End of Year Tour 2012

[qwerty51]

Start games with 6. Dennis 7. Pocock 8. Palu (maybe Hooper to start the first one)

Bring on Samo for Palu and Hooper for Dennis after 60.

 

[Lee Grant]

Burgess has been out of the setup for a while. Drafting him into the squad on gameday would be ugly.

Not as ugly as having to use some other back from the squad, but it's probably just academic as he is too valuable to his club.
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[Braveheart81]

If there is a halfback injured in the warm up, the reserves and the rest of the squad will be rushed outside the ground to look for a promotional pass-the-ball competition to have a playoff for the reserve halfback role.

 

[boyo]

There is a chance that fellows who are 3rd string could be available - like Berry of Wasps and Phibbs of Leicester, though they have played little rugby this year and may be injured.

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IIRC Berry has retired.

 

[Ignoto]

My friends who travelled over for the game found solace in a place called The White House after the match.

You'd be surprised to hear that the some Fox Sports commentators thought the same thing.

 

[Lee Grant]

IIRC Berry has retired.

He was on the Wasps players list for the current season and he's only 28.

Edit
I've just googled his name. You are right boyo - he has retired indeed. He had concussions before but he was cleared to start this season but got another one in the opening game.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/19786807

That's a great pity for him.
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[Lee Grant]

If there is a halfback injured in the warm up, the reserves and the rest of the squad will be rushed outside the ground to look for a promotional pass-the-ball competition to have a playoff for the reserve halfback role.

Nice one. That photo is of Brian Moore trying to shut himself up by throwing something into his gob, which others have wanted to do listening to his TV commentary, especially when he talks about the Wallabies. He can take a joke against himself though, Brian can.

And he is the foremost critic in the world of the power hit in the scrum.

One of the good guys then.
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[Braveheart81]

Nice one. That photo is of Brian Moore trying to shut himself up by throwing something into his gob, which others have wanted to do listening to his TV commentary, especially when he talks about the Wallabies. He can take a joke against himself though, Brian can.

And he is the foremost critic in the world of the power hit in the scrum.

One of the good guys then.
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Funnily enough, when I was trying to find a photo for my post, I started googling "Passing ball through" and google offered the suggestion of "passing ball through brian moores mouth"

 

[Richo]

You'd be surprised to hear that the some Fox Sports commentators thought the same thing.

I didn't see them ther--

Err, never mind.

 

[Scotty]

Read a piece earlier on another website about what Dingo could possibly be doing concerning who will be playing at 6 with Higgers out. This is my post from there:

Samo makes the most sense at the current time, unless Mowen has become a little more mobile and found a hot streak of form out of nowhere. Anyone calling for Sita to be moved to 6 obviously didn't watch the last time Sita was moved to 6. He isn't mobile enough to be a SuperXV loosie much less an international one. A Hooper/Pocock/Palu back row severely hinders our line out jumping option (an area we actually greatly improved on as TRC wore on). That back row setup would leave us with only one practical jumper (Sharpie) should Sita be one of the locks. The most balanced back row I can see us having right now is 6. Samo 7. Hooper 8. Palu with Pocock coming on as an impact sub for Palu with Samo shifting to 8. There shouldn't be many issues with this as it leaves us with one less line out jumper (which can't really be remedied unless the selectors name another lock/loosie that can jump) and Samo/Higgers play a very similar style of rugby at 6.

**Also Pocock has never been a very strong ball carrier and there is no reason to believe that this has suddenly changed
***Can Samo even play a full match anymore at Int'l level? We'll have to hope so.

Thoughts?

With the squad announce I can't see anything other than the following loosies in the 23

6 Dennis
7 Hooper
8 Palu

Reserves Pocock, Samo

Palu and Samo to share time at 8 and Pocock to come on for Dennis. Ensures 3 jumpers at all times.

If one goes down then Timani will be needed at 6.

 

[Scotty]

Start games with 6. Dennis 7. Pocock 8. Palu (maybe Hooper to start the first one)

Bring on Samo for Palu and Hooper for Dennis after 60.

Whoops. I got in too late. Good picks (really the only option)

 

[Scotty]

I absolutely agree that it was a mistake not to have a second one in the squad. I can see the reason why Hodgson or Beau Robinson weren't picked in the RWC squad though. Numbers were pretty tight and corners had to be cut somewhere. Neither of them screamed out for selection. If Pocock hadn't got injured it would have never been mentioned. A backup 7 might have had a run against USA or Russia but otherwise wouldn't have been anywhere near the matchday 22.

In hindsight you would definitely have left someone like Phipps at home and taken Hodgson.

Plenty on this site mentioned it when the squad was first released. And it came to pass.

You must get tired of defending the indefensible!

 

[Scotty]

I hear what you are saying, Hornet. I agree that not having a specialist 7 named had most of us scratching our heads.

But I do agree with BH in that we could have had our preferred starting 15 in that game and it would not have made an iota of difference. We were on the back foot from the opening whistle and could not match the Irish aggression or adapt to their tactics.

It was a coaching failure, a strategic planning failure, and (in my opinion) a lack of rugby nous in the leadership group of the highest level.

It was the Irish game plan and lack of Wallaby plan B/smarts that did us in, not who wore the 7 jumper.

You don't think Moore and Pocock having to pull out virtually last minute had a significant effect on our performance? Remember the scoreline was pretty close.

 

[Richo]

A good piece in the SMH today from Cully. He's probably right about the opportunity presented by this EOYT in relation to the Lions Tour.

http://m.smh.com.au/rugby-union/uni...on-for-british-lions-tour-20121025-2882y.html

If some members of the Wallabies squad to tour Europe announced yesterday are yet to fully comprehend the scale of the British and Irish Lions tour next year, they can be forgiven. When Justin Harrison put that massive left mitt in front of Martin Johnson in an iconic moment from the deciding third Test against the tourists in Sydney in 2001, Liam Gill was nine years old.
But that's about to change. When they flick through the British press while on their European travels they will quickly realise the spring tour is firmly being seen through the prism of next year's confrontation. The Guardian has already reported that Lions coach Warren Gatland regards these imminent jousts as more important than next year's Six Nations in terms of selection.

 

[daz]

You don't think Moore and Pocock having to pull out virtually last minute had a significant effect on our performance? Remember the scoreline was pretty close.

Indeed I do think it had an effect. I just don't think it would have changed the final result.

 

[BDA]

Not liking the fact that there is no rugby on this weekend. (NBA starts though)... Itching for this tour to start.

Realistically I think the Wallabies should be aiming for nothing less than 3 wins on tour, 4 is not out of the question. We need to start well. The game against the French should be taken (they'll be underdone and without their best player).

 

[BDA]

I'm really warming to the idea of Harris at fullback. It's refreshing to see us with a kicker who is deadly accurate. Think of how many games we've lost over the last 5-10 years because we've lacked a world class kicker. The 2003 WC QF against England comes to mind. The game against the Blacks last week was one where Mike Harris was as good as Carter, if not better. In the past you'd expect we would have lost that type of penalty shoot out game, because we invariable wouldn't have the same accuracy as the opposition kicker (Carter, Steyn, Wilkinson, etc). This year Harris showed in the 2nd test against Wales, again in Roserio, and again in Brisbane, that teams will start to dread seeing him step up to the tee.

If you show up in the NH with a 50% kicker, the opposition are happy to illegally slow your ball and infringe freely. Having an 80% kicker should have a flow-on effect, forcing greater discipline from the opposition and hopefully allowing us to get some quick ball. Harris isn't the most skillful ball player but as long as we have guys like Beale, Taps, Ioane, O'Connor in the squad we'll have a nice balance

 

[Braveheart81]

I still think I prefer Barnes at fullback over Harris because I think he is a better overall footballer.

Barnes' goalkicking during 2012 was generally superb and was crucial in a few of our wins.

I'm assuming that Harris will remain fullback for the first test on the EOYT though. It will be interesting to see whether he can hold that position for the whole tour.

 

[en_force_er]

It's Harris' spot to loose at this point.

He showed a decent skillset in the ABs test, had a few decent runs (and one very good one) and made a try saving tap tackle that helped us get the draw in the dying seconds.

 

[thierry dusautoir]

I was so shocked and appalled when I read this I burst into tears and considered giving up on the world altogether and moving to a non-rugby playing nation like Guatemala.......

But seriously Harris is the sturdiest Kicker Australia has at the moment and I feel his kicks are with more purpose and conviction than the ones Barnes produced this rugby championship. I think for the ttime being Harris is the answer for Australia at Fullback maybe not for 2013 (depends what happens with Beale) but definitely 2012. Also I feel Barnes doesn't like playing second fiddle (in the sense of calling the shots) which I feel was problematic with him and Quade in the team, Harris I feel is happy to the tool and not the architect which is what Australia & Beale needs right now.