Lee Grant
John Eales (66)
JDelon Armitage in the reserves for Tait.
One thing I noticed at Gosford that surprised me: D. Armitage is deceptively slow.
JDelon Armitage in the reserves for Tait.
This is the last straw.
Deans must go.
Eales/Ella co-coaches.
well I for one am happy that we have picked the same pack. the front row were beaten but did not give up, I blame 4.5.6.7 and 8 for a lot of the issues because their shoulders should have been poking out of the front rows mouths if they are getting pushed backwards. They did not help, but had the best seats in the house for watching the scrums with their heads out of the scrum.
Imagine if we win again without a great scrum. This is great propaganda for the Wallabies, we can win without a scrum, and our strongest scrum is injured so we can only improve- lookout world we will have an awesome team.
I am not wrapped in Deans but maybe he is trying to instill confidence in players by picking them based on effort like Link did in QLD, this was a great success this S14 season, maybe it will work in the tests.
I'm not sure what you're on about re: "great propaganda". I don't know how getting smashed is a positive story. We are back to being the laughing stock of world rugby. All that work to win respect at the scrum, especially from referees, is gone.
These guys are 1/ professionals and 2/ playing for their country. I'm sorry but effort and commitment are assumed. What I'm looking for from Wallabies is ability. And Daley for one, lacks ability in his core skill.
Common sense dictates that you'd have an experienced veteran like Baxter in the mix to ease the load on the 3 newbies in the front row. But then common sense dictates you don't play Polota-Nau at tighthead prop in his first game back from injury so it appears to be in short supply in Robbieland.
I think the Wallabies will lose to England. I think the scrum will get raped. We will get penalised off the face of the planet. I reckon the Poms have taken so much encouragement from game 1, that they will belt us all day at the ruck. They know the Aussies don't like it up 'em. You cannot win rugby games if you are getting belted. I don't care what the SIW crowd think - they don't know rugby.
If Deans wins us a major regional trophy this year, and we get to, say, the semi's of the RWC, AND we win a major regional trophy the year after the RWC as a minimum, will you (and all the detractors, for that matter) post here admitting you were wrong and Deans had it right after all?
Interesting that Daley has the most support in the poll at the top of the page. Even higher than TPN (possibly influenced by the fact that TPN is a hypothetical only). I am even more surprised that there are 5 people other than me that would pick Tilse at LHP. Must be more good judges around here than I thought.
I think we will be vastly improved this week, we will still get beaten in the scrum but I dont see us being smashed as bad as last week. We will pack as an 8 man team rather than a 3-5 man team and this will make a big difference.I'm with naza. I suspect the Poms will kill the scrum (duh!), we'll play with 14 men for 20 minutes of the game, they'll front at the breakdown with more intensity, and try to strangle us out of it. Scrum ball on our feed will be scant advantage to us. If they're smart, they'll not kick out too much to limit that set-piece play we did OK, they'll play field position and we'll have to try to win on scraps and long counter attacks (which we might). If the Poms try to play fast and loose, they will lose.
If we lose to THIS England team, we are pants.
I'm with naza. I suspect the Poms will kill the scrum (duh!), we'll play with 14 men for 20 minutes of the game, they'll front at the breakdown with more intensity, and try to strangle us out of it. Scrum ball on our feed will be scant advantage to us. If they're smart, they'll not kick out too much to limit that set-piece play we did OK, they'll play field position and we'll have to try to win on scraps and long counter attacks (which we might). If the Poms try to play fast and loose, they will lose.
If we lose to THIS England team, we are pants.
Yep and with the pace we play the game the Poms will be out on their feet and will open up in defence very easily. Kick all they want as our lineout was fine and if they don't find touch, watch out.
team named:
http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/wallaby-team-named-2/
15 James O’Connor Force
14 Drew Mitchell Waratahs
13 Rob Horne Waratahs
12 Matt Giteau Brumbies
11 Digby Ioane Reds
10 Quade Cooper Reds
9 Will Genia Reds
8 Richard Brown Force
7 David Pocock Force
6 Rocky Elsom [c] Brumbies
5 Nathan Sharpe Force
4 Dean Mumm Waratahs
19 Matt Hodgson Force
20 Luke Burgess Waratahs
22 Adam Ashley-Cooper Brumbies
I'll say it loud and long until proven wrong; The Wobs should fucking destroy England on Saturday. Even with a dodgy pack.
Even with a dodgy Front row.