Wilkinson - World Cup Balls a Joke

[psychic duck]

I'd say it's time to call it a day for Wilkinson's international career. At 32 years old, it's possible he could make it, but doubtful. Fact is,Wilkinson has essentially blocked any development of world class 10's in England since 2003. Every player who has got a chance in the England shirt during Wilkinson's many injuries, has essentially been ditched for when Wilkinson returns (and rarely in 100%). England have enough young talent who would be worth investing in that it's worth looking for the new Wilkinson, rather than churning out the old.

name one fly half who's never been given a fair run because of Wilkinson

 

[Toko_11]

Why do people keep giving Wilkinson such a hard time ? .... its like no matter what he says there are always people who come out and start criticizing him for being so terrible. well I don't see how he's terrible.

 

[Teh Mite]

name one fly half who's never been given a fair run because of Wilkinson

Shane Geraghty.

 

[j-dawg]

Shane Geraghty.

I'm pretty sure there are other reasons why Shane Geraghty has not been given a 'fair run' (although he's played)....

 

[Dizzy]

Weird how there were plenty of other players that didn't have the same problem.

Bro even Daniel Carter said something wasn't right with the ball. I remember at one point they showed percentages of all the kickers averages and they all dropped immensely during the World Cup, all but Morne Steyn of course but even he missed a few that he would usually nail with his eyes closed.

 

[Teh Mite]

I'm pretty sure there are other reasons why Shane Geraghty has not been given a 'fair run' (although he's played)....

The best 10 (at the time) in England shoehorned to 12...

 

[JW.]

The best 10 (at the time) in England shoehorned to 12...

Shane Geraghty couldn't even win the battle of 10's with a fairly average flyhalf S.Myler. Why do you hate Wilkinson?

 

[Peat]

The best 10 (at the time) in England shoehorned to 12...

And then he went back to playing 12/Myler's understudy himself. He has never been a prolonged contender for an England shirt.

 

[Teh Mite]

Shane Geraghty couldn't even win the battle of 10's with a fairly average flyhalf S.Myler. Why do you hate Wilkinson?

A-ha! A saints badge but no memory... I knew a few would appear.

 

[Teh Mite]

And then he went back to playing 12/Myler's understudy himself. He has never been a prolonged contender for an England shirt.

Tell you what everyone, we'll forget the start of the 8/9 season. Especially Geraghty single handedly dispatching Munster.

 

[smartcooky]

Bro even Daniel Carter said something wasn't right with the ball. I remember at one point they showed percentages of all the kickers averages and they all dropped immensely during the World Cup, all but Morne Steyn of course but even he missed a few that he would usually nail with his eyes closed.

[TEXTAREA]Carter blames RWC kicking slump on ball

AFP - September 27, 2011, 5:53 pm

Lack of familiarity with the match ball might be behind the Rugby World Cup kicking woes of the world's best marksmen, All Black Dan Carter suggested on Tuesday. Wayward goalkicking has been a talking point of the tournament so far, with the manufacturers of the Gilbert ball denying it's their problem, saying each ball has been checked and approved by an engineer.

But Carter said it had different characteristics to what he was used to from the Super Rugby season earlier in the year.
"It doesn't have as much give so, if you don't quite strike it right, it then doesn't fly as straight as you would like at times," the All Blacks pivot said.
"But it is the same for every kicker ... if you strike it well - then it goes straight."
Carter, who had a 75 per cent success rate in the recent Tri Nations series, described his slump to a 67 per cent average in the World Cup as frustrating.

[/TEXTAREA]

[TEXTAREA]Both RWC 2003 and RWC 2007 produced similar success rates for place kicks: more or less 72 per cent, with both conversions and penalty goals scored at similar rates. At RWC 2011, the overall success rate for place kicks dropped to 64 per cent, but there is a notable difference between conversion and penalty attempts.[/TEXTAREA]

I lost count of the number of goal-kicks that started to bend in towards the posts then towards the end of their travel they stopped bending, and in some cases, started to bend the other way (it even happened to Donald when he kicked the winning goal in the final, it curved slightly to the left and then curved to the right after it went through the posts, which is why a lot of people thought it missed).

I also saw a number of kicks that appeared to start straight only to fade dramatically at the end. The longer the kick, the more this seemed to happen.

[TEXTAREA]While conversion attempts are marginally down at 69 per cent compared with 71 per cent in RWC 2007, the success rate of penalties has dropped to just 59 per cent.[/TEXTAREA]

Penalty kicks at goal tend to be from greater distances.

 

[Tricia McMillan]

48 matches would seem to be a good sample size, however, conditions and a lot of kicks from long distance can skew the statistics. None of it seemed too bad to me, except England vs. Argentina, which I think the two kickers were a combined 5 for 16 on penalties and conversions, in an indoor stadium. None of the other 47 matches stuck out as me thinking any more than a particular kicker possibly having an off day (Piri Weepu vs. France, Georgian kicker vs. England, etc.).

 

[RedCard]

Wales had plenty of missed kicks that normally should have gone over from the respective kicker. Hook just jad his first game back and certainly had his kicking boots back on....... or was it the change of balls?

There did seem to be many players having a dip in kicking form during this RWC.

 

[Kiwiwomble]

Have Gilbert said there were lots of changes and new tech in this ball compared to previous ones (like adidas and their football's)?

if not i would be surprised if the balls were the real reason. I would guess a couple of games like the Argies v England would warp the kicking averages etc

and even if the ball was very different to previous ones it is another point altogether to say the practice ones were different to the match ones, it turns it from either a bad ball design or just not being use the the new design into some sort of conspiracy....because the powers that be want low scores...

 

[Tomsey]

The ball they used in the world cup is exactly the same ball that used in the 2011 6 nations. Nobody complained then, Wilkinson included.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I didn't think it was?
I thought it was the one used in the EOYT/warm ups?

Also, weren't they complaining about specific balls rather than all of them (like at the football world cup) - hence them switching one of the balls vs Romania