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Trf team of tournament

Are you doing a seperate team of the pool stages? As well as the whole tournament.
 
Rajrajra pretty difficult to top after last night. Davies got run over twice for tries, knocked the ball on once in a half opportunity, and didn't do a lot otherwise. He was the end of the line for three tries but only one of them required him to do anything particularly good. Given he was the main contender and radradra is now done, having played super exceptionally against wales and a good performance against australia, his average opposition weighted performance for the tournament was very very good. others will have to play some pretty special games to catch up

against wales he made good passes and offloads, injected himself into the line to create numbers or used his pace to create numbers, ran well, secured a ruck that needed to be, tackled well, made good decisions, including deciding when to take the tackle bs pass it, presented the ball well when he was tackled, allowing fast ball. Not only did he do everything well, he also did a lot of it.
 
Are you doing a seperate team of the pool stages? As well as the whole tournament.
I wasn't, is there much difference between a fantastic player in a team that goes out in first knockout game vs last pool game?

In my mind I'm also considering the 10s of the tournament who if they had better quality on and off field around them, would they be even better? Speculation, yes but this whole selection is subjective anyway. We could just go on raw stats or some nonsense otherwise. I'm also considering the amount of psychological pressure on them and how they respond, etc. :)

Have to say it's gotten really tough now, there's been some fantastic performances.
 
My 2 cents
15 no stand outs for me
14 Kolbe
13 Radradra
12 Lienert-Brown / Kerevi is 50/50 IMO
11 Matsushima
10 no stand outs for me
9 Davies
8 Himeno
7 Hooper
6 Polledri / Savea
5 Itoje / Whitelock
4 Barrett / Snyman
3 no stand outs for me
2 Montoya / Mbonambi / Brits possibly but that is contentious as he played at 8 in one game and not against top tier opposition
1 no stand outs for me
 
@themole25 did you see Ritchie graham in any games other than against japan. He was insane against japan, so I'm interested how he may have done against Ireland for example.

fukuoka for me has entered the competition. I thought radradra had it all wrapped up, but I'll be watching for another great Fukuoka performance against South Africa.

@Rinkadink disappointed not to see any more of Allan? Mcginty might have gone slightly downhill? You don't have to give spoilers if you don't want.

@bushytop leitch appeared to play well?

the Japanese midfield was quite good too.

I still haven't seen ireland Samoa, and maybe another game, can't remember which. I'll catch up though.
 


[USER=56738]@bushytop
leitch appeared to play well?

[/USER]

Yeah he did (as did all the Japanese to be fair) he was also very good when he came on after about 15 minutes against Samoa. He is currently well up there in terms of the 6's. Himeno also played well in the position for Japan during certain matches this World Cup.

Curry has looked at his usual high standard but at 6 for England (instead of 7)... the only question mark is the lack of real competition for them so far, which will change now we're at the knock out stages.

Ardie and PSTD for NZ and SA have both been good (particularly Ardie) but apart from that first match, I don't think you can take much from the subsequent games.

Pocock hasn't been anywhere near his usual standard for Oz I think... and has even been overshadowed by Hooper.

Ireland have chopped and changed, so very difficult to get a gauge. POM was fine while he was on against the Scots, Ruddock was great for a match but it was against the Russians and Beirne was 'decent' against Tonga.

Wales has chopped and changed a little too but mostly played Wainwright on the blind, he's looked very good to be fair but has rarely played more than 50 minutes. Navidi has slotted in there fine when needed too.

So far, I'd still kinda have to go with Ardie off of the basis that I thought he was exceptional in the one game that mattered for the All Blacks and in my opinion should have got the PotM award. Closest competitor at the moment... Leitch.


edit. I got a random underline again for some reason.
 
AJ is out of the running, not a bad WC but don't think he managed to get the best out of those around him (and vice versa), too many errors.

One thing I've noticed is that 10s have been somewhat inconsistent. eg; Tamura had a shaky outing versus Russia getting massively outplayed by his opposite number with a lot of mistakes and iffy kicking then back in contention with some impressive stuff over the next couple. Yu's was not a poor performance versus Scotland but wasn't as assured as the previous couple which has to be accounted for. Is it pressure? A metric I'm trying to quantify and apply for a bit of fun too. He's still definitely in with some others though.
 
AJ is out of the running, not a bad WC but don't think he managed to get the best out of those around him (and vice versa), too many errors.

One thing I've noticed is that 10s have been somewhat inconsistent. eg; Tamura had a shaky outing versus Russia getting massively outplayed by his opposite number with a lot of mistakes and iffy kicking then back in contention with some impressive stuff over the next couple. Yu's was not a poor performance versus Scotland but wasn't as assured as the previous couple which has to be accounted for. Is it pressure? A metric I'm trying to quantify and apply for a bit of fun too. He's still definitely in with some others though.
Yeah, pressure is Hard. I'm trying to think about that with respect to radradra. Ì kind of think of the wales Fiji game as fijis final, but actually they kinda had nothing to lose. Yes they would have wanted to win really badly, but they didn't want to not lose quite so much. Australia was a bigger game in some ways, as although it wasn't must win losing would mean they had a lesser chance of making the playoffs. To ensure everyone gets equal opportunity regardless of how far their team progresses, I'm thinking of having weights, the sun of which equals 1, applied to each of a players matches, with higher weights based on pressure and quality of opposition. That way players from teams that play more pressure games won't be advantaged, but their pressure games will count for more than their non pressure games.
 
Yeah, pressure is Hard. I'm trying to think about that with respect to radradra. Ì kind of think of the wales Fiji game as fijis final, but actually they kinda had nothing to lose. Yes they would have wanted to win really badly, but they didn't want to not lose quite so much. Australia was a bigger game in some ways, as although it wasn't must win losing would mean they had a lesser chance of making the playoffs. To ensure everyone gets equal opportunity regardless of how far their team progresses, I'm thinking of having weights, the sun of which equals 1, applied to each of a players matches, with higher weights based on pressure and quality of opposition. That way players from teams that play more pressure games won't be advantaged, but their pressure games will count for more than their non pressure games.
Weighting is definitely something worth doing... in fact I think we're all probably 'doing' it subconsciously, though all to different subjective levels I'd imagine. I personally feel the weight should be dictated by the opposition... ie if you played well against tier 1 oppo it's worth x, and so on.
 
Thing is pressure can relate to expectations as well, if things start going badly for a team who is expected to win and a player you're looking at saves the day or whatever... that shows a lot of mental toughness. Psychology is fascinating but I don't think it can be directly distilled down into an elegant mathematical formula. We have stats but as we all know they can be very misleading at times, never mind something we cannot directly measure with our current understanding of life, the universe and everything.

Will be great to see the final selections, there isn't really a "wrong" answer unless said player has been obviously poor.
 
Wales online (groan) have put a team together from the pool stages.

15. Beauden Barrett
14. Kataro Matsushima
13. Timothy Lafaele
12. Sami Kerevi
11. Semi Radrada
10. Richie Mo' unga
9. Gareth Davies
8. Kazuki Himeno
7. Ardie Savea
6. Josh Navidi
5. Joot de Lager
4. Scott Barrett
3. Tadgh Furlong
2. Tolu Latu
1. Keita Ingaki

I would probably have it another way in a few positions... Horie at hooker in particular (though Latu has been very good).

Would imagine the English dont think much of it... probably a bit harsh not to get any of them in it. It's debatable either way though really. Would imagine the actual team of the tournament will be quite different to this once the final's final whistle blows.
 
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Not an awful list but some I would change too. I don't think England have too many who have stood head and shoulders above the rest to warrant an inclusion. Argument other way would be shows how good England are as a team rather than individuals, I guess?

Perhaps as a bit of fun we could do the opposite and name the worst/disappointing team of the tournament. It would be a bit mean however.
 
Wales online (groan) have put a team together from the pool stages.

Would imagine the English dont think much of it... probably a bit harsh not to get any of them in it. It's debatable either way though really. Would imagine the actual team of the tournament will be quite different to this once the final's final whistle blows.

TBH I don't think any England player has performed outstandingly, but then hey haven't had to, which is one of the reasons people think they will struggle against Aus. I remember at uni when I played Badminton and I was just below the team level. When I played people above me I played better, but when I played some people who just played casually I dropped my game to their level. I'm not suggesting that England massively lowered themselves, but they definitely haven't played their best rugby.
 
Wales online (groan) have put a team together from the pool stages.

15. Beauden Barrett
14. Kataro Matsushima
13. Timothy Lafaele
12. Sami Kerevi
11. Semi Radrada
10. Richie Mo' unga
9. Gareth Davies
8. Kazuki Himeno
7. Ardie Savea
6. Josh Navidi
5. Joot de Lager
4. Scott Barrett
3. Tadgh Furlong
2. Tolu Latu
1. Keita Ingaki

I would probably have it another way in a few positions... Horie at hooker in particular (though Latu has been very good).

Would imagine the English dont think much of it... probably a bit harsh not to get any of them in it. It's debatable either way though really. Would imagine the actual team of the tournament will be quite different to this once the final's final whistle blows.
Wales online doesn't have the luxury of having 15 selectors, each able to focus on just one podition. Plus, they're reporters, not armchair experts like us. ;)

Is joot an Afrikaans word meaning chug/scull? Do they chant joot de lager joot de lager joot de lager....?
 
Ritchie didn't play well enough to earn top spot and his team isn't bad enough to earn honorable* mention like the Russian 7 was.

I'm leaning towards hooper right now but if savea plays at seven during the knockouts I think he'll get the spot.

If pocock plays a minute at open side during knockouts I might give him the spot out of bias.
 
Ritchie didn't play well enough to earn top spot and his team isn't bad enough to earn honorable* mention like the Russian 7 was.

I'm leaning towards hooper right now but if savea plays at seven during the knockouts I think he'll get the spot.

If pocock plays a minute at open side during knockouts I might give him the spot out of bias.
Hey, no biases, This is a big responsibility you carry on your shoulders
 

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