For the ABs, I thought the media interviews showed a hugely disappointing attitude. Moody thought the pack stood up well and everyone was sore. Moody - the pack was smoked dude. You didn't play particularly well either. The ABs were really lucky to lose by just 9. Is there genuine reflection in camp?
Foster sounded confused and confusingly optimistic about the ABs play. I'll be confident too if i'm the AB coach, but you also have the responsibility to put in place cutting edge attack and defence structures, both of which look lacking. Even our much-vaunted attack is primarily based on quick hands, turnovers, and the occasional. There's not much deception nor variation.
The ABs have simply gone with experience.
Coles is back, as is Cane. 2 captains, after a test where leadership was found wanting. Coles in particular will keep the chat up, we were deadly quiet last week. Foster has also finally realised the value of Samisoni off the bench - he's always high impact around the field, which just about compensates for his jittery lineout, especially as Codie has been super flat this year. I'm very surprised that George has been preferred to Karl at reserve loosehead; I thought Karl has been significantly better than George this year, and in the minor minutes, have probably been the best performing loosehead.
No surprises at lock. But I hope to see Retallick lift a little. I have great faith he is still a great player, but he looks off.
Loosies are interesting. Papali'i is definitely a better player than Cane at the moment; Cane look out of sorts even against the Italains, even if he improved as the match wore on. Dalton and Ethan are not ready for the brutality of the North I don't think. Dalton has coped. being quite a robust personality, but the leadership bit is important and it's a big test for Sam - he hasn't played well since 2017. Ethan has been outmuscled, which means Akira comes back in. I'm fine with Akira in most areas except his workrate. But workrate is tunable, something that can be hammered home, while natural physical talents are not. I would have loved to see Akira longer vs the Irish, but the French should be a good test. No one has really owned the 6 jersey since Kaino. I'm thinking that with every 6 so far having very obvious weaknesses, perhaps it's time to get Scott Barrett to have another go.
I intensely dislike that Foster has copped out and gone with Aaron in this game. At the WC, there will almost certainly be players missing, and I wanted to see how we cope without Aaron for just one more game. While everyone has been unimpressed with TJ, I thought he played quite well in the last game. Defensively, TJ was the only one who regularly reaped the benefits of rushing, smacking a few far behind the advantage line. His box was ok too.
At centre, as I was hoping, Quinn starts. Again, I think even foster realises he needs a 12 that runs straight. Foster talked about being pleased with David's creativity when he came on against the Irish - which is a worrying comment, probably biased by just 1 excellent run. Since Ennor was shite against Italy and ALB is out, this leaves Reiko at 13. Centres are worrying. I'm ok with ALB. And that's it. Every other centre, including Jack Goodhue worries me.
Sevu was poor against Ireland but he was also out of position. This leaves George returning. I really do not rate Geroge, and if I'm AB coach he will not be in the long-term consideration of the squad. But if Reece isn't playing and Ioane in the centres, that leaves George as wing. BTW, there are a number of wingers I think that are worth considering - Caleb and Leicester of course, on the left, and Freedom and even Bryce Heem. on the right.
With Dane, Sam W, Brodie, Sam C and Aaron, this is probably the most experienced team we can put out. It means beyond this we have few trump cards left. So we have to win.
For France, Marchand is out, so Mauvaka comes in, which leaves a very inexperienced Barlot off the bench (attack the lineout later in the game boys!). They have chosen Antonio at tighthead (a surprise). Bamba will bring impact off the bench, but with Willemse Cros, Jelonch and Alldritt it's a fairly big and robust French set-up. They will bash the ABs from the start. Any team playing Dupont will know the fringe defence better be on alert the entire game, Dupont is lightning around the ruck, and it is this threat that opens up the game for Ntmarck.
In the backline, the main talking point is Danty at 12, with Jalibert benched. In other words, only 1 playmaker - Danty is a basher, and a very good one at that. A good, if somewhat predictable challenge for Quinn. This would be such a good game to rush - Ntamarck can be rattled, and Danty's threat is best snuffed out before he gets going. Unfortunately, as we have discussed, the ABs don't rush.
France is still missing some back 3 players, but Penaud on his day can be devastating. If France pulls into the lead, I think they will have a surge of confidence which might just about power them home. But I think the experience will tell for the ABs, and we should take it by about 10 points, reasonably comfortable in the end.
). Opting to halve the deficit by taking three was the correct call IMO: our lineout had the yips so I'm not sure we'd necessarily have won the lineout & Ireland's maul defence is as good as anyone's. Our scrum seemed to be either square but going nowhere or advancing but also wheeling - not sure if it was us or Ireland doing the wheeling but I'm not confident we'd have scored from the scrum option either. Plus AB can score from deep & have a guy who can land them from 50+ so SW would've backed his guys to do one or the other in the time remaining. That they were unable to is due to how good Ireland were, not poor captaincy.
