Wallaby 31 players for 2015 RWC

[cyclopath]

Alright, he's my pick.

Who's he?

 

[qwerty51]

Why do you pick 32 when the squad will be 31?

 

[Brumbieman]

Why on earth are we taking only 31?

 

[ChargerWA]

6. Pocock
7. Hooper

That could work. Hooper plays open side on attack and Poey on defence.

 

[ChargerWA]

Why on earth are we taking only 31?

Rules is rules.

 

[qwerty51]

6. Pocock
7. Hooper

That could work. Hooper plays open side on attack and Poey on defence.

Wouldn't you want want Hooper at 7 on defence too? He's undoubtably quicker and gets to the player first, makes the tackle and Pocock can come in at the breakdown before Hooper even regains his feet or the opposition gets there.

 

[ChargerWA]

Wouldn't you want want Hooper at 7 on defence too? He's undoubtably quicker and gets to the player first, makes the tackle and Pocock can come in at the breakdown before Hooper even regains his feet or the opposition gets there.

I guess it depends on the opposition plan. With the way the Kiwis run at Pocock all night to chain him to the ruck that would be a good strategy. But Pocock is such a dominant defender you want him in the thick of the action as much as possible.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Hooper's no slouch on D either. I've seen him make many ripping tackles at test level. He's got good leg drive in contact too.

 

[BDA]

Why do you pick 32 when the squad will be 31?

just curious how we know it's 32? i couldn't find anything confirming that number. sounds right though

 

[BDA]

Alright, he's my pick.

Slipper, Sio

Moore, TPN, Fainga'a

Kepu, PAE/Alexander

Skelton, Timani

Simmons, Carter

Fardy, McMahon

Hooper, Pocock

Palu, Vaea, McCalman


Phipps, White, Genia

Foley, Cooper

Tomane, JOC (James O'Connor)

To'omua, Lealiifano

Kuridrani, AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper)

Speight

Folau, Beale


32 players.

2 Options for each position, with a few able to cover 2 spots with a net effect of roughly 3 possible options for any given position.

Of course when 2/3rds of them go down with compound spinal fracture/dislocations in this weekends Tahs/Brumbies derby, as is the usual tradition, then we start going crazy and picking randoms.

I think you'll need more than 4 props. In fact surely there must be a rule now that you have to have a minimum of 5 props in your squad. I say that because a test team these days requires a minimum of 4 pros I believe. If you have a rule which prevents injury trades within 48 hours of games, surely you run the risk of having teams being unable to field a proper team if one guy goes down in the lead up

 

[Slim 293]

It's already been confirmed that squad sizes are limited to 31.

 

[Slim 293]

There'll definitely be at least 5 props in the squad........

 

[No4918]

Prop: Slipper, Sio, Kepu, Holmes, Alexander
Hooker: Moore, TPN, Fainga'a
Lock: Simmons, Skelton, Carter, Horwill
Backrow: Hooper, Pocock, Fardy, Palu, McCalman, Gill
9: Phipps, White, Genia
10: Foley, Cooper
Centre: To'omua, Kuridrani, Giteau
Wing: Horne, Speight, AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper), JOC (James O'Connor)
Fullback: Folau

 

[Marcelo]

Backrow: Hooper, Pocock, Fardy, Palu, McCalman, Gill

Higginbotham is more important than Gill. He can play at 6

 

[Joe Blow]

Prop: Slipper, Sio, Kepu, Holmes, Alexander
Hooker: Moore, TPN, Fainga'a
Lock: Simmons, Skelton, Carter, Horwill
Backrow: Hooper, Pocock, Fardy, Palu, McCalman, Gill
9: Phipps, White, Genia
10: Foley, Cooper
Centre: To'omua, Kuridrani, Giteau
Wing: Horne, Speight, AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper), JOC (James O'Connor)
Fullback: Folau

I'd say that is spot on except Higgers in place of Gill. He won't take 3 opensides.
As much as we all want to see Coleman or Arnold or Cottrell or PAE or whichever uncapped future star you want in the squad, its a RWC squad and he will carry as much experience as possible.
Horwill, Alexander, Higgers and Carter will be on the plane.

It is fun to throw out impossible selections though. The only contentious spots I can see are the 3rd hooker and the last back row spot
.

 

[Lindommer]

And Giteau. I doubt TGC will select Matt over Kurtley.

For me I'd tell young Coleman what's expected of him and let him know he's in the frame for a gold jumper.

 

[No4918]

Good call on Gill/Higgers, knew I was forgetting about a backrower.

 

[Joe Blow]

Beale....will he go or not? Probably as he is one of Cheikas favoured players.
Then tit's possible there will be injuries that open up a couple of spots.
Hopefully not many.

 

[Braveheart81]

Beale..will he go or not? Probably as he is one of Cheikas favoured players.

I definitely think he needs to improve his form and consistency prior to then.

I reckon there's a group of players including Beale, JOC (James O'Connor), Leali'ifano, Horne, Cummins and possibly one or two others where only a couple of them will make it.

If Giteau is selected I think it will be at the expense of the third halfback.

I'd be surprised if we don't go with an 18/13 forwards/backs split. It could possibly shift to 19/12 if Giteau is taken as the third halfback.

 

[BDA]

The third half back is a difficult one. Whoever's the 3rd choice no.9 is going to play hardly any footy. They might get a start against one of the minnows but probably only for the sake of rotation. In my view its appropriate that the 2nd choice halfback starts against the minnows to give them as much game time as possible.

The only real concern is that you might pick up an injury to one of your halfbacks. None of our halfbacks are particularly injury prone and you're unlikely to see a halfback go down injured at a training session leading up to the game. If your first choice first back goes down, you'd probably want your 2nd choice to play 80 minutes anyway.

I recall Dean had the same "Giteau or 3rd halfback" dilemma in 2011 and in the end I think he made the wrong choice, given that we got to New Zealand and our pivots underperformed.

I guess the question comes down to whether Giteau still has the skills to play halfback. He'll need to be pretty quick given the style of rugby we will be playing.