Aussie Baa Baa's Vs Canada

[EVERYFWDTHINKTHEYREA6OR7]

i hope this is the case.
I would rather see canada benefit from a relatively competitive match than getting rolled over by a very strong wallabies 2nd.
the full 'theoretical squad' put forth by myself and others would be of little benefit to anyone really.
Mitchell would be better served in a game where he's tested in offense, defense and high ball...i think against us he'd only get two of those. better to stick him in at club level in a more competitive game.
Canada won't want to get the sh!t kicked out of them two weeks before the WC either.
Will Saffy and Pyle be overseas with the Rebels then?

No matter which side it is, im sorry to say this but Canada will get smoked.

 

[Lee Grant]

They should be smoked as the Samoans should have been but if the Baas team is going to be the defacto Oz A team, we have to remember how poor our A team is. We had better A players when the Lions were here last - and that was 10 years ago. Then we can remember when Oz A played in that tournament when NZ A smacked us and IIRR the last time they just sent the Maori to the tournament and they beat us too, in Sydney, with not a very good side IMO.


12 months ago the England scrubbers were to good at Gosford and we all remember when Munster, chockful of 2nd pick and even 3rd pick academy guys were too good and made one of the Irish commentators say, "Why wouldn't Australia be interested in winning this match?" He honestly believed we weren't trying. Sure the conditions were bad but it was a poor effort and they weren't much better against the Leicester scrubbers either in the first mid-week match.


One of the disappointments for me with the advent of the 4th Oz Super team, the Force, is that it hasn't yet served to produce more Wallaby depth, which is what I expected at the time. I hope I am not saying the same about the Rebels in 5 or 6 years time. Sure there are some good players there now, including Phipps and Pyle, but will Wallaby depth as a whole be better because of having a team in Melbourne? It should be, because more Oz players will be playing pro footie as the foreigners get phased out, and the pool of valid candidates should be wider and deeper - but watch this space.


People have rightly decried the fact that the Boks have not sent their best team to Oz and NZ, as they did before the last RWC. Putting the reasons for it aside, would the Wallaby scrubbers have done better away from home against the Boks and NZ? No, they would have been a lot worse.


What's my point? I don't know that I have one except that our depth is paper thin and it shouldn't be.
.

 

[Braveheart.]

One of the disappointments for me with the advent of the 4th Oz Super team, the Force, is that it hasn't yet served to produce more Wallaby depth, which is what I expected at the time. I hope I am not saying the same about the Rebels in 5 or 6 years time. Sure there are some good players there now, including Phipps and Pyle, but will Wallaby depth as a whole be better because of having a team in Melbourne? It should be, because more Oz players will be playing pro footie as the foreigners get phased out, and the pool of valid candidates should be wider and deeper - but watch this space.[/B].

Ever heard of a guy called David Pocock? James O'Connor? Ben McCalman? Matt Hodgson? Dick Brown? Pek Cowan?

All have got their caps through the Force. Further, guys like Nathan Charles, Sam Wykes, Nick Cummins were all names being bantered around before the selection of the 40 man squad.

 

[Brumbies Guy]

One of the disappointments for me with the advent of the 4th Oz Super team, the Force, is that it hasn't yet served to produce more Wallaby depth, which is what I expected at the time. I hope I am not saying the same about the Rebels in 5 or 6 years time.

Maybe not directly, but allowing the spread of players over 5 teams has given a lot of players the opportunity to shine and develop which they would not have if it were not of the expansion. Of the current 40 man squad, more experienced players like Robinson, Samo, Vickerman, and Gerrard might not have found the opportunity to return, and newcomers like Hanson, McCabe , Dennis, Simmons and Davies might not have had such an early opportunity to crack into a squad if opportunities were more limited and competitive to give them a chance to prove themselves in the Super 15.

 

[Braveheart.]

Our depth isn't as catastrophic as most think - remembering there are a number of "injured" players who are aiming to make this game.

I'd expect a line up of:

1. Ben Daley
2. Tatafu Polota-Nau
3. James Slipper
4. Sitaleki Timani
5. Nathan Sharpe
6. Matt Hodgson
7. Beau Robinson
8. Radike Samo
9. Nick Phipps
10. Matt Giteau
11. Drew Mitchell
12. Berrick Barnes
13. Rob Horne
14. Rod Davies
15. Mark Gerrard

 

[qwerty51]

Dennis instead of Hodgson I think but the rest looks good. Also Fat Cat and Palu if they're fit to play.

 

[DPK]

1. Ben Daley
2. Tatafu Polota-Nau
3. James Slipper
4. Sitaleki Timani
5. Nathan Sharpe
6. Matt Hodgson
7. Beau Robinson
8. Radike Samo
9. Nick Phipps
10. Matt Giteau
11. Drew Mitchell
12. Berrick Barnes
13. Rob Horne
14. Rod Davies
15. Mark Gerrard

That really is a quality B side. Enjoy the depth while it's around, lads.

 

[Braveheart.]

Dennis instead of Hodgson I think but the rest looks good. Also Fat Cat and Palu if they're fit to play.

I agree wholeheartedly - however I don't think Dean's will be contemplating taing Dennis - thus giving Hodgson gametime will be important.

Cliffy and Robbo are stillhuge question marks given this is just over two weeks away. While they maybe fit come September - I doubt they'll be declared fit in 16 days.

 

[hoges5]

For those interested


It's a shame that Canada is frozen and they don't have a fully professional set up. Got a feeling they are going to get smoked.

You're dead right - if ever a team desperately needed to have the opportunity to step up the next level, it is Canada. Has the money that Pacific Islands don't and the history in the game that many other countries don't. Having coached USA team that got spanked up in Canada and plenty of Australian premier/elite players - I can tell you Canada doesn't lack quality athletes or rugby brains......would be good to see them break into Top 10 countries.

 

[Lee Grant]

Ever heard of a guy called David Pocock? James O'Connor? Ben McCalman? Matt Hodgson? Dick Brown? Pek Cowan?

All have got their caps through the Force. Further, guys like Nathan Charles, Sam Wykes, Nick Cummins were all names being bantered around before the selection of the 40 man squad.

You missed my point, I could have written that myself - all those players are good - but the overall depth in the country hasn't improved if you use the measure of how well the Oz A sides are going - and I include the Wallabies team against Samoa.

Our Oz A teams are poor and we see it when there are injuries more than NZ or even the Boks feel it. All teams have injuries but we don't cope well.

 

[Sir Arthur Higgins]

until WA and VIC rugby start producing players of super rugby and international calibre on a regular basis the depth won't change significantly. otherwise its the same players coming through the same clubs that would be there regardless. yes everyone benefits from fringe players getting more game time at the elite level, but the real benefit from the rebels and the force will come when those states start producing players of quality regularly.

 

[EVERYFWDTHINKTHEYREA6OR7]

You're dead right - if ever a team desperately needed to have the opportunity to step up the next level, it is Canada. Has the money that Pacific Islands don't and the history in the game that many other countries don't. Having coached USA team that got spanked up in Canada and plenty of Australian premier/elite players - I can tell you Canada doesn't lack quality athletes or rugby brains......would be good to see them break into Top 10 countries.

I feel that USA and Canada Rugby will have to work together to make this happen. The USA has so many Athletes in their early 20's who after college are finshed with football. I guess the same can be said for the Canadian football players as well. They could have a league similar in length to the NFL and it could be played when the NHL & NBA finals are ending, the only competition on TV sportswise is baseball.

The unfortunate thing is that they need to develop skills early. Get them whilst they are young.

It just needs a benefactor to make it happen.

 

[EVERYFWDTHINKTHEYREA6OR7]

until WA and VIC rugby start producing players of super rugby and international calibre on a regular basis the depth won't change significantly. otherwise its the same players coming through the same clubs that would be there regardless. yes everyone benefits from fringe players getting more game time at the elite level, but the real benefit from the rebels and the force will come when those states start producing players of quality regularly.

It does happen occasionally, more League players have come out of the west.

Ewen Mackenzie, Michael Foley and Digby Ioane for starters.

But i think we do well internationally. Lets remember that Rugby Union is somewhere around our 5th biggest sport. We are punching well above our weight as it is.

 

[Lee Grant]

until WA and VIC rugby start producing players of super rugby and international calibre on a regular basis the depth won't change significantly. otherwise its the same players coming through the same clubs that would be there regardless. yes everyone benefits from fringe players getting more game time at the elite level, but the real benefit from the rebels and the force will come when those states start producing players of quality regularly.

I think you are right but I still expected a lot better from the Oz A team. My theory was, because I remember writing about it in rugby forums, that the Force would increase the Oz pro player pool by 33% and eventually that would mean more average Super players, more dud players, but also more stars for Oz as a whole.

Those stars would move up leaving a player behind them that would make better Wallaby replacements than before, but by the measure of how those replacements have been playing for the Oz A team I was wrong. The good players were just spread out more.

Every year we could make excuses for the Oz A team being sub-standard, with the possible exception on the 2009 EOYT, and how good it would look with injured players available for the 1st or 2nd team, but we could say the same every year.

I don't think we have more depth now than 10 years ago - but we do have more width: more players below the top Wallaby level but few of them standout options - taking into account players injured and not available as there always are and always will be.
.

 

[fatprop]

Australian Barbarians against Canada next Friday

Does anyone know when this team will be selected?

I can see a shed load of players getting time

I would like to see

15 Turner
14 Mitchell
13 Faainga
12 Giteau
11 Davies
10 Barnes
9 Phipps
8 Palu
7 Robinson
6 Dennis
5 Timani
4 Vickerman
3 Maafu
2 Nau
1 Cowan

 

[GC]

Good team but obviously no combinations so lots of dropsies expected. Who'll be the reserves. Not A team players I guess.

Forwards:
Baxter (can Maafu swap to loose head if required?)
Whitiker
Pyle
Mccalman (reckon he'll be out of the a team for a more balanced bench I.e Hodgo)
Waugh
Standard
Gerard

 

[fatprop]

Bench?

16 Faaingaa
17 Slipper?
18 MaCalman
19 Hooper
20 Burgess
21 Gerrard
22 Kingston

 

[RugbyReg]

Morahan over Kingston. He's actually in the Wallaby squad.

 

[JimboJoe1006]

I would like to see;
15 Gerrard
14 Mitchell
13 Horne
12 A.Faainga
11 Morahan
10 Barnes
9 Giteau
8 Palu
7 Robinson
6 Dennis
5 Vickerman
4 Timani
3 Baxter
2 TPN
1 Cowan
Bench: S.Faainga, Ma'afu, Pyle, Hodgson, Phipps, Carter, Turner

 

[fatprop]

Morahan over Kingston. He's actually in the Wallaby squad.

fair enough, and I forgot about Horne.

The idea with Kingston was to look at potential 13 options as he was the U20 13..........................