Wallabies v. Springboks, 18th July 2015, Suncorp, Brisbane

[RugbyReg]

I'd be taking a leaf out of the 91 team's book and just picking the best team every week subject to injury. What that best team is, blowed if I know.

I actually think our '2nd string' front row of Holmes/Latu or Hanson/ Sio is in better form than Kepu/Moore/Slipper. Yes, even taking into account Sio's recent return from injury and Latu's suspension.

I think in the end Cheika should pick the team that he thinks will win the RWC and play that team all season, except for perhaps the USA and Uruguay tests.

For me the team that can most likely challenge for the RWC is:

15 Folau
14 AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper)
13 Kuridrani
12 To'omua
11 Speight
10 Cooper
9 Phipps
8 McCalman
7 Pocock
6 Higginbotham
5 Simmons
4 Skelton
3 Kepu
2 Moore [c]
1 Slipper

16 Hanson
17 Sio
18 Holmes
19 Fardy
20 Hooper
21 Genia
22 Giteau
23 O'Connor

 

[No4918]

Completely agree that the side for the first TRC game needs to be the side he wants for the WC.

I think Higgers compliments a McCalman/Pocock backrow better than Fardy. If Hooper was 7 I'd play Fardy.

 

[qwerty51]

If he picks the best team every week, how do we find out who should be the 24-31 players in the squad?

 

[No4918]

The same way he picks the best 23, Super Rugby form and the vibe.

 

[RugbyReg]

If he picks the best team every week, how do we find out who should be the 24-31 players in the squad?

The 24-31 don't win you the RWC

 

[fatprop]

The 24-31 don't win you the RWC

It seems to be the way he selects his team for the Tahs, without injury or suspension the 24 - 31 units hold the tackle bags

 

[Tomikin]

Anyone Concerned with To'omua's lack of game time recently, he did start well against the Lions but was off quickly. I think Cheika had a word to Larkham and asked him to play To'omua at 12 (I agree to be honest). But if we don't make the finals he may only have 1 hit out before the SA test.

 

[Viking]

Cooper has got to start. The more game time before RWC the better. Better to risk starting him now then later.

 

[RugbyReg]

Anyone Concerned with To'omua's lack of game time recently, he did start well against the Lions but was off quickly. I think Cheika had a word to Larkham and asked him to play To'omua at 12 (I agree to be honest). But if we don't make the finals he may only have 1 hit out before the SA test.

I'm all in historical mode thanks to the podcasts, but in 99 Eales, Burke, Larkham and a few others missed large chunks of the Super Rugby season (if not all of it) coming back at various stages of the international season (including during the actual RWC).

So no. I'm not worried. In the RWC year, the Rugby Championship is still important, but very much takes 2nd place to the RWC.

 

[Viking]

Anyone Concerned with To'omua's lack of game time recently, he did start well against the Lions but was off quickly. I think Cheika had a word to Larkham and asked him to play To'omua at 12 (I agree to be honest). But if we don't make the finals he may only have 1 hit out before the SA test.

Yeah he might be a bit underdone come the SA Test. But come RWC should be fine.

 

[Braveheart81]

I'm all in historical mode thanks to the podcasts, but in 99 Eales, Burke, Larkham and a few others missed large chunks of the Super Rugby season (if not all of it) coming back at various stages of the international season (including during the actual RWC).

So no. I'm not worried. In the RWC year, the Rugby Championship is still important, but very much takes 2nd place to the RWC.

In some ways I think those forced layoffs are helpful. Obviously we haven't adopted the same player resting practices of NZ and SA so some of our players will have played a lot of rugby by the time we get to September. Having some of our players playing their 12th game of the season rather than their 25th at the RWC will hopefully help us.

That said, we will have plenty of players with 20+ games before the RWC starts so we need to hope those players aren't being burnt out.

In 1999, Super Rugby was only 11 games plus 2 weeks of finals.

The Wallabies played 7 matches prior to the RWC whereas we only have 5 scheduled this year.

That meant that the most matches anyone could have played was 20 before the RWC. This year that number could be as high as 24.

 

[fatprop]

Cooper has got to start. The more game time before RWC the better. Better to risk starting him now then later.

I expect Cooper to be a bench unit this season baring injury, I don't think he plays direct/straight enough for the Cheika game plan

 

[Train Without a Station]

I don't expect the Wallabies to make use of their opportunities if that's the case.

 

[I like to watch]

I expect Cooper to be a bench unit this season baring injury, I don't think he plays direct/straight enough for the Cheika game plan

I'm not so sure.
I think Cheika ball, is more about the pace of the attack.
The Tahs play it direct/ straight due to the attributes/shortcomings of their 10.
QC (Quade Cooper) plays flat,so he is suits Cheika's preferred style IMO, and probably enhances the output as he can do things that Foley cannot.

 

[Braveheart81]

I think we should wait and see how the next two games go for Cooper before we get too excited about him moving straight into the starting 10 jersey.

If he plays as well as he did against the Force then he may well force Cheika's hand but I think it's a stretch at this stage.

 

[Train Without a Station]

Interesting that at first it was that Cooper may not have enough time to show some form and would need to work his way back into form due to time off.

He comes back and plays probably 1 of the best games of an Aus 10 this year and now we need to see him do it again.

 

[Braveheart81]

Interesting that at first it was that Cooper may not have enough time to show some form and would need to work his way back into form due to time off.

He comes back and plays probably 1 of the best games of an Aus 10 this year and now we need to see him do it again.

Do you honestly think Cheika or any international coach would select the player who was their reserve 10 last year as the starter for the first test this year on the back of one excellent performance against the worst team in the competition?

For Cooper to start, I think he needs to do that more than once.

 

[Viking]

Well Cheika did put Cooper on the wing last year so who knows what the hell he'll do this year.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

I'd be taking a leaf out of the 91 team's book and just picking the best team every week subject to injury. What that best team is, blowed if I know.

I actually think our '2nd string' front row of Holmes/Latu or Hanson/ Sio is in better form than Kepu/Moore/Slipper. Yes, even taking into account Sio's recent return from injury and Latu's suspension.

I think in the end Cheika should pick the team that he thinks will win the RWC and play that team all season, except for perhaps the USA and Uruguay tests.

Totally agree with that approach. We don't have a lot of time for chopping and changing, we've got to firm up our best XV as soon as possible. The good thing is though, I think we're largely at that point. The forward pack almost completely pick themselves, with only conjecture around the back row but even that's not too bad. It's more a case of having a tonne of really good options and just working out how and when to use them.

The backline is almost the same, with half back, full back and the midfield pretty well locked down. The wings at five-eighth are a bit of a quandary, but no more than the back row. Again, some good options available.

I'm OK with some experimentation, but mainly through the bench. We need to keep the core of what we think is our best XV out there for as many games as possible.

 

[Train Without a Station]

Do you honestly think Cheika or any international coach would select the player who was their reserve 10 last year as the starter for the first test this year on the back of one excellent performance against the worst team in the competition?

As I have noted many times, how did the "incumbent" perform against this same "worst team in the competition"? Twice?

The question was would Quade be capable of his best when he came back. He clearly showed that. If he plays shithouse the next 2 weeks then fair enough. But if he again shows that he is influential and leads the attack well, well then that's just the benchmark of what he's still capable of.