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So Sharpey nominated Horwill and Simmons as the locks tonight on Rugby HQ with MMM at #6. He said he hasn't been that impressed with Douglas so far this year.

Horwill is the best TH lock in Australia.

Agree - maybe they got complacent and didn't think anyone could touch Bekker. Sam Whitelock did a great job on him.

I can confirm Mitch is at GPS

No, I meant Gill in resonse to Sully's question

He's a backup option, not a primary jumper. You also don't want your #7 up in the air too often when he should be down on the ground starting to chase the ball in attack or defence.

I’ve said it before but the Wallabies need at least three primary lineout jumpers and a fourth jumper as at least a backup option. If you’ve only got two primary jumpers, you’ll struggle to win lineout ball and that affects whether you can attack or not. Nothing shows that more than how the...

The numbers of tries scored in those two tournaments by the Wallabies was too small to get a really clear picture but if you average it out over both years the sample size gets a little larger (18 tries)- 28% of which started from lineouts and 22% from scrums - pretty close to the 30/20 split...

Yes, there was one try of the seven scored that came from a kick return. These are IRB stats.

The other thing to consider about lineouts and scrums is that if you win a scrum penalty, unless you are in great position for a shot at goal, you kick the ball out and follow it up with a lineout more often than taking another scrum so a dominant scrum earning penalties is somewhat reliant on a...

Tri Nations stats from 2011 show the Wallabies at 9% from lineouts and 18% from scrums of the 11 tries tries scored. TRC stats for 2012 show the Wallabies at 57% from lineouts and 29% from scrums but that was only over 7 tries so an even smaller sample to go by.

Nice :)

Tries scored in international rugby start from lineouts 30% and scrums 20%.

I can participate in the tipping comp this year - seem to recall when I last did in 2010 (as Austin) that I beat Jets for the season in a playoff only because we picked different teams in the GF - so bring it on :) I've tipped Easts - we played Easts and Norths in trial matches and think the...

I think your logic is spot on - that's what I observe during the games and is why I think opposition teams are disrupting the Tahs ball at the ruck, not so much the "fouling" issue Cheika is worried about.

Good point - just checked the numbers - I don't have the numbers of turnovers by individual players but another interesting stat is that Robinson has been first into 6% of all rucks this season to date, the same number as Hooper. Robinson has achieved that despite playing only 79% of the game...

It's interesting that Cheika is now talking about that change to bring a support player closer because the Tahs have been playing with their support players well away from the ball carrier and this seemed a deliberate part of the game plan to me - see my previous videos on the blog pointing this...

The measure of who's into breakdowns first is one I know other teams look at constantly so no surprise that the Tahs confirm they are too. I think you're right about Palu's impact on the balance but if Dennis goes wider, Hooper will have to do more of the on-ball work to compensate for both...

Against Scotland if the plan was to keep the ball tight you bring your #6 in tighter. If you still want to play with some width, they're even more important out wide because the heavy conditions will make it harder for any other forwards to get across the ground fast enough to help out at...

I think Dennis meets my criteria for #6 to be a frontline jumper. He seems mobile enough but he plays tighter than I think a #6 should play and given the Tahs are trying to play a wider game that doesn't make sense (although that may be Cheika's instructions to Dennis). Here are some more...