Good to hear from you!

If I am reading between the lines correctly, you are a Carlos Spencer fan and find that his style of play represents what is good in rugby, which is entirely your prerogative.

I was always an Andrew Mehrtens man over Carlos Spencer. To be sure Spencer was a mercurial player who could do exceptional things on the rugby field, but the one thing that he really needed was space, and in international rugby, playing the pivot position, this is something that is becoming less and less of a reality. When the game did become tight, I would find that sometimes Spencer would lose the plot a little, often pushing the ball along the backline when he did not see an opportunity for himself, which just creates problems… although in saying that, he did have some success with the AB’s.

In my opinion, I think you are being a little hard on the skill-set of Dan Carter. He may be solid, which affirms that he gets the job done. But basic… I have to pull you up on that one. I have yet to see, in my lifetime, a complete a 1st five as Carter. I do not think his game has a weakness [which is not the same as saying that he does not make mistakes, because he certainly does].

John Smit affirmed the quality of the man after the last test in SA when he was asked about Carter’s return.

To take the example of Giteau, to date, I have not seen him take a game on his shoulders for the Wallabies against the AB’s, and so put his impression on the game, in that he has effectively tilted the game in their favour. If ever he was going to do this, it was in Auckland, after their start, and with no Dan Carter in the opposition.

The reason I believe he did not, is that his skill-set struggles to shine in the intense Test Matches. This may happen in the future, but to date, he can do great things when space is a reality, but when it is gone, so has his match winning impact [which also affirms why a game plan must be able to stand up to the intense confrontation in such matches, thereby negating their free flowing strengths].

In regards to the 2003 World Cup, in my opinion, what lost us the game was our one-dimensional game plan that needed space to succeed. Now it may have succeeded if we had not shown our hand earlier in the year. However, the Wallabies knew what was coming and played inspired defensive rugby in the 2nd half that was smash mouth, in your face rugby.

What we needed to do was one of two things. (1) Go through the middle with the forwards, which would have drawn in their forwards and forced them to commit in these exchanges, thereby, giving us a better opportunity to attack out wide with more space to go one on one, or (2) Play for field position more, putting the Aussies under pressure, thereby giving us better field position from which to attack from… however, hindsight is a wonderful reality. Although, I would say that we should be learning from these events and there is no better time than 2011 to show our competence!

Instead in 2003, we continued playing helter skelter rugby, and every time we got knocked back, the Aussies got more excited/ confident/ motivated, and the more we got frustrated and confused, thereby in the end, we became rather clueless, and it showed.

I do wonder if both Spencer and Giteau are better suited to other positions. I think Fullback would have been ideal for Carlos, and I wonder if 2nd Five would give Giteau more space. Although, in saying that, I think Giteau has got time to develop!

Good to hear from you!

Until Next Time