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RWC Pool D: Wallabies v Fiji, Sat 21st September, 2.45pm AEST, Sapporo Dome

barbarian

barbarian

Phil Kearns (64)
Staff member
Fainga'a is a solid player, who had a good Super season. He's had plenty of chances to cement his place in the Wallaby team, but has struggled to impose himself on international rugby. Maybe he's slightly too small, maybe he's just young, maybe it's a confidence thing, I don't know.

He hasn't been bad by any means, just not that good.

Latu on the other hand has been all over the map in the last eighteen months. I'm not sure he deserved to be there in the first place, but I don't think you can deny he's been the most impressive in the #2 jersey this year. His best has always been really good (see his stint off the bench vs Ireland in Sydney as a case in point), but the issue has been his errors and ill-disciplined.

Now at this point he seems to have left those issues behind him, for the last few months at least. There's a chance it comes back to bite us in a big game but Cheika is clearly happy to roll the dice. I can understand why but I'm uneasy about him being out there.

Tolu giveth, but Tolu taketh away.
.
 
Derpus

Derpus

Nathan Sharpe (72)
Latu being a loose unit is part of what makes him so good. Hes angry, gets his head into dangerous spots, carries hard and low and is constantly involved.

I reckon if you take that away he won't be anywhere near as good, because his core abilities (throwing etc) are scratchy at best.
 
TSR

TSR

Andrew Slack (58)
I think that does him a bit of a disservice Derpus.

I was against his selection initially, but one thing I’ve been impressed with is he seems to be being more measured but, if anything, the quality of his impact has gone up.

I think Barbarian’s post nails it. He’s lucky to be there, it could still go pear shaped, but so far he is repaying the faith.
 
cyclopath

cyclopath

George Smith (75)
Staff member
Derpus said:
Latu being a loose unit is part of what makes him so good. Hes angry, gets his head into dangerous spots, carries hard and low and is constantly involved.

I reckon if you take that away he won't be anywhere near as good, because his core abilities (throwing etc) are scratchy at best.
Click to expand...

I think his throwing in the past was quite variable (read quite poor at times), but in his recent Tests he seems to have done well. Small sample, I know, but credit where it's due.
As for scrummaging, his other core duty, that has always been regarded as one of his strengths.
His main issues, on field, have been discipline, discipline............ And rightly so.
As others have said, I think all 3 hookers will see a fair bit of game time. Nice to have options.
 
Up the Guts

Up the Guts

Steve Williams (59)
How do we know that we’re not just rotating the front row? I know that Fiji are much improved etc. etc. but if we lose it won’t be because we gave Uelese a chance to get game time under his belt.
 
Adam84

Adam84

Rod McCall (65)
Seb V said:
If NZ play Read, Saeva, and Cane - then really it's pretty even for line-out options even if we start the Pooper.
Click to expand...

Read is a known lineout jumper and caller,
Savea has still more lineout wins then the Wallabies backrow combined.. which isn’t really saying much.
Cane is pretty useless in the lineout
 
Slim 293

Slim 293

Stirling Mortlock (74)
Adam84 said:
Across that backrow they had less then 10 Line Out Wins between them all season.
Isi is many things, a renowned lineout jumper isn’t one of them.

Don’t be fooled by Isi’s height, this backrow is a lineout liability
Click to expand...


Naisarani was a regular jumper at the Brumbies and the Force............

He obviously wasn't used by the Rebels much this year, but he'll probably hit those same numbers with the Wallabies after the Fiji game.
 
BDA

BDA

Jim Lenehan (48)
fatprop said:
I would assume it comes down to scrummaging, we were dished up Samoa when the bench front row came on, one I can live with, but there was no adaption. I would assume Kepu is there for his loads of experience

And really TT has been quite like any other THP around the field this season, his "great impact" around the field was last year
Click to expand...

I assume you're right re it being about scrummaging but is Kepu really stronger in the scrum than TT in 2019?? No doubt Kepu put in a much better scrum performance than TT did against Samoa, but other than that I would say hands down TT has been more effective in the scrums this year than Kepu, who seems to have started a slow decline and I dare say his best days are gone... and that's not even taking into account his general play around the field.

I'm hoping it's just Cheika's way of making it clear to the front rowers 'you get your set piece right first and foremost or your not in the side'
 
Viking

Viking

Mark Ella (57)
Adam84 said:
Read is a known lineout jumper and caller,
Savea has still more lineout wins then the Wallabies backrow combined.. which isn’t really saying much.
Cane is pretty useless in the lineout
Click to expand...


Are those line-out wins on opposition ball? Or include winning own throws? I think Hooper can be used occasionally and Isa is fine on our own throw.

We don't have much chance winning opposition ball though with that back-row I imagine... Although Arnold seems to be on fire at line-out this year.
 
Viking

Viking

Mark Ella (57)
BDA said:
I assume you're right re it being about scrummaging but is Kepu really stronger in the scrum than TT in 2019?? No doubt Kepu put in a much better scrum performance than TT did against Samoa, but other than that I would say hands down TT has been more effective in the scrums this year than Kepu, who seems to have started a slow decline and I dare say his best days are gone. and that's not even taking into account his general play around the field.

I'm hoping it's just Cheika's way of making it clear to the front rowers 'you get your set piece right first and foremost or your not in the side'
Click to expand...


well said. I'm concerned that Cheika seems to be using the performances against Samoa as his primary source of form for selections, and some-what disregarding the rest of the international and super xv season. At least when looking at the selections of Fainga < Uelese and TT < Kepu.

I'd argue using the small sample size with Samoa - a relatively poor opposition is not as good guage as the previous tests or super xv season.
 
Viking

Viking

Mark Ella (57)
Slim 293 said:
I'm going to say yes.... Kepu was also more solid in the scrum against the Boks.

For all of TT's hype, his scrummaging hasn't been that good this year.
Click to expand...


He looked to make the scrum more stable when he came on against NZ though.
 
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BDA

BDA

Jim Lenehan (48)
Look I'll admit I never packed down in the front row myself so I don't really know what the fuck I'm talking about, but from what I can see at this stage of their respective careers, TT seems to be a much more powerful scrummager, while Kepu is presumably still more technically sound. 18 months ago I wouldn't have even considered putting TT in the same conversation as Kepu scrummaging wise ; in another 12 months I suspect TT will have easily surpassed him. I'm not quite sure where they are now, but I don't think there's much in it.

Against the more wile northern hemisphere props I could see Kepu being less prone to dark arts trickery than TT. Against Fiji though??
 
Slim 293

Slim 293

Stirling Mortlock (74)
TT was also penalised a lot during Super Rugby this year...........

He definitely made massive improvements last year but as probably regressed a little this year - still young with room for improvement.
 
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