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In the 20 minutes against Argentina ABs in Bled 3 at least twice.

Simmons has certainly lifted his game in Tests in 2014 with a tackle efficiency of 90% in 9 Tests. But his work rate is very low - not making double figures in any Test. Average is ~7 tackles per Test. Carter is close in tackle efficiency at 88% but when he's on he's on being top tackler in 2...

Your comment is arguable as Hodgson's early engagement (1st or 2nd to ruck) is much higher than Hooper's. Against Argentina - Hodgson 79% and Hooper 63%. However, we were talking tackling so will limit my comments to the subject matter. Hodgson's tackle effectiveness has been 100% in Tests...

Disagree. There was no prior commitment to any strategy IF the Spirit made the finals. The 23 who played against the Melb Rising included: 11 Perth locals (4 in run-on XV); 4 x 2014 Replacements (Stander, Hopkins, Prior and Holmes) 2 x EPS (Abels & Heiberg) By my count that's 17/23 or 74%...

The Spirit gets my vote... The reality is that they've played selections exactly as they said they would when the NRC was announced! I reckon Kevin Foote has done a great job of raising the awareness of a large number of local rugby players re what's required to make it at the next level...

No argument.....Matt Hodgson......ball-carrier never too big. At only 102kg rarely gets the dominant tackles but most always gets his man. Just what No 7s should do! In 2014 has tackled at 92% efficiency in Super XV (leading tackler by heaps) and 100% in limited time with the Wallabies...

Totally agree with your comments re Pocock. Pocock was made Captain of the Western Force at the request of the ARU and in an effort to keep him at the Force. Up until that time he hadn't even been a member of the leadership group. He struggled in this role because his immaturity on all...

Would welcome some guidance on finding reliable individual player rugby stats for test matches. There appears to be BIG discrepancies between those that are readily available. SANZAR is generally in close agreement with ESPN Scrum stats (prob same source) but those on Fox Sports seem way out of...

Foley already has two very good assistants in David Wessels and Kevin Foote. Both have done a great job over the past 2 seasons and are very much part of the team. With the ongoing improvements wouldn't expect any changes. Just the injection of some new talent (e.g Steve Mafi to replace...

Pleasing too see that it's not just me and SuperSports...... Matthew Burke in today's SMH in his article of "A Dozen of the Best: Super Rugby's Star Players"... Read more...

Gill, due to injury, played for less than half the season in 2014 and wasn't even a run-on selection in the last round Reds vs Waratahs (played half the game). Again, stats confirm that he was out-performed by most SXV 7s in 2014. He needs a good showing in the CW Games to even be asked to...

One step at a time..........I consider that Hodgson has earned some game time for the Wallabies. However....IF Hooper gets injured (AND I HOPE THAT HE DOESN'T) Hodgson at 7 and Captain isn't a bad option. I've always thought that the Wallabies Captain should come from the Captain of one of...

The good thing about stats is that you can always refer back to them. Hooper topped the tackle count for the Waratahs for 9 of the 16 regular games (56%). He was out-tacked by Backs on 4 occasions (Phipps x 2, Foley & Horne) + Palu, Potgieter & Hoiles Hodgson topped the tackle count for...

I agree, one has to also look at consistency over the season. Maybe it's also worth looking at your own Bob Dyer quote re playing as a forward. Does "tightness" include seagulling on the wing?

Fantastic to see Matt Hodgson selected in the SuperSports SuperWrap SXV 2014 team as their best/most consistent No 7 in Super Rugby for 2014. Pleased that his skills are at least appreciated in South Africa. His stats speak for themselves: No 1 in Tackles (42 more than any other No 7, 53...

How's your hat tasting?

100% convinced that if given a chance Phil Kearns would talk up every Waratah player such that, in his view, the Wallabies would be 100% Waratahs. Boring to the extreme!!!

I continue to find the lack of rulings re head-high tackles confusing. Constantly we see players at the breakdown being wrenched away by arms around the head or neck. In any other instance a player's head/neck is protected. Similar for the use of shoulder charges in the cleanout. In a...

Check out the Crusaders vs Force game from last weekend. The Crusaders continually stood beyond the breakdown, after the cleanout and holding onto the Force player but Mike Fraser didn't penalise them from from go to wo.

What everybody is missing about KBomb is just how much he has developed under the guiding eye of Michael Foley. He certainly wasn't Wallaby-ready last year. He started to show the benefits towards the end of last season but has really developed during the bulking-up in the post-season in 2013...