Rugby 7s general chat

[Braveheart81]

I think it is probably on the basis that there are multiple players in the current squad that can play in both the forwards and backs. 7 of the 12 players regularly play in the forwards.

That said, I too would have had Killingworth as one of the travelling reserves instead of Speight.

 

[I like to watch]

I can't fathom how Friend rates Killingworth below Malouf,Foley & McCutcheon.

He should be in the squad,not with the travelling reserves.

 

[Braveheart81]

Both Malouf and Foley can play in the backs as well. Cutch is a more dynamic runner and has a good offloading game.

I think Killingworth tailed off towards the end of the World Series and probably dropped a little in the pecking order. That said, I think it was probably a pretty close call between him and McCutcheon.

 

[KAOPointman]

There are a couple of factors here. For Sydney QC (Quade Cooper) was held up in France and only arrived very late in the week in what would be his first 7s tournament. I think his time of arrival was what the players may have been concerned with (not that I have heard nor necessarily agree with that rumour).

2ndly, I thought Quade was very good, with the same flaws we saw in the other traditional XV players (and saw in some of the traditional VII players too). Again the issue, I think, was his inability to spend time with the squad. I think 7s more than 15s the squad REALLY needs to work and bond as a team. They spend so much time together and work so bloody hard together that I think THATS what prevented Quade from being a realistic chance for the team.




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Yeah if that's the case then what a huge let down. He was amazing in such a short time in the game. A player like him only gets better.......and the fact he greatly improved the whole teams performance in such a short period, should have easily been enough to have him there.
If the excuse is made that there wasn't enough time.......then why wasn't that said to begin with! If 3 series stops isn't enough to prove yourself then they should've said so from the beginning.
Why would they let players who you know won't have the impact of Quade....(speight, cummins) have the same rough time period to acclimatise to the game?

I honestly think we have ZERO chance to win gold now! BUT, what the team showed with Quade there.....it was easily achievable.

Look at SBW. He's easily the worst player in the kiwi squad. They can all offload as good as him, some better, but they're all faster and fitter! He was always last on scene, made a lot of mistakes, and simply did not shine in a squad with skills that make him look like a last gen player! Yet he makes the squad. CRAZY!

 

[Highlander35]

Can I have some of whatever you're on KAOP? Those hallucinations sound amazing.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

^^^^^^^^^^^^ I believe this may be what you're looking for:

Gotta get me som dat shit too

 

[KAOPointman]

Can I have some of whatever you're on KAOP? Those hallucinations sound amazing.

Those cup finals must have been a coincidence then hey....
I guess well see how far we get at the Olympics. We need to beat 4th right? Let's see if the coach got it right......

 

[Braveheart81]

Those cup finals must have been a coincidence then hey..
I guess well see how far we get at the Olympics. We need to beat 4th right? Let's see if the coach got it right..

We did make the final in Vegas. It was probably our best tournament of the year. We were also up 15-0 in the final at one point. Quade wasn't on the field during that time though.

I don't think the reason we came 2nd in 3rd in those two tournaments was primarily due to having Cooper in our team.

He showed some good moments but also made mistakes. He wasn't one of our best players in either of those tournaments.

There was plenty of discussion in the threads for those tournaments at the time.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

We did make the final in Vegas. It was probably our best tournament of the year. We were also up 15-0 in the final at one point. Quade wasn't on the field during that time though.

I don't think the reason we came 2nd in 3rd in those two tournaments was primarily due to having Cooper in our team.

He showed some good moments but also made mistakes. He wasn't one of our best players in either of those tournaments.

There was plenty of discussion in the threads for those tournaments at the time.

We also made the final in Sydney. Quade didn't play in Sydney and honestly he really didn't add much in Vegas either.

 

[I like to watch]

My recollection was that Friends use of QC (Quade Cooper) was puzzling, he got very little game time against the minnows in the pools.
It was more like he was trying to prove QC (Quade Cooper) was not the answer,rather than helping QC (Quade Cooper) to adjust to the nuances of the game, and to find his feet.

 

[KAOPointman]

We did make the final in Vegas. It was probably our best tournament of the year. We were also up 15-0 in the final at one point. Quade wasn't on the field during that time though.

I don't think the reason we came 2nd in 3rd in those two tournaments was primarily due to having Cooper in our team.

He showed some good moments but also made mistakes. He wasn't one of our best players in either of those tournaments.

There was plenty of discussion in the threads for those tournaments at the time.

Yeah you can never equate a teams success or failure to one player. (Although Quade often gets blamed solely for losses! For eg vs Fiji.....when Quade got stripped as he was going for the try line....the ball got spread in goal by Fiji, only for Jelodev to fall off a one on one tackle on the wing!) media blamed Quade.

But you also can't assume that what a player brings to a team doesn't effect his team mates even when he's not on the field. I've no doubt Quades confidence and experience clearly made the other players step up a lvl.
At any rate, why would the coach or his team mates let him run the half time chat if he wasn't the bloke for it. He was working....and IMHO they are far worse without him around!

I also found it interesting that the coach didn't use Quade asap. Would have been better to blood new players against easier opponents surely......

 

[Tip]

My recollection was that Friends use of QC (Quade Cooper) was puzzling, he got very little game time against the minnows in the pools.
It was more like he was trying to prove QC (Quade Cooper) was not the answer,rather than helping QC (Quade Cooper) to adjust to the nuances of the game, and to find his feet.

This is the correct answer.

First sentence is so spot on it hurts.

I lost faith in Friend the moment Sam Myers wasn't picked. It's like he's actively practicing selective seeing. I was over the moon that Kingston was dropped. I would've been a lot happier if Hutchinson took the same route.

Speight > Hutchinson, every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Hutchinson is just a meandering Carlyn Isles. His only method of tackle breaking is running around on a forward mis-match. He's too slow to burn any of the other 7s backs, he's too weak to break a tackle through one on strength, and his step is more of a swerve. Then you gotta add in the fact that he's a defensive liability.

There's a lot of hate towards Quade for the 2 tournaments and 17 minutes of game time he had this year. I think it's unwarranted. Considering anyone that has watched us play over the past 2 - 3 years would recognize that Stannard has all the faults as a player that Quade has, without the skillset to match.

Stannard costs us a game every tournament, normally through feeble defense as our sweeper. Unfortunately, this has become the norm and nobody blinks an eye.

Or maybe the average punter on GAGR only tunes in to a 7's series in which Quade is playing.

 

[Braveheart81]

This is the correct answer.

First sentence is so spot on it hurts.

I lost faith in Friend the moment Sam Myers wasn't picked. It's like he's actively practicing selective seeing. I was over the moon that Kingston was dropped. I would've been a lot happier if Hutchinson took the same route.

Speight > Hutchinson, every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Hutchinson is just a meandering Carlyn Isles. His only method of tackle breaking is running around on a forward mis-match. He's too slow to burn any of the other 7s backs, he's too weak to break a tackle through one on strength, and his step is more of a swerve. Then you gotta add in the fact that he's a defensive liability.

There's a lot of hate towards Quade for the 2 tournaments and 17 minutes of game time he had this year. I think it's unwarranted. Considering anyone that has watched us play over the past 2 - 3 years would recognize that Stannard has all the faults as a player that Quade has, without the skillset to match.

Stannard costs us a game every tournament, normally through feeble defense as our sweeper. Unfortunately, this has become the norm and nobody blinks an eye.

Or maybe the average punter on GAGR only tunes in to a 7's series in which Quade is playing.

Sam Myers got injured and missed selection for that reason.

I don't think you'll find many people who agree with you regarding Hutchison. I thought he was consistently one of our best and easily our fastest player. World Rugby 7s thought he did alright as well awarding him rookie of the year.

 

[Highlander35]

Thought Speight was pretty shit in his limited opportunities. Kingston deserved to be dropped though.

Also agree with Stannard, he has had a case of the Colin Gregors' 2014/15 season in that he's gone one season too long, but unlike Colin (who saw that 15 months trying to break into a combination team was a step too far), he was far too close to the Olympics to give up.

Quade is an awkward case. He showed enough in his Cameos to suggest that he was high potential. BUT he needed a shitload of gametime. Part of that was Friend's failings, not giving enough in the tournaments he was there for. But a big part of it was his decision to take the Toulon money, and not having the ability to negotiate a Speight-esq deal with the Sevens/Wallabies/Reds.

The team is still a pretty good one, you just have to wonder if the XVs players will take it more seriously next time.

 

[Braveheart81]

I think a big challenge for Friend in regards to Cooper was that any commitment (even just in his own thinking) that Cooper was likely to be part of his Olympics squad meant that he was going to have to do most of his team's preparation without a key player being there for most of it.

I'd imagine that Quade needed to show he was clearly the best option and with any amount of additional training would be the team's superstar to make it worthwhile for the squad.

Flashes of brilliance that clearly required a lot of work just wasn't enough to turn the whole squad's plans on their head.

 

[I like to watch]

I think Friend joined the squad just before the Sydney tournament,which coincided with QC (Quade Cooper)'s first appearance in the squad.

At the time Friend was quoted that the squad needed to embrace the challenge of competing with the highly rated 15's players playing for squad positions.
But it looks like he bottled it by not giving QC (Quade Cooper) opportunities with the squad.
He didn't want to risk alienating the existing playing group,with a controversial selection.

 

[KAOPointman]

This is the correct answer.

First sentence is so spot on it hurts.

I lost faith in Friend the moment Sam Myers wasn't picked. It's like he's actively practicing selective seeing. I was over the moon that Kingston was dropped. I would've been a lot happier if Hutchinson took the same route.

Speight > Hutchinson, every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Hutchinson is just a meandering Carlyn Isles. His only method of tackle breaking is running around on a forward mis-match. He's too slow to burn any of the other 7s backs, he's too weak to break a tackle through one on strength, and his step is more of a swerve. Then you gotta add in the fact that he's a defensive liability.

There's a lot of hate towards Quade for the 2 tournaments and 17 minutes of game time he had this year. I think it's unwarranted. Considering anyone that has watched us play over the past 2 - 3 years would recognize that Stannard has all the faults as a player that Quade has, without the skillset to match.

Stannard costs us a game every tournament, normally through feeble defense as our sweeper. Unfortunately, this has become the norm and nobody blinks an eye.

Or maybe the average punter on GAGR only tunes in to a 7's series in which Quade is playing.

I think your onto something big there.......too many people think they're a 7s specialist, or a Quade Cooper specialist by reading the headlines!
Actually watching what he did to that team blows my mind that he was shut out so early! We havnt been a Finals team for years!
At best well scrape thru for a medal now!

As for Hutchisons form. He's a pretty good "bulldog" winger. He's great up close and fast down the line. He's still young tho...but was one of the guys who really shone next to quade!
I really hope they've picked the right coach. A coach who buys into the politics is useless. We NEED our best players on the field!!!

 

[barbarian]

This is the correct answer.

First sentence is so spot on it hurts.

I lost faith in Friend the moment Sam Myers wasn't picked. It's like he's actively practicing selective seeing. I was over the moon that Kingston was dropped. I would've been a lot happier if Hutchinson took the same route.

Speight > Hutchinson, every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Hutchinson is just a meandering Carlyn Isles. His only method of tackle breaking is running around on a forward mis-match. He's too slow to burn any of the other 7s backs, he's too weak to break a tackle through one on strength, and his step is more of a swerve. Then you gotta add in the fact that he's a defensive liability.

There's a lot of hate towards Quade for the 2 tournaments and 17 minutes of game time he had this year. I think it's unwarranted. Considering anyone that has watched us play over the past 2 - 3 years would recognize that Stannard has all the faults as a player that Quade has, without the skillset to match.

Stannard costs us a game every tournament, normally through feeble defense as our sweeper. Unfortunately, this has become the norm and nobody blinks an eye.

Or maybe the average punter on GAGR only tunes in to a 7's series in which Quade is playing.

One of the biggest loads of rubbish I've read on here, to put it bluntly.

Myers is injured, as Braveheart pointed out.

I can't see how anyone who has consistently watched us play this year could say Speight is ahead of Hutchison (the World 7s rookie of the year btw).

Speight was one of the big disappointments of the year for mine. Injury cruelled his chances, but I was hoping he'd be a revelation and he never really got there. The trademark bulldozing runs he made for the Brumbies weren't ever sighted in 7s.

The Hutchison analysis though....... wow. He's been one of our top 3 players this year, with a good mixture of pace, physicality and elusive running. And won a World Rugby award for his trouble. Defence is fine, too, not sure where that comment comes from.

Chuck Stannard has his issues I agree, but the notion he 'costs us a game every tournament' is just rubbish, too.
.

 

[KAOPointman]

One of the biggest loads of rubbish I've read on here, to put it bluntly.

Myers is injured, as Braveheart pointed out.

I can't see how anyone who has consistently watched us play this year could say Speight is ahead of Hutchison (the World 7s rookie of the year btw).

Speight was one of the big disappointments of the year for mine. Injury cruelled his chances, but I was hoping he'd be a revelation and he never really got there. The trademark bulldozing runs he made for the Brumbies weren't ever sighted in 7s.

The Hutchison analysis though... wow. He's been one of our top 3 players this year, with a good mixture of pace, physicality and elusive running. And won a World Rugby award for his trouble. Defence is fine, too, not sure where that comment comes from.

Chuck Stannard has his issues I agree, but the notion he 'costs us a game every tournament' is just rubbish, too.
.

Well 1 game in an Chucky Stannard probably cost us a chance at winning the game..... allready.......with a brain snap kick to their fullback with 1 minute left. Bugger
That aside it was a terrible start getting flogged by the world No11 French team!
Not good!

 

[I like to watch]

I don't think that cost us the game,but he had no shame in gobbing off at team mates when they scored off it.
It's not like he's never fallen off a tackle......