<div class='quotemain'> eddie jones beat the allblacks more than once in three years. top of the table and then they lost the semi and went way down hill with knuckles still coach for at least the next two years as far as i know. playing giteau at nine is a waste of his talent hes a far better second five than half and the wallabies have won without a 5/2 bench this is just an excuse to dump gregan who is still the best half in aus. scott fava should be recalled at 8 or is not in aus anymore? [/b]
yeah but spider, you have to remember when Eddie Jones' success as Wallaby coach came... straight after the McQueen era, with Eales still captain. After Eales retired there was not much success in the team and the foundations began to crumble, and a lot of it had to do with Jones's **** coaching and selection process.
Eddie Jones was just lucky to catch the coat-tails of a fantastic coach in McQueen at both the Brumbies and Wallabies. He inherited dynasties that could not fail with the players and the methods coached so well into them. But once he started messing with the structures and his influence began to show thru, the dynasties began to crack, moreso at Wallaby level.
Knuckles is also crap, but more for the reason that he is no good for the future. He plays too much politics, and creates an environment of distrust around the place that is no good for team building for the future. I will be happy when he is gone so that we can concentrate on some of the good younger players that are coming thru this year, and get them together as a unit for the future.
<div class='quotemain'>
scott fava should be recalled at 8 or is not in aus anymore?
[/b]
Still very much a Force player, but me thinks there may be somewhat of a dislike of us from some Eastern coast sections, example. Staniforth getting as little time as they can possibly give him despite his usual great play....
Or maybe I'm just paranoid and our Force players simply can't stand up to the rigours of Test rugby that many Waratahs and Reds clearly can
[/b][/quote]
Methinks more the reason why Fava is not there is that he is out of favour with selectors because of his off-filed stuff that happened. also that stopped him being able to make an impact in the Super 14 this year.. disrupted his momentum.
Unfortunately for Staniforth Australia already have two world class centres in Giteau and Mortlock.
Staniforth is great but it's hard to make more time for him when you have those guys in the team. Plus Ashley-Cooper is the number on backup for outside centre.
I think the selectors mostly see him as an inside centre which is fair enough. Australia already has other guys more qualified for the wing. [/b]
I still think that Staniforth will be a good option as a backup for the wing, and thats why selectors can afford to pick less wingers for the squad. and hence why i think Gerrard will miss out. and should...
[/b][/quote] i'm sorry i must have imagined the 2003 semi final four years after macqueen with no more eales though for the life of me i can't get this quote out of my head "four more years, you'll have to wait four more years" must be from something else
more to the point is the lack of change in his teams young talent didn't get brought through(partly eddies fault) into the team. so often he had to get creative with what he had playing two opensides this worked initially and he mastermind the shut down of the abs play exposing their lack of patience and a plan b(2003 semi). this still seems to be a problem for us. going scoreless for more than a half is unacceptable(MCG 2007). i liked to see knuckles abandon the whole giteau at half like i said creativity can be required but this seems unesscessary.
