Tri Nations: Wallabies - All Blacks @ Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane (27-8-2011, 10:05GMT)

[Darwin]

Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane (27-8-2011, 10:05 GMT)

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[TABLE="class: grid"]
<tbody>[TR]
[TD]Australia[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]New Zealand[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Kurtley Beale[/TD]
[TD]15[/TD]
[TD]Mils Muliaina[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Adam Ashley-Cooper[/TD]
[TD]14[/TD]
[TD]Cory Jane[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Anthony Faingaa[/TD]
[TD]13[/TD]
[TD]Conrad Smith[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Pat McCabe[/TD]
[TD]12[/TD]
[TD]Ma’a Nonu[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Digby Ioane[/TD]
[TD]11[/TD]
[TD] Zac Guildford[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Quade Cooper[/TD]
[TD]10[/TD]
[TD]Daniel Carter[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Will Genia[/TD]
[TD]9[/TD]
[TD]Piri Weepu[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Radike Samo[/TD]
[TD]8[/TD]
[TD]Kieran Read[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD] David Pocock[/TD]
[TD]7[/TD]
[TD]Richie McCaw[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Rocky Elsom[/TD]
[TD]6[/TD]
[TD]Adam Thomson[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]James Horwill[/TD]
[TD]5[/TD]
[TD]Samuel Whitelock[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Dan Vickerman[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]Brad Thorn[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Ben Alexander[/TD]
[TD]3[/TD]
[TD]Owen Franks[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Stephen Moore[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]Keven Mealamu (c)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Sekope Kepu[/TD]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]Tony Woodcock[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Saia Faingaa[/TD]
[TD]16[/TD]
[TD]Andrew Hore[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Salesi Ma'afu[/TD]
[TD]17[/TD]
[TD]John Afoa[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Rob Simmons[/TD]
[TD]18[/TD]
[TD]Ali Williams[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Ben McCalman[/TD]
[TD]19[/TD]
[TD]Victor Vito[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Scott Higginbotham[/TD]
[TD]20[/TD]
[TD]Andy Ellis[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Luke Burgess[/TD]
[TD]21[/TD]
[TD]Colin Slade[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]TBA[/TD]
[TD]22[/TD]
[TD]Isaia Toeava[/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]

 

[Shaggy]

Hmmmn ... I wonder who the All Blacks will play in their 22, when is the team named?

 

[Darwin]

Hmmmn ... I wonder who the All Blacks will play in their 22, when is the team named?

I'd assume it will be tomorrow morning (NZT), as Henry and co. have been naming their teams on Thursday mornings this year. I'd imagine it will be a full strength AB's side, though a few position in the 'full strength' side are probably still up for debate!

 

[Shaggy]

I'd assume it will be tomorrow morning (NZT), as Henry and co. have been naming their teams on Thursday mornings this year. I'd imagine it will be a full strength AB's side, though a few position in the 'full strength' side are probably still up for debate!

Exactly, aside from ... O.Franks, R.McCaw, J.Kaino, K.Read, D.Carter, M.Nonu, and C.Smith, if you asked who are the top in the other positions, you are probably going to get different answers from different people

 

[InsaneAsylum]

i'm going with my heart, wallabies by a bees dick.

 

[Dizzy]

I'm also going with my heart, All Blacks by 20+,

They are going to be firing because of the loss to South Africa and the rested guys will be raring to go

 

[Hulk Hogan]

I'm also going with my heart, All Blacks by 20+,

They are going to be firing because of the loss to South Africa and the rested guys will be raring to go

I'm going by my head Wallabies by 70+ because the All Blacks know if they win this they will have more pressure to win the World Cup, so I expect them to throw the towel in

 

[Dizzy]

Woldog, you're on... and I reckon Jane's going to monster through Digby on three seperate occassions, then pull off the turtle spin once he scores lol

 

[dan the man nz]

my team for the weekend

franks
mealamu
woodcock
williams
thorn
kaino
mccaw
reed
cowan
carter
toeva
nonu
smith
kahui
dagg
hore
afoa
whitelock
thomson
weepu
sonny bill
muliana
jane

 

[InsaneAsylum]

lol and richie mccaw's leg will fall off when the sticky tape peels away in the 50th minute of the game

 

[Darwin]

A few interesting selections in the forwards for Australia, with Samo at 8 and Vickermann at lock. It will be interesting to see how Samo goes at 8; I actually expected to see Higginbotham at 6 as well.

I think Australia will miss O'Connor in the backline, as he's a huge attacking threat particularly on the counter-attack. They didn't really have any other option but to move AAC out to the wing as Drew Mitchell probably isn't ready for test rugby yet. It a big chance for Faingaa at 13 - if he performs he could well supplant McCabe in the 12 jersey for the RWC.

 

[Dizzy]

Let's save the banter boys, we all know Cooper's gonna lose the game for the Wallabies with his in-goal offloads and his "im-up-against-DC" try hard antics which will eventually put him into an abyss of "i-can't-be-bothered-playing-anymore"

I reckon by suspending Justin Bieber and not giving Mitchell a chance that Deans has helped us. Because I class Mitchell as a real threat I'm glad he's not playing this weekend.

 

[Darwin]

Based on training, the following starting XV for the AB's is predicted:

Mils Muliaina, Cory Jane, Conrad Smith, Ma'a Nonu, Zac Guildford, Dan Carter, Piri Weepu; Kieran Read, Richie McCaw (capt), Adam Thomson, Sam Whitelock, Brad Thorn, Owen Franks, Keven Mealamu, Tony Woodcock.

If this is correct, I'd be pretty happy with this lineup. It will be good to see Sam Whitelock paired up with Brad Thorn, as even though Whitelock doesn't seem to be at his best, he is still a far better option than Ali Williams. Thomson looks to be getting another start due to the fact that Kaino is back in NZ, as his wife is having a baby.

The back three will certainly be interesting; I really like the look of Guildford and Jane on the wings, but I wouldn't mind seeing Toeava given 20-30 mins on the left wing from the bench, as I would quite like the sound of a Toeava/Jane wing combo too.

 

[Dizzy]

I would've wanted Dagg to be tried one more time before the World Cup at the absence of Mils. IMO Mils is passed his time and Dagg offers so much more

 

[donmcdazzle]

I wanted to see Dagg too.

 

[Siva Tau]

I also think Dagg now surpasses Mils in all facets. Dagg and Jane would have been my fullbacks

 

[Darwin]

I also think Dagg now surpasses Mils in all facets. Dagg and Jane would have been my fullbacks

Not all facets. Dagg is still very error prone and his decision making is very questionable at times - he probably made more errors against the Boks on Saturday than Muliaina has made all season with the AB's. His defence is probably not as strong as Muliaina's, and he also has the habit of completely forgetting that he has 14 team-mates when he gets the ball in the hand (to be fair Muliaina has been a bit guilty of that in recent years too) - he is very much like Cullen in that regard. He is going to score some fantastic individual tries, but he will blow tries by trying to score himself instead of making the easy pass. Actually the only facet I think he surpasses Muliaina in is his running game, where he is clearly miles ahead. I certainly would feel much safer with Muliaina starting at fullback rather than Dagg, but if Dagg can cut down his error rate he is going to quite a phenomenal player...

 

[InsaneAsylum]

we all know Cooper's gonna lose the game for the Wallabies with his in-goal offloads and his "im-up-against-DC" try hard antics which will eventually put him into an abyss of "i-can't-be-bothered-playing-anymore"

Cooper should have ironed all this out of his game by now, he should go into saturday with a totally different mindset. it's not 1 on 1 basketball, he's there to execute the teams game plan, I sure hope he knows it!!

 

[donmcdazzle]

Not all facets. Dagg is still very error prone and his decision making is very questionable at times - he probably made more errors against the Boks on Saturday than Muliaina has made all season with the AB's. His defence is probably not as strong as Muliaina's, and he also has the habit of completely forgetting that he has 14 team-mates when he gets the ball in the hand (to be fair Muliaina has been a bit guilty of that in recent years too) - he is very much like Cullen in that regard. He is going to score some fantastic individual tries, but he will blow tries by trying to score himself instead of making the easy pass. Actually the only facet I think he surpasses Muliaina in is his running game, where he is clearly miles ahead. I certainly would feel much safer with Muliaina starting at fullback rather than Dagg, but if Dagg can cut down his error rate he is going to quite a phenomenal player...

His goalkicking and punting are both better than Mils too I reckon.

 

[Darwin]

His goalkicking and punting are both better than Mils too I reckon.

Yeah I agree on the goal-kicking, but I'm not sure about the punting. Dagg certainly kicks the ball further than Muliaina, the problem is that he still has a habit of kicking it out on the full from outside his 22 - it seemed like every match I saw him play during the Super 15 he would do this at least once a game. If he manages to get a bit more control with his punting I think there is no doubt that he will be a better punter than Muliaina though.