I watched the full game, but will not repeat what others have said in terms of detailed analysis of individual players.
Couple of things stood out for me. One, the team played as if they hardly ever met before. Even McGarry, who is a beast for Brisbane, looked lost at times not sure who to expect to turn up to receive his forward pass. That lack of cohesion is a worry because there is a risk there won't be enough time to fix it.
Another, it is futile to say "oh, but Wood did not play". In the games against Australia playing Wood as a centre of our attack worked well in the first game, in Canberra, but Wood had a day off that day. In the second game in NZ, AUS had our measure and knew how to adjust, and Wood was ineffective. My point is we need to play well whether or not Wood is there, otherwise he is basically the Mo Salah of the AWs.
Three, I am still not sold on Darren Bazeley as a coach and consider him about as good as Giancarlo Italiano - in that both him and Italiano are both good in some aspects but do not really belong at the level they were appointed to.
I completely agree that bringing a brand new coach for the WC finals is out of question, but many countries have done that before, except they did not have the "tyranny of distance" to contend with and had way more time than a few months. But if I were to be brutally honest I would make a call to either Ufuk Talay, or to Join Aloisi, who are both relatively unoccupied at present, and give either of them a three months contract with a bonus if we do not lose all three games at the WC. Either would do a better job at devising playing tactics and would have a more attacking bend than what I have seen last Friday night.
Couple of things stood out for me. One, the team played as if they hardly ever met before. Even McGarry, who is a beast for Brisbane, looked lost at times not sure who to expect to turn up to receive his forward pass. That lack of cohesion is a worry because there is a risk there won't be enough time to fix it.
Another, it is futile to say "oh, but Wood did not play". In the games against Australia playing Wood as a centre of our attack worked well in the first game, in Canberra, but Wood had a day off that day. In the second game in NZ, AUS had our measure and knew how to adjust, and Wood was ineffective. My point is we need to play well whether or not Wood is there, otherwise he is basically the Mo Salah of the AWs.
Three, I am still not sold on Darren Bazeley as a coach and consider him about as good as Giancarlo Italiano - in that both him and Italiano are both good in some aspects but do not really belong at the level they were appointed to.
I completely agree that bringing a brand new coach for the WC finals is out of question, but many countries have done that before, except they did not have the "tyranny of distance" to contend with and had way more time than a few months. But if I were to be brutally honest I would make a call to either Ufuk Talay, or to Join Aloisi, who are both relatively unoccupied at present, and give either of them a three months contract with a bonus if we do not lose all three games at the WC. Either would do a better job at devising playing tactics and would have a more attacking bend than what I have seen last Friday night.