Rugby World Cup 2007 - Twiddling Our Thumbs!

[finbar]

Congrats to D. Hipkiss on his call up. Better late than never.

A. Farrell back at #12? Good brain, lovely hands, way too slow. Probably won't matter against lesser teams. Is M. Tait a #12 or #13?

Borthwick and Shaw are the best available locks? I don't believe it.

Cueto is the best available full back? I don't believe it.

Corry at blind-side? I don't believe it.

[Havak]

It’s a strange selection Finbar – and I do not expect the same line up against France that’s for sure.

I see it rather as last chance saloon and a test of contingency options. Corry will be moved into the second row next week I am sure.

Farrell is being given a final chance to prove himself. With Tait the answer is not easy – he started as a 12 but is now switched between that and 13. More often at 13 probably as he gets Wilko and Flood inside him at Falcons. I think 13 perhaps suits his natural skill more – the pace to break into space. Tait has to be a certainty for the final squad so I guess Ashton is trying his options. I hope we see him and Hipkiss together at some point in the game.

Has Cueto been named at full back? Oh god yes, you are right! I thought Robinson was likely to slot in there with Cueto on the wing. You are very right – Mark is no full back even at club level.

And the locks are indeed inexplicable. This obsession with Borthwick is bizarre – he is easily the poorest lock left in the squad. Shaw is getting a last chance to show he can still put two good games together (he was fine in the Euro final but had a poor season over all).

And as for Dayglo – well it shows talking yourself up does work with our new coach. He simply shouldn’t be there. It’s coming to something when I am glad Worseley is starting (because it keeps the egomaniac on the bench)

But the biggest joke – yet another of Ashton’s Bath alumni from the 90s starts – Mark Regan. He is way behind Chuter these days so I am guessing that Ashton is looking to find his back up hooker.

[finbar]

Originally posted by Havak
I see it rather as last chance saloon and a test of contingency options.

I'm sure that's what it is, but why not use the opportunity to trial good young players instead of recycling has-beens and never-weres?

(That was rhetorical)

[Havak]

But I love to answer rhetorical questions.

And in this case I think it shows Mr Ashton is more similar to his predecessor than some of us are entirely comfortable with.

[finbar]

Scarily so. It's an English thing. It's a Wallaby thing to take a gamble - M. Giteau a couple of tours ago, plucked from club rugby; the likes of P. Kearns and T. Horan many years ago, plucked from nowhere. Though, I have to say, the current Wallaby World Cup squad is scarily conservative.

[Havak]

The problem is that the Wallabies are also led by a Bath Alumni. That conservatism rubs off you know.

[finbar]

There is also great friction amongst the Wallaby coaching staff and between some of the players and some of the staff:

1. Defence coach J. Muggleton walked out of last week's John Eales Award presentation dinner because he didn't get a mention in the ARU President's speech. Knuckles, S. Johnson and M. Foley were all mentioned, Muggleton wasn't. Out he walked.

2. The players are keen for L***** great Andrew Johns to continue to help with tactical kicking coaching. S. Johnson feels very threatened.

3. S. Mortlock and S. Johnson had an almighty blue on the last northern tour. They claim to have resolved their differences but apparently not completely. Other players are said to have problems with S. Johnson.

The petty parochial world of Australian rugby. It explains why the new ARU - under J. O'Neill - are desperate to lure Robbie Deans from New Zealand to replace Knuckles when he retires after the World Cup. Not only is Deans obviously a fine coach, he's an outsider, untainted by the petty rivalries and jealousies that riddle Australian rugby.

EDIT. I notice that P. Howard has just been appointed GM of the ARU High Performance Unit. Good thing. Just the beginning of the changes J. O'Neill will make.

[finbar]

Leading up to today's game, I was wondering what the point of it all was going to be. The Taffys were fielding a team seemingly weaker than that which took on the Wallabies, and the English were playing around with positions. Now, I'm even less sure of what the point of it all was.

England established within the first twenty minutes that their forwards were going to walk all over the Taffys. They did. And continued to do so. As they should have. The Taffy pack was abysmal. But why didn't England take the opportunity to vary their game? Work their back line? Late in the game, almost by accident, the backs appeared in the game.

So what did it all mean?

The England forwards smashed the Taffys. Fair enough. Havak, LdiC and I probably could have.

M. Perry had a fine game. Behind a rampant pack. C. Hodgson had a fine game against Italy behind a rampant pack. Later, when the pack struggled, so did Hodgson.

A. Farrell remains a lumberer. He had several opportunities to break the line but was smashed in tackles. He couldn't muster the speed.

All in all, bit of a wasted opportunity for England, methinks.

[finbar]

Gareth Jenkins says Wales were caught unprepared by the game plan England used in Saturday's record 62-5 loss.

The Wales coach did admit England had "reverted to type", but said Wales' forthcoming encounters with Argentina and France were the "big" games.

The Wales coach will name his final 30-man World Cup squad on Friday.

"We didn't expect England to play that way either, they really reverted to a type of game that we weren't expecting," Jenkins admitted.

After England picked a back row that would have put the back row of a Tyrannosaurus Rex XV to shame?

I'm starting to come to grips with G. Jenkins. He's an idiot. Pick a team of mainly second and third choices and you usually get hammered.

[Havak]

I actually can't add much to that Finbar - a meaningless game and a huge disappointment that they did not vary the game at all. The Farrell experiment should be over - there might as well have been no one outside him as he never got the ball to them.

But he cost so much they will play him against France - and I fear for the results of that!

I was pleased with what little Hipkiss was able to do with the ball he got - I'm more keen now to see him play alongside Tait.

That quote from Jenkins made me laugh out loud - the result doesn't matter becuase England played in an old fashioned way he didn't expect? So essentially you have him admitting that he is a very poor coach who could not anticipate that a strong English pack would front up strongly???

Have you seen the latest diplomatic salvo from Monsieur Laporte? He says he is sure French rugby is drug free but cannot be certain about England or NZ. More wild unfounded allegations from the future French sporting minister and yet another attempt to make more friends before the RWC!?

Enjoyed the insight into the frictions in Camp Wallabies - Johnson ruffled many feathers in the 6N with his stalking up the touchline (and on the pitch!) antics. He always came across as quite volatile...

[finbar]

Yes, D. Hipkiss looked good with the few opportunities he had. Strong, quick, nice step. Got next to nothing from A. Farrell. Pity about Farrell. He's got everything except a couple of yards of speed.

B. Ashton's line about it being a "balanced" performance is, yet again, delusional.

Strange to say, for all the forward superiority, I barely sighted M. Corry. Still, hopefully N. Easter's bag of tries - as laughably easy as they were - will keep Nose on the bench. Nose is obviously going to France.

B. Laporte is obviously given to bouts of Campo-itis.

[Havak]

Again I find myself agreeing with pretty much everything there.

Cozza was very low profile - though I still expect to see him at lock for the next game.

And yes Nose is going - Ashton was sickeningly nice about him after the game.

The problem is that the Welsh tight five were performing so badly that any competent pack was going to look superb up against them.

[finbar]

Sorry. He's on the bench.

Either B. Ashton hasn't yet finalised his best team or he's just giving everyone a game before the serious stuff starts. Sorry, I can't follow the selection logic. When is anyone going to be given the chance to develop combinations? And, apart from anything else, that is not a mid-field that is ever going to strike terror into many hearts. Presumably M. Catt is there to hold O. Barkley's hand again.

What happened to that talented young half - with the odd name that I can't recall - who made a brief appearance, off the bench if I recall, last season?

[Havak]

Geragthy, the young fly half? Out through injury.

Again I have to agree with you - no logic there that I can see. I could almost be sold on the forwards picked but that backline is woeful even by our current standards.

Abendanon is a great young sevens player but you saw how inexperienced he is in South Africa. Cipriani is a huge talent - so naturally you stick him on the bench?

And the sad obsession with Bath hookers continues - the ineffectual Regan backed up by the even less effectual Meers? Good grief Mr Ashton!

[finbar]

Hopefully les grenouilles will turn up. And teach him a lesson.