Viking
Mark Ella (57)
Speight should be injected on the wing. He has the pace of Tomane and the defence of Horne.
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Speight should be injected on the wing. He has the pace of Tomane and the defence of Horne.
KOB1987
Rod McCall (65)
And he has two mediocre test performances as his international career to date.
I'd like to see him there for the RWC but it's not going to happen in Bled 1.
Viking
Mark Ella (57)
Why? The more game time the better before RWC. We already know what Tomane and Horne will bring. Speight deserves another chance.
Fireworks
Jimmy Flynn (14)
If To'omua is out, I'd start Lealiifano at 12. Especially if the ABs go with an SBW-Nonu, 12-13. I had questions around whether Gits was physically up to test level after the Boks game. Christian had a great game vs. ABs in Bled III last year + His goal kicking could also be valuable if Foley is shaky.
You'd think if Hooper's out of Bledisloe I, Cheik would start with the same back row vs. Argentina? As for back row reserve, Higgers.
Left wing vacancy - Horne. I'd start Speight if he had more game time under his belt.
You'd think if Hooper's out of Bledisloe I, Cheik would start with the same back row vs. Argentina? As for back row reserve, Higgers.
Left wing vacancy - Horne. I'd start Speight if he had more game time under his belt.
I thought McCalman was really good. Every time he got the ball he made ground, including a few great runs off a backpedalling scrum.
He's our best 8.
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Just looking at the tackle stats, some interesting reading. Most players are roughly as you would expect, with four particularly notable exceptions:
Pocock - 18 made, 0 missed. Freak.
Simmons - 13 made, 0 missed. Incredible effort.
Skelton - 9 made, 0 missed. Big improvement from last week, and a message to those who questioned his motor considering he played 80.
Foley - 6 made, 5 missed. He's a big liability.
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Pocock - 18 made, 0 missed. Freak.
Simmons - 13 made, 0 missed. Incredible effort.
Skelton - 9 made, 0 missed. Big improvement from last week, and a message to those who questioned his motor considering he played 80.
Foley - 6 made, 5 missed. He's a big liability.
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T
Train Without a Station
Guest
Nah Spiro Zavos, David Lord and Tah Dan reckon he's a good defender so those stats must be wrong.
Strewthcobber
Mark Ella (57)
What were Phipp's stats? Seemed to miss quite a few in the last line from one viewing.
Tahtrajic
Ted Fahey (11)
I remember he missed one tackle on one then made up for at the next line out by chasing down the 10 and win a plenty by getting up to compete for the ball forcing the illegal clean out. This is an example of his commitment, he has repeatedly made last ditch tackles all season and he never leaves anything in tank. I think this is something Check likes about his game. I just don't understand why some people seam to hate on him at times. Everybody makes mistakes at least with Phipps he rally works hard to make good after his stuff ups.
jollyswagman
Ron Walden (29)
As an Aussie expat living in the US I am forced to get my rugby news from sources other than fox or news corp sources, heck I can't even watch fox controlled news clips online from the US (without paying for a online subscription) The only hope of catching an "online video" about anything to do with Australian rugby comes via the ARU website or the Wallabies facebook account. I do read rugby news on the NZ Herald site, planet rugby and a couple of other UK based news & rugby sites and for the most part any reference to QC (Quade Cooper) contains some combination of the usual "bad-boy-can't-tackle-enigmatic-unpredictable-risky-player" crap, but I will digress and leave that alone for now......
I was trying to catch a couple of the Wallabies training videos on their facebook game ahead yesterdays match and I was bummed to read some of the shit that gets slung at the players on the Wallabies page. Some of the garbage that gets thrown at them as a team and as individuals is pretty poor in my opinion. It is a shame that the account is not managed to some effect as that sort of thing does nothing to help give the team any sense of the support that they have. I guess that is the world we live these days.
I was trying to catch a couple of the Wallabies training videos on their facebook game ahead yesterdays match and I was bummed to read some of the shit that gets slung at the players on the Wallabies page. Some of the garbage that gets thrown at them as a team and as individuals is pretty poor in my opinion. It is a shame that the account is not managed to some effect as that sort of thing does nothing to help give the team any sense of the support that they have. I guess that is the world we live these days.
wamberal
Phil Kearns (64)
The thing is that the vast majority of us struggled to play first grade club rugby, let alone for a province or at the pinnacle, for the national team.
If a pygmy criticises a a giant, the giant should be amused.
Cooper should treat this stuff as what it it: worthless mindless rubbish.
If a pygmy criticises a a giant, the giant should be amused.
Cooper should treat this stuff as what it it: worthless mindless rubbish.
chasmac
Dave Cowper (27)
Hey Bar Bar, I cannot help feeling that the gameplan against the Boks didn't help Higgers. But also, he didn't adapt when the gameplan wasn't working. He an/or Fardy were needed to help in the tight because the tight 5 were losing the ruck contest. I want to like Higgers game but I have yet to see his S15 impact at test level. McCalman seems to maintain his S15 form at international level. McCalman gets the nod.
The_Brown_Hornet
John Eales (66)
I'm with Barbs, McCalman had a good game on the weekend. I think he provides a good foil to the running game of Hooper and if you have a match day 23 with Pocock, Fardy, Hooper and him in it pretty much all bases are covered.
TahDan
Cyril Towers (30)
Yes, well according to the stats over at Fairfax Quade Cooper made a stunningly high 2 whole tackles the entire match.
http://www.theage.com.au/rugby-unio...as-v-australia-wallabies-20150725-giklm2.html
But according to you he was a brick wall in defence.
Foley wasn't perfect, but as I said he attempted more tackles as well and he's a smaller and lighter guy than Cooper.
How does a guy playing 12 make so few tackles?
TahDan
Cyril Towers (30)
No idea. Maybe there's something in that whole "doesn't like the high contact stuff" thing that those awful media people like Spiro have brought up?
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