Wallabies more flat then a old Diet Coke

Mirror, mirror on the wall, why do the Wallabies seem to be getting further from it all?

Well, I think I can answer that question, and to do so I can use my real world experience doing S&C for Olympic windsurf athletes. Sometimes they come back stronger, fitter, but end up getting worse results. What we need to understand is they haven’t inherently gotten worse, it’s more that everyone else has just gotten better.

When I first started writing about rugby all those years ago, I made a promise I would never single out individual players for being way, way below par, or shit on somebody who was legitimately trying their best. To be fair about Meredith at 10, the best way I can describe it is this. Imagine a guy has a small hammer and a small handheld pickaxe and needs to go through a brick wall as quick as he can. What I saw from Super Rugby, and was further confirmed by watching him in every Test, is at this moment he just doesn’t have the tools or skill set.

Every season the fly-half is turning more into an NFL style quarterback, and seeing him clearing out, not setting up the back line, it became very clear to me he is a good hole runner, or not bad off the cuff, and in Shute Shield or even Super Rugby you can get away with that and it kind of hides game management, but he at this point just doesn’t have it.

I also feel the whole back row needs to change. It feels like Fraser McReight, if the ref is refereeing a certain way, lacks the depth to adapt his game and keeps trying the same thing. I compare it to a magician trying to pull a rabbit out of his hat repeatedly when it doesn’t work. I personally like Wilson, but I feel he is running flat, kind of out of ideas.

The centre pairing and Suaalii situation is becoming more apparent. Chris Ashton, the former English winger, made the bold statement, “this guy has been in rugby 2 years and still hitting rucks like he’s hardly played rugby.” After thinking about that observation, I do think Australian coaches have treated him a bit like an untouchable figure, as if he’s doing us a favour playing for the Wallabies.

I think what hurt most for Wallabies fans was the rolling over and dying. Every ruck, every penalty, England standing over us and us just taking it. It does feel collectively, for a lot of the current team, that showing up is enough, that “well I’m a Wallaby and this is the best I got.” I guess what a lot of Wallabies fans want to see is almost a bit of that dog which comes from country rugby in our roots. If we’re going down, “I’ll take some c***s with me.” Just didn’t see that.

All we saw was a bunch of guys who looked like professionals at looking disappointed.

I want to be proven wrong. I want to be incorrect. But it just feels this team is flatter than a Diet Coke that was left unopened for two evenings, sitting next to the half eaten pizza beside the pantry.

Kitcho Evangelidis