Team:
Qld I, 8 (finished 6th)
ACT, 5 (finished 7th)
NSW I, 5 (finished 2nd)
NSW II, 3 (Winner)
Victoria, 2 (finished 4th)
Combined States, 1 (finished 3rd)
Qld II, 1 (finished 5th)
That is the biggest f@$k-up I've seen in schoolboys reps. There is a national champs and the national champs - NSW II , along with the runners-up NSW I , get less players then the team that come second last - ACT . Even worse you get a team that finished 3rd last and they get more !!
There is no other reasonable hypothesis , the teams selected has been undertaken by coaches who are aligned with ACT & QLD. Guess what as we know both coaches from the two Aus teams come from ACT & QLD.
I think too much has been made of where the 8 teams finished in the tournament.
In Pool B, it really came down to good luck that N2 finished on top. A slightly different result (eg, had VIC been awarded 4 tries in their game v WA - and they did cross 4 times - then they would have won the pool). Had Q1 scored 4 against N2 then it would have gone to a 3 way count back. Lots of if, buts and maybes. The point is 1,2 & 3 could have been any of these teams. So pool position not a great indicator as all 3 teams won 2 and lost 1 and certainly not a good indicator of the individual talent in up for selection.
As for pool A, similarly there must have been 4 teams with not too much between them.
The wet conditions played against the flashy backs in the 1 teams, which made the contests closer.
So I am not surprised that there were plenty of sections from all teams regardless of place in tournament (With exception of WA who did not win a game and were not up quite up to this level)
The other discussion point seems to be that many of the selections were pre-determined and the performances at the tournament were ignored.
That simply cant be the case with the names that have been mentioned of boys that were thought to be certainties that have missed. So others have out performed them and played themselves into selection during the tournament.
As for the final, N2 were the better team and thoroughly deserved their win. I dont think VIC or QLD 1 would have done as well, but we will never know. Had the NSW selections been slightly different with 2 or 3 of the best N2 players swapped into N1, N1 might have performed a lot better and likely win, (take Rixons 2 tries out which he had a big hand in both, the game was a lot closer).
I don't envy the job of selectors, they have a lot of factors to balance up. There are plenty of selection shock omissions as HJ said there would be. I feel for those boys. But I do think the squads picked are very good and soon enough we will know how right or wrong the selections are.
