Australia Vs. England, Twickenham, 2nd November 2013

[JSRF10]

especially if the scrum doesn't improve vastly, Corbisero or no Corbisero.

England's scrum is the weakest by a long way that the Wallabies will face on tour. Lets not forget that they got butchered in every game there in the previous 6 Nations. England have a fascination with ball carrying props at the moment because none of their other forwards are regularly getting across the gain line, thats why the likes of Vunipola and Marler have been fast tracked without proving themselves in the tight. With Corbisero out England's scrum is a weakness.

 

[BDA]

Is Corbisero out? Big loss. He destroyed Alexander in June....alexander himself is probably a bit disappointed with this news. He'd surely be wanting to redeem himself against Corbs

 

[BDA]

If the Wallabies' backline continues the form they have shown over the last 2 games, you'd have to think that the Poms will need some serious set piece dominance to get up. The Wobs Lineout looks good. The Scrum will be crucial for England.

 

[Hawko]

I'd like to see us put this team on the park.

Genia
Cooper
Betham
To'omua
Kuridrani
AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper)
Folau

TPN, Kepu, Slipper, Horwill, Gill/Dennis, White, Foley, Lealiifano

Betham did enough to get another game.

Unless one of the wingers selected to tour drops out due to injury I don't think Betham even gets on the plane on Friday. He wasn't in the touring squad, he was only selected for the Bledisloe game. This may have had something to do with his emotional response during the anthem as I suspect that if everyone was fit and available he would be about our ninth choice candidate. In front of him would be AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper), Speight, JOC (James O'Connor), Tomane, Cummins, Crawford, Folau (with Beale to 15) and CFS.

 

[JSRF10]

Is Corbisero out? Big loss. He destroyed Alexander in June..alexander himself is probably a bit disappointed with this news. He'd surely be wanting to redeem himself against Corbs

I'd be shocked if he did play, he was confirmed out for 4 to 6 weeks last week I believe. Apparently his knees are shot and he is going to have to be very carefully managed to make it through to the World Cup in 2015.In the Lions series he got the perfect storm of having Roman Poite as referee under the old scrummaging laws when he rarely scrummaged straight.

Any time I've seen him this season under the new laws he has looked ineffective as he has been made to push straight, in fact a Leinster academy tight head gave him a bit of a going over in August.

 

[Richo]

alexander himself is probably a bit disappointed with this news. He'd surely be wanting to redeem himself against Corbs

That's what he'll tell his teammates. At home he'll give himself a few high fives. The bloke is fucking lucky -- some might so inconceivably so -- to still have a test career after the utter load of shite he served up in the biggest Aussie game in years.

 

[USARugger]

The English center pairing should have less than 6 caps between them I believe. I'd like to see Kuridrani have a field day.

 

[emuarse]

England's scrum is the weakest by a long way that the Wallabies will face on tour. Lets not forget that they got butchered in every game there in the previous 6 Nations. England have a fascination with ball carrying props at the moment because none of their other forwards are regularly getting across the gain line, thats why the likes of Vunipola and Marler have been fast tracked without proving themselves in the tight. With Corbisero out England's scrum is a weakness.

It might be for this reason that Link put Slipper across to tight head for a short time when Robo came on to loose head in this last test. A brief experiment possibly for things to come.
Velly, velly intelesting

 

[en_force_er]

It might be for this reason that Link put Slipper across to tight head for a short time when Robo came on to loose head in this last test. A brief experiment possibly for things to come.
Velly, velly intelesting

I'd say Slipper has played far more tighthead, especially at international level.

It's far from an experiment.

 

[RoffsChoice]

Remember that great Bledisloe in 2010 where we beat the All Blacks? Slipper on the bench as THP replacement.

 

[fatprop]

My turn

1. Robinson
2. Moore
3. Kepu
4. Simmons
5. Fardy
6. Mowen (c)
7. Gill
8. McCalman
9. Genia
10. Cooper
11. Cummins
12. To'omua
13. Kurindrani
14. AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper)
15. Folau


16. TPN
17. Alexander
18. Slipper
19. Horwill
20. Timani
21. Hooper
22. White
23. Lealiifano

 

[Richo]

I'd say Slipper has played far more tighthead, especially at international level.

It's far from an experiment.

He played tighthead for most of the season at the Reds too.

 

[Bowside]

I'd pick Slipper over Kepu at TH every day of the week. Kepu is just as bad in the scrum and he does far less around the field.

 

[fatprop]

I'd pick Slipper over Kepu at TH every day of the week. Kepu is just as bad in the scrum and he does far less around the field.

I would usually, but he was rubbish around the field in the last game and binned for bad scrummaging in the previous. He needs to be benched in the short term.

 

[RoffsChoice]

Guess we're all declaring a team:
Robinson, Moore, Kepu, Simmons, Timani, Fardy, Gill, Mowen (c), Genia, Cooper, Tomane, To'omua, Kuridrani, Folau, AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper)
Fainga'a, Slipper, Alexander, McCalman, Hooper, White, Lealiifano, Betham

 

[Slim 293]

I would usually, but he was rubbish around the field in the last game and binned for bad scrummaging in the previous. He needs to be benched in the short term.

Not to mention getting caught out and outmuslced by the opposition outside backs on a regular basis.........

His scrummaging was also a step down in the Lions' series when he came on for Robinson.........

It's a real shame that we've got our best LH on the bench, and cast aside the next best option in Sio in order to cater for Slipper who clearly needs to go back to the other side...........

 

[fatprop]

Not to mention getting caught out and outmuslced by the opposition outside backs on a regular basis...

His scrummaging was also a step down in the Lions' series when he came on for Robinson...

It's a real shame that we've got our best LH on the bench, and cast aside the next best option in Sio in order to cater for Slipper who clearly needs to go back to the other side.....

Sio had his chance and was average (he will get another)

 

[Intruder]

There's been a lot of talk about the scrum in the past few months in-particular the front row selection. In my mind this was always going to be a problem when TPN went down injured pre Lions series.
Although Moore has been playing the house down his scrummaging capabilities are still to be questioned.

Its probably not the best example but some of the overhead footage of TPN in action shows his dominance (Esp examples 3/5 & 7) Moore later comes on (Example 9 onwards) and Alexander gets found out until he is substituted with Kepu who manages to fix these problems.

1. Robinson
2. Moore
3. Kepu
4. Simmons
5. Timani
6. Fardy
7. Hooper
8. McCalman
9. Genia
10. Cooper
11. Betham
12. To'omua
13. Kurindrani
14. AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper)
15. Folau

16. TPN
17. Slipper
18. Alexander
19. Horwill
20. Mowen
21. White
22. Lealiifano
23. Tomane

 

[Brumby Runner]

My turn

1. Robinson
2. Moore
3. Kepu
4. Simmons
5. Fardy
6. Mowen (c)
7. Gill
8. McCalman
9. Genia
10. Cooper
11. Cummins
12. To'omua
13. Kurindrani
14. AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper)
15. Folau


16. TPN
17. Alexander
18. Slipper
19. Horwill
20. Timani
21. Hooper
22. White
23. Lealiifano

Can't see Link having a 7 on the bench. Hasn't been his practice up til now and I don't expect that to change regardless of who is picked in the starting 15.

In relation to the rest of your selections, I still have doubts about the value of Kepu. Would rather see Slipper start at TH. And I would have Tomane in place of AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) on the wing. Bench would revert to 5 & 3, with AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) sitting there.

And I hope he retains To'omua and Kuridrani in the centres. I can see them being more than a handful for the NH teams on this tour.

 

[brumsfan]

Seriously guys picking Gill over hooper, do you realise how stupid you sound to the rest of us.The whole world is singing his praises and heaping awards on him, tomorrow night it will be his Wallaby team mates selecting him for our highest honour the John Ealse medal to go with his player of the rugby championships, super rugby player of the year and Waratah of the year not to mention man of the match performances. Gill wasn't even the best at the reds. But the most stupid comment selecting gill over hooper is saying its because he is to small. Check the Waratah and reds stats, hooper is 101kg Gill 96kg
I also happen to agree with SANZAR, fox sports, planet rugby, rugby365 who all picked hooper as the best openside of the rugby championships, if I remember correctly gill was dropped out of the squad after failing to impress off the bench.
I wasn't going to waste my time with this post but it annoys me to see a guy that gives his all for the team disrespected. By the way I'm a brumbies fan and think pocock will need to add more to his game in super rugby next year to challenge hooper, he is by no means a walk up start.