Unsigned Club Players XV

[thierry dusautoir]

Well I may concede on schatz but if he is to be an 8 he does need to lift his running game as I would be interested to see his stats on runs taken to metres gained.

The other to young flankers (cottrel and schatz) you have mentioned are in a far more competitive backrest team than schatz so let's not use the number of caps had as an argument.


In regards to quirk I will raise an article written in the paper a year or two ago where quirk spoke about how the best facets of his game is his aggression and abrasive ness at the breakdown. Now I have watched quirk throughout schoolboy to super level and I think that yes that was a good facet of his game but at a level of rugby where everyone's on the same page physically he is hardly going to have the same affect and in the end his 'abrasive' play was just him throwing bit of chat and doing what expected( make some tackles hit some rucks)

And for the little spiel you have of him which sounds like a copy and paste of his managers website wouldn't you expect someone with such junior pedigree to convert on the big stage? Or from another point of view Underage football glory doesn't equal super rugby glory (Brett Stapleton and Lloyd Johnson anyone?)

Quirk has a year to prove me wrong but if he was to hypothetically be replaced by someone like Nigel ah Wong, Curtis browning or Gerard o'hare even I think the world would turn and no one would notice.

 

[thierry dusautoir]

Ps. I am happy to be wrong but I think if you look at the stats schatz and quirk will have similar readings. Schatz probably wins though

 

[tranquility]

Mate, all good - your opinion is your opinion. I just get a little disillusioned when people expect miracles from these young blokes straight away. But then a few years later go, gee this bloke can actually play. Simmonds is a good example of this.

At the end of the day all of the players mentioned at large backrowers, ie 8 or 6s. It is very uncommon anywhere in the world for large back-rowers to be effective let alone dominant early in their career due to the combative nature of the position. Fetchers are slightly different as we have seen with our trio of tyros.

Currently we have a real shortage of quality large back-rowers in Australia. Lets hope that Shatz, Quirk, McAffrey and Cottrell and a host of others can continue developing so that we will have some quality boppers in the future to dish out some of the breakdown chaos that is being served to us as entree, main and dessert.

 

[redstragic]

In regards to quirk I will raise an article written in the paper a year or two ago where quirk spoke about how the best facets of his game is his aggression and abrasive ness at the breakdown. Now I have watched quirk throughout schoolboy to super level and I think that yes that was a good facet of his game but at a level of rugby where everyone's on the same page physically he is hardly going to have the same affect and in the end his 'abrasive' play was just him throwing bit of chat and doing what expected( make some tackles hit some rucks)
.

Ed looked bigger this year than he did last year, he'll put on more condition this summer and start to learn how to use his size and power at super rugby level. I'd say Higgs only really started learning to use his size and power consistently this year.

Having a bloke like Beau in the team who always has his inner mongrel dialed up to 11 is really good for him. Ed will become that abrasive, ranging, hard nosed, menace type backrower.

 

[East Coast Aces]

Yer I think our expectations are just a little high on 20-22 year olds backrowers. I was a huge critic of Higgs until 2010. I feel Shatz is over rated by journos and commentators. I think some people see work rate as the same thing as effectiveness. But he could come out next year in place of Higgs and prove me wrong.

 

[Lee Grant]

Currently we have a real shortage of quality large back-rowers in Australia.

Exactly so; and big ball runners who can bend the line generally, including some who can do so at 6, in particular. We need guys coming into Super Rugby who can knock folks over with ball in hand yet are fast enough to cover the narrow side at scrum time. [Incidentally, this is why we need Higginbotham to succeed at the national level.]

There are not a lot of big ball runners in the Shute Shield who have the potential to do this in Super Rugby. The fast ones, like Perrett, are not robust players and the hard guys are not quick enough.

The situation for ball running 8s is better in Sydney but most of them like Timani Jr., Metuisela, Gilbert and Davidson have already been in Super stables. Metuisela did well in a few appearances for the Tahs this year and is not contracted at the minute, and I expect Lopeti Timani to be fully contracted for 2013. He is a keeper, and the logical successor to Palu at the Tahs.
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[qwerty51]

Michael's brother, Richard Hooper. Sign him Tahs ffs. He's better than Betham, Pakalani and Trist.