What has happened to the Baggy Greens?

I've been completely out of touch with cricket and rugby since moving to Boston. Which, based on how the Wallabies and the Baggy Greens have been going, is probably a good thing - neither team has managed to win a game since I've left Sydney. The Wallabies are dead last on the 3N ladder and probably won't win a game this season, while the Baggy Greens are getting publicly humiliated by England, losing the second Test by 2 runs and drawing the third, and looking like getting completely rolled in the fourth.

The Wallaby demise is not unexpected. Australia's depth in rugby has never been great, and from what I can gather it appears as though we've been completely shafted by injuries this year, losing Larkham, Latham, Rogers, Giteau, Flatley (useless idiot), Sailor, Mortlock, Turinui, Paul, Cannon and Vickerman at various stages of the season. Considering we're playing our second team against the Bokke and the ABs I expect us to get hammered, they're quality teams after all.

But the cricketers' loss of form is mystifying. This was the team that won in India for the first time in ages less than a year ago. We flogged seven shades of shyte out of the Black Craps a few months ago and easily did for Pakistan over Christmas. But since arriving in England the Baggy Greens have been woefully inconsistent - we started poorly in the ODIs but managed to regain form towards the end, then we won the Lords Test easily but have been outplayed in every game since then. We were lucky to only lose by 2 runs in the Edgbaston Test and only some Punter heroics saved us from a defeat in the Third at Old Trafford. Now here at Trent Bridge we look like we've gone from bad to worse, forced to follow on for the first time in 17 years and looking anything but a champion side.

It's mystifying. It's hard for me to comment intelligently as I haven't seen a single bloody game, but it looks like our batting has just completely failed to fire. The bowling has been knocked around by Pidgeon's injury and by Dizzy's complete disintegration, so I can understand why the Poms have been putting up some big scores. But our batting lineup is virtually unchanged from the one which has dominated for years. Guys like Haydo, Marto, Langer, Gilly and Co have just not looked remotely like lasting against the Pom bowlers. Punter has shown some fighting spirit but the rest seem to have folded meekly. I don't know why they can't try and grit it out and fight for their runs rather than trying to flog the bowling to all parts and getting knocked over as a result. It seems to have been a gutless performance from what I've heard.

Anyway, I hope they can turn it around. Doesn't look like it though. They just seem to be raging against the dying of their light, though raging might be a bit generous.