Time to pick our test 1 team yet?

Vunipola Owens Furlong
AWJ Kruis
Warburton SOB
Falatau
Murray
Sexton
Teo
Davies
Watson North
Halfpenny

George
Mcgrath
Sinckler
Itoje
Mahony
Webb
Bigger
Joseph

Lets rip each other to pieces all week...

Awwww I went to so much trouble trying to align an actual team sheet and it auto reset it back to the left side...

Mine based on what we know today would be.

Mcgrath george Furlong
Kruis Itoje
Pom sob faletau
Murray Sexton
Watson Farrell Joseph North
Halfpenny

Vunipola Owens Sinckler jones Warburton Webb te'o and williams.

Mako jones Warburton te'o and davies start for gatland though.

I'd swap Williams into starting wing for North but other than that same XV as 7.5

My bench would be Mako, Owens, Sinckler, Lawes, Tipuric, Webb, Teo, Daly

McGrath, George, Furlong
Kruis Itoje
POM SOB Faletau
Murray Sexton
Teo Davies
Williams Watson
Halfpenny

Vunipola, Owens, Sinckler, Lawes, Tipuric, Webb, Farrell, Daly

No Mako? or AWJ? seriously think Gatland will do that?

I guess it depends upon whether we are selecting what we think should be the team, or what it will probably be.

My team (with what I expect to see in brackets):

McGrath
George (Owens)
Furlong
Itoje (AWJ)
Kruis
POM (Warburton)
SOB
Faletau
Murray
Sexton
Watson (North)
Te'o
Joseph (JD2)
Seymour (Watson)
Williams (1/2p)

Owens (George)
Mako
Sinckler
Lawes (Itoje)
Tipuric (POM)
Webb
Farrell
Daly (JJ)

I would go with:
Vunipola George Furlong
Itoje Kruis
POM SOB
Falatau
Murray
Farrell
Teo
Davies
Nowell
Daly
Watson

Owens
Mcgrath
Sinckler
Lawes
Warburton
Webb
Sexton
Williams

However I expect to see:

Vunipola George Furlong
Itoje Kruis
POM SOB
Falatau
Murray
Farrell
Teo
Davies
North
Watson
Halfpenny

Owens
Mcgrath
Sinckler
AWJ
Warburton
Webb
Sexton
Daly

Londontiger

So the team I selected above basically, I personally would have Tipuric there nd Williams at FB.

Seymour has done a great job of playing himself out of test contention I think, he looked good for Scotland, and I was a little shocked he was selected over Maitland, but his workrate and end product are not there, he is one of few players clearly out of their depth.

Fanster wrote:No Mako? or AWJ? seriously think Gatland will do that?

I expect Mako to start. Based on the fact that AWJ was protected today I expect he will be on the bench but personally I would leave him out for Lawes.

Exiled

Lawes has been good in patches, has taken a couple of headknocks, and been on the cusp of some bad decision making under little pressure, when things ramp up I would expect Lawes to make he mistakes he's threatening to.

Probably deserves to tour, butnot quite test ready (not against the kiwi's anyway)

But he's been far better than jones who has been making bad errors.

Fanster wrote:Exiled

Lawes has been good in patches, has taken a couple of headknocks, and been on the cusp of some bad decision making under little pressure, when things ramp up I would expect Lawes to make he mistakes he's threatening to.

Probably deserves to tour, butnot quite test ready (not against the kiwi's anyway)

So Lawes has been great, but he's almost made mistakes.

What a ridiculous post.

Fanster wrote:Lawes has been good in patches, has taken a couple of headknocks, and been on the cusp of some bad decision making under little pressure, when things ramp up I would expect Lawes to make he mistakes he's threatening to.

Minority Report?

Ridiculous to say that when players play wildly, and are allowing the ref to make decisions when under very little pressure, that when that pressure is doubled he won't make the ref make decisions again?

Leave it out will you, Lawes has played well, like Teo, and Sinckler has. Difference is he's facing a challenge of world class in his position, and the risk isn't needed with better options.

You're wumming now.

Fanster wrote:Ridiculous to say that when players play wildly, and are allowing the ref to make decisions when under very little pressure, that when that pressure is doubled he won't make the ref make decisions again?

Leave it out will you, Lawes has played well, like Teo, and Sinckler has. Difference is he's facing a challenge of world class in his position, and the risk isn't needed with better options.

You want the difference? Lawes has been on the edge while playing brilliantly, AWJ has gone over the edge and penalised more than any other player while playing average at best. Why is Lawes the risk?

Speaking as a Kiwi I'm quite happy AWJ is starting. Big Bad Brodie has owned him every time they've met

Pete C (Kiwireddevil) wrote:Speaking as a Kiwi I'm quite happy AWJ is starting. Big Bad Brodie has owned him every time they've met

I'm guessing Beauden Barrett is very happy too.

I'm not getting into 2 threads of AWJ arguments, it's bad enough listening to Saracens would beat NZ on one thread...

Fanster wrote:I'm not getting into 2 threads of AWJ arguments, it's bad enough listening to Saracens would beat NZ on one thread...

Had they played them last week instead of Samoa then yes Sarries would be the winners.

Sarries have better continuity seeing as they play together more than the under cooked AB's team.

Pete C (Kiwireddevil) wrote:Speaking as a Kiwi I'm quite happy AWJ is starting. Big Bad Brodie has owned him every time they've met

Big Bad Brodie's grandfather would likely own him too, beats him on the experience front and no one can tell of anything else he offers

Who would win if England 2003 RWC winners played this current All Blacks team?

TightHEAD wrote:Who would win if England 2003 RWC winners played this current All Blacks team?

Some of those '03 fellas are getting on a bit

Pete C (Kiwireddevil) wrote:

TightHEAD wrote:Who would win if England 2003 RWC winners played this current All Blacks team?

Some of those '03 fellas are getting on a bit

Correct.

NZ would walk it.

Scottrf wrote:

Fanster wrote:Ridiculous to say that when players play wildly, and are allowing the ref to make decisions when under very little pressure, that when that pressure is doubled he won't make the ref make decisions again?

Leave it out will you, Lawes has played well, like Teo, and Sinckler has. Difference is he's facing a challenge of world class in his position, and the risk isn't needed with better options.

You want the difference? Lawes has been on the edge while playing brilliantly, AWJ has gone over the edge and penalised more than any other player while playing average at best. Why is Lawes the risk?

I don't even think people have watched Lawes play and just make an assumption based on his youtube compilations, they just assume he's making marginal late hits all game every game when in fact he doesn't. I don't even think he's been playing on the edge at all not that it's bad thing when he can clearly control it as he's shown over the past 18 months.

Hammersmith harrier wrote:

Scottrf wrote:

Fanster wrote:Ridiculous to say that when players play wildly, and are allowing the ref to make decisions when under very little pressure, that when that pressure is doubled he won't make the ref make decisions again?

Leave it out will you, Lawes has played well, like Teo, and Sinckler has. Difference is he's facing a challenge of world class in his position, and the risk isn't needed with better options.

You want the difference? Lawes has been on the edge while playing brilliantly, AWJ has gone over the edge and penalised more than any other player while playing average at best. Why is Lawes the risk?

I don't even think people have watched Lawes play and just make an assumption based on his youtube compilations, they just assume he's making marginal late hits all game every game when in fact he doesn't. I don't even think he's been playing on the edge at all not that it's bad thing when he can clearly control it as he's shown over the past 18 months.

Quite the opposite, I have watched him very closer and he and Dan Bigger have the same issue. Both are too eager, Lawes has been offside a few times and needed to retreat, he's been lucky not to be pinged defensively at a few rucks, offensive rucks he was lucky not to get nailed for going off his feet, hes returned to his feet a few times while carrying ball and being held, and has had a lot of ref direction. Come test time I think refs will whistle these things more often, and thats what I mean. Nothing illegal, just over eagerness, Sickler is probably another player who's been the same, but he hasn't got the competition Biggar and Lawes has for his position.

Except jones has given away more pens than anyone and his petulant push in the last match while only on the pitch for 5 min could have cost us the pen try and resulting yellow in our favour.

What's the betting nz immediately test out Daly and williams with a couple of high balls after the issues williams has had so far and Daly red against argentina still fresh in the memory.

Fanster wrote:

Hammersmith harrier wrote:

Scottrf wrote:

Fanster wrote:Ridiculous to say that when players play wildly, and are allowing the ref to make decisions when under very little pressure, that when that pressure is doubled he won't make the ref make decisions again?

Leave it out will you, Lawes has played well, like Teo, and Sinckler has. Difference is he's facing a challenge of world class in his position, and the risk isn't needed with better options.

You want the difference? Lawes has been on the edge while playing brilliantly, AWJ has gone over the edge and penalised more than any other player while playing average at best. Why is Lawes the risk?

I don't even think people have watched Lawes play and just make an assumption based on his youtube compilations, they just assume he's making marginal late hits all game every game when in fact he doesn't. I don't even think he's been playing on the edge at all not that it's bad thing when he can clearly control it as he's shown over the past 18 months.

Quite the opposite, I have watched him very closer and he and Dan Bigger have the same issue. Both are too eager, Lawes has been offside a few times and needed to retreat, he's been lucky not to be pinged defensively at a few rucks, offensive rucks he was lucky not to get nailed for going off his feet, hes returned to his feet a few times while carrying ball and being held, and has had a lot of ref direction. Come test time I think refs will whistle these things more often, and thats what I mean. Nothing illegal, just over eagerness, Sickler is probably another player who's been the same, but he hasn't got the competition Biggar and Lawes has for his position.

Sounds awfully like a certain R. McCaw right there.

Are you comparing Lawes to Mccaw?

For the record though, I could never understand how Mccaw got away with a lot of the positions he found himself in, respect the hell out of him but he was afforded a lot of wiggle room by refs

Fanster wrote:Are you comparing Lawes to Mccaw?

For the record though, I could never understand how Mccaw got away with a lot of the positions he found himself in, respect the hell out of him but he was afforded a lot of wiggle room by refs

Good judgement?