Your nations worst XV

[Seaton]

Simple questions

Of all the teams put out to represent your country, which team sheet made you cringe the most? What was the final result, did the poltergeists in the side live 'up' to your expectations? And of course who were the main culprits that made you grit your teeth?

This includes the B+I Lions btw

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Any Ireland side between 1990-1999

 

[psychic duck]

it's a bit harsh to select a Worst XV

because loads of rubbish players have played for Wales

but for example Jon Bryant was never an international player, but with 1 cap which was a substitute appearance it's a bit harsh to put players like him in it, as he hasn't had enough time to show he's rubbish at international level

this would be a better topic if it was Worst XV with 15+caps

 

[DuncTheDoodle]

it's a bit harsh to select a Worst XV

because loads of rubbish players have played for Wales

but for example Jon Bryant was never an international player, but with 1 cap which was a substitute appearance it's a bit harsh to put players like him in it, as he hasn't had enough time to show he's rubbish at international level

this would be a better topic if it was Worst XV with 15+caps

Gareth Cooper is in either way.

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

No need to think about the scrum-half position for me

 

[psychic duck]

No need to think about the scrum-half position for me

Norman Jordaan?

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Ask any South African to name the worst ever scrum-half in the Bok jersey and they will all give you the same answer... Enrico (Ricky) Januarie... The scrum-half who's ball distribution is so slow, I would call him Ricky Februarie

 

[Seaton]

it's a bit harsh to select a Worst XV

because loads of rubbish players have played for Wales

but for example Jon Bryant was never an international player, but with 1 cap which was a substitute appearance it's a bit harsh to put players like him in it, as he hasn't had enough time to show he's rubbish at international level

this would be a better topic if it was Worst XV with 15+caps

Aye, but your nae selecting players for one, your picking an entire team!

Its about individual team sheets, for individual matches (unless the same side was put out again)
Simply at that time, regardless of how the players careers it contained panned out, was it the worst you could think of?

 

[TNT88]

From my memory, Australia vs Scotland 2009. It was a pretty good team, they just played like clowns and got beaten by good defence/smart rugby.

 

[psychic duck]

Wales (with 10+caps)
15. no sh*t players were allowed to get past 10 caps fortunately
14. Hal Luscombe (always fell over)
13. Matthew Watkins
12. Jamie Robinson
11. Craig Morgan (awful)
10. Ceri Sweeney
9. Gareth Cooper (2005 onwards)
1. John Yapp
2. Huw Bennett (spoilt for choice here)
3. Chris Anthony
4. Luke Charteris/Deiniol Jones
5. Andy Moore/Mike Voyle (Ian Evans isn't the worst but has acheived a drop of his potential, still time though)
6. Nathan Budgett
7. no sh*t players were allowed to get past 10 caps fortunately
8. Jonathan Thomas (apart from one match against New Zealand, too weak for back row, too short for lock)

 

[TRF_Olyy]

England during the 2009 EOYT - specifically the Australia game
There are some good players in there, but a lot are/were s**t, and a couple out of position which didn't help them
The team included such delights as:
Tim Payne, Steve Borthwick, Matt Banahan, Louis Deacon, Shane Geraghty (at inside centre), Ugo Monye (at fullback), Andy Goode (bench), Paul Hodgson (bench)

Think that was the test series where we only got one try, which was against Argentina

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Looking at just 1 match, and a full line-up which did not make sense, I have to go for the 2006 Tri Nations match in Brisbane. Starting off with CJ van der Linde at Tighthead. He was truly awful but played the full 80 minutes. In the backrow we had Pierre Spies who was at the time not worth playing there and scrum-half, yep, there he is, Ricky Januarie. When we get to the backline, we see the biggest issues. Bryan Habana is pretty good and was even then, but the others were outragious picks. Wynand Olivier at inside center, Jaque Fourie outside and Akona Ndungane on the other wing!

To top it all off, we had a bench with Danie Coetzee, Eddie Andrews, Albert van den Berg, Jacques Cronje, Meyer Bosman and Breyton Paulse who were all horrible at the moment.

We lost the match 49-0, failing to score a single point and conceding 6 tries!!!

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Looking at just 1 match, and a full line-up which did not make sense, I have to go for the 2006 Tri Nations match in Brisbane. Starting off with CJ van der Linde at Tighthead. He was truly awful but played the full 80 minutes. In the backrow we had Pierre Spies who was at the time not worth playing there and scrum-half, yep, there he is, Ricky Januarie. When we get to the backline, we see the biggest issues. Bryan Habana is pretty good and was even then, but the others were outragious picks. Wynand Olivier at inside center, Jaque Fourie outside and Akona Ndungane on the other wing!

To top it all off, we had a bench with Danie Coetzee, Eddie Andrews, Albert van den Berg, Jacques Cronje, Meyer Bosman and Breyton Paulse who were all horrible at the moment.

We lost the match 49-0, failing to score a single point and conceding 6 tries!!!

You also had a weird team against Ireland '06 if I remember right, I think Habana was 13.

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

True. We had Francois Steyn and Jaco Pretorius on the wing hahahaha.

 

[lynam1104]

If I was to say one it would be maybe Ireland V The AB's last summer, glad I never saw that game in full...

 

[madflyhalf]

ITALY (for who cares...)

1
2
3

Sorry, but we've never had bad front rows

4 Marco Bortolami (in 2009-2010 season)
5 really dunno who... in the last years we've got some good locks, even from the bench (Pavanello, Del Fava, Dellapè)
6 Ongaro (yes! in his Italy's debut in 2000 against Canada - worst backrow evah)
7 Mannato (horrible flanker, I think he's been called into the national side due to he was Bergamasco look-a-like)
8 Matthew Phillips (never liked him)

9 Mauro Bergamasco at Twickenham, 2009
10 Kris Burton & Andrea Marcato (the first it's obvious, the second one maybe it's not all his fault, Berbizier never trusted him neither when he should have been tried to make some experience when young, but when Mallett tried him, he showed he's not an international 10) but also Francesco Mazzariol...
11 Denis Dallan - had a good season in 2001, then reappeared when he was already trash
12 Ezio Galon - he scored a non-try at Millennium stadium in 2005. Just bad camera placement saved him... My former coach played with him in the youngsters, after they split in 2 different teams, at their first match against each other, they fought and my former coach won! FACT!

13
14 not too many players played for Italy in these 2 position in the last years... surely they were not great champions, but problems were elsewhere... at right wing I would say Max Perziano but he was like a meteor
You know? We've got a great talented guy here, Ludovico Nitoglia, I've always thought he's been our best wing in the last 5-6 years (better than Bergamasco, Robertson or Stanojevic), but he's been criticized by journalist after a couple of matches, he never hid that he didn't like FIR administrators and policies, and than obviously he was silenciously sacked by some "white collar" in FIR
That's Belpaese...

15 Corrado Pilat / Roland de Marigny - but when I was 15 one of these guy made me hope: if he arrived there, I could make it too. Thanks!

 

[DuncTheDoodle]

Ask any South African to name the worst ever scrum-half in the Bok jersey and they will all give you the same answer... Enrico (Ricky) Januarie... The scrum-half who's ball distribution is so slow, I would call him Ricky Februarie

He was a massive improvement on Mike Phillips when he played for the Ospreys. He's quicker than Phillips (Still slow, but quicker) but has incredible vision. I remeber on debut he put up a brilliant chip for Tommy Bowe when the Viadana winger so much as crept a few inches forward. I liked Ricky.

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Can we swap him for Gavin Henson?

 

[Draggs]

No Christian Loader? Derwyn Jones? Arwel Thomas?
Rupert Moon and Wayne Proctor are musts.

 

[lhprop1]

I'm American. Other than the gold medal at the 1924 Olympics in Paris, they've all sucked. The competition for "worst XV" is pretty stiff. Let's call it a draw for all of the sides from 1925 to present.