Wallabies XV

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Starting team for the weekend. I think we're going to lose again.

15. Adam Ashley-Cooper
14. Joe Tomane
13. Rob Horne
12. Pat McCabe
11. Digby Ioane
10. Berrick Barnes
9. Will Genia
8. Wycliff Palu
7. David Pocock
6. Scott Higginbotham
5. Nathan Sharpe
4. Rob Simmons
3. Sekope Kepu
2. Tatafu Polota Nau
1. Benn Robinson

Reserves
16. Stephen Moore
17. Ben Alexander
18. Dave Dennis
19. Michael Hooper
20. Nic White
21. Anthony Fainga’a
22. Mike Harris
 
Better team than the Scottish game (in what should surely be better conditions than Tuesday night) but I'm certainly not confident we'll beat Wales given the strength of their squad and how much more training together they have had.

Disappointed Palmer got axed but still a strong starting front row. Palmer should at least be reserve prop after his showing against Scotland but he may well be sore from the game.

A big and strong back line named who, if the weather is OK and Barnes can get them good ball, could puncture some holes in the Welsh back line.
 

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15. Leigh Halfpenny
14. George North
13. Jonathan Davies
12. Scott Williams
11. Alex Cuthbert
10. Rhys Priestland
9. Mike Phillips
8. Toby Faletau
7. Sam Warburton
6. Dan Lydiate
5. Luke Charteris
4. Bradley Davies
3. Adam Jones
2. Ken Owens
1. Gethin Jenkins

Reserves

16. Matthew Rees
17. Paul James
18. Alun Wyn Jones
19. Ryan Jones
20. Lloyd Williams
21. James Hook
22. Ashley Beck
 
Very good Wales side named. When AW Jones and Ryan Jones can't make the starting side, you've got a very good forward pack.

Much of the 6 Nations winning side is back so this is going to be a very, very difficult assignment for the Wallabies.
 
Tomane has apparently done his ankle. Cooper Vuna set to replace him. It just gets worst.

Wales has effectively been given a game plan by Deans: attack Vuna. A massive blunder. Surely Deans can't survive getting smashed by Wales?
 
Wales are missing Jamie Roberts, probably their most dangerous back. We're missing Cooper, O'Connor and Beale, definitely our 3 most dangerous backs. It's hard to see any area where we have an edge. The only thing in our favour is home ground advantage. Barnes will need to have the match of his life.

It should be entertaining, but I think Wales cohesion and quality will be too much in this first match. It's great to have a series though. Makes it so much more meaningful.
 
Agreed, MC. Love the 3 test series format.

As you say, with KB, JOC and Quade, it's going to be a bit of a battle creating line breaks through anything except brute force and I think that's what Deans is banking on. Ioane is going to need to do a lot of the heavy lifting but AAC, Horne, Tomane (or Vuna) and McCabe are going to have to really run hard to get through this Wales defence even without Roberts there (I do rate him as Wales' best player incidentally, just ahead of Warburton).

George North vs Digby Ioane on the same wing is a pretty great contest waiting to happen.
 
I was at the game on Tuesday. I was actually pretty pleasantly surprised with how well we rucked in the wet - thought we'd be an absolute mess. In the end Scotland defended too well for us, but I thought our defence was pretty good as well.

Biggest problem was how badly we got pushed around in the scrum. Conditions or no, we should have done better in that department. It was ultimately what lost us the match.
 
Having watched the AB's and Wallabies against Wales and Ireland respectively, I have absolutely no doubt that the current Wallabies team will be blown off the park .

After the second test match, Rod Macqueen made a bold comment that the current Wallabies team have not improved since the World Cup and that the backline was dysfunctional. At the time his comments seemed reactionary and a bit out of left field considering we just won. However, after watching the last test, you can't help but wonder why we didn't win more comprehensively. We dominated the breakdowns yet we needed a bit of luck to go our way. The question has to be asked, why didn't we score more points? In my opinion, improvements in the forward pack has masked deficiencies in the current backline.

The Wallabies backline functioned best back in 2010, when Cooper played at 10, Giteau at 12, JOC at 14 and Beale at 15. Although we lost against England, New Zealand and South Africa, the forwards were completely dominated during the whole year. The forward pack still had the likes of Maafu, Faingaa,Mumm, Brown, Chisholm & McCalman starting. The backline showed that even with a very average forward pack, they were able to score tries at will and keep the Wallabies in games; the match in Bloemfontein and Hong Kong come to mind. I was a strong proponent of the crash ball inside centre, but I think it's time we revert back to the dual play-making setup.

During the recent Welsh series, the most impressive part of our game was our forward pack and their ability to dominate the breakdown. Even though we dominated the breakdowns we only managed to score 5 tries for the whole series. A very weak effort considering we won't be having the same dominance against SA or New Zealand. People might argue that it was great Welsh defence, I reckon it was more to do with the backline, or it may well be a bit of both. Although Barnes looked very good and arguably had the best 3 games of his career, I can't help but think that his performance had more to do with a dominant forward pack rather than brilliant individual performance; taking nothing away from Barnes performance, he was bloody good in the circumstances. The amount of space and clean ball Barnes was getting is quite unusual in Test rugby, especially in the first game. In the second and third, the Welsh seemed more interested in shutting down Genia than Barnes and it worked to some degree.

An observation that I made during the First Test at the ground was that Barnes was calling for the ball way too late. He was calling for it one or two phases two late, when the Welsh had recovered. Now, one of the overlooked strengths of Quade Cooper is his ability to know when to pull the trigger, he rivals Dan Carter in his ability to read the play. It's been well documented that Barnes isn't a natural flyhalf and at times it showed. Considering that McCabe and Horne aren't really firing in attack, moving Barnes to inside centre will enable Barnes to play his natural game without the responsibilities of a flyhalf. It's certainly a trade-off type of move, as our defence will be weakened. Barnes and McCabe would make a very dangerous centre combination and both are very good defenders, which will make up for Coopers defensive inadequacy. If you're not sold on Cooper, you only need to watch the game against the Rebels tonight to understand the impact Cooper has on a backline.

Moving on, I think our best chance of beating New Zealand and South Africa lies in the backline. Our forward pack is finally decent enough and we need the backline to start capitalising. Assuming no one gets injured from now, I'd like to see a team consisting of:

1.Robinson
2.Moore
3. Kepu
4. Simmonds
5. Sharpe
6. Dennis
7. Pocock
8. Palu
9. Genia
10. Cooper
11. Ioane
12. Barnes
13. McCabe
14. AAC
15. Beale

16. TPN
17. Palmer/Slipper
18. Pyle
19. Higginbotham
20. Hooper
21. Harris
22. Horne
 

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Train on squad for the Rugby Championship:

Kurtley Beale (Melbourne Rebels), Adam Ashley-Cooper (NSW Waratahs), Drew Mitchell (NSW Waratahs), Lachie Turner (NSW Waratahs), Nick Cummins (Western Force), Cooper Vuna (Melbourne Rebels), Rob Horne (NSW Waratahs), Mitch Inman (Melbourne Rebels), Pat McCabe (Brumbies), Bernard Foley (NSW Waratahs), Berrick Barnes (NSW Waratahs), Nick Phipps (Melbourne Rebels), Nic White (Brumbies), Ben Mowen (Brumbies), David Pocock (Western Force), Michael Hooper (Brumbies), Dave Dennis (NSW Waratahs), Kane Douglas (NSW Waratahs), Cadeyrn Neville (Melbourne Rebels), Hugh Pyle (Melbourne Rebels), Sitaleki Timani (NSW Waratahs), Sekope Kepu (NSW Waratahs), Benn Robinson (NSW Waratahs), Ben Alexander (Brumbies), Paddy Ryan (NSW Waratahs), Stephen Moore (Brumbies), Tatafu Polota-Nau (NSW Waratahs).
Mainly Waratahs, with a few Rebels getting selected. Pleased for Mitch Inman.​
 
Deans has officially lost the plot. Samo is in the training squad. :eek:

He was bloody good last year but he's gone downhill extremely fast this year. How a guy considered behind Quirk, Shatz, Higginbotham and AWH this year gets selected in the training squad is beyond me.

Genia, Harris, A Faingaa, Shipperley and Higginbothan I presume have all been rested. S Faingaa and B Lucas both not considered due to injury.
 
Ben Alexander, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Berrick Barnes, Kurtley Beale, Quade Cooper, Dave Dennis, Kane Douglas, Anthony Fainga’a, Saia Fainga’a, Will Genia, Liam Gill, Mike Harris, Scott Higginbotham, Michael Hooper, Rob Horne, Digby Ioane, Sekope Kepu, Drew Mitchell, Stephen Moore, Nick Phipps, David Pocock (captain), Tatafu Polota-Nau, Benn Robinson, Radike Samo, Jake Schatz, Nathan Sharpe, Rob Simmons, James Slipper, Sitaleki Timani, Nic White
 
How Samo makes this squad is beyond me.

I'd go with a XV of the following for the first test:

1. Robinson
2. Polota-Nau
3. Kepu
4. Sharpe
5. Simmons
6. Dennis
7. Pocock
8. Higginbotham
9. Genia
10. Barnes
11. Mitchell
12. Fainga'a (simply to mark up on SBW)
13. Horne
14. Ioane
15. Beale

16. Moore
17. Slipper
18. Douglas
19. Hooper
20. White
21. Cooper
22. Ashley-Cooper
 
Reckon we've already lost any chance of winning the Bledisloe with that squad.

Sharpe, Simmonds, Timani and Douglas is absolutely pathetic. Taking 2 second rows from the team that had the worst lock pairing all season is diabolical. Simmonds has been in a huge form slump and surely can't start. Sharpe should have stayed retired after his form at the back end of the season. I'm surprised Deans didn't throw in Dean Mumm to be honest; to be fair to Deans he did include Samo.

Saia Faingaa? Come on!

Deans is just about the worst coach going around imo. I've lost complete faith in him. It's plainly obvious why he had a lot of passionate detractors at the NZRU.
 
I'd be picking Douglas, Simmons ahead of the likes of Sam Carter and Neville. Talented though they are, too raw for my liking. That said, don't like Timani continuing to get picked. Fine with Sharpe getting picked, we have nobody playing better with Horwill and Vickerman injured.

Yeh, Fainga'a needs to go desperately. He really is worthless in my eyes at test level. Give Nathan Charles or James Hanson a go. Damien Fitzpatrick is in that group too but he's injured. I like him a lot as a player and hope he gets a chance when he comes back.

Nuff said about Samo. Truly mind boggling that he is in the squad again.
 
Samo I don't mind off the bench as a no8 impact player. If we are to start with Palu we need a similar one on the bench, Samo fits the bill. That said at his age, I would have thought the time was to move on. That said his selection is understandable at least.
 
S120 said:
I'd be picking Douglas, Simmons ahead of the likes of Sam Carter and Neville. Talented though they are, too raw for my liking. That said, don't like Timani continuing to get picked. Fine with Sharpe getting picked, we have nobody playing better with Horwill and Vickerman injured.
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Sam Carter and Neville aren't the next cabs off the rank. AWH was clearly the form lock at the back end of the season. No lock got close to him, even in the Sharks game. Age is a concern but he's hit career best form and he's going to be there for the Lions. Hugh Pyle is infinitely better than Timani or Douglas.

Rob Simmonds shouldn't be in the 22. He's got talent but his form at the back end of the season without Horwill was alarming. He's probably lucky that AWH was doing the work of 2 locks. Timani, well he's one of the worst locks going around, I wouldn't start him in club rugby to be honest, he's lazy and simply doesn't understand the game.

bombersno1 said:
Samo I don't mind off the bench as a no8 impact player. If we are to start with Palu we need a similar one on the bench, Samo fits the bill. That said at his age, I would have thought the time was to move on. That said his selection is understandable at least.
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His selection isn't understandable. If you're making that argument surely Ita Vaea or Fotu Auelua gets the nod? You're talking about a 40 year old player who has player most of the year in club rugby and struggled. He's not going to provide any impact the way he's going. He's robbing the spot of a genuine contender for a starting position, someone like Mowen or Pyle .


This Australian team is in desperate need for a genuine lock/backrow swingman. Hugh McMenimam would be the perfect player. The Reds should really try bring him home,
 
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