2010 Wallabies End of Year Tour (EOYT)

[Groucho]

Beale, JOC (James O'Connor), Hynes
Mitchell, Turner, Davies, McCabe
AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper), Inman
Giteau, A.Finger
Cooper, Barnes, To'omua
Genia, Burgess, Kingi
McCalman, Brown, Mowen
Pocock, Hodgson
Elsom, Higgingbotham
Mumm, Simmons, Douglas, Sharpe
Alexander, Kepu, Ma'afu
Moore, S.Finger, Charles
Robinson, Slipper, Palmer

I think To'omua has to be in there to continue his development. Palmer is my bolter, as he can play both sides.

 

[tranquility]

I think To'omua has to go. He is a fantastic talent at 10. I would also like to see Jake Shatz go ahead of maybe a Ben Mowen type.
Kingi should be the third 9, Douglas should tour. Im not fully convinced of Inman, but there arn't not many 13s - I would not want him running on against the Frogs. Chisolm will be touring. Is Fitzpatrick injured? I would like to see Palmer tour as well.

 

[RugbyReg]

gees 37! You've gotta take rookies in that lot. Ok, I've re-thought and re-picked.

Fullbacks: Kurtley Beale & Peter Hynes
Wings: James O'Connor, Lachie Turner, Drew Mitchell, Luke Morahan & Nick Cummins
OC: Adam Ashley-Cooper & Mitch Inman
IC: Matt Giteau & Berrick Barnes
FH: Quade Cooper, Matt To'omua & Christian Lealiifano
SH: Will Genia, Luke Burgess & Brendan McKibbon
No 8: Ben McCalman & Ben Mowen
OS: David Pocock & Matt Hodgson
BS: Rocky Elsom, Scott Higginbotham & David Dennis
Lock: Nathan Sharpe, Rob Simmons, Dean Mumm & Kane Douglas
THP: Ben Alexander, Salesi Ma'afu & Jeremy Tilse
Hooker: Stephen Moore, Saia Fainga'a & Damian Fitzpatrick
LHP: Benn Robinson, James Slipper, Sekope Kepu

There's a hell of a lot of versatility there with Beale, Hynes, Turner, JOC (James O'Connor), Mitchell, Cummins, AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper), Gits, Berrick, Quade, Lealiifano, To'omua, McCalman, Mowen, Hodgo, Rocky, Higgers, Dennis, Mumm, Alexander, Tilse, Slipper and Kepu all utility players.

I've gone for nine front rowers all up, as I think that's the balance they'll need come the tour (with mid-week games). Weeks and Fairbrother (to a degree) are unlucky. Almost had Leroy there for Mowen, but I think the lineout work of Mowen, and his work rate fits more with the Wallaby team balance.

With no Morty, Chambers, Horne or Diggers there is a distinct lack of 13s and Inman jumps up the pecking order, but with Morahan and Cummins able to provide cover at a pinch. McCabe and Davies unlucky, but I think the game to play oop norf more suits Mozza and the perm.

McKibbon's kicking game get's him there ahead of the other candidates.

 

[Slim 293]

I don't think that there should be too many uncapped, surprise, selections for the tour. This is considering that, due to injuries, many of the Wobs avaliable XV are second-choice anyway or are playing out of there position due to injuries. Second, I do not agree that there is enough time left before the WC to attempt to develop another round of youngsters, unless a player has a absoulte bolter (ala Genia 2009). Thus, the EOYT should be an attempt to give some of our young, although reasonably established, players some much needed test matches, and experience, under their belt. In addition, I believe that some of the recently 'discarded' players whom have a ton of experience should be given a re-call . I throughly concur with Eddie Jones' belief that experience is absouluty paramount to WC success - it is also a lack of experience which has cost Australia some close games in 2010.

For these reasons, this would be my EOYT 37-man squad:

Beale, JOC (James O'Connor), Shepherd
Mitchell, Turner, Hynes, McCabe
AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper), Cross/Carter
Giteau, A.Faainga
Cooper, Barnes, Toouma
Genia, Burgess, Valentine
McCalman, Brown, Mowen
Pocock, Waugh, Hodgson
Elsom, Hinningbotham
Mumm, Simmons, Douglas, Sharpe
Alexander, Kepu
Moore, TPN, S.Faainga
Robinson, Baxter, Slipper

Hahahahaha...

 

[fatprop]

Palmer to waddle around and hold up the scrums in the mid week games makes some sense.

Fullbacks: Kurtley Beale & Peter Hynes
Wings: James O'Connor, Lachie Turner, Drew Mitchell, Pat McCabe & Nick Cummins
OC: Adam Ashley-Cooper & Mitch Inman
IC: Matt Giteau & Anthony Faainga
FH: Quade Cooper, Matt To'omua & Berrick Barnes
SH: Will Genia, Luke Burgess & Brendan McKibbon
No 8: Ben McCalman & Richard Brown
OS: David Pocock & Matt Hodgson
BS: Rocky Elsom & Scott Higginbotham & David Dennis
Lock: Nathan Sharpe, Rob Simmons, Mark Chisholm, Kane Douglas & Dean Mumm
THP: Ben Alexander, Salesi Ma'afu & Dan Palmer
Hooker: Stephen Moore, Saia Fainga'a & Nathan Charles
LHP: Benn Robinson, James Slipper, Sekope Kepu


So we could have a mid week side of

1 Sekope Kepu
2 Nathan Charles
3 Dan Palmer
4 Rob Simmons
5 Kane Douglas
6 David Dennis
7 Matt Hodgson
8 Richard Brown
9 Brendan McKibbon
10 Matt To'omua
11 Pat McCabe
12 Anthony Faainga
13 Mitch Inman
14 Nick Cummins
15 Peter Hynes

16 Saia Fainga'a
17 James Slipper
18 Dean Mumm
19 Scott Higginbotham
20 Luke Burgess
21 Berrick Barnes
22 Lachie Turner

That would give the dirt trackers a start and the bench player practise to finish off games

 

[Gagger]

I'm liking the idea of Buns closing out games, or there for when the Quade mojo ain't working

 

[fatprop]

I'm liking the idea of Buns closing out games, or there for when the Quade mojo ain't working

It is what the Crusaders did all the time under Deans, they rest players, but stick them on the bench and they come home with a wet sail in the last 20

 

[Red Rooster]

I think To'omua has to go. He is a fantastic talent at 10. I would also like to see Jake Shatz go ahead of maybe a Ben Mowen type.
Kingi should be the third 9, Douglas should tour. Im not fully convinced of Inman, but there arn't not many 13s - I would not want him running on against the Frogs. Chisolm will be touring. Is Fitzpatrick injured? I would like to see Palmer tour as well.

Agree on Schatz but he is injured until Jan next year with a foot injury from the u20 Tournament - Palmer would be a good choice too as they are going to a place where scrummaging is king

 

[RugbyReg]

to be honest I think there are a lot of props who at least deserve to be considered. Palmer and Kepu and Tilse amongst them. Holmes and Weeks from up here too. And that's ignoring Pek Cowan who was one of the 'top 3' (available) props at the beginning of the Wallaby season.

 

[tranquility]

pek is abysmal at all three front row positions. also regarding Shatz I had no idea he was injured, terrible news.

 

[jay-c]

WEEKS
DAVIES
VAN THE MAN
HIGGERS
and im not a reds supporter

 

[fatprop]

to be honest I think there are a lot of props who at least deserve to be considered. Palmer and Kepu and Tilse amongst them. Holmes and Weeks from up here too. And that's ignoring Pek Cowan who was one of the 'top 3' (available) props at the beginning of the Wallaby season.

Tilse is really a LHP who plays THP and is playing OK there for Uni so Jerry can play LHP. Watch Jerry get owned this week be Palmer.

Weekes? yeah I don't know what he did or didn't do in the Wallaby camp, but he hasn't been seen since. We need to bring on proper THPs, he and Plamer are the two standouts as Baxter is wounded (he was daylight better than any of the Aus THPs in the S14, in play around the field, durability and scrummaging)

 

[todd4]

I actually think it would be a good thing if Nathan Sharpe were not taken on the EOYT.
He has played a lot of hard rugby this year and is certainly not getting any younger. Last year he missed the EOYT and it seemed having the break revitalized him for the 2010 season. Next year is going to be full-on with the expanded comp and RWC so it would make sense to try to manage his longevity, just like in cricket when a player toward the end of his career might opt to miss the one-dayers to try to prolong his test career.

For similar reasons it would probably benefit Rocky to have a break from rugby before a World Cup year but we know this wont happen. I read elsewhere on this site that Dingo is not interested in resting players but I would have thought it would be in the Wallabies best interest to manage their longevity.

 

[Crow]

Deans has quite a conundrum: If he rests the best players, odds are his win/loss record will not improve and he misses the opportunity to see how they work with any changes the team makes to tactics. Particularly defensive changes can require a good knowledge of how certain players react.

 

[Joe Blow]

Tilse is really a LHP who plays THP and is playing OK there for Uni so Jerry can play LHP. Watch Jerry get owned this week be Palmer.

Weekes? yeah I don't know what he did or didn't do in the Wallaby camp, but he hasn't been seen since. We need to bring on proper THPs, he and Plamer are the two standouts as Baxter is wounded (he was daylight better than any of the Aus THPs in the S14, in play around the field, durability and scrummaging)

Has Deans finished with Baxter or will he be picked again in June when available?

BTW..........what is going on with PR?

 

[Groucho]

Has Deans finished with Baxter or will he be picked again in June when available?

BTW..........what is going on with PR?

It wouldn't surprise me to see PR disappear at any time. People there occasionally sail quite close to the wind for a website owned by a mainstream publisher.

 

[Joe Blow]

It wouldn't surprise me to see PR disappear at any time. People there occasionally sail quite close to the wind for a website owned by a mainstream publisher.

I am getting a message saying it is temporarily down (except for mods) and cannot bring up the PR forum page at all?

 

[Groucho]

I am getting a message saying it is temporarily down (except for mods) and cannot bring up the PR forum page at all?

Yeah, it's been like that since Friday, I think. People were talking about them bringing it back up on Monday but it never happened. Expect to see more people on here if it closes!

 

[Gnostic]

In that case the mods will have to warm up their Yellow and Red cards as some will struggle to play with civillised people.

 

[fatprop]

It wouldn't surprise me to see PR disappear at any time. People there occasionally sail quite close to the wind for a website owned by a mainstream publisher.

The Football site has crashed as well, me thinks it will be wiped again