louie said:nice stuff from randwick today. randwick of old in many ways.
thought chisholm had a fantastic game. hope deans is watching. could be really useful this year.
Kepu was awesome.
louie said:Kepu was awesome.
Lee Grant said:louie said:Kepu was awesome.
Yeah - you could see that he has been a no. 8 before. There wouldn't be too many 8s in the country that have his pace and skills.
He was turned into a prop just 4 years ago at the IRB U/19 tournament on advice from NZ scrum doctor Mike Cron; so he has done bloody well to be playing professional rugby in the front row by last year, let alone in test matches.
I've been disappointed that Kepu hasn't had club game time at THP as it is there where we have our greatest need. And when Hoilles isn't around I'd like to see him get some time at 8 for Randwick also. There was a good chance to play him there when Hoiles was away with the Brumbies, but Maxwell and Mowen are no duds and club coaches have a different agenda.
Maybe one day Tah coach Hickey will see a need to play 4 props on the veldt; so Kepu could provide cover for both the front and the backrows. If that happened it would look good on his CV.
As with any other mobile prop (eg Cowan and Alexander) it would be good to see if he can throw into the lineout. These blokes couldn't be a lot worse than what we saw from Moore and TPN at Newlands.
PS The Randwick scrum wasn't great on Saturday with Kepu playing LHP, IIRR. Manly THP Tim Fairbrother seemed to have his way most of the time.
Lee Grant said:No doubt that will be the thinking fat one; but Kepu will have to get a decent share of playing time for the Tahs. Baxter and Fat Cat Robinson probably average 60 minutes a game, to pick a number. With Kepu healthy now, and a Wallaby, he will have to eat into their 60 minutes a bit otherwise the Tahs will have an unhappy camper.
And since Robinson is a specialist LHP it means that Kepu will have to play some at THP to get his time up.
That will conspire to reduce Palmer's time on the park. We can say that he has lots of time but it may be difficult to constrain the young fellow's ambition after being in the sunlit uplands of Super14 rugby earlier in the year, when Kepu and Dunning were injured.
Geez, he is and impressive young player. I saw him at Rat Park playing for Southerns earlier in the season and he has that air of certitude about him as he packs down. He looks like an old stager with his "You may be good but you won't beat me" stare.
They didn't beat him either.
I thought Easts fought hard up front, where Uni often have the wood on other teams. Uni blew some chances in the second half after Easts comprehensively outplayed them in the first 40. I would disagree that Uni were shit; I thought Easts played bloody well. With the ball Uni had in the second half, they could have put on plenty of points but Easts defended superbly; in fact both sides did overall. I don't think Uni have an aura, it's called a bloody good pack that grinds the oppo down most of the time.louie said:ok club game today. i thought uni where shit to be honest. i don't understand this so called aura they have.
Matt To'omua was best on ground. clearly gained a lot from brumbies trip.