Australian Schoolboys & National Championships 2009

[The Chosen]

Geronoimo i think you might have been blinded by the push and shove that stirzacker got involved in with his opposite at every scrum where australia had the feed, until the ref came and stood between them on stirzackers put in. The kiwi was in his face or on his foot all game or so it appeared on the box.
I was commenting on his effort when tackling and Lucas' single attempted tackle where he was ineffectual. For a couple of guys playing at this level it was woeful! i dont think either of them completed a tackle or contributed to stopping an oppostion player in 70 minutes of game time.

I'll declare an interest- having seen Nick Stirzaker play since he was an 11 year old.(my son has been in numerous teams with him)
I'll concur what we saw on edited telecast did not show any great defensive moments however I assure you Nick can tackle with the best of them- I have seen him clean up many a bigger opponent in defensive highlights. As far as I'm concerned he is one gutsy player.
Not sure if/who he is playing for next year- he is listed to do a `Gap Year' in the UK

 

[rugbywhisperer]

I watched Stirzacker at Ballymore and I was extremely impressed. He had defence, a great attack and certainly was better than either Ruka or Lucas, both of whom by the way i am biased for but in the end Stirzacker left me in no doubt he is the better 9, by a long way.

 

[high tower]

I didnt suggest that the 3 half backs who played the New Zealand schools were incorrectly ranked, just that the two who played at Ballymore were not upto it defensively.

i watched about six games during the Australian schools champs @ knox and was suprised that Hanlon was picked having been red carded for something he said during the NSW 2 game v QLD 1.
The chosen - you may have seen him fell some big fellas in the past but he didnt seem to keen or able to grass any of the kiwis, and his captain wasnt backing him when they swapped spots for the defensive 5 yard scrum.

Maybe the selectors pushed the qld boys forward on the basis of the QLD 1's dominance this year?

It will be interesting to see where this crop of halve backs end up in 3-5 years time.

 

[chief]

Gotta agree with you high tower. if you say something like that you generally shouldn't be picked.

 

[fooi fooi]

Did anybody watch the game on fox sports 3 on saturday.

I noticed the defensive efforts of the two Australian half backs were pretty ordinary.
Some blatant examples of contact avoidance, hiding on the blindside of a ruck that was basically on the sideline.

The placement of Stirzacker at blindside flanker on a defensive 5 yard scrum suggests, the captain/coaching staff were not backing him to make a tackle.

finally someone not wearing blinkers notices !

 

[The Chosen]

The Australian Schools Touring Team had a final hitout under lights at Knox No. 1 last night. It appeared that th e touring team was split up and coupled with non-tourists from Australia `A' & others. Steve Walsh reffed the game which was split up into 15 minute quarters, allowing for the heat(still 30C in the evening!).
Ended up being a fairly even game, with no apparent injuries.
Only publicity I had seen for this hit-out was in Knox School Newsletter, but there was still a reasonable crowd of around 600 to view proceedings.
The Touring party leaves this Sunday.