Ash,
Surely it would have been more sensible to throw the likes of Simmons or Douglas in against Fiji or Ireland rather than having them against the Boks or ABs. If there was a plan to have Simmons in the 3N squad, then he should have been at least tested off the bench in one of the June Wallaby games.
The problem with the June tests are that we haven't really found anything good, or learned anything new. Arguably Slipper and Fa'ainga are the exception to this.
I tend to think a lot of what you have offered that Deans could have or should have done is great in hindsight. I don't think a lot of it was possible, though. To me, trying Mumm and Sharpe with the big munter Chisolm was the right way, but now in hindsight we know that Sharpe got injured, Mumm went poorly and Chisholm went poorly. However, Mumm was in great form for the S14 this year, and last year Chisholm stood up in tests when selected after an average S14. The Aus A games were the correct opportunity to blood Douglas and Simmons, not the June tests.
The props were indeed a clusterfuck. But the sad fact is that once Alexander and Robinson were gone, we did not have one LHP capable of propping at a test level. As fatprop said, it didn't matter who we selected at THP. I've already mentioned that I thought Baxter should have been brought in one Ma'afu failed, but let's leave it at that.
We haven't see how Cooper would go with a hard running 12 outside him
Barnes and Gits were rightly the first choice 12s and both were tried. Now that we know in hindsight that Gits struggled and still crabbed at 12, we can see that a hard running 12 should be tried. The reality is, there were 4 tests and Barnes and Gits needed to be given a shot.
We don't know how Douglas or Simmons would step up as locks
That's what the Aus A games were for. The big mistake Deans made was not using his bench when Sharpe was injured to give Chapman a real chance.
We haven't found out if Hodgson is big enough to play 6 or 8 internationally
If Brown doesn't cut it here as a good enough ball carrier or have enough of a heavy impact, how could Hodgson at 8? He has less agression than Brown, but is more effective at scrapping.
Whether the backrow would be better balanced with Mumm or Hodgson at 6 and Elsom at 8
Why move Mumm to 6 when he's failed there at test level in the past and plays most of his state rugby now at lock? Plus he's in poor form to begin with. Moving Hogson to 6 and Elsom to 8 might be worth trying, but this combo is still not substantially different from Elsom and Brown.
How a bigger backline might be more effective
Who would you bring in? Cross in woeful form? Chambers and Mortlock are injured, there's no quality backs left of size left. Fainga'a, believe it or not, is not big. The biggest backline we could field at the time has Ioane and AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) (and Hynes, but see below why he was not selected, and nor should he have been).
Whether Hynes could show the same form for the Reds at fullback for the Wallabies
Hynes was injured initially, and in poor form in the Baabaas games and didn't seem back to full fitness. I've covered that before. I was at the Gosford game and saw Hynes not being able to hit full speed right in front of me, then later on saw him having a slight limp for half the game - again right in front of me. Hynes was never going to be selected, and I'm getting tired of the same posts saying he should have. Like a lot of stuff brought up on this thread, sounds plausible or even great in hindsight, but at the time a decision that made more sense at that point was chosen.
The June tests were the place to get some answers to these questions, not the trinations series. I think Deans will stick with the same team vs the Boks, and if we get beaten, he might then make some changes. Will it be fair to throw the likes of Fa'ainga in against the ABs in his maiden test?
A lot of these questions are being raised as "should haves" in hindsight simply because of the poor form of the people tried. Deans tried to use what he had, and didn't really succeed. At the time (aside from Ma'afu) Deans' choices made sense if you thought about it with the attempt to build momentum and combinations into the 3N.
