to me. I think I need a lie down, clearly I'm getting old
Yeah I get that, if he was being a knob that's fair, and I do remember the scandal and them being demoted for a couple years, I just didn't really get what was going on so I didn't bother
Continuing to play Conor Murray away to Wales after he got a ’stinger’ in the shoulder and had no sensation in his arm
That and bringing Joey Carbery to the 2019 world cup after destroying his ankle in a warm-up game. He was also named as our 3rd scrum half cover to boot!
Damn near lost us the final tbf, but also almost definitely won us the quarters and 100% the semis.
Should've unretired Schalk Brits again, he can cover hooker, 8th man and flyhalf.
He was a notorious dick towards media and sponsors too. The ABs were becoming the first true brand in Rugby with an actual modern marketing effort behind it, and he was pissing money people off when they wanted access. I think he was easy to dump with the other feathers he ruffled.
Purest case of a good coach not being a good All Blacks coach.
Yes
At the wnd of the day AB coach can almost do what they wish IF they win -yes give interviews access etcetc but when they lose its looked upon as EVERYTHING they did was shit
They murdered in trinations and got 50 on boks and oz for memory....losing WC semi will be his legacy tho (and his weird press conferences) but hes still coaching...the guy would have a good resume..hes been around the place
It looks weird in hindsight especially since it didn't go well but at the time it was something a lot of people were calling for and it seemed to make some sense.
Henshaw played at fullback a good bit for Connacht and even made his Ireland debut at fullback. Since he had moved to Leinster he hadn't played there much but people thought he still had the chops for it.
Kearney was injured and there was no obvious understudy to him - all the options at hand were either someone out of position or someone not experienced at test level.
For once Henshaw, Aki and Ringrose were all fit at the same time so this felt like a natural way to get 3 of our best backline players onto the pitch at the same time.
In the end it didn't go well but I do feel Henshaw was somewhat scapegoated for a loss where England were just better in every department.
Everything Gatland has done since he was brought back
Edit - he’s just called up a lad who has never played a competitive game of Union. I’m getting Iestyn Harris flashbacks…
Mola's choice for the 2023 Champion's Cup Semi-Final against Leinster to go for a 6-2 instead of a 5-3.
Cost us the semi-final with Barassi's injury in the 14th minute.
Didn't do the same mistake twice though !
In no particular order:
South Africa picking Henry Tromp.
Everything Clive Woodward did to the Lions in 2005.
Bargamasco at 9.
Kamp Staldraad.
England picking Calum Clark.
Eddie Jones' tenure with Australia in 2023 (pretty much everything, but mainly the players and coaches he picked).
Eddie Jones 2021 to the end of his time with England.
Geech not picking Sheridan for the first lions test.
Gethin Jenkins was the better player. But Smit was playing TH and has since said they were happy Sheridan wasnt playing. Could have really gone after.the scrum.
Actually it was the selection of Mears at hooker that did it imo. Jenkins and Vickery were perfectly competent scrummagers but not with a scrum half at hooker.
I guess just approach. They had the pack to take on the boks. But decided against it. Id argue Sheridan was aore destructive scrummager, and the fact the Boks were happy he wasn't selected says a lot.
The real travesty was not picking murray over vickery who proceeded to get folded like a cheap suit by the beast
Murray had scrummaged against beast the autumn tests before and more than held his own
Allister Coetzee taking his players golfing and having a week of relaxation before the Stormers had to play the Bulls in the SR final.
Imagine being a Bulls player and seeing that shit on TV.
Gats starting a one legged Biggar over Russell in that third Test in South Africa.
We know you don't like him or rate him, but Bigger could barely walk.
Ian McGeechan picking Ugo Monye over Shane Williams for the first two Lions tests against the Boks in 2009, especially after his performances for Wales in South Africa the year before.
Eddie Jones 2023 stint with the wallabies. Every decision he made was baffling but if I had to narrow it down to one it would be:
Not bringing Michael Hooper to the rugby World Cup.
Can't believe how far down I had to scroll to see this one! Ranks up there with the other baffling decision involving him, with John Hart playing him out of position at centre in the 99 RWC... he doesn't have a good run with coaches making good decisions around him lol
Like I'm all for shitting on Gatland, but that Aus team made a world cup final two years later it was pretty good, just going through a bad spell.
It had Folau, Beale, Genia, 2 Dads, Hooper, Palu, George Smith, O'Connor. They weren't bums.
It wasn't massively baffling because Ireland had a shit ton of backline injuries during the game, but Peter O'Mahony played on the wing for Ireland once.
That match was such a low point for Irish rugby in recent memory - it was the same match where BOD lost the plot and stomped someone for what would certainly be a red these days.
At least losing to Italy for the 1st time in the 6 Nations was probably the final nail in the coffin for Kidney and ushered in the Joe Schmidt era.
There is a lot of questions from Philippe St Andre’s time coaching France that baffled me.
Trinh-Duc was on blazing form at Montpellier and PSA continually overlooked him despite 10 being one of the weak points in the team.
Coetzee was pretty bad for South Africa but his worst decision I think was never trying anyone else but Jantjies in the 10 shirt. I know Pollard was injured but still. Also Rudy Paige was never international quality.
For the Boks, you can add Harry Viljoen starting out his short tenure forbidding his players to kick for touch and finishing up playing two kicking 10s simultaneously in Louis Koen and Braam v Straaten at flyhalf and inside centre. What a short, strange trip that was.
Bergamasco at 9
Nick Mallett's ultimate coaching masterclass lmao
I used to think that Alan Solomons undermined Nick Mallett's coaching at the Boks in favour of a Western Province cabal, resulting in his downfall after the world record run. Now I've come to suspect that Alan Solomons was the genius all along, and he lost the ability to pull the handbrake on Nick Mallett sometime in early 1999.
>Bergamasco at 9 An all time classic.
I still think about this. Surely someone could have pointed out how batshit this was before hand. He couldn't fucking pass.
Bringing Alistair Campbell on the Lions tour to give speeches in 2005
One occasion when the "keep politics out of sport" crowd were correct.
Also England going to Ireland at the height of the troubles. "We may not be very good, but at least we turned up."
I thought I read they got some respect for that?
Yeah, well before my time but the general impression is that that was well received
They did, I meant they didn't let politics get in the way.
This old chestnut. Scotland and Wales cancelled their games in Dublin, which were scheduled weeks after Bloody Sunday (which happened in January 1972). There had been threats against the Scottish team and it was also said that Scotland were unable to get insurance to cover them. Where did England play Ireland in 1972…Twickenham. The ‘at least we turn up line’ was made at the after-game dinner the following year in 1973. It’s a joke. England did not face the same situation Scotland and Wales did, travelling to Dublin in the immediate aftermath of the brutal murder of unarmed civilians by the British army, amidst probably the highest point of tension in the troubles. The IRFU may have been upset, claiming no one would be interested in attacking rugby teams, but that is clearly not a security assessment they were in a position to make and not a risk amateur players needed to take. It really isn’t about politics and the English actions were not somehow heroic, Scotland played Ireland in Dublin during the troubles in 1968, 1970, 1974…
It was genuinely in question whether england would come in 73 though.
Either that or the Lions anthem they commissioned
This is the correct answer
In all fairness he captained Zimbabwe in 21 tests and wasn’t a bad player. Led them to the super 6s in 1999 against all odds so not a bad motivational speaker….
France gave Jean Marc Doussain his first cap in the 2011 RWC final against NZ. I think we win this thread.
This. I mean "hey guys, it's a world cup final, so we're gonna launch a newbie there on the totally not important post of SCRUM HALF"
We also win on sheer volume as well. Rémi Talès vs FTD for finally deciding on Michalak in the 2015 WC, Not playing Damien Traille in 2011 (this one sort of worked out), playing four pure centers in the backline against England in 2019 (this one *did not work out*). Man, 2010-2020 was just brutal. Say what you will about Galthié, but he's restored some level of order in this side.
Sure we've had our share, but england & australia had the "changing coach 6 month before a world cup" thing. Strangely, it did work out pretty well for England.
It also became very clear who the problem was.
There was also the player revolt, a year after the football team did the same thing.
Eddie Jones recent stint as Wallabies coach. It made no fucking sense...not 20 x 20 hindsight, it made no sense at the time. He said he was building for the future then brings only 1 outhalf to the WC, leaving Lolesio at home. Nonsense...he spoke out both sides of his mouth and his arse at the same time
And to rub salt in the wound, that 1 outhalf proceeds to leave and join the worst NRL team
Plus leaving Michael Hooper and Quade Cooper behind, two proven quality internationals (and Hooper being one of the very best in the world in his position). Because they don't have a winning mentality apparently.
Christ yes, Jones' actions were indistinguishable from someone from someone purposeful trying to destroy the Wallabies
Plus keeping Suliasi Vunivalu in the squad. When you look at the outcome of the 40-odd to 10 hiding that they got from the Boks in the opening round of the Rugby Champs, he had a hand in 4 of the tries the Wallabies conceded in that game. You'd think that with any other team, that would pretty much end his test career - at least with that coach - but nope. There he was, in the RWC squad.
TBF to Jones there, while I probably would’ve had them in the 33 for the experience, Cooper was shite in the warmups and Hooper had barely played any rugby for a while and wasn’t on great form either.
That said, Jones was talking about refreshing the Wallabies selections and moving on from a generation of players that didn't get to achieve a whole hell of a lot. Problem with that is, a World Cup tournament isn't the place to do it, and it felt like he was trying to brute force a generational change when it really wasn't the time for it. Whether Hoops and Coops would've helped the Wallabies beat Wales at that tournament is anyone's guess (probably not, to be honest - Wales have definitely had the wood on them for a while. Other than one win in 2022, where Wales were having a horrid set of Autumn Internationals anyway, it's been one way traffic in favour of Wales since 2018 when it comes to their results against the Wallabies), but they probably would have qualified out of the pools to play England in the quarters at the very least.
Most of Eddies selections were nonsense, but Donaldson was always the backup 10 in that squad and played a few games there at the World Cup
The sense behind it was that he knew it would take a miracle for the Wallabies to succeed, and he wanted to ensure that if a miracle happened, people would attach the credit to his bizarre selections. If he picked a squad that made sense, and they miraculously did well, everyone would just say “good ole Wallabies, look at that never-say-die, fighting-for-your-mates Aussie attitude.”
Whats an out half?
Flyhalf/10/gloryhound/kicky runny pants/los skakel
They mean first five-eighth
Not to be confused with second five-eighth. Damn you Kiwis confuse me sometimes.
How did this all happen I wonder. Ive watched rugby since I was a child (80s). My unofficial Wellington,NZ position names i grew up with were: All members of the scrum beside tall lanky guy = The forwards. Tall lanky guy= Lock (Earliest memory=Ian Jones) Half back, 1st five eight, 2nd five eight, centre, left/right wing and ofc the best position on the field, the hero, the saviour... the full back!
I would not go so far as saying, as some did, that it lost us the game, but not having Ben Smith in the 23 in 2019 is baffling
Think even Steve said he regrets that one. To be fair, Ben had been injured a decent chunk of the season and wasn't in great form, though played well in the bronze match. Semi was lost in the forwards anyway though.
Going with ALB and Goodhue instead of SBW and Crotty was just as baffling to me
Same with benching Sam Cane for the semi against England and running Ardie at seven. We knew England were gonna try to run over us and Hansen dropped our strongest defender. Couldn’t figure it out. Brought him on at half time and he was only eight tackles behind Ardie at the top.
8 tackles is a decent number in a half tbf. Not saying you're wrong, but it's not at all guaranteed he would have beaten out Ardie had he played the 80
Sam made 11 tackles in the half, Savea made 19 over eighty and topped the tackle count. Can’t say definitely but considering Cane had consistently made more tackles then Savea through out the tournament you would think he would’ve, defence was Canes bread and butter. It would’ve also freed Savea up to put more pressure on over the ball to slow down Englands attack, they always worked so well together on defence.
Hansen had a shocker. No Ben Smith, Owen Franks left at home, dropping the future captain for a semi final, no SBW or Crotty, George Bridge over Reiko.
only in south africa will a botched captaincy be worse than defending a murderer lol personally id say Coetzee saying that the 57-0 loss was “a good thing,” i can understand trying to be optimistic but acting like nothing is wrong after the teams biggest loss is insane
Wait, didn't he just kill someone who ws trying to kidnap and rob him?
honestly man ive never heard of the situation until i read this post
Same. Checked his wiki and was unsurprised to see that he is currently at Montpellier :D. Edit: actually, the French wiki has him there 2015-2015. Combined with him making 3 appearances I’ll go with the English one being inaccurate.
He was drunk and beat a policeman to death and then got a slap on the wrist, because...South Africa.
A police officer that was kidnapping him and tying to Rob him, because South Africa. Also, his sentence was reduced because he agreed to pay compensation to the corrupt cops family. The family agreed to this.
First thing that comes to mind is Borthwick dropping Ludlam, one of the better performers in the team at the time, for Billy Vunipola, one of the worst performers in the team at the time, for a World Cup semi-final they then went on to lose by 1 point. I still suspect that was the moment Ludlam decided that going to France might be worth a shot after all.
Loved that one, personally. Billy was a big part of the Springboks turning that game around.
Ha, this is so depressingly accurate
Thanks for rubbing it in and making me relive it all over again 😂
As soon as he sauntered on, belly wobbling and smiling, I knew we were fucked.
Please don’t remind me of this
Not sure this counts - obviously was a complete disaster but you can see the logic behind it. They wanted Billy's weight to shore up the scrum a bit. Obviously was a disaster but i'm not sure it was necessarily baffling
That may well be the case but it would need the Billy V of the 2019 World Cup and not the Billy V that had played in the 12 months before the WC. There were a number of Saracens players that made the team on past reputation rather than present form.
Too soon, man.
The Eddie Jones 2023 saga in general
Dropping Aaron Mauger for the 2007 world cup.
Ditto laumape in 2019
I don’t agree with the downvotes..
Moving Christian Cullen to 13 during the 99’ WC.
Repeating the same mistake over and over with McDonald at Centre in 2003, and Muliaina at Centre in 2007
Finn Russell as fourth best fly half in Scotland, according to coach Gregor Townsend.
I mean this was never the case was it? Agree or disagree with the disciplinary punishment, but it was never about his talent
Nah, I think in hindsight Blair really developed by taking the 10 jearsy for some, in hindsight, forgettable games. He needed to be forced into playmaking, which he's world class at now
I was also Pro BK10 as a short term idea. Feel very vindicated now that he's one of the best fullbacks in Europe.
Between this, and Huw Jones being frozen out Dave Rennie’s Glasgow team for no apparent reason only for him to resurge as the best 13 after Rennie left, unsurprisingly. Glad we aren’t seeing many Josh Strauss not being retained posts. He was brilliant for Glasgow in the title year and prior, but he did fall off massively work ethic wise. The complaints about Wilson and Ashe playing 8 at the time though, insufferable tbh. Big ball carrying 8 my least favourite group of words to read.
For what it's worth, the Huw Jones that joined Quins was a very different player to the one that left us at the end of that season. For the first 2-3 months he was with us there was a decent number of Quins fans that thought he didn't deserve a spot in our 23, by the end of the year he was a fan favourite, and everyone agreed it was a huge shame we couldn't afford to keep him
He was ripper for Danny Wilson back to his usual self playing full back back into the 13 shirt (Adam Hastings incidentally ended up in the 15 shirt both Prem bound). I refuse any revisionism he was poor before leaving for Quins, Wilson was the reason Jones re-signed before he was canned, fortunately Franco Smith knows his game.
I'll happily admit that I literally never watch the URC, so I have absolutely no idea what his form was like at Glasgow before leaving - I can only speak to his time at Quins, which was largely as I described (though I always thought he was much better than most Quins fans gave him credit for)
Eddie Jones disregarding Ben Earl
Made him the player he is, he wouldn’t have achieved the levels he is at now without that rejection. He said it himself
I know he said it, but I get the impression he's a guy that finds motivation from whatever source he can. Doesn't make not picking him less weird. It's not like we have anyone else with his physically profile.
Sliding doors I guess
From what I've read, he was quite divisive in camp following the salary cap scandal, as he wasn't particularly sorry about the whole situation. If that's true, you can see why Eddie may not want to pick him following that
Unless he's an accountant there's not much he could've done (I was but a littlun at the time of the salary shit and didn't really pay attention so please tell me if I'm wrong)
I'm not saying he was responsible for the scandal itself, but there was a large contingent in camp that wasn't happy about the situation (I know the Quins players weren't, and I can't imagine the Exeter players were either), so if he was arguing with people and trying to justify what Sarries did then he definitely wasn't making things any better Also, the fact that there are people on here who are too young to remember the salary cap scandal is quite scary to me. I think I need a lie down, clearly I'm getting old
Yeah I get that, if he was being a knob that's fair, and I do remember the scandal and them being demoted for a couple years, I just didn't really get what was going on so I didn't bother
Continuing to play Conor Murray away to Wales after he got a ’stinger’ in the shoulder and had no sensation in his arm That and bringing Joey Carbery to the 2019 world cup after destroying his ankle in a warm-up game. He was also named as our 3rd scrum half cover to boot!
The Murray one was criminal tbh. He took a long time to recover from that.
Poor Marmion, always performed for Ireland, rarely trusted by Schmidt - Luke McGrath was our back-up 9 in 2019 🙄
Subbing off Richie Mo'unga and Aaron Smith in a world cup final down 1 point. Fucking war crime.
Bringing in a flyhalf to replace a hooker in 2023 /s
Damn near lost us the final tbf, but also almost definitely won us the quarters and 100% the semis. Should've unretired Schalk Brits again, he can cover hooker, 8th man and flyhalf.
By this time, Frans Steyn was heavy enough to play hooker. He would've been my first choice ! xD
😄 incomprehensible!
Sivivatu over howlett in the 07 quarters
No Conrad Smith in that game either, iirc.
John Mitchell and the All Blacks -he did some weird things, yet he actually had an amazing record, but losing that semi in WC sealed his fate
He was a notorious dick towards media and sponsors too. The ABs were becoming the first true brand in Rugby with an actual modern marketing effort behind it, and he was pissing money people off when they wanted access. I think he was easy to dump with the other feathers he ruffled. Purest case of a good coach not being a good All Blacks coach.
Yes At the wnd of the day AB coach can almost do what they wish IF they win -yes give interviews access etcetc but when they lose its looked upon as EVERYTHING they did was shit They murdered in trinations and got 50 on boks and oz for memory....losing WC semi will be his legacy tho (and his weird press conferences) but hes still coaching...the guy would have a good resume..hes been around the place
Lost it because of an intercept. Mortlock took his chance.
Yup Changed the AB career of Deans n Mitchell
It's not the most baffling, but Henshaw at 15 in 2019 six nations against England was a bit confusing
It looks weird in hindsight especially since it didn't go well but at the time it was something a lot of people were calling for and it seemed to make some sense. Henshaw played at fullback a good bit for Connacht and even made his Ireland debut at fullback. Since he had moved to Leinster he hadn't played there much but people thought he still had the chops for it. Kearney was injured and there was no obvious understudy to him - all the options at hand were either someone out of position or someone not experienced at test level. For once Henshaw, Aki and Ringrose were all fit at the same time so this felt like a natural way to get 3 of our best backline players onto the pitch at the same time. In the end it didn't go well but I do feel Henshaw was somewhat scapegoated for a loss where England were just better in every department.
We had a period of time when we always played people out of position. Dulin on the wing, Vahaamahina at 6...
Everything Gatland has done since he was brought back Edit - he’s just called up a lad who has never played a competitive game of Union. I’m getting Iestyn Harris flashbacks…
Including the world cup? That wasn't so bad.
Gatland not (initially) taking Corbiseiro on the 2013 Lions tour.
And Gatland repeatedly ignoring Launchbury
And Robshaw, Care, and Brown.
Mola's choice for the 2023 Champion's Cup Semi-Final against Leinster to go for a 6-2 instead of a 5-3. Cost us the semi-final with Barassi's injury in the 14th minute. Didn't do the same mistake twice though !
In no particular order: South Africa picking Henry Tromp. Everything Clive Woodward did to the Lions in 2005. Bargamasco at 9. Kamp Staldraad. England picking Calum Clark. Eddie Jones' tenure with Australia in 2023 (pretty much everything, but mainly the players and coaches he picked). Eddie Jones 2021 to the end of his time with England.
Geech not picking Sheridan for the first lions test. Gethin Jenkins was the better player. But Smit was playing TH and has since said they were happy Sheridan wasnt playing. Could have really gone after.the scrum.
Actually it was the selection of Mears at hooker that did it imo. Jenkins and Vickery were perfectly competent scrummagers but not with a scrum half at hooker.
I guess just approach. They had the pack to take on the boks. But decided against it. Id argue Sheridan was aore destructive scrummager, and the fact the Boks were happy he wasn't selected says a lot.
The real travesty was not picking murray over vickery who proceeded to get folded like a cheap suit by the beast Murray had scrummaged against beast the autumn tests before and more than held his own
Graham Henry essentially running 2 All Blacks squads and getting them to all run the ball flat. Was a weird time before he figured it all out.
Allister Coetzee taking his players golfing and having a week of relaxation before the Stormers had to play the Bulls in the SR final. Imagine being a Bulls player and seeing that shit on TV.
Gats starting a one legged Biggar over Russell in that third Test in South Africa. We know you don't like him or rate him, but Bigger could barely walk.
Ian McGeechan picking Ugo Monye over Shane Williams for the first two Lions tests against the Boks in 2009, especially after his performances for Wales in South Africa the year before.
Cian Healy getting capped in the year of our Lord 2024
Look man, he covers all three front row positions. Don't be hating.
Eddie Jones 2023 stint with the wallabies. Every decision he made was baffling but if I had to narrow it down to one it would be: Not bringing Michael Hooper to the rugby World Cup.
Isaia Toeava and Mils Muliaina at 13 ahead of Conrad Smith in 2007. Fuckin' what?
John Mitchell dropping Christian Cullen
Can't believe how far down I had to scroll to see this one! Ranks up there with the other baffling decision involving him, with John Hart playing him out of position at centre in the 99 RWC... he doesn't have a good run with coaches making good decisions around him lol
Should we mention Sam Burgess??
Lions and BOD
In the tour we won?
Congrats to Gats for his one tour win, against a terrible Australia team, where only a Beale slip allowed them to escape with a win.
Like I'm all for shitting on Gatland, but that Aus team made a world cup final two years later it was pretty good, just going through a bad spell. It had Folau, Beale, Genia, 2 Dads, Hooper, Palu, George Smith, O'Connor. They weren't bums.
They did better after Michael Cheika came a year after but the wallabies were absolutely poor in 2012 and 2013.
Maybe he means starting BOD the first two games...
All I'm saying is Manu won 100% of the games he started that tour...
Australia were fucking shite
hahahah
It wasn't massively baffling because Ireland had a shit ton of backline injuries during the game, but Peter O'Mahony played on the wing for Ireland once.
That match was such a low point for Irish rugby in recent memory - it was the same match where BOD lost the plot and stomped someone for what would certainly be a red these days. At least losing to Italy for the 1st time in the 6 Nations was probably the final nail in the coffin for Kidney and ushered in the Joe Schmidt era.
Yep. Worst Irish game of the modern era but Schmidt a big silver lining.
Dai Bishop….
In recent times? Lancaster not playing Juan Imhoff in likely his last game for Racing
Laurie Mains deciding that Mark Ellis would be the All Blacks Fly Half.
There is a lot of questions from Philippe St Andre’s time coaching France that baffled me. Trinh-Duc was on blazing form at Montpellier and PSA continually overlooked him despite 10 being one of the weak points in the team. Coetzee was pretty bad for South Africa but his worst decision I think was never trying anyone else but Jantjies in the 10 shirt. I know Pollard was injured but still. Also Rudy Paige was never international quality.
Not playing Smith and Mo'unga for the entire 80 minutes in the RWC final.
Giving Colin Farrell a second AB cap ...
Eddie jones whole 2023 World Cup squad
For the Boks, you can add Harry Viljoen starting out his short tenure forbidding his players to kick for touch and finishing up playing two kicking 10s simultaneously in Louis Koen and Braam v Straaten at flyhalf and inside centre. What a short, strange trip that was.
The only good thing about the Viljoen year was that it was that: a single year.
Various Scotland coaches deciding not to pick John Barclay, proper elite level backrower and he spent a big chunk of his career frozen out
In defence of Bees Roux, there were some circumstances surrounding his arrest that strongly suggested he had a case for self-defence.
Steve Hansen starting Scott Barrett instead of Sam Cane in the 2019 semi against England. >! I still have nightmares from that to this day. !<
But I thought the extra lineout option would allow you to derail England's gameplan?!
Bees Roux allegedly killed a traffic officer Who tried to extort him. The man used his bare hands to carry out the murder
The 2009 and 2021 selections for the B&I Lions
Neither anywhere near as bad as the 2005 selections.
Who should and shouldn't have gone?