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Rugby Championship Team of the Week: Round One

Big Ewis

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Rugby Championship Team of the Week: Round One



15 Willie le Roux (South Africa): On a difficult evening when security under the high was of paramount importance, Le Roux once again showed his value. South Africa's best chance of scoring a second try came when he almost latched onto his own chip ahead.

14 Cornal Hendricks (South Africa): On weekend when opportunities for the wide men were few and far between, Hendricks nevertheless played an influential role as half of the combination that created the only try of Round One.

13 Malakai Fekitoa (New Zealand): A late inclusion following Conrad Smith's return to New Zealand for the birth of his child, if the giant All Black centre was a little rattled he didn't show it. Made plenty of metres and was solid in defence in conditions not made for backs.

12 Matt Toomua (Australia): It's no secret that the Wallabies love Toomua's defensive capabilities. The Brumbies man chopped and changed with Kurtley Beale in attack and was a more prominent kicking threat than his team-mate, making good ground in attack and beating a couple of defenders whilst chipping in with his share of tackles.

11 Julian Savea (New Zealand): Doing enough to see off the competition, Savea always looked for work in Sydney and made a high number of carries in comparison to the rest of the backlines. Such a tough force to bring down, even in the flood.

10 Nicolás Sánchez (Argentina): A lot was expected of the young Pumas pivot and he lived up to his billing as an exciting playmaker. Sánchez was the most dangerous runner at Loftus, beating four defenders and creating a golden opportunity for Manuel Montero, who surely would have scored if he had managed to hold on.

9 Aaron Smith (New Zealand): Strong competition for this spot from Ruan Pienaar, who scored the only try in either Test match, but we've gone with the All Blacks number nine. No one made more metres in Sydney as Smith got through a lot of work, kicking well in the process.

8 Duane Vermeulen (South Africa): The Stormers number eight formed part of an impressive combined effort from the entire Springbok back row. Vermeulen was a willing ball-carrier - which gave the Boks momentum in atrocious weather conditions - and hardly made a mistake at the back of the scrum, even though the Boks were under pressure in the set-phase. Also won a handful of line-outs and did well on defence with eight tackles.

7 Michael Hooper (Australia): The most difficult selection of the opening round as all the openside flankers impressed for their respective teams. All Blacks skipperRichie McCaw's 20 tackles was the most by a single player in the entire round, and Springbok tearaway Francois Louw was named man of the match in a game where Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe also impressed for los Pumas. But Hooper gets the nod after impressing as a ball carrier in his side's draw against the All Blacks. Also had a strong game on defence with 11 hits.

6 Marcell Coetzee (South Africa): Came in as a late replacement for Willem Alberts and delivered a storming performance in the unfamiliar blindside flanker position. Didn't do lots of ball-carrying but brought plenty of energy to the Bok team and combined well with Vermeulen and Louw, especially on defence where he led the way for South Africa with 14 tackles.

5 Sam Whitelock (New Zealand): The freak of nature in the All Blacks' engine room continues to excel, making 15 tackles against the Wallabies and getting his hands on the ball in attack. Also won three lineouts and stole two.

4 Mariano Galarza (Argentina): It rare to see the Springbok line-out put under pressure but Galarza pinched two throws off the home side and was the Puma's primary target on their own throw-ins. In those conditions, every ctach in the air was crucial. A mention for Sam Carter.

3 Ramiro Herrera (Argentina): What a performance from the Argentine scrum! The Castres prop dominated Beast Mtawarira. The old faces are gone from Argentina's front row, but it remains as formidable as ever. A mention too for Owen Franks.

2 Nathan Charles (Australia): Australia might have been concerned about tackling New Zealand without Stephen Moore or Tatafu Polota-Nau around, but Charles went well. A presence around the park, the Wallabies' line-out wasn't perfect neither was New Zealand's. Will only get better with experience, but he's a tough nut. A mention for Argentina skipper Agustín Creevy.

1 Marcos Ayerza (Argentina): A top performance from the Leicester loosehead, who got the better of Jannie du Plessis and put his bulk to good use around the park with some solid hits. A mention for James Slipper.

source: http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,3821_9428380,00.html


Difficult but interesting picks here from Planet Rugby. It was a tough weekend to make picks at all, given the conditions for both matches and how tight the contests were. It almost feels like a draw match is so neutral and even, very few really stand out.

Fekitoa was quite intensely criticized after this w-e and still gets a nod here, or Savea who was relatively quiet for e.g.
 
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3 Ramiro Herrera (Argentina): What a performance from the Argentine scrum! The Castres prop dominated Beast Mtawarira. The old faces are gone from Argentina's front row, but it remains as formidable as ever. A mention too for Owen Franks.

What did u say about Ramiro Herrera before the game? :D
 
What did u say about Ramiro Herrera before the game? :D

I knew you'd make that post. In truth I'm delighted to see Herrera perform like that, and honestly I did not think he'd look this good at all. I'm a big fan of the Pumas scrum. I do think Beast has been on a low, though, recently, and hasn't looked his powerful scrummaging self in a while. Either way, Herrera looked better than I'd predicted, but I did say I wasn't sure he'd get stuffed in the scrum; I only said, and that's not opinion, it's fact, that he had big issues in the scrum in the Top 14 playing for Castres. In fact, he got beaten up in the final.

This is flattering for Argentinian Rugby. It means they somehow optimize the power of their front row so much through technique they can make an average Tighthead into a force, because clearly he wasn't "a force" in his latest Top 14 campaign.
 
Ewis, please post the link in the OP please. Cheers. Don't want the forum getting into trouble.
 
Le Roux? He was dire, looked very uncomfortable in the wet and kicked away possession on attack.
 
Le Roux? He was dire, looked very uncomfortable in the wet and kicked away possession on attack.

Le Roux definitely looked bad quite a few times but he actually somehow had good stats.
Screen Shot 2014-08-19 at 9.34.45 PM.png

I don't remember much from Ben Smith or Folau though over the weekend...solely based on stats, we can have a look here:
Screen Shot 2014-08-19 at 9.36.39 PM.png

Screen Shot 2014-08-19 at 9.36.58 PM.png


Folau did have 11 runs, beat 5 All-Black defenders, made a couple of offloads and didn't miss a tackle. Although he committed 3 turnovers.
I think the guys over at PR just had a look at Le Roux's meters made stat and how he had a couple of good runs and took into account the hindering conditions and called it a day.
 
Stats mean little without context, especially metres gained. Very easy for a fullback to clock them up. In the case of Smith, Jane is also comfortable at FB, so I can assume he is occasionally used in the back.
Also, look at kicks from hand, way more in the Arg v SA game, so understandable that the back three would have a better chance to run it back. Tuculet, the RG fullback, also had more metres gained than Smith/Folau, so that backs it up.
 
Stats mean little without context,

indeed.
Just speculating around Le Roux getting 15 of the week.
Anyways, nice to see "so many" Argentinians in a vastly SANZAR dominated tournament. Plus they played in Joburg. If you'd asked me before the match happened, I'd have guessed O to 1 Puma picked.
 
Le Roux? He was dire, looked very uncomfortable in the wet and kicked away possession on attack.

Yeah, but then who should be chosen? None of the fullbacks had an outstanding performance in the first round

Ben Smith: Nothing
Israel Folau: Nothing
Joaquin Tuculet: Nothing

It wasn't a good round for fullbacks
 
Ben Smith played well. He didn't make a single mistake, kicked long and accurately, and even managed to turn over Australian ball twice at the breakdown. He didn't run 100+ metres and make a couple of linebreaks (as he usually does...) but he played in the conditions...
 
Le Roux? He was dire, looked very uncomfortable in the wet and kicked away possession on attack.

It's between Smith and Le Roux and though I'd be happy with either Le Roux should really have scored a try but for being held back by the jersey so I'm wondering whether they took that into account. He was solid enough under the high ball and made his tackles. So what he kicked away posession on attack, he played the conditions; worse conditions than in Sydney.
 
Stats mean little without context, especially metres gained. Very easy for a fullback to clock them up. In the case of Smith, Jane is also comfortable at FB, so I can assume he is occasionally used in the back.
Also, look at kicks from hand, way more in the Arg v SA game, so understandable that the back three would have a better chance to run it back. Tuculet, the RG fullback, also had more metres gained than Smith/Folau, so that backs it up.

But Draggsy, if we have to look at the performance in context, then Willie is a deserved nomination. The conditions was in such a way that the focus of performance as a player had to change. Willie had recieve a lot of bombs, as it was a bit of tennis game with nobody really wanting to run with ball in hand. Willie was IMHO exceptional as he had to jump for the ball numerous times and did really well under immense pressure from chasers, and from holding onto the ball. His chips didn't work as well, but did help in pinging back the Argentines.
 
Jeez, what a kick-arse pack that would be!!
 

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