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Aus vs NZ - 1st Test Sydney 17Aug2013

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Ash

Ash

Michael Lynagh (62)
Don't forget that Beale is out for the season with shoulder surgery. I think that Folau is the likely 15 currently.

Outside of Folau, I'm actually not overly enthused with our choice of outside backs for the RC right now. First time in a long time that I've thought that our back three are a bit underpowered.

Hopefully JOC (James O'Connor) can find his feet again quickly at wing, then there's Mogg and Tomane. I don't think that Mogg is quite there yet - he reminds me of an early Latham. Tomane has been rather average the second half of the season, and to be honest, was a let down and very underwhelming vs the Lions. I'd say that the other wing would be Cummins for those reasons, even though Cummins' season has been completely disrupted by injury.

(For all those reasons, Link may be tempted to try To'omua / Cooper interchanging at 15 / 10, but I hope he doesn't).

If you compare our choice of back three to what the All Blacks can select from, it's not a pretty story.
 
RoffsChoice

RoffsChoice

Jim Lenehan (48)
Ash Our midfield depth is better at the moment, apparently. Back three is even on a good day. Halves is pretty even on average.
 
Tex

Tex

Greg Davis (50)
A Cruden/Carter/Smith 10/12/13 combination would be an interesting proposition, maybe a little bit lightweight but the ball-playing and running IQ would be through the roof.
 
Ash

Ash

Michael Lynagh (62)
Underpowered vs the All Blacks. Savea, Dagg and Ben Smith will be scary, and Piutau is a great prospect coming off a fantastic season. Dagg is finding form and looking great and appearing disinterestined earlier in the year, Savea has had a good year and Ben Smith has been fantastic (albeit at fullback).

Of our back three, Folau has had a fantastic season, at 15 for the Tahs then wing vs the Lions. Otherwise:

- Cummins has been good in patches but primarily injured. He's a goer and whole hearted, but he's no Savea. I'd be more enthused about the Honey Badger if he'd managed to stay unbroken for longer this year.

- JOC (James O'Connor) has been playing either fullback or flyhalf (and been up and down), and needs to solve his off field issues which he seems to (delusionally) think aren't actually issues.

- Mogg has been up and down and looks a fantastic prospect but needs another year or two to round out his game. If this was the All Blacks, I'd say that Mogg would be given another season or two to develop before RC selection.

- Tomane has not been as good as last year, including a couple of disappointing showings vs the Lions then and to the point where Rathbone has repeatedly been preferred for the Brumbies. Again, if this was the All Blacks, I'd say that Tomane would be overlooked in favour of an in-form option - which we don't have other than a couple of either debutants or very inexperienced players.

- Not going to bother with CFS and Betham, as I expect both to be trimmed when the 30 man squad is announced.

Hopefully this won't matter too much if our midfield functions. Against the Lions our midfield created very little. Beale and JOC (James O'Connor) could only combine with each other, seemingly. Neither of those players will be in our midfield this time, so I am positive for some new combinations showing some better work in the midfield. If our midfield fires, hopefully they can make our back three look like world beaters.
 
hammertimethere

hammertimethere

Trevor Allan (34)
Here's a proposition
I would like to know, from any passionate, one eyed, black to the bone (but able to display some objectivity for the purposes of discussion) Kiwi rugby fan the following
- Knowing a reasonably likely All Black XV (give or take a few positions) for the test vs the wallabies, how would you hypothetically select the Wallaby XV? What selections would you make in order to beat your own beloved team?

Perhaps a difficult question, but if you're a Kiwi hanging around here you probably have an idea of our answer if the question was reversed. I could go to a kiwi forum and ask, but I fell like it is unlikely that I would get a sensible response. Try to keep responses somewhat serious (unless you're an exceptionally funny person), I reckon it would be a fascinating discussion (might give insight into the differences between the way each countries fans think about the game)
 
It is what it is

It is what it is

John Solomon (38)
I'm not a Kiwi but here goes;
Sio - he's young, strong and relatively unknown as an opponent. They would rather play against a 'regular' Wallaby prop than him, even off the bench.
A big straight running centre - The AB's were huge fans of Stirling Mortlock because of his size and ability to belt it up over the advantage line. Folau isn't ready for centre at test level, perhaps Kuridrani but no one else stands out.
Combinations such as Genia/Cooper or Tooma/Lealiifaino/Kuridrani
 
GaffaCHinO

GaffaCHinO

Peter Sullivan (51)
Barbar said on the podcast last week (if i remember rightly) mid nov.

Sent from my GT-I9300T using Tapatalk 2
 
Dan54

Dan54

David Wilson (68)
As a kiwi, I suspect we could get damaged with a bit with Genia, To'omua(though I firmly believe it will be QC (Quade Cooper)), Leli, Ashley-Cooper, Speights (if he available)one wing and JOC (James O'Connor) the other, Folau at 15, Forwards , I also think Sio and Moore would be in front row with whoever, Horwill with whoever, Hooper, Mowen and Higgers(if he fit) would probably form my forward pack. I not too sure how the new scrummaging laws will work, so not to sure but from what I've read of experiments in NZ, they seem to feel that it is going to be more important than ever that front row have good technique, and scrums are actually going to take longer. Actually you would probably get a good sensible response on Silver Fern ,Hammer as I find generally pretty good posters there, pretty similar to here!
 
Scrubber2050

Scrubber2050

Mark Ella (57)
Dan54 said:
As a kiwi, I suspect we could get damaged with a bit with Genia, To'omua(though I firmly believe it will be QC (Quade Cooper)), Leli, Ashley-Cooper, Speights (if he available)one wing and JOC (James O'Connor) the other, Folau at 15, Forwards , I also think Sio and Moore would be in front row with whoever, Horwill with whoever, Hooper, Mowen and Higgers(if he fit) would probably form my forward pack. I not too sure how the new scrummaging laws will work, so not to sure but from what I've read of experiments in NZ, they seem to feel that it is going to be more important than ever that front row have good technique, and scrums are actually going to take longer. Actually you would probably get a good sensible response on Silver Fern ,Hammer as I find generally pretty good posters there, pretty similar to here!
Click to expand...

Reckon Link wont give Sio a run-on at LHP yet - Robbo will be there. For me it will be very interesting whether Hooper or Gill get the gig at 7. QC (Quade Cooper) a certainty for the RC - but Matt T. in the wings
 
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