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Quade Cooper's defence this year

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Swat

Swat

Chilla Wilson (44)
Scoey said:
Over Genia, that had just won the S15 and 3N? Surely you jest!
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I meant from the last game of the pool stages, not the start of the tournament. I'll quote myself

Swat said:
9. Burgo (Genia needs a break, his play has gotten stale, Burgess looks hungry every time he comes off the bench, sure his passing isn't as crisp but he's been producing much quicker ball when he's been on this WC - if you don't believe me watch re-watch the games)
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Braveheart81

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
Scotty said:
Fair enough - might be what Robbie does, but what do you think should happen?

What gives us the best chance of winning - keeping the same team that scraped past the welsh or trying to improve it for the tougher test of the boks and all blacks.
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I pretty much stand by the consistency argument. Unless Cooper does something remarkable with the Reds, Barnes should start at 10 in TRC.

I think our best backline on paper becomes impossible to put into action when they haven't been healthy for much of the season. I just don't think we can make multiple changes to our backline based purely on reputation rather than what has worked in recent games and helped build a combination.

If we changed our 10 and potentially switched our midfield around and lost the first couple of tests, do you then go back to Barnes/McCabe/Horne? Deans and the ARU would look like the most inept managers ever if they did that.

As far as I see it, players like Cooper and Tapuai are really only a chance if we have a terrible start to TRC. Sticking to a formula that has been successful is surely the best bet at this stage.

We have tried so many combinations in the centres and finally McCabe and Horne have played three games together and gone quite well that I think it is worth persisting with. There is plenty to be said about picking a combination and sticking with it. England did it with Tindall and Greenwood who were terrible when they started but eventually turned into a really solid combination. I think McCabe and Horne have the potential to be much better than those two.
 
fatprop

fatprop

George Gregan (70)
Staff member
Quade has made a marked improvement in the last 3 matches only missing one tackle in each of those games, but in the Rebels game he made 2 and missed 5, in the Lions game he made none but missed one..

Let us see a bit more evidence of his improvement before this miracle is confirmed.
 
Scotty

Scotty

David Codey (61)
Horne hasn't really done anything to cement his position. Not for the wallabies and not for the Tahs. He should not be an automatic choice.

Well there are two options:

1. Take the team that beat Wales, ignore the form super players, and hope we can get close to the ABs. Pocock is going to have to be even better than usual with this way forward - he was the main difference between a win and loss for the last two games.

2. Take a slight risk and bring in some form super players where the upside is the ability to leverage periods of dominance by scoring points, and have a chance to actually beat the ABs.

The fact is we have to be able to score points when we get the opportunity. The current wallabies team relied on loose forward runs and Genia (and Beale once) to create tries. If we have to do that in TRC we are toast.

We should be looking at dropping the likes of Alexander, Timani, Horne and AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) and brining in the likes of Palmer, Douglas, Cooper and Tomane.
 
Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude

John Solomon (38)
If you are going to judge the merits of keeping someone in the team based on "we won last time" rather than an objective assessment of "ok so we have two centers who refuse to pass - what can we do about that?" then at the first loss - what do you do? Fire everyone?
 
T

TOCC

Guest
Sure Stats aren't everything, Tahs have only played one game and all the players have been up against varying opposition..

Since the June break, Tackles/Missed Tackles:

Q Cooper: 11/2
B Barnes: 11/3
Z Holmes: 19/4
B Seymour: 13/3
B Foley: 7/0
JOC (James O'Connor): 3/0
KB (Kurtley Beale): 2/5

Horne: 6/3
AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper): 7/1
McCabe: 16/1
 
cyclopath

cyclopath

George Smith (75)
Staff member
Given he has been panned for his defence, we should applaud his apparent (but early) change and give credit where it is due. Many of us have pre-conceived ideas about players' frailties and cannot see when they actually get something right or change for the better.
If he can tackle reasonably consistently, that'll do me, as the attack side of things has never been in doubt for me.
But I won't accept the way he handled the whole Richie / Public Enemy #1 thing last year. He didn't need to make a grovelling apology as some precious petals across the ditch wanted, but if he'd said "I admit I probably went a bit over the top" the whole thing would have been defused, and his mindset might have been more robust in the RWC.
He is our best prospect at 10 for me.
 
gel

gel

Ken Catchpole (46)
Braveheart81 said:
If we changed our 10 and potentially switched our midfield around and lost the first couple of tests, do you then go back to Barnes/McCabe/Horne? Deans and the ARU would look like the most inept managers ever if they did that.

As far as I see it, players like Cooper and Tapuai are really only a chance if we have a terrible start to TRC. Sticking to a formula that has been successful is surely the best bet at this stage..
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I like your thinking (honestly I do), consistency is the key and would be ok with Barnes staying at 10 until QC (Quade Cooper) does something that is obviously remarkable to force a change. Sort of the exact opposite of what happened with Simmons and Timani.
 
Behold

Behold

Bob McCowan (2)
If Beale and JOC (James O'Connor) aren't fit for the first Bledisloe Deans would have to be tempted to pick Quade at 15 and stick with Barnes at 10.
 
Penguin

Penguin

John Solomon (38)
Behold said:
We must operate under different understandings of superb because while his defence has been better it is still not acceptable. He has gone from being a turnstile to a speed bump.
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He missed one out of 11 last week & saved at least two tries. What were you watching?
 
Scotty

Scotty

David Codey (61)
Schadenfreude said:
If you are going to judge the merits of keeping someone in the team based on "we won last time" rather than an objective assessment of "ok so we have two centers who refuse to pass - what can we do about that?" then at the first loss - what do you do? Fire everyone?
Click to expand...

Amazing how we can agree wholeheartedly on some things but be complete opposite on others.
 
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