Recent content by Woodenspoon

Sanzar did recently a survey about the expansion of the tournment, and it showed just a few Super Rugby fans are looking forward to it. I couldn't agree more, there's no real reason to expand this competition, but to satisfy Saffa's political need to have six franchises and for each national...

Folau has proved himself unstoppable at fullback. After each game he's by far the Wallaby with the most meters run, defenders beaten, lines broken and so on. Maybe we can say he can improve in defence, but that's not a major concern in the Wallabies' world. Why would anyone change this? Besides...

Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever see the Wallabies lifting the Bledisloe Cup or winning a match against the All Blacks at Eden Park. Today's match was totally disappointing for the Wallabies, there's not much to say about it, the guys in black could play their game plan however they wanted...

I think it will be an insteresting game for both sides. I've read Beale has been training as a centre for most of the pre-season (is it true?) but I wonder if he's up to it right now and if his selection is a technical choice or simply due to Horne's injury or lack of form. If I recall...

Of course there's no difference in signing a South african player rather than an Australian one, but we can't deny they're an unknown factor for the next season. With the only exception of Steenkamp, who played just a few minutes last season in Super rugby anyway, the other South african guys...

Would you give up 5 million dollars that you can raise in a single match just for pride? I don't think so. Sure it's going to be just a show, but ARU can hopefully use money to develop rugby union in Australia and to give the Wallabies more visibility. Anyway, I would have preferred a series of...

Interesting question. I don't see any available talented winger in Australia and the Force may after all adapt Rasolea or Dellit. Maybe it's time for another poach :D

That's because our bench players should be our first string ones.

Unless most of the Wallabies are not fit or are playing a gameplan that doesn't adapt to them, it is clear now that with such a line-up they're going nowhere. The lack of physical impact of both fowards and backs combined with the lack of effectiveness of the gameplan plus a strangely lazy and...

In the end the AB did nothing special but exploiting gaps. The problem is they found out as many gaps as they wanted, with Ben Smith&Co. cutting regularly Wallabies' defence. And if the ball carrier was tackled after a gap, no probs, support at ruck comes quickly, Aaron Smith delivers the ball...

Basically beacause this is the way he plays. You can expect from him a perfect defence and a good management of the game plan, but not a sparkling attack play or kicking the ball to gain territory or put pressure to the opponents. Luckily he's young and can still improve. Besides, he's had his...

Well, I can hear Deans laughing. There's still much to fix for the Wobs. Too many errors in defence, too many ball carries and line breaks wasted with a needless forward off-load or a turnover at breakdown, confusion in attack and so on. In my opinion: - Mogg was awful tonight, sure he has...

So we get three south-african players, a couple of second-string ones (Brache and Heiberg) and then Steenkamp (just two appearances in the bench this year with the Bulls) and Waratahs get Potgieter. Mmmmm...

Let's wait for Burgess to come back on field before having the final word. Anyway, I agree White has the potential to be the second best half-back in Australia although his unreliable kicking is one of his well-known cons (as well as Mogg's)

I guess that due to the social and political situation in South Africa, even some of the best South-African players could be attracted by a job/study opportunity in Australia, like in the past Vickermann and Rathbone were. But, let's say it, it is risky and plus there's no reason to sign 20...