Wallabies team vs Wales

[willvillain]

Spiro has been pushing the anti-Gregan agenda for a lot longer than Gregan has been playing below his best mind you.

Not saying that Catchpole wasn't a hero (how can I? Like you, I never saw him play in person), but Spiro has never really given Gregan deserved credit in my opinion.

 

[ozbash]

Matt Giteau said that Gregan is the best halfback Australia has ever produced. Given the hero worship of Giteau the halfback on these forums of late, his opinion should hold some water.

And I agree. Not only is Gregan still the best half in the world (as acknowledged by Giteau and others), but he will be a deserving winner if he wins the Australian of the Year, which he is nominated for.

totally agree with you skeepe and i think georgie is still up there with the best. what he's lost physically, his experience and tactical skills more than make up for. and he can influence a ref too :lol:

ken catchpole was a champion. an excitement machine who would confuse everyone with his dummy half runs. he could link up with his centers and was one of the first players i ever saw successfully work the ' scissors' move.

sid going was another good half who used a style similar to catchpole.

 

[blackfriday]

i have no doubt that george gregan is still a very good halfback, but how does he measure up to kelleher, du preez or ellisade?

 

[Sanchez]

at the bottom of the list

 

[iamtheantichrist]

Haha, Oh sh*t.
25 - 18 against Italy :lol:

 

[aussies1st]

Just wait for that semi final in the WC ;-)

 

[Sanchez]

australia cant get any worse

 

[iamtheantichrist]

I would of expected the Western Force to easily defeat Italy.

 

[Sanchez]

all blacks would have cracked 100

 

[aussies1st]

Lol the Force would have lost no doubting that.

 

[lockyno1]

Tuquiri is really living off reputation IMO! Shephard and Rathbone on the wings please!

 

[iamtheantichrist]

Are you kidding me? He's one of Australia's most potent attacking weapons.

 

[lockyno1]

Yet he has done bugger all for the most part of 12 months! So no I aint kidding you, I am serious! I would rather Shepard be given a chance to be honest.

 

[blackfriday]

wow arent italy meant to be really shit? i thought we could put 50 on them, but apparently we arent much better than italy.

 

[bayrep]

Or it could be what Connelly siad after the game and what Eng were also saying is that Arg and Italy have improved and not many people have realised it. Or could be that Aus/Eng trying to save face .

 

[skeepe]

The ref certainly didn't do us any favours. That binning of Tuqiri was ridiculous!

Still, I prefer to look at the tries scored rather than the overall result at this stage. We've outscored our opponents 7 tries to 2 so far, which indicates that it's only discipline letting us down.

Oh, and the fact that Italy were taking shots at penalty goal from 60(!) metres out, it was obvious what their game plan was.

 

[willvillain]

The Tuqiri binning was terrible, but it was about on par with how Australia played to be honest.

Of our tries, I thought that the best of the bunch was Rogers. And that showed me what the most obvious change to this team is - moving Larkham back to 10, where he is best. Get him into first receiver and tell him to run the ball more and we'll improve our game by 10% straight away.

 

[blackfriday]

there's talk that cliffy palu will be dropped for the next game against ireland. i thought he did an alright job in attack.

its pretty clear rogers has to go, he has no idea what to do from first receiver. the theory between the rogers/larkham combo was so we could be like the ABs and have a first and second five-eighth but australia needs only one general and the rest of the backline to structure themselves around him.

 

[skeepe]

I have been calling for Rogers to be shunted since before the Tri Nations. After seeing just how bad he was playing against England, the selectors should have bit the bullet and given someone else a go then.

The facts: Rogers is a good player. Not great, but good. He has flair, creativity, all the things a player needs to be successful. The problem is, it appears as though he's forgotten how to use them. Time and again he has stifled attacking raids by taking the ball himself when the best option was to spread it, and vice versa. He's been given the fly-half role of late, but has ZERO tactical awareness. Not his fault, some have it and some don't.

Mat Rogers is heading to the Titans in 2008 because he wants to go out after the 2007 world cup. Am I the only one thinking that he won't make it that far? On current form, he most definately shouldn't.

 

[lockyno1]

Rogers will be at the World Cup, and he'll be the no10, with Larkham outside him. IMO the combination just needs time to gel together!