George North and Jonah Lomu

First topic message reminder :

Sorry to any welsh fans out there but i recently read on bbc sport that the young, powerful winger has been compared to perhaps the greatest winger of all time and was announced as Rugby's first superstar Jonah Lomu. This is the biggest piece of tripe i have heard in a long time. North at 6'3 and 17 stone is no doubt an imposing winger but to compare him to one of the all time greats, a man at 6'5, weighing over 19 stone and running the 100m under 11 seconds needs their brain testing and to make this claim so early on is ludricrous.
I can only think that as they were both very young in their debut world cups this has given GN the lomu tag. To his credit GN it seems can hardly believe it either and respectfully says "To be compared to Jonah is a massive honour," said Wales wing North.
"To me personally, I don't think I've done enough to deserve that yet." He is undoubtedly a good young talent and it is incredible he has played just 14 matches for the scarlet's and gained 14 caps for Wales. He is a talent for sure but to even put him in the same sentence as Jonah IMO is unjust on a player who will never ever be forgotten!
Thoughts?

In terms of the wider context of the game, I'm interested in how the Welsh backline goes. To my mind they have only kicker in the back three. We're now playing essentially 2 fullbacks and an out and out winger. The question for me is are they vulnerable to a kicking game.

Sorry I don't understand why you think they might be vulnerable to a kicking game.
Do you mean you think we might not be good enough at kicking ball back? but surely having two FBs is an advantage for that - FBs tend to be better at kicking than wingers.
I think Dagg and Jane have proven themselves under the high ball and generally positionally they are all right. While Jane is not that fast he's not that slow either. They aren't crunching tacklers but they don't miss too many.

nganboy wrote:
In terms of the wider context of the game, I'm interested in how the Welsh backline goes. To my mind they have only kicker in the back three. We're now playing essentially 2 fullbacks and an out and out winger. The question for me is are they vulnerable to a kicking game.

Sorry I don't understand why you think they might be vulnerable to a kicking game.
Do you mean you think we might not be good enough at kicking ball back? but surely having two FBs is an advantage for that - FBs tend to be better at kicking than wingers.
I think Dagg and Jane have proven themselves under the high ball and generally positionally they are all right. While Jane is not that fast he's not that slow either. They aren't crunching tacklers but they don't miss too many.

I'm lost

I was thinking about recent history with the AB's and several other teams. As I see it this welsh back line has a number of big men, but may be vulnerable if the ball is in the air. Assuming Preistland is in the defensive line they only have Halfpenny at the back, which meeans they can potentially be manipulated by tactical kicking, either kicks in behind the big wingers, or through longer kicks for position. Given the makeup of the team I'm guessing they are more likely to run the ball back, which can be issue if the opposition defensive line is good. I know we generally have 2 players in the backfield at any one with a good kick on them. Just wondering out loud about whether the welsh backline experiment will work. If they get big men rolling the opposition then I guess we'll see everyine imitating them.

slartibartfast wrote:

nganboy wrote:
In terms of the wider context of the game, I'm interested in how the Welsh backline goes. To my mind they have only kicker in the back three. We're now playing essentially 2 fullbacks and an out and out winger. The question for me is are they vulnerable to a kicking game.

Sorry I don't understand why you think they might be vulnerable to a kicking game.
Do you mean you think we might not be good enough at kicking ball back? but surely having two FBs is an advantage for that - FBs tend to be better at kicking than wingers.
I think Dagg and Jane have proven themselves under the high ball and generally positionally they are all right. While Jane is not that fast he's not that slow either. They aren't crunching tacklers but they don't miss too many.

I'm lost

Sorry I thought Black was talking about the ABs back line (where we too have two FBs)

I now understand what you were getting at Black.

I think the challenge when backing North etc to run the ball back is how quickly the support players get behind the runner. If you are going to have a go then you need to beat your man or be confident that your 15 or 7 or whoever is going to be there if get tackled.

nganboy wrote:
In terms of the wider context of the game, I'm interested in how the Welsh backline goes. To my mind they have only kicker in the back three. We're now playing essentially 2 fullbacks and an out and out winger. The question for me is are they vulnerable to a kicking game.

Sorry I don't understand why you think they might be vulnerable to a kicking game.
Do you mean you think we might not be good enough at kicking ball back? but surely having two FBs is an advantage for that - FBs tend to be better at kicking than wingers.
I think Dagg and Jane have proven themselves under the high ball and generally positionally they are all right. While Jane is not that fast he's not that slow either. They aren't crunching tacklers but they don't miss too many.

I'm interested to know who the two full backs are. As far as I can see it we don't have any 'natural' full backs as Halfpenny is a wing and Priestland is a 10

But both can play at fullback as can Hook. Not ideal but they can. I think the we´re now playing two fullbacks was a reference to the ABs not Wales mckay. i.e. Jane and Dagg and Gear being the natural winger because Kahui is a natural utility back as far as I´m concerned.

Once we fielded Jane, Dagg and Muliaina in the back three. All are fullbacks although I see Jane wants to play on the wing for the Hurricanes this year. Smart move as that´s his best position. Always good to have extra cover for fullback but that's where he´s suited best. Dagg strangely is going to be on the wing for the Crusaders so no idea who will be fullback.

Sean Maitland? Or perhaps the Whitelocks will do their annual clone and split with one turning into two fullbacks?

Kahui is a centre mostly but has no chance while Captain Conrad rules that possie so GH just found a place for him.