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Bath RFC	InTheFastLane
Exeter Chiefs	Driver - RIP 606
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Leicester Tigers	LukeLovesLuka
London Irish	stnick88
London Wasps	Arry
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Northampton Saints	Dammit_Chris
Sale Sharks	SirJohnnyEnglish
Saracens	LDCPete
Worcester Warriors	prop_lyd

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Waiting List
1. Sam
2. pullthestrings
3. Bathite

Kruger really struggling, Kepu not a great scrummager. JOCs kicking is really coming on, nailed some tough ones today

We won't mention Steyn's defence there.......

Kruger and greyling are way down pecking order. Steenkamp, beast, coonie all ahead of greyling

Jdp, Botha all ahead of kruger

Lol....was poor attempt to be fair, think he went for the magical AAC dummy lol. Good try Chillboy, I do quite like him, gets a bad rap. Is Coonie ahead of Greyling?!?!

I have to say I think Australia should take a good look at Higginbotton as an 8. Think he would compliment Pocock and Elsom very well.

Steve: so long as Higginbotham and McCalman do well i'm happy!!

Yes coonie ahead of him. Would have started today but took a knock in training unfortunately for me coonie will go to wc.

Hogginbotham should be 8

Be an interesting combo, wonder if deans will tinker? Didn't realise Coonie was injured.

Cooper is a great attacking threat but he makes some crazy decisions through the game

Played a big part in 3 tries.

Thing is these things he tries very rarely go wrong. I can't think of a time where his mistake has cost his team anything more than field position all season.

Link to coonie injury http://www.trinationsweb.com/news/viewarticle.asp?id=31086

ashley johnson definitly not an 8 for me. lacks real go forward like alberts, vermeulen, spies.

Springbok b team showing Aussie weakness to pick and drive. It's the way to beat them

I agree with the commentators in that AJ had a decent game and carried well

Wasn't questioning it Matt, haven't seen much rugby news this week. Decent game from Cooper, execution has let him down a little but pretty solid.

AJ needs to be on the front foot, his best games for Cheetahs were from 6/8 when their front 5 in control and he could pop off scrum. I don't think he was helped by his backrow, Stegman was quiet and Roussow is no backrower anymore (I'm a big fan at lock) he's too big a unit to get round the park.

Easy game from Aus, controlled from start to finish.

I thought Stegmann had quite a good performance, made one good turnover and was solid in every other department. Think he's the kind of player who just goes about his business, no show boating just does the nitty gritty stuff.

Matt will like this one:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-23/barnes-returns-to-club-footy/2807434

Roussow had a good game today but did not do any back row work. He can maybe play 8 but to big to play flank agree.

Think mcalman the Aussie is really underrated. Seen him play lock very well also

Deysel looked very good when he came on. Suspect he may start next week

Nobody from South Africa impressed me today and I think the beating will be just as comprehensive against AB's next week. (I think that's the game next week?)

Australia did what they had to an nothing more. Lethal in attack with the Beale, Cooper and JOC trio looking as dangerous in real life as it does on paper.

MoM would be Stephen Moore or Digby Ioane

I'd go Genia/JOC or Iaone, poss McCabe too. How quiet was Pocock today!

Pocock was outstanding in defence. Tackled all game long.

Genia or joc for me

Was not pococks type of game. Sa will get hammered next week it's good exposure for some younger players

Genia by a distance for me. Finds gaps that don't exist time after time, and made perfect decisions constantly.

To be fair to Pocock he looked unfit and has hardly played lately, will get stronger throughout 3N

Scary to think that there is space for either Mitchell/Barnes. To fit in both of them you'd have to drop Ioane I spose.

Mitchell wouldn't get in ahead of Ioane. Would be criminal to drop him in my view. His metres made and tackle break stats are phenominals

Mitchell is streets ahead of ioane for me. Also he is a footballer and suits the Aussie game better. Barnes will take mccabes place.

Let's not get carried away that was an ok performance by the Aussies against a bok b team. They also conceded 20 points.

Mitchell is a better winger than Ioane imo, I'd have Mitchell as one of the best about

Mitchell isn't rated by Deans. He only got into the squad last year because of Peter Hynes being injured. I don't think he'd play ahead of Digby certainly not in the world cup

They may do a horses for courses selection. You could not play ioane in the wet he drops the ball enough in the dry. Also has no kicking game.

The aussies are vunerable out wide off set pieces in that they have too poor defenders in Beale and cooper who they have to hide. Cooper does attack well from fb though. I think their weakness out wide defensively will unhinge the

I think that is the way to get past the Aussies on first phase. Midfield is rock solid with McCabe/faiinga/AAC

AAC been poor all season but his defence is never in question. Much stronger than he looks and very rarely gets beaten. Barnes faiingaa McCabe and AAc all very good defenders

AAC always steps up for Aus though, thought he played well today. Gets messed around at Bumbies

Today was a bit of a nothing game have a feeling this 3n may be like that with the away team not taking their strongest sides

Looks like Sonny is staying with NZ for another year:

http://www.superxv.com/news/super15_rugby_news.asp?id=31280

I didn't realise he was only going to 1 year initially. Where next..,,France, Rugby league?!?!

Also as I'm bored...Bok ratings:

http://www.rugby365.com/tournaments/trinat/news/2764241.htm

Few mentions for our boys that will go down not so well:

13 Juan de Jongh:
Tried to step and found a yellow wall. Tried to run and found no space. Looked like he lacked pace.
4/10

12 Wynand Olivier:
Hopefully he played under instructions, because bashing up into a yellow wall of defenders when it looks on outside is not a good thing.
4/10

10 Morné Steyn:
This has not been his best year.
4/10

9 Ruan Pienaar:
By some way his worst Test ever.
3/10

8 Ashley Johnson:
He looked like a deer in headlights and was a huge liability on defence.
2/10

they were all pretty s.hit.
mvovo looked lively.

Haven't watched the game yet, but as I said the other day, Stern has been very poor all year.

I will be off to climb Croke Patrick tomorrow morning back in the evening and looking to do up results then so can anyone who hasnt predicted get them in by tomorrow evening please

Am watching the tri nations game now, twenty minutes in, and it pains me to say this as he is an all time favourite of mine, but John Smit is looking more and more like a spent force at this level.

yeh he had a shocker

Pooly rugby 365 as bad as its football equivalent. They give aplon 5 out of 10?? Surely a 1 at best. Most commentators had AJ and roussouw as best boks. Personally I thought roussouw immense and AJ average and played like a player on debut. AJ is not a smart player more of an athlete and needs to play in right side a la SOB, Deysel, laukafia, vito etc.

You wonder about who does ratings. On rugby heaven I think pocock next to genia in ratings. Genia easily mom followed by joc then any of McCabe,Moore, Alexander etc. Pocock one of the worst with AAc and elsom(despite bit of magic). It was not a AAc, elsom and pocock game. Amazed that so many people reviewing game as a serious contest. Only first choice saffer was Steyn and think Lambie will be wc 10.

For me Olivier is terrible never takes right option. How Jacobs gets in squad is incredulous.

Rewatching and As have said for ages
Think Joc might be one of the greatest players ever. 28 caps at 21. The guy is a fb or 12 for me.

I
Like Beale but his defence is cooper esque.

Moore next best hooker to bdp great player

No question that it was a Bok B team despite claims to the contrary from the players, but they still underperformed. I genuinely couldn't give any of them more than 5 out of 10.

Australia were much improved from last week, and I have to say that I think a lot of that came from Genia's decision making, which was spot on throughout. Toss up between him, McCabe and JOC for MOTM for me. Surprised to read that some on here were saying Ioane. He is a big favourite of mine, but I didn't think he had a storming game to be honest. Played well, but not on the same level as the other mentioned, although nowhere near as bad as mat would suggest.

Pete I thought ioane did well yesterday but as always he shelled loads of ball. His defence was good and his support lines were excellent. I just struggle with the fact someone can be a professional player yet have the catching skills of a toddler.

He is so explosive and powerful I just think he operates to such a small amount of his potential. There are lots of players who are athletes rather than rugby players.

MVovo is another athlete. What apart from pace does he offer. I imagine he is seeing Joc in his sleep he got such a torrid time off him.

There are so many players now like that. Some are decent like sob, ioane etc I don't however think they will ever be world class. Think they are excellent impact subs

Therein lies my issue with what you say about him though Mat, you say "he shelled loads of ball".

I watched and being the sad individual that I am noted down all of his knock ons as I had read your comments before watching. He knocked on 3 times, and one of those was when Stephen Moore threw the ball just above his left ear and behind him from about a yard away. Hardly an indicator of poor hands.

There were other knock ons from other players throughout, such as JOC knocking on from a simple pass in the first 2 minutes, yet you never mention it. It just seems like you have this opinion that Ioane has poor hands and then find what you want to in order to fit that.

Pete Joc shelled one easy pass but took lots of really difficult balls that ioane would get nowhere near. Joc is a footballer ioane Is an athlete.
I like players to be ball players and get a bit annoyed with lots of these modern day athlete types who have poor basics.

I find it incredIble that yesterday there were players like mvovo and ioane who cannot kick a ball. For me every winger should have a kicking game as it's so vital.

See there it is again Mat. Yes, JOC had a couple of fantastic takes including the one for his try, but how do you know that Ioane would not have taken them.

You use JOC's ability as a stick with which to beat Ioane. Ioane may not have the kicking game of JOC and some other wingers, but his kicking game is ok, he gets by with it and is in a different league to Mvovo who can barely pass a ball of either hand.