Aussies dismiss rush threat
13 Jul 2006
Wallaby assistant coach Scott Johnson believes his players are skilled enough to deal with the Springboks’ rush defence on Saturday.
Johnson coached Wales in a caretaker capacity during the Six Nations, but turned down a permanent position in order to join the Wallaby management team. Now he’s plotting the Boks downfall, and inparticular, how to deal with their rush defence.
“It’s a high risk, high reward approach to defence,” he said. “I believe we have the athletes to deal with it on Saturday. If we can keep our composure, we’ll be fine. In the end, the only way to stop rush defence is to run at it.”
Wallaby defence coach John Muggleton said the Boks’ game plan was as predictable as always.
“They’re not a very mobile side and they try to keep their lateral movements [across the field] to a minimum,” he said. “They play to their strengths, which in their case are the men inside No 10 [the forwards]. I suppose it’s a smart system for them.”
20 Comments
13 Jul 2006, 20:52 pm
its not that we arent mobile, its just that we dont wanna be.
13 Jul 2006, 21:02 pm
LOL, be afraid, be very afraid of those outside no 10.
13 Jul 2006, 21:45 pm
Funny he should accuse the Boks of immobility just as Knuckles beefs up the Wallaby side at the expense of mobility!
13 Jul 2006, 21:52 pm
To the aussies a wheel is a smart system.
13 Jul 2006, 22:08 pm
**** skim, if the caveman hadn’t invented the wheel they’d still be riding around on squares.
13 Jul 2006, 22:27 pm
What’s your point?
13 Jul 2006, 22:27 pm
I don’t get your angle.
13 Jul 2006, 22:27 pm
The aussies seem a little square headed.
13 Jul 2006, 22:30 pm
Im sorry AUSSIES…you gonna need Chuck Norris to win this one!!
13 Jul 2006, 22:40 pm
As predictable as ever? So predictable we stuck them 3 times out of 4 last year.
This guy should be a politician!!
13 Jul 2006, 23:23 pm
They had a poor coach last year whose game plan had become too predictable , which is why they lost 2 out of 3.
There’s a lesson hiding away in here somewhere.
14 Jul 2006, 01:28 am
Johnson as usual is talking more than he walks. Last November the Wales team created an overlap outside the rush defence on a number of occasions, only to go nowhere when the cover arrived.
14 Jul 2006, 01:32 am
All of you guys who are rubbishing Johnson, make sure you return to the site after the game on Saturday-then we’ll talk.
14 Jul 2006, 05:18 am
Yawn…
14 Jul 2006, 06:02 am
Yip that lesson will be taught on Saturday in oz.
14 Jul 2006, 07:47 am
Ian i think he was actually being quite complimentry of the Boks.
He said that is the way they play which works very well for the type of players they have.
Australia must play it there way.
Hope the Boks win but i cant see it happening.
14 Jul 2006, 07:57 am
Wynand better watch Giteau’s stepping, He has an awesome step and if he beats Wynands tackle the entire backline is exposed.
You can expect allot of corner kicks for Lote and Gerrard, allot of inside passes around the fringes, some chip and chases into space and long skip passes.
These guys are smart, we should not be over confident. Main ingredient to winning, Dominate the Lineouts and Scrums and then Ricky needs to bite at Larkhams achilles like a chihuahua and disrupt him constantly.
The positive to having mobile loose forwards is that Pierre can cover the inside runner off the scrums. Joe better be prepared to put his face on the line, it’s not pretty fetching.
14 Jul 2006, 07:58 am
The rush defence can be trashed to pieces the way the French just did @ Newlands. In one of the tries, the french centre just made an outrageous inside/outside step right in de wet barry’s face; de wet tackled the wrong line and missed the tackle and the french centre broke the line, then off-loaded in the tackle bofore the winger finished off the move.
Enough said.
14 Jul 2006, 08:18 am
i dont think the boks will even come close to this one
14 Jul 2006, 08:20 am
Hang on. What part of Os, Victor, Pakslae, Joe, Smith and Spies are not mobile?
The move the All Blacks used last week of passing inside and then back out will obliterate the rush defence so I hope Jake took notice….
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