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'Angry' Lynagh slams Wallabies in explosive rant
By Alex Fisher
Australia legend Michael Lynagh ripped into the current Wallabies side after they were humiliated in the opening 40 minutes of their Rugby Championship clash with New Zealand on Saturday.
The All Blacks ran in six tries in the first half in Sydney as gaping holes appeared in Australia's defence, the visitors leading 40-6 at the break before eventually winning 54-34.
Sloppy errors, poor tackling and horrendous communication left the Wallabies in disarray at ANZ Stadium, and Lynagh could not hide his anger and disappointment.
"I can't overestimate how angry I am at seeing an Australian team have skills that are non-existent," he said on Sky Sports.
"Passing and catching and making tackles and trusting the bloke beside you are pretty basic even at schoolboy level.
"Australia has had a month to work together to try and create stuff and do things and they come up with that in the first 40? Very, very disappointing."
Australia skipper Michael Hooper acknowledged his side were not good enough early on, but was "proud" of their recovery.
But Lynagh was not impressed with his positivity and insisted there was still plenty for Michael Cheika to be concerned about ahead of the return fixture in Dunedin next weekend.
"The thing that lingers with me is the first half, how poor that was," Lynagh added.
"Michael Hooper there seemed pretty content with the second half and that we scored a few tries. We still lost by 20 points at the end of the day and at half-time we were 40 points down.
"That's an international half-back Nick Phipps, passing one ball to his right and it goes above a bloke's head. It was just so poor.
"The simple skills of passing and tackling were non-existent in the first half and that's very worrying."
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I've not watched any of the Top 14, but am I right that he was very very good for the first couple of weeks, and then has been pretty ineffective since?
Go to commentsVery good point. I think the CO2 cost of international sport is a big taboo today (and it doesn't look like it'll change anytime soon unfortunately for all humans).
Regarding your second point, I fully agree as well. We have seen this very one-eyed backlash of the French policy on the July tour, most people refuse to see that the best SA players are suffering from the exact same problem : accumulated fatigue from playing too much without significant breaks. The Boks and the Argentinians played the world cup, the URC/Top14/Premiership, the July series, the Championship, etc, etc, with almost no compulsary resting period. This has to change, for the sake of the players, and in fine for the sake of the sport !
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