April Wallaby 30 Man Squad

[Bowside]

What about the Moggster?

Can the moggster defend at 10 though?

Can Folau for that matter?

 

[Bowside]

Back 3 combination is a bit of selection headache.

In an ideal world I'd have Ioane and JOC (James O'Connor) on the wings with Beale at the back. If Ioane is out I'd replace him with Mitchell, and then Tomane. If JOC (James O'Connor) is out I'd replace him with Speight or Folau.

The forgotten men are the big lads Shipperly and Cummins. Both lack the sparkle of the wingers I've mentioned above, but they make up for it with speed and size. Both also ark up in the big games, which is always good.

I reckon Australia has more depth at Wing than nearly any other position bar 7.

 

[USARugger]

security under the highball is one of the most important parts of a fullbacks game at test level... I don't give a shit if JOC (James O'Connor) does have a good step or strong in contact, if he is under pressure and can't take the highball then those attributes are useless.

I should have worded that differently - I just literally don't remember the last time I saw JOC (James O'Connor) have to challenge on the high ball so I didn't want to comment on that aspect of his play.

 

[Paradox]

Can the moggster defend at 10 though?

Can Folau for that matter?

I wouldn't expect either to given they play 15.

 

[Paradox]

Back 3 combination is a bit of selection headache.

In an ideal world I'd have Ioane and JOC (James O'Connor) on the wings with Beale at the back. If Ioane is out I'd replace him with Mitchell, and then Tomane. If JOC (James O'Connor) is out I'd replace him with Speight or Folau.

The forgotten men are the big lads Shipperly and Cummins. Both lack the sparkle of the wingers I've mentioned above, but they make up for it with speed and size. Both also ark up in the big games, which is always good.

I reckon Australia has more depth at Wing than nearly any other position bar 7.

Speight is the best winger in Oz at present but unfortunately not eligible.

 

[Slim 293]

If you have Cooper at 10, and hes defending at fullback, amd you wanted to go left field......... you could play Lilo at fullback.

He's a strong defender, and it gives you a playmaker at first receiver to launch an attack from turnover ball.

Obviously, he hasn't played at fullback for a couple of years...... But he has played well there, and it's not much more outrageous than say playing Barnes at fullback.........

Anyways, just a random morning thought.........

 

[Paradox]

If you have Cooper at 10, and hes defending at fullback, amd you wanted to go left field... you could play Lilo at fullback

He's got super experience there and is very impressive under the high ball.

 

[RedsHappy]

If you have Cooper at 10, and hes defending at fullback, amd you wanted to go left field... you could play Lilo at fullback.

He's a strong defender, and it gives you a playmaker at first receiver to launch an attack from turnover ball.

Obviously, he hasn't played at fullback for a couple of years.. But he has played well there, and it's not much more outrageous than say playing Barnes at fullback...

Anyways, just a random morning thought...

IMO, if Jake White was of the view to Deans that J Mogg could handle Test pressure - and that's a big question but there's no one better to answer it - than he's a great choice to play BIL at 15 where, amongst his other obvious talents, his long and typically accurate kicks can be simply priceless. The invented notion that Barnes would handle BIL pressure well is myth - indeed, it's intense pressure in Tests that often forces him into injudicious panicky kicks and odd passes of random variety. He's better at 15 than 10, but he's far from perfect and heads towards the BIL with limited game time.

I don't know why I waste GAGR disk space with these words - Barnes will be picked, probably at 15.

 

[USARugger]

Better at 15 than at 10. To his credit his positional play at 15 this last year was very, very good. He looks much more comfortable back there than he does at 10 as well, I think the extra time and space does his nerves some good. That said, we have better options.

 

[Scotty]

Better at 15 than at 10. To his credit his positional play at 15 this last year was very, very good. He looks much more comfortable back there than he does at 10 as well, I think the extra time and space does his nerves some good. That said, we have better options.

Barnes does a lot of little things well, and that is why he gets picked for the wallabies. Mr reliable. However, when it comes down to it he fails to bring his team mates into the game when he is in a playmaker role.

We dominated the ruck vs Wales, but only scraped the wins because we couldn't leverage that dominance into tries and a big part of that was Barnes at 10.

When he played 15 I recall one time when he ran it back and involved his wingers and I was cheering this simple endeavour. An international fullback has to do more than simply catch high balls, kick it back and cover defend. IMO this is about all he does.

 

[Groucho]

Let's not paint this as a massive crisis.

Have you no respect for forum traditions.

 

[Groucho]

Hypothetically, if the wallabies were going to go with QC (Quade Cooper) at 10, who would you have at full back?

Keeping in mind they have to be an excellent defender both in the line and at the back, good under the highball and able to inject themselves out wide.

In the past I would have said barnes, but I he hasn't played in too long. Ideally you'd have Beale, but his defence is suspect and his heads in the wrong place at the moment. Lance is the most consistent but lacks the brilliance of beale. O'Connor maybe an option?

If you're looking for a rock on D with back-three experience then it's McCabe.

 

[jay-c]

you might be onto something there groucho-
it allows deans to save face by moving mccabe out of the centers but keeping him in the team

 

[cyclopath]

IMO, if Jake White was of the view to Deans that J Mogg could handle Test pressure - and that's a big question but there's no one better to answer it - than he's a great choice to play BIL at 15 where, amongst his other obvious talents, his long and typically accurate kicks can be simply priceless. The invented notion that Barnes would handle BIL pressure well is myth - indeed, it's intense pressure in Tests that often forces him into injudicious panicky kicks and odd passes of random variety. He's better at 15 than 10, but he's far from perfect and heads towards the BIL with limited game time.

I don't know why I waste GAGR disk space with these words - Barnes will be picked, probably at 15.

It isn't disk space, it's a colloidal suspension teraflop bio-active synthetic intelligence system.

 

[Athilnaur]

Don't see Deans repeating the Cooper at 15 on D tactic, but I agree McCabe, to a lesser extent Barnes, would be the logical option, just not sure he'd fit into that role at short order while Barnes can.

I hope Barnes isn't picked as our 15, it will tell me Deans really is opting conservative and I think that will be a grave error against the Lions. The Lions will have to play conservatively, they have no choice with the hybrid team they have. We must match them, but with the objective of picking up the tempo. A fast paced game and we win. That's a lot of pressure on our forwards, but the kind almost all of our teams aim for at Super Rugby level. We have fast pitches and players who play fast rugby. We need to be able to manage teams who grind us down, but that doesn't mean we have to like it.

We have some really good options for fullback, my preference being Mogg because his kicking in my opinion will be crucial, but he will be a weakness in defence simply because he rarely has to. But Beale is no better in D, and nowhere near as lethal with the boot.

 

[Scotty]

Don't see Deans repeating the Cooper at 15 on D tactic, but I agree McCabe, to a lesser extent Barnes, would be the logical option, just not sure he'd fit into that role at short order while Barnes can.

I hope Barnes isn't picked as our 15, it will tell me Deans really is opting conservative and I think that will be a grave error against the Lions. The Lions will have to play conservatively, they have no choice with the hybrid team they have. We must match them, but with the objective of picking up the tempo. A fast paced game and we win. That's a lot of pressure on our forwards, but the kind almost all of our teams aim for at Super Rugby level. We have fast pitches and players who play fast rugby. We need to be able to manage teams who grind us down, but that doesn't mean we have to like it.

We have some really good options for fullback, my preference being Mogg because his kicking in my opinion will be crucial, but he will be a weakness in defence simply because he rarely has to. But Beale is no better in D, and nowhere near as lethal with the boot.

Great post regarding playing style. We up tempo it then Genia comes into his own and will be able to unleash mobile forwards and elusive backs. Play that style with slow forwards, kicking 10/15 and plonkers in the midfield and it will go to shit.

On the other hand we could play a conservative style with either type of players in the team and it will be Ireland all over again.

 

[Ruggo]

Can the moggster defend at 10 though?

Can Folau for that matter?

Cooper can but we are still going around and around in the same bullshit circle about this topic. We have seen him play there but his current coach has a different way of using him in his game plan.

 

[Groucho]

Don't see Deans repeating the Cooper at 15 on D tactic, but I agree McCabe, to a lesser extent Barnes, would be the logical option, just not sure he'd fit into that role at short order while Barnes can.

I hope Barnes isn't picked as our 15, it will tell me Deans really is opting conservative and I think that will be a grave error against the Lions. The Lions will have to play conservatively, they have no choice with the hybrid team they have. We must match them, but with the objective of picking up the tempo. A fast paced game and we win. That's a lot of pressure on our forwards, but the kind almost all of our teams aim for at Super Rugby level. We have fast pitches and players who play fast rugby. We need to be able to manage teams who grind us down, but that doesn't mean we have to like it.

We have some really good options for fullback, my preference being Mogg because his kicking in my opinion will be crucial, but he will be a weakness in defence simply because he rarely has to. But Beale is no better in D, and nowhere near as lethal with the boot.

Beale has matured into an excellent defender at 15. He's saved many tries with well-judged cover and good technique.

 

[Gnostic]

Cooper kicked very well tactically against the Chiefs from Fullback. Even the Kiwi commentators noted the distance he got with a few of his kicks. The only other 15 in Australia with the boot to match is Mogg.

As an aside I always thought Deans selections for the RWC madness, or just plain idiocy. He opts for a conservative game plan, because apparently you can't win the RWC playing expansive Rugby the Wallabies had been trying to get right for 4 previous years. If that was the case in Oz that year was the biggest and most accurate boot at 15 the Wallabies had produced since professional Rugby. Mark Gerrard. Sure he had lost pace, but he suited perfectly the game plan that was employed. He was immensely better under the high ball than any of the options used by Deans up to then or since.

I mention Gerrard because I see the selection of Barnes as the same old failures. I do not see Barnes as having played well at 15 last year despite the protestations of some here. I have watched the games again and stand by that. He kick is average and can vary in accuracy, he is not a counter attacker of any real threat, he is like so many others to play at 15 for Australia average under the high ball and whilst usually a good defender prone to injury. There are better options by far.

For years we have lauded the skills under the high ball of NZ players like Dagg and Carter, yet no Australian player has had any consistency in this skill, so crucial to playing at 15. Cooper has shown that for the Reds. However to highlight the point, part of the reason Folau stands out so much is his dominance in the execution of this particular skill, something not see in an Australian player since Burke.

 

[ACT Crusader]

Hey Gnostic correct me if in wrong but Deans selected Gerrard in his wider WC squad but didn't he do a hammy or something?