Waratahs v Force, round 1, Sunday 15 February

[Pfitzy]

Right - I'll see the committed people at The Clock.

Say 1PM?

 

[Pfitzy]

Tahs named:

1 Robinson
2 TPN
3 Kepu
4 Dennis (c)
5 Skelton
6 JacPot
7 Hooper (vc)
8 Palu
9 Phipps
10 Foley
11 Horne
12 Beale
13 AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper)
14 Taqele
15 Folau

16 Latu
17 Tilse
18 Ryan
19 Louisi
20 Chapman
21 Hoiles
22 McKibbin
23 Carrarro

No Betham and a 6/2 bench. Interesting.

 

[Tex]

Strong team. Hope the Force get up!

 

[Pfitzy]

If the Force get up, they'll have worked fucking hard for it.

 

[Tex]

Three intercept tries and a few bungled Waratahs goal kicks ought to see them over the line.

Seriously though Tahs should moider them. There was a bit of chat about how brutal Skeletor's preseason was. Keen to see if he's still carrying puppy fat or if, like a grub, he's burst forth from his chrysalis with dazzling physical form hitherto unseen.

 

[Braveheart81]

Skelton is in fantastic shape. I wouldn't be surprised if he plays 80 minutes.

We might see Hoiles replace Palu at 8, Lousi replace Dennis and Chapman replace Potgieter.

 

[Moono75]

Tahs named:

1 Robinson
2 TPN
3 Kepu
4 Dennis (c)
5 Skelton
6 JacPot
7 Hooper (vc)
8 Palu
9 Phipps
10 Foley
11 Horne
12 Beale
13 AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper)
14 Taqele
15 Folau

16 Latu
17 Tilse
18 Ryan
19 Louisi
20 Chapman
21 Hoiles
22 McKibbin
23 Carrarro

No Betham and a 6/2 bench. Interesting.

It must take a long time to prepare all the paper bags to pay these guys.

 

[Brumby Runner]

It will be just as interesting to see if TPN and Cliff get through without injury as it will be to see if Pocock, Vaea and Moore finish injury free for the Brumbies.

 

[Dctarget]

That's a near full strength line up. The injury gods have truly blessed the Tahs.

 

[Dctarget]

Also what do we think of Dennis at lock? Got the goods? Temporary fix or more permanent?

 

[Hans]

Also what do we think of Dennis at lock? Got the goods? Temporary fix or more permanent?

Will allow a very expansive game, as he is pretty mobile, similar approach to last year really, just Potgieter & Dennis have swapped roles. Dennis is fine at super 15 level, and probably fine at the next level. He becomes an issue if your game plan is to try and bash through brick walls. For this game, you need 8 Brad Thorn type players. given the wallabies will more than likely be running it from all over, i would say you can expect plenty of a mobility focus from the 2 locks.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Skelton is in fantastic shape. I wouldn't be surprised if he plays 80 minutes.

We might see Hoiles replace Palu at 8, Lousi replace Dennis and Chapman replace Potgieter.

I hope so, for the sake of the Wallabies later in the year.

 

[Hans]

I hope so, for the sake of the Wallabies later in the year.

The 70 minutes display last weekend was fantastic and a big notch on the belt for WS! What impressed me most was not his work into contact, which was good, without being Potgeiter good, but it was the ability to get one or both arms free to create chance.

Ill whip out the crystal ball here, Skelton offload to Hooper and or Beale leads to at least on try this coming weekend.

 

[RugbyReg]

It will be interesting to see how the Tahs lineout holds up.

 

[Moono75]

Ill whip out the crystal ball here, Skelton offload to Hooper and or Beale leads to at least on try this coming weekend.

No no....the Tahs team rules clearly state that the last pass goes to Folau so he can flop over the line for the try.

 

[Braveheart81]

No no..the Tahs team rules clearly state that the last pass goes to Folau so he can flop over the line for the try.

That will be an offload from Kepu similar to the try in last Friday's trial.

 

[fatprop]

It will be interesting to see how the Tahs lineout holds up.

About as good as last season, we only lost Douglas

 

[Braveheart81]

Dennis was our best lineout forward last year so it shouldn't damage things moving him to lock.

Dennis, Potgieter and Palu will be the targets.

Lousi received a few lineouts successfully in both trials so he seems to have picked up that side of rugby pretty well.

 

[Jagman]

Also Chapman and Hoiles on the bench are both lineout specialists so if there is a problem it's fixable.

 

[GaffaCHinO]

Force team named
1. Pekahou Cowan
2. Nathan Charles
3. Tetera Faulkner
4. Sam Wykes (c)
5. Adam Coleman
6. Angus Cottrell
7. Chris Alcock
8. Ben McCalman
9. Alby Mathewson
10. Sias Ebersohn
11. Marcel Brache
12. Solomoni Jnr Rasolea
13. Kyle Godwin
14. Luke Morahan
15. Dane Haylett-Petty

Reserves
16. Heath Tessmann
17. Francois van Wyk
18. Oliver Hoskins
19. Steve Mafi**
20. Brynard Stander
21. Ian Prior
22. Zack Holmes
23. Luke Burton

- See more at: http://www.westernforce.com.au/article/wykes-leads-force-10th-season-opener#sthash.ZyTvvxfr.dpuf