Oval Office August 2008

‘Dingo’ bites a chunk out of All Black pride

By Grant Batty

What a great name the Australian press has bestowed on Robbie Deans. In the absence of a formal title being available from the UK Queen, the Aussies have crowned him “Dingo Deans.”

Now, while word “dingo” usually suggests a person of slightly lesser qualities ... the Aussies are using it as a term of real endearment.
And why not!

The Wallabies on the attack.

In beating the World Champion Springboks one weekend and following it up the next weekend by embarrassing the All Blacks the Wallabies have announced their intention of returning to the preeminent position in world rugby.

Like many, I was of the opinion that Deans would take 18 months to “sort out” his new team but his speed out of the blocks has been, to say the least, impressively impressive!

Good on ya Dingo!

Under normal sporting circumstances and if Robbie was a player many would be calling for Deans to be tested for drugs.

But it appears that he simply relies on good values, a good work ethic, honesty and a bit of humor in conjunction with an outstanding “rugby” brain.

If, however, we ventured across the Tasman Sea to New Zealand and the term “dingo” was used to describe the All Black coach Graham Henry ... there would be a country mile between the affection used for Deans and the derogatory use of the term for Henry.

One would suspect that Henry, by record, the most successful All Black coach ever, also wears the crown as the most unpopular ever.

One of the issues that will face the New Zealand Rugby Union should Henry decide to quit because of the public pressure, is who replaces him, given that the best coach in New Zealand has a four-year contract with the Australian Rugby Union.

New laws pass the test

The first of the four Bledisloe Cup matches in 2008 between the Wallabies and the All Blacks was a wonderful result for the experimental laws.

The time the ball was “in play” was extreme and tested the fitness of all participants, including the referee.

Could we soon see the referee being substituted at some point in a game because the physical demands are impacting negatively on his decision making?

The importance of basic skills is also tested under these laws, because the more fatigued a player becomes the less they are able to concentrate on skill execution.

Don’t be surprised to learn that coaches are starting to spend more and more time on the basic skills such as “catch and pass” in the hope of eliminating simple errors during a game, particularly in the latter parts of the halves of a match. Coaches will look to imprint basic skills with a lot of repetition!