Oh and you've dropped one of our top performers in Cooper to move To'omua to 10 even though he has looked much better at 12! Did you not see the difference in the backline structure when Cooper went off?
Apart from you obvious bias and self confessed hate for Genia?
There is no way Timani has been better than Horwill in their two games together. He did look good off the bench earlier in the year but the sooner he goes to France the better.
Yes I am happy to drop him for THIS game, I'm not kicking the guy from the damn team. I'm saying we pick forwards who win penalties, Lealiifano to kick those penalties when we're in range and To'omua to put it on their 5m line when we aren't.
This is the plan to beat Ireland - not the team I want every game.
I just think there are enough problems that need worrying about before dropping one of the best. We can barely get one gameplan right two weeks in a row that I see mixing things up at this stage as a recipe for disaster.
Nope, must need to go watch the Pom test again to see this mythical impact.Missing the point, Ewen (and Robbie) clearly value Timani's shove at scrum time. Horwill packs on the LH side even with Simmons.
Nope, must need to go watch the Pom test again to see this mythical impact.
Nope? I'm fairly sure I've seen Timani start the last two Tests.
Sorry, you missed the point. The scrum was destroyed verse England then satisfactory against Italy. The flankers staying attached had more impact than Timanis shove. He is not the scrum saviour, just a very lazy boy.
Fair enough, and tbh I'd be happy to see the same team named so long as we execute better than we did against Italy. We won't score as many tries and we will leak more than we did against Italy if we make the same mistakes.
I like your idea though and think this can still be achieved by putting white at 9 and bringing lilo back into 12 for kicking. But I cannot see this happening. Maybe White will be brought back but I doubt it.
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I personally would keep To'omua there. We need to keep pushing this flat attack with Cooper and combined with Gill at the breakdown this will be successful and we wont need to struggle for penalties to win the match.
I will not be surprised at all to see the Wallabies penalised off the park again at scrum time V Ireland (who is the ref by the way?). The Italian LHP was a real surprise to me, I was astounded that he was picked firstly, and secondly he was retained when he was the obvious weak link in the set piece the Italians would have been targeting. I don't think that anything can be taken from the Italian game regarding scrum performance/ perceptions of improvement. Yes the scrum has improved over the balance of 2013, but when it wasn't even super standard at the start that isn't saying much.
I do not see what Timani does to warrant selection. I do not see the supposed impact in the scrum, though that can be effectively hidden in the pack and general shiteness that has been the Wallaby scrum. What is really telling is the total lack of impact he has with ball in hand, and the rare times he actually connects with a tackle. It is very few tackles that he actually dominates and he is stopped on nearly all occasions well short of the advantage line. I would be astounded if he has made 1 run that has made more than 2 metres this year.
Judging from what the Irish put on against the Samoans they will be a huge step up next week, and offer far more than either the English or the Italians did.
Anyone noticed how much fitter Robinson looks?