FEBRUARY 2006

SAUCER OF MILK AT HALFTIME ?

Unfortunately giving Australian forward packs a saucer of milk at halftime may become common practice during the Super 14. I watched the Reds play the Blues at Ballymore it was a woeful standard with the Reds getting up to win. The Blues did not field their All Blacks for this match. The Reds forward pack was particularly ordinary carrying over from the Wallabies form with another display more akin to Golden Oldies. Honestly the Kiwis must laugh at Australian forwards there is no chance of getting punched, kicked, rucked or even raising a sweat against these wimps running around in the Australian teams, exception is the Waratahs.

I went to another trial in my hometown of Gosford between the Blues and Waratahs. The Waratahs are looking good, beating the Blues in this match, with the All Black reps from the Blues making their appearances after half time. I have not seen a match like this live for a few years and I must say I was not impressed. Super 12/14 Rugby does nothing for me; it is so different from Test Match Rugby. It is almost like the difference between 1-day cricket and test cricket. There are no mauls, no power scrummage, no numbers smashing into the rucks it is constant procession of hit up, recycle, spin it wide, recycle, hit up, recycle, spin it wide. It is fast and furious but ultimately boring, you get sick and tired of all the forwards bludging looking for a run. Rolling mauls are extinct; they are like the footage of the last Tasmanian Tiger trotting around the zoo in the 1930’s. The only place you will see a rolling maul is on video footage of the Queensland team in the mid 1990’s.

Bubba’s predictions for Australian Teams and Auckland Blues in the 2006 Super 14
Waratahs to finish 1-4
Brumbies to finish 6-10
Western Force to finish bottom 4
Reds to finish bottom 4
Auckland blues 3-6

Let’s see how my predictions finish up at the end of the Super 14, post up your own predictions on the message board. Player to watch is John Senio of the Blues, absolutely electric.

Eddie Jones had to go, you can’t lose that many Test Matches in such dismal fashion and expect to stay in the job. I have often repeated in my previous articles that Eddie should not cop all the blame as he has not had much to pick from. I don’t think Eddie can do much with the Reds as well; the woeful Brisbane Club competition is just not supplying enough players to the Reds. Eddie should throw a bit a of his theory, video analysis and lectures out the window and return to some of Rugby’s traditional training and values that have been forgotten in the new era. I see that a few of the Kiwi sides are pulling tractor tyres and pushing around old cars at training like they did in the old days and also getting good results.

Congratulations to Knuckles for getting the Australian coaching job. I hope he and his coaching team of Axel Foley and Scott Johnson do well. Unfortunately with only one of the Australian Provinces doing well, I think they will still have another tough year with the Wallabies. I am hoping Knuckles takes them on some of his infamous training camps, I have given some details below of one of them, it is good reading.

The John Connolly technique of sorting out who were the men and who were the marsh mellows. Knuckles would take the whole squad bush for the weekend then flog them on Friday and Saturday with mountain climbs, treks through leach infested jungles, giving them limited water and food until they were delirious blithering idiots. Then on Saturday night under canvas and far away from prying eyes he would give the whole squad copious amounts of rum and FourX. Knuckles subscribes to the theory of if you drink a bottle of rum and don't fight you are a coward; so it would be anything goes in the bush with all scores settled. Then on Sunday at 6am wake the squad up for a 6am 30km trek to get out of the bush. Those who could not survive this weekend are not mentally tough enough, a good way of sorting wheat from the chaff that is not done these days.
Try trekking 30km in the bush through 40 degree heat after drinking a bottle of rum and copious beers, you find out if you are tough or not.

o that’s Knuckles a less theory and more passion sort of a coach, which is probably want the limp wristed Wallabies need at the moment. He has two outstanding deputies in Michael Foley and Scott Johnson; they should be a very good coaching team.