*New Zealand:* I Dagg; Z Guildford, C Smith, S B Williams, J Savea; D Carter, A Smith; T Woodcock, A Hore, O Franks, B Retallick, S Whitelock, V Vito, R McCaw (capt), K Read.
*Replacements:* H Elliott, B Franks, A Williams, A Thomson, P Weepu, A Cruden, B Smith.

anagallis_arvensis – Member
Beast is a good player but I think Cole will deal with him. Cole could well develop into one of the best ever. I’d pick Adam over him now but its close and getting closer.

+1

Also agree with duckman, its seems only to take 15 minutes to beat him technically.

I think Cole is a strong player who excels the technicality of the game. According to the England camp (beware of pre game hype) Cole is one of the hardest working team members.

Agree also – Cole vs Jones is a clash of the titans in a way that Cole vs the Beast won’t be.

Ireland team:

15 – Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster)
14 – Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)
13 – Brian O’Driscoll (UCD/Leinster) (capt)
12 – Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster)
11 – Simon Zebo (Cork Constitution/Munster) *
10 – Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary’s College/Leinster)
9 – Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster)
1 – Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
2 – Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster)
3 – Declan Fitzpatrick (Dungannon/Ulster) *
4 – Dan Tuohy (Ballymena/Ulster)
5 – Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster)
6 – Peter O’Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster)
7 – Sean O’Brien (Clontarf/Leinster)
8 – Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)

I have to say I’m really worried about this team against NZ, I thought that the forwards would be outgunned but assumed that the back line would have Darcy and Trimble as opposed to Earls and McFadden/Zebo. SB Williams is going to have a field day I predict.

Also would have wanted a back row of 6- Ryan 7-Henry and SOB at 8

Why was I under the impression that SBW had gone back to league?
Is Ferris injured?

Not sure wrecker but he has had a great season for the chiefs. Ferris isn’t on tour, wrecked himself in the Heine final

SBW v Keet Earls……. Oh dear. If nz click it could get messy, glad wales arent playing them!

Agree also – Cole vs Jones is a clash of the titans in a way that Cole vs the Beast won’t be.

Agreed.

With the likes of Murray, Castrogiovanni, Census, and any number of Frenchmen, the front row battles are getting better and better.

SBW v Keet Earls……. Oh dear. If nz click it could get messy

Couldn’t agree more – I really fear for Ireland on sat.

England team is up. Marler and Johnson new to the pack. Ben Youngs back at SH and Foden on the wing with Brown at FB.

So the back 3 is interesting. Two full backs says to me that England are expecting an afternoon fielding garrowens.

Some brave decisions in the England team;
Marler propping, Foden on the wing (Brown at 15), Youngs back in.
Congratulations to Tom Johnson, the first Exeter player to get an england cap for 47 years!

Is Cobisero broken? Not sure I’d want Marler propping against SA.

Seems so A_A.
We can only play with what we have, be a good test for him.

I beleive Botha is retired now. Shaw put him in his place in the Lions Test, and the Beast after being tamed by Adam Jones, if i recall, got put straight by Vickery in the final Test?

and the Beast after being tamed by Adam Jones, if i recall, got put straight by Vickery in the final Test?

I’m pretty sure Jones had a nice chat with Vickery before that last test.
Shaw and Botha (and Hines) playing very well indeed across in France. Funny how some second rows seem to improve with age?

Yet strangely the Lions lost. Shaw was nowhere near Botha’s power and agression or Matfields class. Johnson or Thorn are the only big ugly nasty locks that could be said to be better than Botha at being big ugly and scary.

England:

15 M Brown (Harlequins); 14 C Ashton (Northampton), 13 M Tuilagi (Leicester), 12 B Barritt (Saracens), 11 B Foden (Northampton); 10 O Farrell (Saracens), 9 B Youngs (Leicester); 1 J Marler (Harlequins), 2 D Hartley (Northampton), 3 D Cole (Leicester), 4 M Botha (Saracens), 5 G Parling (Leicester), 6 T Johnson (Exeter), 7 C Robshaw (Harlequins, capt), 8 B Morgan (Scarlets).
Replacements: 16 L Mears (Bath), 17 P Doran Jones (Northampton), 18 T Palmer (Stade Francais), 19 P Dowson (Northampton), 20 L Dickson (Northampton), 21 T Flood (Leicester), 22 J Joseph (London Irish).

Seems I was right about the centres. I wonder if Marler’s temprament will hold though. I hope Tom Johnson plays like he did the other week, he could cause problems.

Not seen much of Johnson but would imagine The Hask would strengthen that team.

You’d think they’d have more important things to worry about than ashtons diving, his awful form for one:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/mobile/rugby-union/18344424

Wondering why Morgan was picked, then realised he is technically not a glaws player yet by the looks of things 👿 😀

Haskell will still be a bit jetlagged and also hasn’t been playing well down under. He’s been getting sent off and suspended for a hobby.
Ashtons’ form seems to be returning to him of late.
England are underpowered in the 2nd row, an area you don’t really want to be lacking in SA. That along with such predictable runners in the centre don’t make for the most dynamic England team.

Wunundred

Nil

(my prediction for NZ – Green Machine)

Good result for Scotland, way more important than the performance which defensively was good but still coughed up the ball when close to the line in the first half. Assuming the next two tests are in the dry Scotland have to score tries for tour to be a success.

I think Ireland will struggle to beat NZ.

England may take a test off SA although as a pundit suggested they should have Manu out of the way on the wing with Joseph in centre, Foden at FB.

Wales i think may suffer a backlash in the first test but will still take one off the Aussies at some point.

BruceWee – Member

Just had a look at the stats.

Lineouts on own throw

AUS 7 won, 0 lost (100.0%), SCO 6 won, 5 lost (54.5%)

WTF is going on with Ford’s throw in these days? I know it was a windy day but Christ.

IIRC none were stolen but in the second half with the wind blowing towards the scotland line every throw to the middle or back simply got blown not straight. they wer getting blown a couple of metres.

One that was Fords fault thrown to the front not straight

AA – that teh Aus second team then?

It’s never going to be easy playing the All Blacks as World Champs in Eden Park.
But from the world cup there’s no Kahui, Jane, Nonu, Kaino, Thorn, Mealamu. 6 players that would make it into almost any team in the world if fit. Got to try to be positive and hope Ireland can raise their game, and the new NZ side (+ new coach) don’t gel perfectly straight away.
If there’s ever a chance to do it, must be now.
Good to see Zebo given his chance, and a bit of an experiment in the backs. It didn’t work last 2 seasons with D’arcy so something new is needed. Shame he couldn’t bring his Leinster form.
Most important though, it’s gonna need the front row to really sort themselves out after the Twickenham shambles. Best owes a big game.

TJ its a stronger team than played Scotland but I am suprised that 6 are being asked to play twice that wont be easy for them. When wales lose you can claim scotland are better than wales.

Good points, loum. I’ll be cheering Ireland on this weekend! 🙂

I think the Wales game is on Sky. Is 1030 too early to hit a pub to watch it? 🙂

Kahui, Jane, Nonu, Kaino, Thorn, Mealamu

Guildford, SBW, Victor Vito and Hore dont excatly weaken the team and the coaches are just the same but with a different head coach are they not?

The jnr world cup is on in South Africa, the Irish turned S.A. over, Wakes gt by Fiji and I think Argentina beat the French.

I dont think there is such a thing as a weak NZ team 😀

the under 20 world cup? Pah, George North would win it on his own if he wasnt playing for the grown up team.

IIRC none were stolen but in the second half with the wind blowing towards the scotland line every throw to the middle or back simply got blown not straight. they wer getting blown a couple of metres.

One that was Fords fault thrown to the front not straight

Yeah, but the aussies managed to deal with it. I can understand not taking the wind into account on a couple of throws but on 5?

If I remember it’s not the first game he’s had a fair number of poor throws.

That is a tasty England front row, Marler is strong, is reckless and Cole is shaping up to be a VERY useful operator. Pity about the soft centre between them.

Bruce – did you see the game? If the fault lies anywehre its with whoever made the calls to throw long in the wind – he was throwing towards the Aus side and the wind took it metres to the scottish side. a couple of the calls were somewhat harsh as well. the referee was much tighter onthis in the secondhalf

I have criticised Fords throwing in the past, however in this case I really don’t think the criticism is fair

Shall we take bets on Hartley getting wound up and giving away penalties / getting sent off?

Looking forward to watching the games

I did indeed see the game even if I was having to do it surreptitiously at work 🙂

I think the ref was giving Scotland a hard time on the set pieces but the fact is that the aussies dealt with the line out far better than us in the same conditions. Even though the line out is supposed to one of our strengths.

Who is broadcasting the England v Sa game?

I do wonder if Hartley will be daft enough to get up to his tricks against SA.

I do wonder if Hartley will be daft enough to get up to his tricks against SA.

I’m not sure he has any say in it. Some people just have short fuses, and if the saffas push him far enough I’m sure he’ll “bite” 😀

Hartley is a windup merchant though, he goes out to annoy the opposition, he does it very well for Northampton. His short fuse has actually been pretty well kept under wraps in recent times.

AA – he has been better but I would lay a large bet SA will attempt to provoke him and a smaller bet it will work 🙂

When TJ and I agree, etc. 🙂