I think you gotta wait for the announcement of the team to play Wales before you can judge at how good or bad these selections are. Let's just hope for no injuries.
I get the feeling that quite a few are jumping onto the 'Bag Berrick Barnes Bandwagon'. Have we all forgotten how well Quade performed at the WC?
My recollection of Barnes and Cooper's recent performances for the Wallabies seems to accord with the view of The Roar (at http://www.theroar.com.au/2011/10/17/wallabies-rugby-world-cup-player-ratings/):
I don't think Barnes can be blamed for the Waratahs poor season in 2012. Also, with JOC (James O'Connor), Beale and Cooper (to an extent) unavailable through injury, I certainly don't think that there are too many better options for the Wallabies at 10.
- Cooper - "The big disappointment of Australia’s campaign. Says he was unaffected by the intense pressure of being ‘Public Enemy No.1′ but performances showed otherwise"; and
- Barnes - "Had an impact every time he was introduced, noticeably made Cooper’s life easier but was under-used".
Further to my previous comment - am I correct in assuming that Barnes being picked at 10 for the Scotland match, suggests that he will not start the Wales match (either at 10 or 12) and that Cooper & McCabe might be Dingo's 1st choice 10 & 12 pairing? as per the his selections throughout most of 2011.
Would have liked to have seen Pyle over Timani. Barnes is a worry though, yes he did well at the WC, but that was at 12. He has been poor this year, really hope he avoids his traditional kick first mentality.
I do like the backrow combination though.
You'll recall that recently QC (Quade Cooper) defended himself publicly wrt RWC criticism of his play by arguing that he was not always given RWC game plans that in his view worked, or worked for his attacking style of play.
Missed that - where was that?