psychic duck
International
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2011
- Messages
- 5,094
I would have sacked Phelan in 2010 after back to back defeats to Scotland and wouldn't have renewed his contract after the RWC, look at his total record as Argentina, under him they have a win rate comparable to Gareth Jenkins' time in charge of Wales and they side has now fallen to 9th in the rankings. To be honest, the people who were singing Argentina's praises so highly earlier were mainly people not too familiar with Argentina who had thought Argentina would be just rollover and be thrashed every single match in the Rugby Championship like Italy when they first joined the 6 Nations. Argentina weren't unlucky at all, a side that considers themselves a top 8 side should not be losing to Ireland by more than 14 and costing extra ranking points which saw the Pumas fall out of the top 8, and whilst Gilroy was magic, some of the tries especially Sexton's were simply not good enough defence, add to that the lineout, scrums were sub par and the side were largely uninspring in attack and that was one of the worst performances by Argentina for ages.
From observation of Argentina's fans and media, they seem to be satisfied and quite lenient to the side even in defeat as long as big Puma passion is showed by the team, even if the skill is lacking. Hence the big backlash in Argentina at the last two defeats where commitment and effort were seen to be lacking somewhat.
I personally don't think Phelan should be sacked, and should be allowed time until his contract runs out in 2013 before evaluating the progress made. But Phelan is sort of to Argentina what Kidney is to Ireland, is about 6 months to a year late on every selection that needs to be made, and saves his job through one off performances but the side is for the most part uninspiring under him.
