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Wales v South Africa

Welsh Exile said:
Tandy Out

"I think Manny (Alex Mann) has been outstanding throughout this campaign. He will adapt and he's played seven already. I think when he did play seven he was outstanding.

"It is not diminishing Harri's performance but we feel the balance of the back-row is good with Waino (Aaron Wainwright) coming back in.

There's a bit of freshness and some experience there too. It's more about the way Manny played whether it be six or seven.

"Deavesy has been brilliant in the environment and matched up physically against the All Blacks, which is excellent.
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Mann was so outstanding at 7, he was pushed to 6 by a guy not in the squad...

Who then is dumped from the squad...

Ghost of Pivac!
 
wombles said:
SOUTH AFRICA: Damian Willemse, Ethan Hooker, Damian de Allende, Andre Esterhuizen, Canan Moodie, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Morne van den Berg, Gerhard Steenekamp, Johan Grobbelaar, Wilco Louw, Jean Kleyn, Ruan Nortje, Siya Kolisi, Franco Mostert, Jasper Wiese.

Replacements: Bongi Mbonambi, Zachary Porthen, Asenathi Ntlabakanye, Eben Etzebeth, Marco van Staden, Ben-Jason Dixon, Kwagga Smith, Cobus Reinach.

Ummm....ouch!
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That is a disgraceful line up, thats not a weakened team at all in the slightest!

Is it me or does SA have the best 2 teams in the world, followed by England?
 
dirty harry said:
That is a disgraceful line up, thats not a weakened team at all in the slightest!

Is it me or does SA have the best 2 teams in the world, followed by England?
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On their day with a full strength squad, France still scares me the most.

England is rounding into form nicely, but they lack the pure stardust that France has.

Here’s a prediction, Le Crunch is between two 4-0 teams.
 
I'd be taking SA at -34 looking at that bench. That's not a genuine second team. There's 8 or 9 players in there that would be regulars in the top 23. When you compare that with the team that New Zealand put out last week with mass changes, there is a noticeable gulf in strength in depth between SA and the rest.
 
ChicagoKid said:
On their day with a full strength squad, France still scares me the most.

England is rounding into form nicely, but they lack the pure stardust that France has.

Here's a prediction, Le Crunch is between two 4-0 teams.
Click to expand...
Fair point, France have individuals that can rise above the general performance of the team as a whole and win games almost single handedly. Obviously Dupont is the obvious example but LBB, Penaud and Ramos also come to mind. Bizarrely, the game I’m most nervous about in the 6N is Scotland at Murrayfield. I think Scotland with how they play match up well against England - they love to get it wide and I still think one of our weaknesses is our defence against width. I would hope that we can do similar to what the Boks and Ireland do so well against them which is suffocate them up front and win the collisions, thereby denying the likes of Russell, Tuipolotu and Kinghorn the quick ball that they can cut teams apart with.

Going off on a tangent a bit but the one thing i would say about England in the 6N is that to have a chance of winning it, I think we have to go to France 4-0. I fully expect France to be going for the GS in that final game - I think we have to match them. I think France chasing a Slam and us being 3-1 would leave us too much to do in Paris. You don’t want to be going to France having to chase a BP win to win the Championship. That wouldn’t suit us at all.
 
OllyM97 said:
Fair point, France have individuals that can rise above the general performance of the team as a whole and win games almost single handedly. Obviously Dupont is the obvious example but LBB, Penaud and Ramos also come to mind. Bizarrely, the game I'm most nervous about in the 6N is Scotland at Murrayfield. I think Scotland with how they play match up well against England - they love to get it wide and I still think one of our weaknesses is our defence against width. I would hope that we can do similar to what the Boks and Ireland do so well against them which is suffocate them up front and win the collisions, thereby denying the likes of Russell, Tuipolotu and Kinghorn the quick ball that they can cut teams apart with.

Going off on a tangent a bit but the one thing i would say about England in the 6N is that to have a chance of winning it, I think we have to go to France 4-0. I fully expect France to be going for the GS in that final game - I think we have to match them. I think France chasing a Slam and us being 3-1 would leave us too much to do in Paris. You don't want to be going to France having to chase a BP win to win the Championship. That wouldn't suit us at all.
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Agree with every word.

When you look at the very best teams, they have players that work outside the structures and have the X factor.

France has like 6 of those guys. The All Blacks used to have that many but now it’s down to Savea, Jordan, and McKenzie.

For England, I’d count M. Smith, Freeman, and maybe Pollock?

The Boks have Cheslin, Kurt Lee, Willemse, SFM, Grant Williams, and Kwagga.

Argentina’s entire backline is like pure rocket fuel when it clicks.

Who does Ireland have? James Lowe looked like a flanker running out there. I cannot imagine he can play wing at 35 down in Oz.

Maybe Mack Hansen. But who else? Their age profile is bad and if Big Faz was smart, he would sacrifice this six nations to rotate out a lot of older players.

Bundee, Hensaw, Henderson, Bealham, and Lowe look done.

Move them out and blood new players.
 
Prove me wrong: A standalone championship is worthless unless its a grand slam or backed up.

This thread is going where it deserves, a tangent.

(I'd also argue that Ireland have Keenan, Osborne, Doris and McCarthy who all are x factor players if somewhat reliant on the team environment)

Edit: and Sheehan, probably our most x factor player. Issue is none of them are speedsters and that's where the game is rn.
 
I’m really in two minds on this one. I’d like Wales to at least keep this respectable for the players’ sake but I’d also like SA to put 70-80 points on them in front of a 2/3 empty stadium to show the WRU up for the incompetents that they are. Scheduling this game outside of the test window given where Welsh Rugby is at the moment is utter insanity. What is there to be learnt?. Rassie isn’t taking any prisoners either.
 
Apparently we have more caps on the bench than Wales has in the entire match day squad. 374 to 306. To be fair a significant chunk of that is just Etzebeth
 
saulan said:
Apparently we have more caps on the bench than Wales has in the entire match day squad. 374 to 306. To be fair a significant chunk of that is just Etzebeth
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Sounds about right, thats what happens when you jump on the head coach merry go round, and players are thrust in and dropped between tournaments, summers and autumns...

Pivac, Gatland, Sherratt, Tandy in 4 years, thats ridiculous for a football team let alone Rugby.
 
dirty harry said:
Sounds about right, thats what happens when you jump on the head coach merry go round, and players are thrust in and dropped between tournaments, summers and autumns...

Pivac, Gatland, Sherratt, Tandy in 4 years, thats ridiculous for a football team let alone Rugby.
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I don’t think you can include Sherratt in there, he was a caretaker and was never a permanent appointment or even floated as a potential option for the head coach role. Pivac had a few years and I have no doubt Tandy will get at least 2 even if we carry on losing every game.

I think the average time a premier league manager spends in a job is 18 months. We’re not that bad yet. If we sacked Tandy by this time next year then we’d be getting in the same ball park.
 
Welsh Exile said:
I don't think you can include Sherratt in there, he was a caretaker and was never a permanent appointment or even floated as a potential option for the head coach role. Pivac had a few years and I have no doubt Tandy will get at least 2 even if we carry on losing every game.

I think the average time a premier league manager spends in a job is 18 months. We're not that bad yet. If we sacked Tandy by this time next year then we'd be getting in the same ball park.
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Sherrat stood down before the offer came didnt he?

My point is, Pivac tried to play totaly rugby, Gatland went back to being pragmatic, sheratt decided to to play touch line to touch line, and who knows how Tandy will set them up...

In 4 odd years, the pro player pool has seen plenty of turnaround, both in playing numbers, and styles. This has led to a largely confused player pool.

Look at players like Rhys Carre, in out in out like the okey cokey, Belcher largely ignored until his club coach gave him a shot, Carter shuffled around, Moriarty left out in the cold, Botham, Dyer, Winnett...

I dont think theres a pool of players so mismanaged over the last 5 years as this one.
 
dirty harry said:
Sherrat stood down before the offer came didnt he?

My point is, Pivac tried to play totaly rugby, Gatland went back to being pragmatic, sheratt decided to to play touch line to touch line, and who knows how Tandy will set them up...

In 4 odd years, the pro player pool has seen plenty of turnaround, both in playing numbers, and styles. This has led to a largely confused player pool.

Look at players like Rhys Carre, in out in out like the okey cokey, Belcher largely ignored until his club coach gave him a shot, Carter shuffled around, Moriarty left out in the cold, Botham, Dyer, Winnett...

I dont think theres a pool of players so mismanaged over the last 5 years as this one.
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Should just give the job to Chat GPT
 
Both sides missing loads of players but still going to be a total turkey shoot. The Boks bench has more caps than the Welsh 23.

Weather’s going to be lousy here so I might just watch for a little light entertainment.

Walss worst home defeat, and I think second worst ever was the 14-68 loss to England in the 6N. Records are made to be broken……
 

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