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Wallabies v England

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PaarlBok

PaarlBok

Rod McCall (65)
Backs: U Monye (Harlequins); M Cueto (Sale Sharks), D Hipkiss (Leicester), S Geraghty (Northampton), M Banahan (Bath); J Wilkinson (Toulon), D Care (Harlequins)

Forwards: T Payne (Wasps), S Thompson (Brive), D Wilson (Bath), L Deacon (Leicester), S Borthwick (Saracens, capt), T Croft (Leicester), L Moody (Leicester), J Crane (Leicester).

Replacements: D Hartley (Northampton), D Bell (Bath), C Lawes (Northampton), J Haskell (Stade Francais), P Hodgson (London Irish), A Goode (Brive), A Erinle (Biarritz).


A lot of names I dunno.? Maybe time to spent money on a decoder.
 
Lee Grant

Lee Grant

John Eales (66)
Re: Pom Team

Crikey the 2nd row and backrow are all from one club - Leicester. Not a bad idea since there is a bit of inexperience in the 22 to balance out.


15. Monye at 15 is interesting. He has been one of the most improved Pom players in the calendar year, but he is normally a winger and been playing great for Quins this season when I have watched him. Is playing here because Delon Armitage is injured. I'd give him a few bombs to drop provided there were two guys to tackle him if he doesn't. You don't want this unit coming off the long run.

14. Cueto is a good pro and pretty well known. Good footie player.

13 Hipkiss - a powerful balanced runner who is very direct and hard to put down in the first tackle. He's in there because the canny Tindall is injured.

12. Geraghty is a Kiwi 2nd 5 type. Has good hands and feet. Will play a bit at 1st receiver to give Wilko more time further out. I'd have a go at this bloke whichever side has the ball.

11. Banahan looks like 2nd rower but runs a lot faster. Plays a bit like Cohen - likes running over folks - wouldn't want to be marking him.

10. Never heard of him.

9. Care - an improved version of Brett Sheehan, and like him, a twat. Will tap and go at the drop of a hat like most 9s over there; so watch out. Ellis must be injured.

8. Crane - yet to be convinced at the top level, but it's good that a younger bloke is getting a run compared to dinosaurs like Corry and Easter in the past.

7. Moody was a bit of a surprise for me as his body has played a lot of rugby and missed a lot. But he's a warhorse and he will balance some of the younger blokes in the 22. Armitage Junior is better in his ground work but was overlooked.

6. Croft - Class player

4/5 No great shakes around the park but without Sharpe at lineout for us they will have a field day.

3. Wilson - Have seen the big unit play but don't know enough about him. I saw White being injured a couple of weeks ago and Vickery is probably crocked too, but anyway, they probably want to give Wilson a long stint this season to see how he goes as a regular.

2. Thompson - blast from the fast and looking surprising fit for Brive. Hasn't got any better looking though. Thought Hartley would be starting, not on the bench.

1. Payne - in because Sheridan got a dislocated shoulder. He's played a few tests for England but I always thought he was just a journeyman until he was called in as a Lions replacement recently.


12 Geraghty, 11. Banahan, 3. Wilson and 8. Crane have played very few test matches.



Reserves: If he's the Bell who is a prop he's closer to 40 than 30. At the other extreme: Lawes - this is a huge promotion for the young bloke. I remember from only one game but if they wanted an athletic lock I would have picked the more seasoned Nick Kennedy - or maybe they didn't think he was physical enough. Development pick.

Erinle is a bit like the French centre Bastareaud IIRR. Look out if he gets on the park and Banahan and Hipkiss are still there.

Can't work out who missed out and is not injured but thought that centre Tait may have been picked as he provides a bit of X-factor. Not the greatest defender though.

Tindall's organisation will be missed and I suggest that Wilko will be playing at 2nd receiver a lot to organise things.

We should go OK in the scrums but I don't expect our lineouts to improve much.
 
H

Hugonaut

Guest
Re: Pom Team

As Lee says, a number of players who would be obvious first choices missing from this line-up due to injury: Andrew Sheridan at LH Prop [dislocated shoulder], Phil Vickery at TH Prop [neck op will have him out for 3+ months], Julian White at replacement TH [torn hamstring], Simon Shaw [broken bone in his foot] and Nick Easter [calf tear] – these lads are all old-stagers to a man, and Vickery in particular has a lot of miles on the clock.

That said, a couple of Johnson's selections are quite conservative. Picking Thompson over Hartley might be intended to reduce the frankly massive amount of penalties that the latter gives away, but Thompson is hardly in vintage form.

The second row partnership? In a word, dire. Borthwick isn't good enough to start, and Louis Deacon is a club player. Obviously Courtney Laws and Nick Kennedy are both seen as four jumpers, but at least one of them should have started, as they're better than both the incumbents.

Steffon Armitage has been great this season for London Irish, but in fairness to Lewis Moody, he gets through a tremendous amount of work as well. Really wouldn't be too pushed on Jordan Crane at No.8 either, but there's not a huge amount to work with there ...
 
S

Spook

Guest
Re: Pom Team

9. Care - an improved version of Brett Sheehan, and like him, a twat. Will tap and go at the drop of a hat like most 9s over there; so watch out. Ellis must be injured.
Click to expand...

Care has explosive pace and is a real sniper. He is nothing like Sheehan.
 
Gagger

Gagger

Nick Farr-Jones (63)
Staff member
Re: Pom Team

Now, they are some beefy outside backs. Not a lot of subtlety there.

Would have been far more worried with Armitage at 7, Moody is, and always has been, completely overrated.

As of old, Wilkinson holds the key.
 
Lee Grant

Lee Grant

John Eales (66)
Re: Pom Team

Spook said:
9. Care - an improved version of Brett Sheehan, and like him, a twat. Will tap and go at the drop of a hat like most 9s over there; so watch out. Ellis must be injured.
Click to expand...

Care has explosive pace and is a real sniper. He is nothing like Sheehan.
Click to expand...

I said he was improved. He's a bit like Sheehan in that he doesn't have the greatest pass, but is combative to a fault. Like a lot of scrummies who don't have a great pass he will choose to snipe more. Is as dumb as Sheehan is too.
 
Ash

Ash

Michael Lynagh (62)
No fetcher. Don't see that backrow troubling the breakdown too much - at least, not in the class of SA and NZ. Don't think that England have had a balanced and dangerous backrow since Back and Hill at 7 and 6.
 
Biffo

Biffo

Ken Catchpole (46)
Ladbrokes bet:

Australia 8/13
poms 5/4
Draw 18/1

Alternatively, with the poms getting 3 points start,

Australia 10/11
poms 10/11
tie 18/1
 
PaarlBok

PaarlBok

Rod McCall (65)
Biff dont understand much about that figures but this will be the turning point for the Wablies, make or break.
 
Scarfman

Scarfman

Knitter of the Scarf
I always thought that RO'G was better than him around the field, but worse (much worse) at tackling.

Ronan kicks to the corners better and can find his midfielders more usefully. Although it's true that his midfielders aren't useless tits, like Jonny's.
 
Biffo

Biffo

Ken Catchpole (46)
I have seen a lot of Wilkinson this year and he has been going very well for Toulon, a la Jonny, if you know what I mean.

I suspect that the warmer climate at Toulon makes him less susceptible to injury than when he was at Newcastle.

Problem with assessing 5/8s is that the poms, Welsh, Irish and Scots all insist on including goal kicking as one of the (about the most important, truth to tell) criteria. So, Larkham gets marked down against Wilkinson because his goal kicking was inferior.

What utter nonsense. There is no law that says the 5/8 must be the goal kicker. I have had a zillion arguments with pom, Welsh, Irish and Scottish blokes about this and got nowhere. I must say they are consistent, though - they don't allow Matt Burke's goalkicking to be claimed as an attribute.

My opinion of Wilkinson is that he is not in the top ten I have seen, probably not in the top 20.
 
R

Richard D. James

Guest
Wallabies named:

15. Adam Ashley-Cooper (Brumbies)
14. Peter Hynes (Queensland Reds)
13. Digby Ioane (Queensland Reds)
12. Quade Cooper (Queensland Reds)
11. Drew Mitchell (NSW Waratahs)
10. Matt Giteau (Brumbies)
9. Will Genia (Queensland Reds)
8. Wycliff Palu (NSW Waratahs)
7. George Smith (Brumbies)
6. Rocky Elsom (Brumbies, captain)
5. Mark Chisholm (Brumbies)
4. James Horwill (Queensland Reds)
3. Ben Alexander (Brumbies)
2. Stephen Moore (Brumbies)
1. Benn Robinson (NSW Waratahs)



Run on reserves:

16. Tatafu Polota Nau (NSW Waratahs)
17. Matt Dunning (Western Force)
18. Dean Mumm (NSW Waratahs)
19. David Pocock (Western Force)
20. Luke Burgess (NSW Waratahs)
21. Ryan Cross (Western Force)
22. James O’Connor (Western Force)


I'm very happy with that team.
 
Grandmaster Flash

Grandmaster Flash

Johnnie Wallace (23)
WOW. Stoked to see this team, lets just hope the forwards put it together to get Digby and Quade running onto front-foot ball!
 
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