Wallaby Watch 2014

[Benaud]

Yep. Well I wouldn't call it embarrassing. But the premise of the sarcasm is "haha, that guy is good, it's fine if he dominates you, the Wallabies won't encounter players like that!" which doesn't wash. In terms of Wallaby selection, tonight was a black mark on Alexander.

And winning 2/9 scrums on own feed in the last 2 weeks highlights the earlier point about the Brumbies being a good scrumming team by Aussie standards but run of the mill by Super Rugby standards who are liable to be exposed by decent Super Rugby scrums.

The issue for the Wallabies is lack of alternatives. There are no Aussie names in the world's top 20 props list. So while we can confidently say Alexander is not within cooee of Kiwi international prop standards, the question is whether there is actually a decent alternative.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Getting owned by Wyatt Crockett is a bit embarrassing.

It would be even more embarrassing if he owned you while keeping his shoulders above his hips

 

[Tomikin]

Yep. Well I wouldn't call it embarrassing. But the premise of the sarcasm is "haha, that guy is good, it's fine if he dominates you, the Wallabies won't encounter players like that!" which doesn't wash. In terms of Wallaby selection, tonight was a black mark on Alexander.

And winning 2/9 scrums on own feed in the last 2 weeks highlights the earlier point about the Brumbies being a good scrumming team by Aussie standards but run of the mill by Super Rugby standards who are liable to be exposed by decent Super Rugby scrums.

The issue for the Wallabies is lack of alternatives. There are no Aussie names in the world's top 20 props list. So while we can confidently say Alexander is not within cooee of Kiwi international prop standards, the question is whether there is actually a decent alternative.

It wasn't a good show by Alexander or the Brumbies pack and not good enough for the Walliabies but to say that Luarie Weeks is the fix is a joke.
And to say Australia has no top 20 props your kidding yourself.. I guess Hookers not as Prop but Moore's one of the best.. Our LHP Robinson SIo and Slipper while not top top ain't that fair off THP we are weak but Top 20 for sure.. I wanna hear these 20 props names better then ours..

It wasn't a great game for the Brumbies but who beats the saders at home..

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[Forcefield]

Yep. Well I wouldn't call it embarrassing. But the premise of the sarcasm is "haha, that guy is good, it's fine if he dominates you, the Wallabies won't encounter players like that!" which doesn't wash. In terms of Wallaby selection, tonight was a black mark on Alexander.

?

The premise of the sarcasm is that Wyatt Crockett is not a very good scrummager. He has a long history of being a penalty magnet. From memory, usually for boring in. Or whatever other infringement he can get away with. Good communication before and during the game to get the referee watching his technique should prevent him from getting the upper hand.

Does anyone have any individual stats on our tightheads?

 

[Benaud]

?

The premise of the sarcasm is that Wyatt Crockett is not a very good scrummager. He has a long history of being a penalty magnet. From memory, usually for boring in. Or whatever other infringement he can get away with. Good communication before and during the game to get the referee watching his technique should prevent him from getting the upper hand.

Does anyone have any individual stats on our tightheads?

Oh right, ha! Well anyway, my point was Alexander is a concern as a Wallabies starter given recent weeks scrummaging issues. Sio, Carter and Fardy (as a lock) may also be minor queries. That's the problem. The solution is more difficult given the lack of alternatives. Slipper can play both sides effectively can't he?

 

[Tomikin]

Oh right, ha! Well anyway, my point was Alexander is a concern as a Wallabies starter given recent weeks scrummaging issues. Sio, Carter and Fardy (as a lock) may also be minor queries. That's the problem. The solution is more difficult given the lack of alternatives. Slipper can play both sides effectively can't he?

Ive always thought Alexander was a much better Loose head Prop then tight and thats how it was when we had Palmer.. and before that.. But he plays THP now because well who have we got better..

I hoped Kepu would push on, but on current form (even after this week.. last week tehy were up there 65 - 70 percent of the match) Alexander is the number 1 THP..

Slipper can play there and maybe that's what we should do, but we dont really know how he is at THP when his playing LHP... I wouldnt mind seeing him change for the Reds and wobs.. but would hate to see the change in the first test..

Sigh...

 

[Dave Beat]

Michael Hooper (c)

 

[qwerty51]

Alexander will never start against an NH pack again.

 

[No4918]

Michael Hooper (c)

I am coming round to this.

 

[Tomikin]

Alexander will never start against an NH pack again.

Who then ?

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[Tomikin]

I am coming round to this.

I would love for him to captain NSW first.. I just think we need to know what his Captaincy is like. He may be a G Smith great player but not a great Captain..But we may just have to select him

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[No4918]

AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) is getting harder to leave out of the 15. Form 13 so would be happy to see him there. Wing would be my preference with Tomane on the other. Cummins is improving and has not let Aus down, he needs to start looking for more work to make it off the bench.

I would love for him to captain NSW first.. I just think we need to know what his Captaincy is like. He may be a G Smith great player but not a great Captain..But we may just have to select him

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I understand your hesitation. Pocock is closer to the G Smith comparison and from what I have seen everything Hooper does on and off field says he can lead.

Then look at the other options.
Cooper - no, leave him as VC
Genia - bigger no
Horwill - don't want to go back
Mowen - leaving and least likely option to make the side
Moore - great player yet constantly overlooked for leadership, why?
Higgers - not showing as much leadership this year, is he a certain starter?

Hooper and Cooper are the Two most likely to see out the full game. Behind those two Horwill is next in line.

 

[Tomikin]

AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) is getting harder to leave out of the 15. Form 13 so would be happy to see him there. Wing would be my preference with Tomane on the other. Cummins is improving and has not let Aus down, he needs to start looking for more work to make it off the bench.



I understand your hesitation. Pocock is closer to the G Smith comparison and from what I have seen everything Hooper does on and off field says he can lead.

Then look at the other options.
Cooper - no, leave him as VC
Genia - bigger no
Horwill - don't want to go back
Mowen - leaving and least likely option to make the side
Moore - great player yet constantly overlooked for leadership, why?
Higgers - not showing as much leadership this year, is he a certain starter?

Hooper and Cooper are the Two most likely to see out the full game. Behind those two Horwill is next in line.

I know I agree, Moore's no captain and that's a Brumbies fan. Cooper neither.. Maybe Link should give it to Hooper in the French tests too see how he goes..

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[BDA]

The issue for the Wallabies is lack of alternatives. There are no Aussie names in the world's top 20 props list. So while we can confidently say Alexander is not within cooee of Kiwi international prop standards, the question is whether there is actually a decent alternative.

haha. I'd love to read this list you're referring to.

 

[Highlander35]

haha. I'd love to read this list you're referring to.

New Zealand, South Africa, England, Wales, Ireland, France, Italy Argentina, Scotland, are the other tier 1 nations. All it takes is for each country to have 2 (with 2 countries having 3) props ahead of any Australian alternative, for that list of props to emerge.

Starting with Scotland, Ryan Grant and Euan Murray are ahead of any Aussie prop. Springboks have the Beast and du Plessis at minimum.

Anyone else willing to take a shot?

 

[Tomikin]

New Zealand, South Africa, England, Wales, Ireland, France, Italy Argentina, Scotland, are the other tier 1 nations. All it takes is for each country to have 2 (with 2 countries having 3) props ahead of any Australian alternative, for that list of props to emerge.

Starting with Scotland, Ryan Grant and Euan Murray are ahead of any Aussie prop. Springboks have the Beast and du Plessis at minimum.

Anyone else willing to take a shot?

Really didn't we smash the Scots in the scrum pretty sure we had a 7 man scrum take apart a few NH scrums particularly we smashed Italy in the scrum..

Its this train of thought that were the worst front row in the world that makes ref's pre judge us and cop it.. We ain't the best but we are far from the worst.

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[BDA]

I thought Jones and Skelton were both immense this week. They look to me to be the new locks to be introduced to the fold this year. Neither is ready to be thrust into the test jersey, but both have test match potential.

 

[BDA]

Starting with Scotland, Ryan Grant and Euan Murray are ahead of any Aussie prop.

Ha. well that's a matter of opinion mate. I'd take Slipper over both of those guys.

 

[Benaud]

I didn't actually write down a top 20 list although taking say Slipper as Australia's number 1, I'd say for a start, both Canes, Blues, Crusaders and Sharks named this week are well ahead. That's 8 without looking. Realistically there are probably a dozen ahead in the southern hemisphere. I hate to think how many there are in the northern hemisphere.

The point is a fairly obvious one. Props are Australia's weak link. Have been for donkeys years. Our best provincial scrum has only managed to win 2/9 of its own feeds in the past fortnight. That's how far behind we are.

Unfortunately it's easier to discover the problem than present a solution.

 

[Bench]

Hello everyone, this is my first post!

I think first and foremost we need to acknowledge that the stigma surrounding the Wallabies pack (Alexander in particular) exists whether we like it or not. To counter this we need to be selecting our strongest scrummaging tighthead prop, who I believe to be Kepu.

When Kepu squared off with the Beast (a definite inclusion in our top 20 props list that's being thrown around) in the Tahs v Sharks game I noticed Kepu didn't give him an inch. This was in spite of Robbo being towelled up on the other side of the scrum. I didn't get to see the Blues game the other week so I'm not sure how he fared against Woodcock, unfortunately.

In regards to workrate I'm aware of Kepu's misgivings, but at this point I'd consider that secondary to having a competitive scrum. For all we know we might get another Welsh test performance out of him again, but that would be a bonus and not something we should be relying on.

It baffles me that Cheika continues to select Ryan ahead of Kepu. The marginal amount of extra work that Ryan offers is just not worth it.