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End of Year Tour 2012

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en_force_er

en_force_er

Geoff Shaw (53)
Hawko said:
Maybe you're right, but IMO the Frogs have better players overall, have been playing the better football recently and are only impeded by their lack of recent international games. If they can shake the rust out quickly they will give us a hell of a hard game. If we are going to lose one game then I think this will be it. If we are to lose two, I think it will be France and Wales.
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Internationally they were pretty average in the 6N. They have quite a post WC turnover and their new cattle whilst talented is inexperienced on the international stage.

Not saying they won't be good but the 2012 French team is an unknown quantity to us, not the 2011 edition.
 
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Paradox

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Australia: 15. Mike Harris, 14. Adam Ashley-Cooper, 13. Ben Tapuai, 12. Pat McCabe, 11. Nick Cummins, 10. Kurtley Beale, 9. Nick Phipps, 8. Wycliff Palu, 7. Michael Hooper, 6. Dave Dennis, 5. Kane Douglas, 4. Nathan Sharpe (c), 3. Sekope Kepu, 2. Tatafu Polota-Nau, 1. Benn Robinson. Reserves: Stephen Moore, James Slipper, Paddy Ryan, Rob Simmons, Radike Samo, Liam Gill, Brett Sheehan, Berrick Barnes
 
en_force_er

en_force_er

Geoff Shaw (53)
Naming 2 backs in a 8 man bench just looks ridiculous to me.

I know the 8th man must be a prop but still, it looks like overkill on paper.
 
Antony

Antony

Alex Ross (28)
That's a shame. NZ Maori are playing Canada soon, I was hoping they'd put up a good stoush.

Edit: is it Samoa's top team though? That's probably a bit stronger than NZ Maori (minus the Maori ABs).
 
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TOCC

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Antony said:
That's a shame. NZ Maori are playing Canada soon, I was hoping they'd put up a good stoush.

Edit: is it Samoa's top team though? That's probably a bit stronger than NZ Maori (minus the Maori ABs).
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Samoa have beaten Australia recently, it's not too much of a shame....
 
kronic

kronic

John Solomon (38)
The Canadians won against Tonga. Tonga defeated France.

The Canadians are on the up. Correct me, if I'm wrong, they don't have a major international football code do they? Their football/soccer team is rubbish.
 
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TOCC

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Ice Hockey is their major sport and top international sport.. Lacrosse is the major summer sport and second largest sport in the country.
 
Antony

Antony

Alex Ross (28)
They're pretty into American Football and basketball too, though rugby definitely has a profile. And as a side-note, isn't ice hockey a fantastic sport?

I find it really rewarding talking to Canadians and Yanks about rugby. There's a general lack of knowledge, but also huge respect for the game, and a sense that rugby players are really hard sons of bitches. That admiration gives me hope that there's significant scope for development in those countries (also, I believe the USA now has more registered senior men's players than Wales).

Getting them involved in tours like this is a great step.
 
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TOCC

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The USA may have more players then Wales, but having played rugby in the US its apparent the technical understanding of the game and the development process just isn't present. Senior team coaches have less of an understanding of the technical aspect of the game then a high school student in Australia does. There is very little in the form of a development structure to identify and promote talent... From my perspective the IRB and USA Rugby need to focus first on raising the level of coaching in the US(easier said then done) and a lot of pieces will fall into place following that.
 
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