RWC warm up matches progress?

I am getting the impression that from what we have seen so far, it is very hard to tell which countries have certainty regarding their squads for the upcoming world cup.

The results have been a mixed bag for most, and most coaches have thus far mixed and matched their squads with a great deal of inconsistency.

New Zealand seems to be fixed, graham Henry has not yet messed about too much with his selections, and although he has left 9 players at home for the away leg to SA, he seems to know his best squad.

Robbie Deans doesn’t have the luxury of depth that Graham Henry has, and this has shown in his selections. The loss to Samoa and loss to New Zealand has been counter balanced by a big win against the now infamous SA away team, and a well ground out win vs SA in Durban. Not sure what to think of them either.

SA seems for all intent and purpose to be in complete shambles. Their away team got comfortably beaten by New Zealand and Australia, Their best 22 seemed rusty and unfit. So with one more match left, it seems unlikely that they will have had the optimum preparation for the RWC.

Declan Kidney has not yet sent his best team onto the field, and as such has had a loss against Scotland and France. The biggest concern for him would be the unimaginative play of the team and their inability to score tries. But there are still a few matches left, and hopefully we will soon see the best 22 on the pitch.

Martin Johnson would be very frustrated with his team’s inability to convert possession and territory into points, and seems at this stage not to be performing near good enough to challenge for the title.

Wales in amongst all these tests, seems to be the one country apart from New Zealand that has made some progress and shown some promise. To beat an England team with so little possession and territory and outscoring the English in tries during their first match, would give Gatland some food for thought. He does however make some controversial selections with playing players out of position.

Scotland seems to be doing their own thing with their limited player base and the win over Ireland will give them some confidence.

The French, well they are the French after all, and with little knowledge of what is going on there, difficult to read anything into their performances thus far.

So overall, it seems to me that the only two teams that have thus far taken any positives out of these warm up matches is New Zealand and Wales.

Thoughts?

I'm puzzled with your theory that after a 10-6 victory over a team above them in the world rankings that Scotland do not take any positives from their warm up match (so far).

will give them some confidence.

please read again.

Wales may take some comfort from their efforts, but despite scoring more tries in the 1st game, they still lost by a good margin. In the 2nd game, despite all the defensive heroics, they gained so little possession that most decent sides would have put them to the sword.

For me, as in 2007, NZ are some way ahead of the rest. However, I would have them further ahead back then than the current crop are now. Let's see how this unfolds.

biltongbek wrote:
Declan Kidney has not yet sent his best team onto the field, and as such has had a loss against Scotland and France. The biggest concern for him would be the unimaginative play of the team and their inability to score tries. But there are still a few matches left, and hopefully we will soon see the best 22 on the pitch.

I don't think thats been a problem at all. The biggest concern against Scotland was our inability to retain possession and gain territory due to a lack of ball carriers.

Against France the innability to retain possession against ferocious french pressure cost us in the 1st half and a shambolic set piece made it difficult to launch meaningful attacks.

There was some entreprising back play and quite a few linebreaks particularly against france so I don't think our attacking play is a big concern, rather our packs ability to provide a stable platform particularly in the set piece.

Many of the 1st XV have hardly featured yet so I don't think there are too many concerns other than the line out.

As a welshman, so far so good really. Our defence has looked good, last wknd it looked great, pure hunger for the win (similar to the scotland game in th 6ns). Although as stated, a more efficient attack will pose more serious questions (again similar to the scotland game in the 6ns) but I'll take their heart as a positive if nothing else!

The most pleasing thing though, is that we've looked creative (enough) to get go forward with ball in hand. Ok, we're not tearing anyone apart, but we're going forward! not sideways!

For the first time I can remember, I'm looking at the 1st game being against S.Africa as a blessing now! If the last few games are anything to go by, they dont seem to be playing even close to their usual standard. That gives Wales a chance - jeez, thats nice to say, a chance!

SneakySideStep wrote:Wales may take some comfort from their efforts, but despite scoring more tries in the 1st game, they still lost by a good margin. In the 2nd game, despite all the defensive heroics, they gained so little possession that most decent sides would have put them to the sword.

For me, as in 2007, NZ are some way ahead of the rest. However, I would have them further ahead back then than the current crop are now. Let's see how this unfolds.

4 points is a good margin ?

I think Ireland have taken a lot from the 2 matches. It has help decided who goes, which is what these games were about. That and givng game time to players returning from injury.

The next 2 games will be where we start to play the 1st XV or something very close as can be seen by todays selection.