Matt O'Connor In...Mauger Out

[strawclearer]

I'm from the era when touch judges - for that was their 'title' - wore shorts and rugby boots below and a blazer above (typically a XXL). This clearly defined them as people who (sort of) ran up and down and who were in positions of authority over those in rugby kit.

At Welford Road - AM was in a tracksuit; RC should have been in a blazer or one of M&S's finest. Unfortunately, he could never take the boots off and SC failed to set the lines of demarcation. The rest, as they say.....

[upandunder]

That was the problem. Cockers could not let go. Living in the past, old school and no longer fit for purpose. AM with fresh ideas was stifled and we paid for it. Regardless, we need to let Matt do his thing without interference and take it from there. Let's look forward and be positive.

[BFG]

The big problem was results, if they'd been winning then I'm sure RC and AM would've got on just fine!
However you try and paint it ultimately they were trying to play a style of rugby that does not guarantee results, chucking the ball about willy-nilly means more errors, you can create the chances but must take them because putting so much into attack then it leaves less in the tank to defend.
The board are experienced rugby people, they aren't stupid and although they won't know the day to day goings on they will have seen it unfold like the rest of us.
The Saints win last week was one of the better examples of Mauger's super rugby style, we have seen it work before, when it works and gets a result it's great but when it doesn't work it's rubbish and the top teams know how to stop it, they just let us make our errors and then pick us off.
Super rugby does not require qualification by league position into the next years competitions, it does not have relegation, there can only be one winner so everybody else are all out losers together, super rugby is more like an elite skills development school.
The Premiership is a full competition including qualification positions for Europe and relegation.
We have seen lots of different types of defeats recently but the home defeat to an average Exeter performance really did show all you need to do is come to Welford Road and defend well, let Tigers run around and make theirs errors and then pick them off where they are weak and tired because in the Premiership winning matters!

[Ads677]

So, any news as to when MOC will arrive (and whether he has a visa!)?

[Iain]

So, any news as to when MOC will arrive (and whether he has a visa!)?

We were told April. I'm working on the assumption that the players all have a week off this week as they don't have a fixture and that O'Connor starts work on Monday ahead of the Bath game.

No news on his visa, but you wouldn't imagine it would be a problem.

[Scott11]

I see it differently BFG,okay Burms tried to overplay sometimes and grubbers and interceptions were picked off but the main reason we were getting beat was a powderpuff pack being smashed back behind the gainline punctuated by 2 7s in the back row and a pack of forwards inability to defend a maul and more embarrassingly score from one,see at least 3 gimmes blown at RM what does that have todo with Mauger? Cockers was running the training sessions,picking the squad,team and gameplan so shouldn't he be the one to blame? I mean we even tried to scapegoat our defence coach and the defence got even worse! I didn't want Mauger,I think the jobs too big for him but I would've rather him and a top notch forwards coach rather than MOC.

[BFG]

I see it differently BFG,okay Burms tried to overplay sometimes and grubbers and interceptions were picked off but the main reason we were getting beat was a powderpuff pack being smashed back behind the gainline punctuated by 2 7s in the back row and a pack of forwards inability to defend a maul and more embarrassingly score from one,see at least 3 gimmes blown at RM what does that have todo with Mauger? Cockers was running the training sessions,picking the squad,team and gameplan so shouldn't he be the one to blame? I mean we even tried to scapegoat our defence coach and the defence got even worse! I didn't want Mauger,I think the jobs too big for him but I would've rather him and a top notch forwards coach rather than MOC.

Unfortunately at the top level here there is a balance that has to be struck.
It's always been a difficult thing where to balance the stardust.
Credit Leicester for trying but it can't be denied it's often looked like how we try and teach the kids to play, skills first and results second which is great but only if everyone has the same approach!

[Hot_Charlie]

That was the problem. Cockers could not let go. Living in the past, old school and no longer fit for purpose. AM with fresh ideas was stifled and we paid for it. Regardless, we need to let Matt do his thing without interference and take it from there. Let's look forward and be positive.

I think you are completely off the mark with the first half of this post. If anything the opposite was true and Mauger was given too much leeway to play ball his way and recruit who he wanted. Hence our marquee signings of the past 18 months have all been behind the scrum - a scrum which has really struggled at times (too often). Ok, some of the less high profile signings in the pack have actually performed very well, but we haven't recruited an international "big hitter" in the pack since BigBadBrad came over for a season and have maybe lacked a little bit of balance.

[upandunder]

We did have Tommy the Tank but somehow Cockers managed to lose him. No mark no8 recruited despite most of Welford Rd recognising we need one. Meanwhile Saints recruit Picamole?? Who is responsible for recruiting ? Cockers? Cohen? probably not AM. We do need somer muscle and grit to stopping being driven backwards at the ruck. On an optimistic note maybe MOC will make some changes of Cohen allows him. Season is not over yet so still some hope.

[BirstallBrian]

Job descriptions don't matter...? What era are you living in.? Of course they matter - they define who does what and enable issues and conflict to be addressed.

As for all us Mauger fans dumping the past painful failings at Cockers door - that's incorrect. The failings emanated from the relationship between the two and conflicting messages and aspirations. Their collective inability to provide coherent and clear direction. That emanated from a critical failing of management above the two of them. And I think we all know who's culpable there.

Still, how long will it take the Board to entice Cockers back - reunite the Dynamic Duo, Batman and Robin, a return to past glories..? Pantomime time, anyone..?

One aspect of this puzzles me still - why dump Mauger with indecent haste at this stage of the season, 5 games left, O'Connor not able to start till April, it'll take him a fortnight to sus out who's who in the squad, and the season will be as good as over. But then, I'm a bear with very little brain.

Good night.

[jgriffin]

Cockers was oldskool. He liked big packs of hard workers (which TTTE never was in his last season for us)and the fancy dans were there to finish off. Bizarrely, that approach still works a lot of the time. Super rugby is fine when the players are supremely skilled, ABs international level under no pressure, but in the AP grind Cockers approach was no more past its sell-by-date than Maugers was the new big thing. You need both, but also a catenaccio at Blake level. Sarries do it all quite well - batter, kick, territory, chain defence, fancy dan stuff in broken play. That's why they get beaten by taking them on at the battering level, but otherwise steamroller other sides.
MOC was much more basic oldskool than Mauger, although maybe not now.

[G.K]

Cockers was oldskool. He liked big packs of hard workers (which TTTE never was in his last season for us)and the fancy dans were there to finish off. Bizarrely, that approach still works a lot of the time. Super rugby is fine when the players are supremely skilled, ABs international level under no pressure, but in the AP grind Cockers approach was no more past its sell-by-date than Maugers was the new big thing. You need both, but also a catenaccio at Blake level. Sarries do it all quite well - batter, kick, territory, chain defence, fancy dan stuff in broken play. That's why they get beaten by taking them on at the battering level, but otherwise steamroller other sides.
MOC was much more basic oldskool than Mauger, although maybe not now.

Hey leave it out with the Italian footy stuff will you? Some of us are old school Latin and Rugby and have to waste valuable time using t'interweb thing to find out what your're waffling on about.

[ellis9]

Job descriptions don't matter...? What era are you living in.? Of course they matter - they define who does what and enable issues and conflict to be addressed.

As for all us Mauger fans dumping the past painful failings at Cockers door - that's incorrect. The failings emanated from the relationship between the two and conflicting messages and aspirations. Their collective inability to provide coherent and clear direction. That emanated from a critical failing of management above the two of them. And I think we all know who's culpable there.

Still, how long will it take the Board to entice Cockers back - reunite the Dynamic Duo, Batman and Robin, a return to past glories..? Pantomime time, anyone..?

One aspect of this puzzles me still - why dump Mauger with indecent haste at this stage of the season, 5 games left, O'Connor not able to start till April, it'll take him a fortnight to sus out who's who in the squad, and the season will be as good as over. But then, I'm a bear with very little brain.
Good night.

Where did I say job description doesn't matter? I said job titles don't matter. A DOR at one club could have a different job description to one at another club.

Our DOR picked the team and chose how we played and set up the structure. Mauger didn't like this and this caused problems.

[Scott11]

Yes of course Ellis,it was all Mauger and never Cockers fault (as I roll eyes and tut)

[ellis9]

I apologise. In my opinion of course. I'm getting fed up of explaining thatthings are my opinion!