Five-eighth stocks - 2010 Super 14 lineups

[Lindommer]

I posted this in February, before Giteau ran home to Mum.

As things stand now, Giteau, Daruda and O'Connor are the five-eighths for the Force (which resulted in Brock James, Lachlan MacKay and Jim Hilgendorf leaving the last few years), Cooper and Barnes for the Reds, Beale and Halangahu for the Tahs (with a Wallaby, SNK, as reserve for the reserve 10) and Lealiifano and To'omua for the Brumbies. There are plenty of promising young Aussie five-eighths hanging around. The only problem is finding slots for them all to develop and leave us with some depth at number 10 for the Wobblies. What Australian rugby needs more of at the moment is quality depth in the centres.

We now have:

Tahs
Barnes, Beale and Halangahu

Reds
Cooper and Lucas

Brumbies
Giteau, Lealiifano and To'omua

Force
Pretorius and Harris.

Daruda scooted off to France, SNK wandered off to Wales and Giteau and Barnes changed horses in Oz. The Force have lost five five-eighths the last three years, very careless of them. To my eye things looked better at the beginning of the year before the spat in Perth and the recent implosion in Brisbane. The Tahs and Brumbies both have too many number 10s and it's imperative for the future of Australian rugby some of them decide to develop their skills at 12 and 15. As Beale and Lealiifano have recently.

The first choice five-eighth for the first round next year at the Tahs and Brumbies is going to be interesting.

edited

 

[wobbly]

And who will Melbourne target? Surely To'omua. Barnes signed for 2 years didn't he?

Ben Lucas at the Reds I suppose is a back-up 10 as well as 9.

What are the Force thinking of in resurrecting Sam "Turnstiles" Harris. My 82 year old russian granny is a better fly-half prospect.

 

[Geronimo]

And who will Melbourne target? Surely To'omua. Barnes signed for 2 years didn't he?

Ben Lucas at the Reds I suppose is a back-up 10 as well as 9.

What are the Force thinking of in resurrecting Sam "Turnstiles" Harris. My 82 year old russian granny is a better fly-half prospect.

I would back Ben Lucas to hold his own at both positions. He is a very solid player.

 

[louie]

Barnes
Halangahu
Pretorius
To'omua
Cooper (maybe never really seen him at 12)
are 10s

Beale
Lucas
Giteau
Lealiifano
Harris

are 9s, 12s, 15s.

 

[Grandmaster Flash]

Lucas only started playing halfback when Mooney asked him to convert when Genia and Cords were injured in 2k8. He is a flyhalf.

 

[RugbyReg]

Lucas only started playing halfback when Mooney asked him to convert when Genia and Cords were injured in 2k8. He is a flyhalf.

He played Ox Schoolboys there too I believe. I think when Beale and Cooper were playing?

 

[Utility Back]

Lucas played fly half for OZ A aswell, and did pretty good i thought until he got injured pretty early on.
Dont reckon he went as well for the reds this year as he did 08 though.

 

[Ash]

And who will Melbourne target? Surely To'omua. Barnes signed for 2 years didn't he?

Barnes is on a 1 year deal only. Could go anywhere next year - you can bet that Melbourne, Tahs, Reds and Force will all be fighitng for his signature.

Yeah, To'omua will surely be the other hot property. Most likely chased by the same 4 teams plus Brumbies trying to resign him, or the 3 that don't get Barnes.

 

[Lee Grant]

What are the Force thinking of in resurrecting Sam "Turnstiles" Harris. My 82 year old russian granny is a better fly-half prospect.

He had a couple of good games for the Rats early in the Shute Shield season and that is when the Force hired him. Since then he has been injured and when he came back had some bloody awful games and, in particular, seemed not to combine well with fellow Rat Brett Sheehan, who is the likely starter for the Force.

As I wrote on the Force thread: Pretorius is notorious - for getting injured. The Force may have to use Harris more often than they would like to.

What this country needs is a semi-pro NPC type competition wherein we can test non-Super14 players and see which are the best at that 2nd tier level - the level above amateur rugby. Then we can see which are the players in each position who are valid candidates for 3rd tier Super teams.

What's that you say? We had one in 2007 and it ticked all the boxes from a rugby point of view?

I remember now.

 

[Lee Grant]

He played Ox Schoolboys there too I believe. I think when Beale and Cooper were playing?

Indeed he did.

Lealiifano was the Oz Schools flyhalf in 2004 with Lucas on the bench.

They both returned to school in 2005 but Beale was the Oz Schools flyhalf with Cooper on the bench. The other two were demoted to Oz A Schools.

Then in 2006 Beale was 10 and Cooper 12 for Oz Schools.

In 2005 I said on the other forum that in Oz Schools rugby 2005 would be considered the year of the flyhalf and that those 4 players would be appear in Super rugby. In 2006 when Cooper was the Qld Ones Schools flyhalf we saw Matt To'omua aged 16 as flyhalf in the Qld Twos and it was obvious that he would be the Qld Ones no. 10 in 2007, and unless the other states came up with somebody better, that he would be the 2007 Oz Schools flyhalf - and so it proved.

I said in 2007 that he should be added to the other 4 and that these 5 would take Oz rugby forward in the years to come. Only 2 years later we are talking about those 5. Now, apart from them, we are considering only Giteau, Harris and Halangahu as Oz flyhalves in contention for Oz Super 14 flyhalf spots, with Giteau as the only real likely starter.

Thank God for 2005. And people may wonder why I like to watch Schools rugby.

And who have we seen in Schools rugby since then who will jump up as Super flyhalves in the not too distant future?

Nobody really, but I like the looks of the Combined States no. 10 this year - Kyle Godwin from Perth. From 2008 I also rate Harry Bennett who is playing Colts for Eastern Suburbs this year, but didn't make the Oz Schools Ones in 2008.

 

[PaarlBok]

Dunno if you lot get our rugby show Boots& All? They had Marinos last night and it sound like we may find Argies top players getting in time in Super Rugby, by the sound of it thats Zanzar goal. Hernandez already with the Sharks so you may find a lot of them joining the new franchise.

Our lot struggle in the 10 positions but suddenly from nowhere it look like we may have a few.

 

[TOCC]

Stefano Hunt can play 5/8 cant he?

 

[Spook]

What ever happened to that young injury-prone NSW fly half that went to the Force? The name escapes me ..

 

[TOCC]

Reds have Jono Lance and Ben Tapui in the academy who can both play 5/8 as well, lance is a specialist 5/8 whilst Tapuai is a centre but played 5/8 for the Gold Coast this year.

 

[Lee Grant]

What ever happened to that young injury-prone NSW fly half that went to the Force? The name escapes me ..

Lachlan Mackay was injured a lot for the Force, went to Brive and was injured a lot there. Saw a Brive match a few weeks ago and there he was on the sidelines with his arm in a sling.

He's crocked too regularly to be a pro player, poor fellow - he's in the 3M/Heenan club.

 

[spectator]

Reds have Jono Lance and Ben Tapui in the academy who can both play 5/8 as well, lance is a specialist 5/8 whilst Tapuai is a centre but played 5/8 for the Gold Coast this year.

I rate Jonno Lance. Watch him develop over the next couple of years. As a schoolboy he was Qld II and Australia A number 10 behind Matt To'omua. Very cool and tactical, and has inherited the tackling genes of his old man Dean.