Rugby - The Game They Play In Heaven II

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It was the best I'd seen of Rougerie at 13. Defended well, always dangerous in attack. Set up Heymans' try beautifully. The French squad seems to be the least controversial of Lièvremont's selections in a long time.

The ABs have two young back-ups to Carter at 10. Aaron Cruden, who's about 22, who has just moved from the Hurricanes to the Chiefs, yet another departure from the Hurricanes' sinking ship. Cruden has some wonderful skills but (a) he's erratic verging on flaky; and (b) his defence is poor. The other is Colin Slade. He's not much older than Cruden, not as flashy, but has very good all-round skills. What he lacks, obviously, is experience at the higher level, and the fault lies with Graham Henry & Co. Either of Cruden or Slade should have gone on the last AB autumn tour for the experience. Henry & Co, for whatever reason, persisted with Stephen Donald, proven time and again not to have it at the highest level. Now, Donald has signed with Bath after not even making the ABs first cut WC squad, and Henry & Co are left with inexperienced back-ups at 10. It's their own fault.

[Havak]

Congrats kOC.

So Jonno has gone solely with blunt instruments in the centres as expected. the only one capable of asking any questions of the bigger sides is Manu - and only if he gets the ball. With Tindall or Hape inside him he will be a spectator.

Simpson doesn't convince me - after all being triple qualified if he was any good then the kiwis or Aussies would have whisked him away.

So all I need to hope for is that Youngs gets fit and hits top form, that Floody does the same (wilko will get hurt early in the tournament making a huge tackle no doubt) and that all the big sides have an extremely off day should we face them. And then we might lose respectably in the QF. It's more likely we will get a tonking.

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Heck, I'd've taken Flutey, as average as he is, in front of Hape. At least he can pass a ball. Simpson has ability, his problem when I've seen him has been getting caught with the ball and smashed. Still, it indicates a lack of depth. And, presumably, if injury strikes either Wilko or Flood, Foden is the cover. The depressing thing is that J**** essentially said that 12 is easier to cover than 10. And included Bananaface in his 12 coverage. He has nailed his colours to one tactical mast. So the oppo can pretty much overlook the centres in terms of attacking threat and focus elsewhere.

Interesting to see Kidney leave out O'Leary for young Murray. O'Leary was diabolical against France but it usually takes more than that for Kidney to cut a favourite adrift.

[Havak]

Pressure can make people behave unpredicatably, and the man is under extreme pressure. Still his lads will get a good win this weekend that will buy him some breathing space.

[LDiCesare]

In other news, we now know Saint-André will replace Lièvremont at France helm after the World Cup. Probably with Lagisquet and maybe Bru as helpers.
While I like the man (huge respect for the player - a winger that manages to be the captain of his team certainly has a personality), I don't know how good a coach he is. I think his record in England was rather good. Toulon is not really anything to talk about, since the players are chosen by the president and he probably had to do with what he was given and had much less room for bringing in players (like Chabal to Sale).
Anyway, he should hopefully bring some breath of understanding to the French selection when he arrives.

[Havak]

He won a Premiership with Sale - an interesting choice for sure.

At Welford Road it transpires Jordan Crane has had knee surgery and will miss the enitre new season. So I hope Waldrom is getting over the hamstring problem that saw him cut from England.

[kittenOFchaos]

He won a Premiership with Sale - an interesting choice for sure.

At Welford Road it transpires Jordan Crane has had knee surgery and will miss the enitre new season. So I hope Waldrom is getting over the hamstring problem that saw him cut from England.

Alesana could easily play no. 8 for you guys.

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Most that I read about Saint-André seems to suggest that (a) he's a very good person manager; (b) not an ego-maniac; and (c) not a dill. I'd've thought those three things alone would qualify him to coach France well. He's had a very tough time at Toulon working to the dictates of the club owner. His frustration was evident more than once. Apparently he had little say in the departure of Sackey, who, though I'm no fan, performed well given limited opportunities. The real mystery at Toulon, though, has been Hayman's non-appearances. Anyway, I wish him well.

Shame for Jordan Crane. Hopefully whatever they're doing to his knee will inject some acceleration into him.

[Havak]

Generally such surgery does the reverse of course.

Alesana could indeed play at 8 - his brother Henry played there for us with great success until Wasps broke his leg in one of their championship stealing years. He was never the same again. Alesana possible lacks the proper nounce to play 8 effectively however.

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Interesting day's rugby yesterday. One of the great Wallaby performances. Smashed the ABs off the park in the first half with immense forward pressure, weathered the inevitable AB comeback, and it was a mighty comeback, then controlled the latter stages to win. Patterns are emerging. Against the Boks, they showed some maturity, playing a kicking territory game when needed instead of hurling zero percentage passes at inappropriate times. Same thing yesterday. Last season they built big leads and let them slip to lose. These are better signs, but can they repeat these efforts? Carter had, by his standards, a shocker under immense pressure. Pocock mostly had it all over Richie. Henry's wing choices looked lightweight under pressure. He may regret omitting the powerful Gear. But who would write them off? And who would trust the Wallabies to do it again?

Ireland were so utterly dire that it's hard to gauge England. Losing two-thirds of their back row didn't help - poor D. Wallace, the man is jinxed - but a back row however great wasn't going to make up for the vacuum that was the midfield and the complete lack of cohesion. I don't think even BOD would have helped. Manu outside Tindall looked the best midfield pairing J****has hit upon for a couple of years. Tindall's best effort for a long time, as though he'd been freed of the burden of a useless lump of a 12 inside him and played with some freedom. Manu did very well again, even if the oppo midfield was a vacuum. Wilko was average at best from both hand and foot. He struggles to play at speed. His pass behind Lawes' back was dire. All up, England were powerful, solid, but untested. Ireland? It's beyond me what the problem is.

[Havak]

I caught (and really enjoyed) the last twenty mins in Brisbane. A worthy win for the wattle (not something I say lightly I can assure you). Good for the ABs too - I think it will bring them right back on track and I still make them huge favourites for the RWC.

What I enjoy even more though is the prospect of the Australia-Ireland game in a few weeks. Whatever else might be wrong Kidney has clearly lost his players confidence - the strange lack of intensity at the breakdown until the last quarter just wasn't the Ireland of the last decade. Problems in that camp for sure.

What a great tackle from Murphy on Manu though?

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Pity you didn't catch the first 40 minutes in Brissie. Astonishing stuff. It will be interesting to see which Ireland fronts up against Australia. It will take some sort of miracle for the mob that bested England in the 6N to reappear. That effort looks like a magnificent very one-off.

Was a great chase and tackle. Thought Murphy did better than many around him. I noticed him sharing a grin with both Manu and Crofty at various times during the game.

[Havak]

I've never heard a bad word about Geordan from other players - I think he is very well liked in the Tigers squad. Which may be why they let their minds drift off the task at hand to share the odd wink.

He was also making hay I think - last month he thought he would be commentating on the RWC and now is likely to feature in it.

Okay o'Brien, Heaslip and BOD were missing - but I wonder if they are enough to change things anyway. As you say I am fascintated to see which Ireland fronts up to the Aussies.

[LDiCesare]

The most interesting match will be Ireland-Italy. Both nations can expect to win, and that's definitely Mallett's most important match. The Azzuri have almost beaten Ireland and lost so often that it would be justice if they finally managed to snatch a victory and reach the quarter finals. It's still a long time from now, though.

[Havak]

Yes Italy will definitely be targeting that fixture and they should have an excellent chance of recording the victory.

I only find the Australia-Irleand fixture interesting because of both sides long history of dual personality. I think I am right in saying that Ireland have never beaten Australia anywhere but in Ireland? And not very often then. Australia newly crowned tri-nations champs and with the Reds franchise S15 champs? It is taylor made for Ireland to record a huge win against the odds maybe? If the Aussies wear white shirts and pretend to be England that is - can Ireland raise their game against anyone else?