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If it is wet, I reckon we'll be in trouble - dry and an outside chance.

Agreed - any of the top 4 SS would smash Gen Blue - nothing of note in the Waratahs Academy front 5, and a horribly weak back row. Reckon even a 'best of' SS Colts would beat them - they could trial that as an idea.

True - the Waratahs Academy is low performance rather than high performance. NSW Waratahs Academy need to watch way more Colts Shute Shield - they could upgrade their entire back row.

The knock-on effect from this (for NSW) is those ignored/unseen players never had the chance to impress selectors for JWBs as N Grey only chose NSW players from Waratahs Academy (where his assistant coach is the HP Director). Were/are they better than the Waratahs Academy incumbents? Some...

This is exactly what we should be seeing in Shute Shield (in my opinion) after Super Rugby finishes for players out of WBs contention. It strengthens Shute Shield and raises the bar for the competition - it also allows the current SS players to show their abilities against Super Rugby contracted players.

That's the issue in a nutshell (for NSW) - players selected into Gen Blue were then auto-rolled into Waratahs Academy without checks and balances, without looking at the Shute Shield Colts later developers. To add insult to proverbial injury, last year's NSW U19s coach chose many of his own...

Watched the game - 1st thing I noted (and yes I know it was raining) - how much ball did we kick away? Even in good attacking positions we kicked ball away. Our back row (bar #7) is weak (with little or no firepower on the bench either - in this or the last game) - #6 is a liability and...

Pietsch is a #7 playing #11 - if we have gas on the other wing it could work. He has a problem finishing, but his work rate is high.

It is surprising that Barrett struggled so much - he is supposed to be one of the forwards of the future. We do need some more power in the back row - the front 5 did a lot of work hitting up, and #7 did the lion's share of the back row workload.

Hamstring in training for Sharples, and broken leg for Barrett I saw reported on rugby 365 news I think.

Just goes to show the step up in physicality with 3 of those boys injured without playing a full game - and sadly for Sharples, going out in training, which must be heartbreaking. Was the Di Staso injury carried with him into the tournament, as he looked to be playing injured from the get go -...

Yes - TMO tried to influence the ref on that call, and she wanted very little of it - she initially said nothing wrong, and he kept showing her replays.

Backs in the 2nd half were good - #23 injected pace and momentum. #10 ran the game well, #4 and #7 are work horses, the latter looks more suited as a #6. #8 and #6 look to be the weak links, with #20 off the bench even weaker. The loss of the two props to injury will hurt our scrum even more.

Agreed - seemed to be trying to talk a yellow for #7....not sure it was even a penalty.

Injured? Missed 1st 20.

Yes - it perpetuates into U19s and U20s - once a PONI always a PONI, without checks and balances - Waratahs Academy has numerous players with "performances below expectations".

Ah - I did see the Easts Colts #9 was a late withdrawal today - a late call up as replacement?

Oh dear - prophetic; saw Beale limp off for Randwick earlier - didn't look good.

Oh dear - Beale limped off looking pretty gutted at Easts. Ankle it looked like. Good win by Randwick though.

Waratahs need a proper #7 IMO (not a 6.25 which Gamble plays like). Not sure if Wilkin is that or just another 6.5 type player (6.5 coined by Chris Robshaw prior English Captain, who was self professed as being neither a genuine 6 or 7). Probably a conversation for the Waratahs thread.