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England v Australia

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Quick Hands

David Wilson (68)
The Qantas Wallabies side to play England for the Cook Cup at Twickenham on Saturday 29 November is:

1. James Slipper (Queensland Reds- 62 Tests)
2. Saia Fainga’a (Queensland Reds – 35 Tests)
3. Sekope Kepu (NSW Waratahs – 51 Tests)
4. Sam Carter (ACT Brumbies – 10 Tests)
5. Rob Simmons (Queensland Reds – 49 Tests)
6. Sean McMahon (Melbourne Rebels – 2 Tests)
7. Michael Hooper (c - NSW Waratahs – 41 Tests)
8. Ben McCalman (Western Force – 37 Tests)
9. Nick Phipps (NSW Waratahs – 27 Tests)
10. Bernard Foley (NSW Waratahs – 17 Tests)
11. Rob Horne (NSW Waratahs – 24 Tests)
12. Matt To'omua (ACT Brumbies – 20 Tests)
13. Adam Ashley-Cooper (NSW Waratahs – 103 Tests)
14. Henry Speight (ACT Brumbies – 1 Test)
15. Israel Folau (NSW Waratahs – 28 Tests)

Reserves
To Be Confirmed

No surprises there. Good starting 15, I'll be interested in the bench.

Quite confident that we'll win this week. Wallabies by 10.
 
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Train Without a Station

Guest
No surprises there. Good starting 15, I'll be interested in the bench.

Quite confident that we'll win this week. Wallabies by 10.


Just 8 positions Cheika needs to get the "right" player into.
 

BDA

Peter Johnson (47)
Agree with others. The McMahon selection seems to be just playing into the hands of the English. We need big forwards that are strong in the set piece, instead we go with McMahon who has been really ineffective so far this tour.

One can only imagine the plan is to play up tempo, but I doubt it will work.

England by 12, happy to be proven wrong.
 

qwerty51

Stirling Mortlock (74)
Good starting 15, I'll be interested in the bench.

I don't think it'll be interesting.

16. Hanson 17. Robinson 18. Alexander 19. Skelton 20. Jones 21. Genia 22. Cooper 23. Beale

Not of a fan of this constant delaying of the final bench. Cheika did normally name a 9 or 10 man bench for the Tahs so it's his way, not sure what the thinking is, get the bench to fight harder at training to push into the 23?
 

Quick Hands

David Wilson (68)
Agree with others. The McMahon selection seems to be just playing into the hands of the English. We need big forwards that are strong in the set piece, instead we go with McMahon who has been really ineffective so far this tour.

One can only imagine the plan is to play up tempo, but I doubt it will work.

England by 12, happy to be proven wrong.

I can only assume that Cheika was less than impressed by the 2 early turnovers from Jones last week. I'd have stuck with Jones, but have no problems with the McMahon selection.
 

S120

Chris McKivat (8)
Not a fan of the McMahon promotion. Jones deserved another shot, he played well after those two early turnovers and provides the pack with more size and lineout options.

I'd have liked to see Cooper get his shot at 10 but I'm not surprised to see Foley retained there.

Even though I think AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) is starting the downward trajectory of his career at test level he is the right choice at 13, there aren't many other options there. Horne hasn't played there in ages now and AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) just won a title playing there under Cheika so that's straight forward.
 

something

Jim Clark (26)
very disappointed with cooper not starting. Bernard's form hasn't set the world on fire and as people have posted, this was the last opportunity to see how Phipps and Cooper combined.
 

Wilson

David Codey (61)
Looks pretty unlikely that both Godwin and English will get a game now, one might sneak onto the bench but I can't see there being room for both.
 

Quick Hands

David Wilson (68)
It was a dig referring to the 8 non-Waratahs that made the team QH. Try and keep up with the cynicism mate!

7 out of 15, when the 7 come from the team that won the super title is hardly that remarkable is it? I recall the Brumbies at their zenith would have had similar representation.

He's just picking who he thinks are the best players and the players who are most able to implement his game plan. His history at the Waratahs and Leinster show that he picks the team he thinks are most likely to win and he seems to have a pretty good record.
 

Quick Hands

David Wilson (68)
Not of a fan of this constant delaying of the final bench. Cheika did normally name a 9 or 10 man bench for the Tahs so it's his way, not sure what the thinking is, get the bench to fight harder at training to push into the 23?

Possibly. Possibly it could be to work different combinations in the last couple of days to see which one works the best. It might be annoying to some, but if it helps him pick the best match day 23 it's fine by me.
 
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Train Without a Station

Guest
It's not necessarily bias I agree. But saying there's only 7 ignores that there's 3 players unavailable due to injury from the first choice team, and another 3 that are not available.

It's not entirely inconceivable that if not for injury Simmons, Carter and To'omua could be the only interstate starters.
 

Gagger

Nick Farr-Jones (63)
Staff member
Just 8 positions Cheika needs to get the "right" player into.


This comment leaves 3 possibilities -

1 - Despite winning two European Cups and a Super Rugby title as coach, Michael Chieka can't recognise rugby talent

2 - Michael Cheika does recognise superior talent, but is so wedded to his Waratahs pals that he would rather lose international test matches and jeopardise the rest of his coaching career and legacy than select better players from other provinces

3 - Bitter parochiality is clouding your judgement

Votes, anyone?
 
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