key player

Who is your countries key player the one they play bad with out but brilliant with.

I think Adam Jones Wales key player

Wales key player is Philipps

Maybe Ben Morgan for England,compare England's performances against the all blacks and Scotland to their next four outings.

Kelly Brown for Scotland. He is the Glue that holds the team together and has never ever let Scotland down. He puts his body on the line in every colision and never gives up.

At the moment I'd say Richie Gray. He was involved in our two wins over Italy and Ireland and after going off injured against Wales, things went a bit wobbly. Although I think Scotland lost against Wales and France due to the tactics, Gray was a big loss and it did make a difference. Need him back to full strength soon!

100%beefy wrote:Wales key player is Philipps

If he tours then he's Australia's key player. We'll get humped if he plays.

Conrad Smith for NZ

For the boks I'd say Ruan Pienaar.... perhaps contraversial with Ruan but in essence, at the moment the boks lack a quality scrumhalf outside of Ruan which Meyer approves of.

His next choice is Frans Hougaard who is a terrible scrumhalf... one notch up from Bergamasco.

Rennie, just does the little things that end up making a big difference.

Ben Morgan could be a good shout, though only because Lancaster doesn't seem to trust Vunipola or Waldrom enough yet. Cole would have been until the Six Nations but he didn't have the best tournament. That said, he's still many levels above anyone else we have at tighthead, so is probably the biggest potential loss we have.

For Ireland POC and BOD are the 2 talismans, but without Mike Ross at TH we have very little back up until a few younger players mature a bit more. Without Ross the scrum can be exploited big time.

thomh

I suspect Billy Vunipola would have got significant game time in the 6Ns had it not been for a badly timed injury. You're correct though that Morgan's ball carrying abilities were a big loss to England - became too easy for the defences to just focus on Manu and nullify our attacks.

As for key players, I think Cole still would count as that for England, given the gap between him and the next best TH. Other than there and at 8, I think we can bring in good replacements who do not markedly weaken the team.

Cyril on 606v2 wrote:

100%beefy wrote:Wales key player is Philipps

If he tours then he's Australia's key player. We'll get humped if he plays.

Firstly this is not a lions thread

Secondly he is a big game player...made a mess of England last month

Who would you prefer...Youngs? Care?!!!

Philips is a proven Lion and will be key to this tour

Dan Cole for England.

This post got nothing to do with the lions, or who's better for the role care, youngs or Phillips its about who individuals think their countries most valuable player etc and if someones opinion is mike Phillips then who are people to say he's wrong.

dummy_half wrote:thomh

I suspect Billy Vunipola would have got significant game time in the 6Ns had it not been for a badly timed injury. You're correct though that Morgan's ball carrying abilities were a big loss to England - became too easy for the defences to just focus on Manu and nullify our attacks.

As for key players, I think Cole still would count as that for England, given the gap between him and the next best TH. Other than there and at 8, I think we can bring in good replacements who do not markedly weaken the team.

He was fit for in time for Italy though wasn't he?

Actually i dont think he was Thomh...he was pretty much out for the lot.
Shame as i think he would have featured.

Surely we had other options though...even Haskell is more familiar to 8 than Wood.

Currently Kelly Brown

Who I hope will become - Duncan Weir