Now, you see, I’m not sure about this.
Wales v Australia:
Gareth Thomas (Blues, capt)
Chris Czekaj (Blues)
Jamie Robinson (Blues)
Sonny Parker (Ospreys)
Aled Brew (Ospreys)
James Hook (Ospreys)
Mike Phillips (Ospreys)
Iestyn Thomas (Scarlets)
Mefin Davies (Leicester)
Adam Jones (Ospreys)
Michael Owen (Dragons)
Robert Sidoli (Blues)
Colin Charvis (Dragons)
Gavin Thomas (Scarlets)
Jonathan Thomas (Ospreys)
Replacements
Richard Hibbard (Ospreys)
Ceri Jones (Harlequins)
Scott Morgan (Blues)
Robin Sowden-Taylor (Blues)
Andy Williams (Dragons)
Gavin Henson (Ospreys)
Ceri Sweeney (Dragons)
For starters, we need to get the Big Man at inside centre and get Brew running outside him; I am a big fan of The Dancing versus The Bosh but only dance when the music is right; right in their 22, that is. We really need two big centres but we have left it a tad too late – you need a proper ‘pairing’ against the mesmerising midfield running of the Aussies. Brew and Thomas would be painfully exposed as an untried pair at this level. But… ah, well, you all know what I want.
We now come to another little ‘foible’ of Gareth Jenkins: 6 Nations; narrow loss to Ireland; strong pack performance; exposed the Irish in the scrum. So what did the coach do? Swap a scrummaging front row for a ‘mobile’ one to play the Scots. We lost. Now, standing as I do at 5’7¾”, my knowledge and experience of 2nd row play is erm, limited to say the least but, even I can see that The Ice Cream Boy and The Stooped One are not going to give us enough raw grunt under the 2nd row bonnet. We really do need to be able to boss that tight-head and get just a tiny nudge up on the right at scrum tim... (oh dear, you appear to have gone all 'AntipodeanRugbyJargon' on me, Wilbach. Tut. - Ed.). At that point, our game can start to grow.
Garin… sorry, Mefin will make a difference but he really needs a bagful of aggression from his pack if any improvement is to be seen. And, I’ll tell you this for thruppence ha’penny, we need to get bodies over the ball at rucks else We Will Get Dicked from Turnover Ball.
Keep the ball we have, set up a ruck into Gateaux to cream him, slam it up the centre into Larkham to trample on his hamster, and kick only when we need to. Limit the gameplan for half an hour and then limit it yet more until it really is on.
All this will only work if we can:
• catch kicks
• ruck cleanly
• scrum up on the right
• win lineout ball
So, it is all down to the forwards then.
Simple.
And I went shopping into town today after a lovely lunch in the New Theatre, Cardiff, with the Mrs. On My Big Shopping Trip I spent a little over £8 on:
• a magazine (rugby not ladies)
• two war comics (nostalgia not latent neo-Nazi tendencies), and,
• a second hand book on rugby captaincy (edited by Roger Utley?!)
It was like being 12 again! Cardiff market is a hell of a lot cleaner than I remember it being. And I wasn’t tempted into buying a kitten, puppy, a stylus or a pair of burgundy Sta-Prest.
Result.
8 Ospreys
6 Blues
4 Dragons
2 Scarlets
2 Other Lot
have we got a strong scrummaging, righthand/tighthead second row on tour?
GogfromAbertawe wrote...
Wilbach;
With hindsight I imagine your post would be very different. We have a few "friendlies" still to come, but I can see GT making the squad but only to keep him onside, GJ-wise. He looked slow & cumbersome in both matches, and as for captaincy - remind yourself how we lost the 1st Test!
GJ makes out he is giving GH a chance to "prove himself" worthy of inclusion, but after a 12 min stint in the 1st Test which got favourable mention by the major news pundits what happened in Test 2?; -Alfie moved to LW in place of Czekaj and Henson took the FB role. Despite all the hints, winks & nudges I reckon GJ has made up his mind that that is the only role for GH in the autumn.
And why? Is he still set on his pipe-dream of protege SJ as Captain and OH? Popular opinion has already soured that highly premature announcement. But if he can show that Hook is best at IC, well - who else can we turn to but SJ. What startled me about GJ's sponsorship of SJ was the apparent admission that he had never recognised Hook's burgeoning Class as a junior.
I've never met GJ but I felt sorry for him when he missed out on the job first time round. But having listened to his press conferences and interviews I feel I know why the selection panel picked up the 'phone and called MR.
I can hardly wait for the England game to be proved wrong.
Wilbach says - my wishes exactly. I really do feel that alfie has to be in the mix as, when at inside centre, he puts a directness to proceedings that we so desparately need. I was chatting to my brother about a scrum half (who shall remain nameless - he is now a senior copper!) who had all the skills you could wish for but lacked the most imprtant aspect of all - decision making: i think we lost the first test at the very death because cooper just got it wrong. we are blessed with two very physically able halves in cooper and phillips. but peel is the only s/h with the ability to read a game and boss it. he is the least physiclaly preposessing of our 9's... how did i get round to this?! sorry. Right, yes, i agree with most of your points and thank you for commenting. Ta! spread the word WestGog. hwyl!
Posted by: GogfromAbertawe | June 4, 2007 4:16 PM