England v Australia

[Hawko]

Apart from White replacing Genia (a choice I really like) ther seems to be no news anywhere on the bench players and its now just 24 hours to kick-off. It looks to me like the problem is not mind games or picking the best team from training or whatever. IMO the most likely reason is that Cheika is giving some players the maximum time to recover from injuries before having to choose. Horwill's the most likely suspect, but there may be others we don't know about. I've got a bad feeling..

 

[Chronicle]

Aru site has listed reserves
Hanson
Alexander
Robinson
Skelton
Jones
White
Cooper
Beale

 

[Joe Blow]

Glad to see Jones on the bench to keep the lineout strong when Skelton comes in.
We really should have had an out and out winger on the bench.
Horne covers 13.
Foley, To'omua, Cooper and Beale cover 10 and 12
Beale, Foley and Cooper cover 15.

What happens if a winger or two go down? Izzy to the wing and Beale to 15 I guess.

 

[Hawko]

Aru site has listed reserves
Hansen
Alexander
Robinson
Skelton
Jones
White
Cooper
Beale

Thanks. I fear Horwill's knee hasn't fully recovered.

I think Beale will be wing cover with Folau staying at 15. This would be my preference anyway.

 

[GaffaCHinO]

Aru site has listed reserves
Hanson
Alexander
Robinson
Skelton
Jones
White
Cooper
Beale

This makes me very angry

 

[GaffaCHinO]

Aru site has listed reserves
Hanson
Alexander
Robinson
Skelton
Jones
White
Cooper
Beale

Can you provide link I can't see anything on the ARU site

 

[qwerty51]

This makes me very angry

Why did you not expect it? I got it except for White which is a strange one.

 

[Bairdy]

I think it's pretty clear now that Cheika sees Skelton as his Potgieter/Elsom in the Wallabies. There's no other reason why he would carry an unbalanced bench with only one genuine 8 in the XXIII.

Beale and Cooper are too alike to have both on the bench.

 

[qwerty51]

What do you mean another #8? McCalman is playing the full 80. Skelton will replace Carter and Jones will replace McMahon.

I don't see how it's unbalanced. Beale is the outside back replacement (13, 11, 14, 15) and Cooper is the 2nd 10. That's not saying Beale would play wing or 13, he'd go into 15 and move Folau/Horne/AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) around.

 

[Joe Blow]

Jones can play 8 and McMahon is probably OK there as well.
Unfortunately we cannot have a 15 man bench........as much as Cheika seems to dream of one.

 

[Forcefield]

If the shit was hitting the fan, do you think we'd see Jones pack a defensive scrum in the second row and Skelton at 6 or 8?

 

[troxler]

Lets roll the fucking poms..........

 

[Bairdy]

What do you mean another #8? McCalman is playing the full 80. Skelton will replace Carter and Jones will replace McMahon.

I don't see how it's unbalanced. Beale is the outside back replacement (13, 11, 14, 15) and Cooper is the 2nd 10. That's not saying Beale would play wing or 13, he'd go into 15 and move Folau/Horne/AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) around.

Yeah, we're one injury away from playing one of our blindsides in the unfamiliar position of no. 8, where one has barely played if at all, and the other has played 8 at Shute Shield level.

At 75 minutes when our scrum is on skates 5m out from our line, cleaning up the ball from the back of the scrum is hard at the best of times for experienced no. 8s. Let's hope it doesn't become a factor tomorrow.........

 

[Shelts89]

I see Sam burgess is on the bench for bath this weekend.

As a Bath fan and a England fan I am looking forward to it

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Understandable in the tahs as he is behind AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) at 13 and is quality enough in their roster to command a start.
But the wallabies have 5 teams to chose from and there are better wingers elsewhere.

Can you name one who is fit to take the field?

We really should have had an out and out winger on the bench.

How can you?
That assumes a winger is going to get injured and/or that no other player will need replacement: subject to what every one has said about Horne having done a reasonable job there the problem lies in not picking a winger to start.

I think it is possible for Skelton to get a lot better.

Maybe - but how is it that Australian Rugby finds itself with a lock vying for test selection - and getting it - who cannot jump or be lifted in a lineout and cannot scrummage? When did this last happen in NZ?
There is a failure in the production line and there is a failure in selection.

 

[Quick Hands]

Jones can play 8 and McMahon is probably OK there as well.
Unfortunately we cannot have a 15 man bench

Correct. You get to pick 8 players, 3 of whom have to be front rowers, it's also generally accepted that you need a specialist half. That leaves 4 players to cover the back 5 in the scrum and the other 6 backline players. This bench seems to cover all 15 postions in some way. It's mathematically impossible to cover each position with a specialist, so 2 or more injuries in certain parts of the team are going to mean people covering postions which they don't fill all the time. It's the reality and it's the difference between professional rugby where you have a match day 23 and club rugby where you have 15 players in the team immediately below to fill any particular position.

There's really no surprises in the bench, I'm surprised that anyone is particularly surprised.

 

[I like to watch]

I'm surprised by the omission of Genia.
Not outraged or disappointed,just surprised.

 

[Ruggo]

To me he is still a compromise lock (like Timani), he has to become a shit load better at his strengths while building his obvious weaknesses before he deserves the 80 minutes

I don't know shit about S&C but he is to big and slow. He has some bloody good skills that can be developed on but I can't help but think he would be better if a bit lighter, get around the park a bit quicker and get through more game time. He is always going to be a big boy but he is currently ridiculously big.

 

[Brumby Runner]

There's really no surprises in the bench, I'm surprised that anyone is particularly surprised.

No surprises but not the bench I'd like to have seen.

First, I agree with IS that a specialist winger should have been in the starting lineup and then Horne and Beale would be vying for the bench spot. I'd then lean towards Horne because Beale is too alike with Cooper and hasn't been playing well when he's come on.

Then I'd also have started Jones over McMahon with both McMahon and Schatz on the bench instead of Skelton. Jones would be my lock cover if either of Simmons or Carter needed to come off, and Schatz does provide a better option at 8 in the situation described by Bairdy.

One of the Ben(n)s would have to consider himself to be lucky to hold off Faulkner who had some very good strong runs in his outing against the Irish.

 

[No4918]

I think it's pretty clear now that Cheika sees Skelton as his Potgieter/Elsom in the Wallabies. There's no other reason why he would carry an unbalanced bench with only one genuine 8 in the XXIII.

Beale and Cooper are too alike to have both on the bench.

Both selections are baffling. Skelton is a liability at this level. Beale looks very busy but has provided no impact at all for the Wallabies this season.