Wallabies Squad - the Link Era

[Braveheart81]

In terms of pure scrummaging ability I think Kepu is ahead of Slipper but not by much. Kepu still has a habit of giving away penalties, particularly when he first comes onto the field.

They are close enough that some days Slipper will scrummage better than Kepu.

I think Slipper is consistently better around the park though.

In terms of balance, I'm not against starting Robinson and Slipper and finishing with Sio and Kepu. Start with your best scrummaging LHP and best around the field THP and finish with your best around the field LHP and best scrummaging THP.

That to me seems like a good compromise.

 

[Slim 293]

Alexanders preferred position = Loosehead, Slipper=Tighthead yet Deans believed it was better to play two people out of position than none)

But Alexaner also plays TH for the Brumbies, and to be fair, he's scrummaged better at TH than LH this year.........

 

[Ash]

I agree with Pfitzy that the worry with Slipper is his seemingly inconsistency from scrum to scrum, even if he is close to Kepu technically. I don't know if it's Slipper's fault, but scrums he's been associated with have run the full gamut of outcomes in a game of rugby.

I'm not against Slipper giving a real go at starting tight head, neither am I against Kepu as starting tight head. I can't pick it, to be honest. Will will be in the back of my mind is if Slipper is going to turn up to the scrum being picked, or what lazy penalty Kepu will give away next. Both of these things will hopefully be rectified by those players.

 

[Ash]

Yeah im abit like WHAT?? about Hooper.

on Folau he did have a great year in his Debut year in rugby but he is hardly a 'rookie' would have love it to go to someone like Godwin but no doubt that Folau had a great year.

White...Nuff Said.

I'm wondering also how Genia managed to tie for second.

 

[something]

I'm wondering also how Genia managed to tie for second.

yeah wtf? he had a pretty average season by his standards. I thought White was probably the form aus halfy of the season

 

[something]

Also - whatever happened to Tyrone Smith?

 

[Slim 293]

With these awards, as it is a 3-2-1 system per team per round it usually just comes down to who has been consistently performing for their team throughout the season.......

In that regard I'm not completely surprised about Hooper winning it as he didn't have any bad games and was decent for the Tahs week in week out........

 

[Braveheart81]

The most surprising seems to be the non-appearance of Kyle Godwin amongst the top vote getters.

He often seemed like the best Force player on the field.

 

[GaffaCHinO]

The most surprising seems to be the non-appearance of Kyle Godwin amongst the top vote getters.

He often seemed like the best Force player on the field.

yeah even more strange is that there isn’t a Force player in the top 10.......we did play the same amount of games right. For someone at the Force not to get at least 10 points is nuts. Godwin played all bar 2 games Alby played every game Pek played almost all games??? surly they would have accumulated some points no? makes no sense to mean. Not that it really matters but just very strange.

 

[TOCC]

I thought the voting system was changed a number of years ago after Latham received it back to back in an under performing Reds team, it was then weighted so that the better positioned teams(players) accumulated more points.

 

[Lee Grant]

The most surprising seems to be the non-appearance of Kyle Godwin amongst the top vote getters.

He often seemed like the best Force player on the field.

Agree that it is surprising.

You can see why Hooper won and Folau got 5th overall: because they would have hogged whatever points Tahs players got. On the other hand: Brumbies' and Reds' players, whose teams made the final, had more players who were candidates for whatever points their teams got.

But even if the points were 3-2-1 to be split between two teams in every game and a lowly placed team like the Force didn't get as many as the Reds and Brumbies got in their matches over a season, you'd think that Godwin should have hogged enough Force points to be right up there; but he didn't even make the top ten.

Strange.
.

 

[I like to watch]

I blame Axel Foley.
No reason, just because.

 

[Scotty]

I wonder if anyone will ever thank Deans for having the balls to make QC (Quade Cooper) realise what he would be missing, a harsh lesson and hopefully it has gotten through.

Was it Deans that dropped Cooper or the ARU? Deans just didn't select him the next time, and I seriously doubt it was because he was thinking long term about what was best for the wallabies and Cooper.

Otherwise he would have done the same with JOC (James O'Connor) and Beale.

 

[Scotty]

I think the choice between Gill and Hooper depends a lot on the makeup of the rest of the backrow.

With Palu and Kimlin out we will potentially be looking for more ball running which raises Hooper's stakes. If we ended up with a starting backrow of Mowen, McCalman and Gill you'd really be struggling for strong ball running. Mowen is clearly the best of those three but that isn't the lynchpin of his game and I think he'd struggle if he was relied on heavily to do that.

If we picked someone like Fardy at 6 and Mowen at 8 then Gill makes a lot more sense.

Personally I think Gill will get the nod to start in the first test and I agree with this decision. He's been close enough and good enough this season that he deserves that opportunity.

When we eventually get Higginbotham back next year I can certainly see Gill fitting in well with him in a backrow combination because Higgers is such a good ball runner. If Pyle gets a crack in the second row it also makes it more logical to start Gill because Pyle is an excellent ball runner.

I'm not sure if this is the correct reason to pick Hooper. He isn't exactly a huge running option in tight - more out wide using his speed. You could easily argue that Gill is more effective a runner in tight with his pick and drive technique.

I like the idea of Hooper coming on late for the 6 or 8 and given a roaming option in attack - sometimes dropping back to support the counter attack off kicks, sometimes running with the centres or other times on the tight blindside.

 

[Scotty]

With these awards, as it is a 3-2-1 system per team per round it usually just comes down to who has been consistently performing for their team throughout the season...

In that regard I'm not completely surprised about Hooper winning it as he didn't have any bad games and was decent for the Tahs week in week out....

I'm actually surprised that Folau didn't win the big one.

 

[fatprop]

Was it Deans that dropped Cooper or the ARU? Deans just didn't select him the next time, and I seriously doubt it was because he was thinking long term about what was best for the wallabies and Cooper.

Otherwise he would have done the same with JOC (James O'Connor) and Beale.

Yeah, maybe just because he got it right once (possibly) doesn't mean he didn't screw up elsewhere (obviously)

 

[lily]

Using this thread because it's most used, What Mowen said about Mogg is not on.

 

[barbarian]

Using this thread because it's most used, What Mowen said about Mogg is not on.

What did he say?
.

 

[cyclopath]

Using this thread because it's most used, What Mowen said about Mogg is not on.

I was out of the room for a minute - must have missed it too.

 

[Zander]

He didn't even say the word Mogg on Rugby HQ - what's this about?