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Wallabies v. Wales - 1 Dec

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troxler

Sydney Middleton (9)
Looking at the weather - Should be a chilly 3DEGREES for kick off. No rain duing the game but some ealier which won't dry up so it's going to be cold and slippery. Wallabies not going to like that.

Will the roof not be closed for this game?
 

JJJ

Vay Wilson (31)
I'd put Wales as favourites for this this. We won our last 2 games against them by bugger-all, and that was at home. They'll be out for revenge as well as redemption. Not having their starting tight 5 will hurt them at the scrum though, but so will us not having Timani.

Who's the ref?
 

Italophile

Alfred Walker (16)
To be fair - for a blond bloke that is a sensational mo Berrick is rocking there. Straight out of a dodgy 70s cop show.
I couldn't even see one on the badger.

Which wing does North play on? Would love a north v badger showdown. Just smashing into each other.

North plays LW. Whether he's recovered from injury to start this week is another matter.
 

vissievisa

Bob McCowan (2)
I'd put Wales as favourites for this this. We won our last 2 games against them by bugger-all, and that was at home. They'll be out for revenge as well as redemption. Not having their starting tight 5 will hurt them at the scrum though, but so will us not having Timani.

Who's the ref?
Wayne Barnes, who recently reffed ireland into the ground at home to South Africa. Missed so much that south africa did, including a kick off receipt that was 3 metres outside the 22, and he was staring at it,from ten metres away and called "INSIDE". Mind boggling stuff (and that's putting it mildly). He's pretty incompetent at least. Gave awful pens against Ireland in the lineout too. Slight advantage for Aus there, as he's been labelled a bit of a Homer recently and may be looking to dispel that notion if his Irish run-out is anything to go by.

TMO is Marshall Kilgore from Ireland, who awarded the dodgy Italian try last weekend despite two one or two knock ons, and Castro taking the man out. Slight disadvantage there then for Aus....
 

Lee Grant

John Eales (66)
Timani has been banned for one game and will miss the Wales test. Serves him right.

I thought he had a shocker against Italy and should have been hooked but at least he seemed to help the THPs in the scrum when Italy didn't win the hit race.

That was a poor game by the Wobs against Italy; the only shining lights were the defensive efforts close to their goal line and the improvement in restarts. It was good to see our lads contending with short restart kicks - a pity there were so many of them in the 2nd half.

Douglas is apparently over his knee injury and therefore should replace Timani. If the shorter restarts prevail watch him to contest some of them.

The roof should be closed in the stadium. I remember when we toured not too long after the roof was up (2002??) they left it open to counter Larkham and co - at least to get the pitch wet though they may have closed it on game day. But their backs are a lot more expansive now than then, and I think they always close the roof now.

The ground will still be greasy because of the humidity inside the stadium. The sludgy surface was one of the problems the Wobs had against the France scrum - only one, mind.

If I recall correctly, and I maybe I don't, our scrums have done better on dry tracks in the northern autumn. But on most visits at this time of the year they are like strangers in a strange land because Oz scrummagers have learned their trade on harder sandy soils on which their studs don't swim around so much.

They have been just like good Aussie tennis players trained on grass showing up to play in Paris, on clay.
.
 

thierry dusautoir

Alan Cameron (40)
Who cares that timani is out he played terrible last game and if the plan is to have our TH lock playing in the centres well then at least neville has pace
 

en_force_er

Geoff Shaw (53)
Who cares that timani is out he played terrible last game and if the plan is to have our TH lock playing in the centres well then at least neville has pace

Timani is a real wrench is the typical structure of a pack isn't he.

Billed as a "TH lock" by some, he scrums like a big, mean, breakdown-centric enforcer (no pun intended) but he plays as loose as any second rower I've seen. A second row pairing of him and Sharpie is mighty unbalanced but luckily going forward a pairing of him and Horwill or him and Douglas might work nicely.

I suppose Dennis plays pretty tight, maybe therein lies the answer of why he gets plenty of game time. Pack balance.
 

barbarian

Phil Kearns (64)
Staff member
I can't help thinking Timani was acting under orders on Saturday, and even before that. He stands in a very specific place in the backline, and surely if the coach didn't want him there he'd be told to pull his head in. Surely.
 

thierry dusautoir

Alan Cameron (40)
That's what i thought but then, he says chip kicks aren't in the game plan yet they keep happening and no one gets hooked.....very interesting.
also if you wanted some size wide why not place Higginbotham out there who is naturally a wide runner.........really makes you think about what deans' angle is
 

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
I think the angle with Timani is that he has an offload. Clearly he needs to learn when to use it and make sure it reaches a target rather than trying to offload in every tackle and flinging the ball to no one.

I agree that he and Higgers should be alternated as backline runners. Both offer different things. Timani can also be very effective shifting bodies at the ruck. We need him to be playing in tight as well as getting a chance to run wide on occasion.
 

thierry dusautoir

Alan Cameron (40)
I probably disagree a little i would rather the palu higgers combo wide as they to have an offload which (from what i have seen) is a lot better than timani's but also they have a bit more toe and are backrowers where as Timani is the biggest lump in our tight five and its called tight for a reason
 

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
The problem with getting Palu to spend time out in the backline is that he is consistently one of our hardest workers around the tackle area and the breakdown.

I don't think we can afford to have Palu playing loose.
 

thierry dusautoir

Alan Cameron (40)
yet somehow we can afford our heaviest allegedly most explosive lock out there? I personally dont thnk anyone should be in the backline except maybe higgers cause thats his style (and is proven to be effective)but due to the current effectiveness of our forward pack i think Timani is on borrwed time in the 22. I think by lions tour next year the top 4 locks will be Horwill, Douglas, Neville and Pyle.........the we jsut can't afford passengers in the tight and to be honest i wouldnt even mind seeing higgers and dennies given a break for the expense of neville at 6
 
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