The Roberts and Davies conundrum.

Reading a lot of posts on here its clear to see that a majority of people think that in attack Roberts and Davies dont seem to be able to play off of each other as they as both hard runners and not play makers. On the other hand in defence together they both seem to work well together and make their tackles, as such our center defence seems to hold very well. I guess the question here is, in the pool game against South Africa, would it be better to have better attacking options with say, Hook & Roberts, or Hook and Davies and try and score more trys? Or go for the more defensively robust Roberts and Davies and try and win in a more conservative manner such as the game against England?

for me williams and roberts with hook at ten

I didnt really think of Williams, which is poor on my part as hes played well everytimes hes been on the field.

They haven't played all that much rugby as a partnership. Only a fool would drop Roberts against SA.

tbh i dont see what the big fuss is about davies. Now dont get me wrong he is a very solid dependable player who has the quality at this level, but when has he really stood out against top opposition? The same could be said of williams i suppose but i just like the look of him from what ive seen,

No we've got to keep Roberts in, but i dont see why Gatland dosnt see him at 13. But then again, i dont see Davies doing any different at 12 then Roberts.

People love Roberts because he breaks the first tackle.

But have you ever seen a Welsh 13 have a really good game outside him?

Er..that's a rhetorical question, expecting the answer, "no".

no but ive seen o driscoll play outstanding outside him

GavinDragon wrote:no but ive seen o driscoll play outstanding outside him

This is something i dont understant, was Roberts playing the game in differently? I've got the DVD but i cant find the test games online to download to rewatch them to see what was different.

no roberts doesnt play differently, for whatever reason whoever has played at 13 hasnt supported him when hes made a break (althought roberts is marked and gangtackled nowadays)

Davies is just average at international level. Roberts has played well. I've also been very impressed with Scott Williams everytime I've seen him play.

There's a reason Davies has been Roberts' regular partner this season. He's been on stunning form for the Scarlets since breaking into the starting side, boasting not only straight-forward strength but an ability to find and create gaps. This has yet to be the case in the Wales attire unless you consider his first two caps against Canada and the USA.

Now part of the midfield debate stems from a distinct lack of regularity which has arguably prevented players from gelling into successful combinations. Since 2008, we've had numerous options in Roberts-Bishop, Roberts-Shanklin, Roberts-Hook and Roberts-Henson to ponder also.

It clearly depends where your preferences lie. Whether you'd rather continue the search and experimentation for the so-called "perfect" balance between centres (personally I think it's a myth, any partnership can work as long as both are capable of breaking and offloading well enough and besides victory doesn't often come purely from the centres)...

Or have patience. Davies is young, doesn't have that many caps and could still improve immensely for Wales, as could Roberts also.

I think Roberts & Davies can work, but I would rather see them switched. JD2 is more creative than Roberts (at regional level anyway) and on the International pitch Roberts makes far more yards and even sometimes manages to offload when he is running outside channels. These days the inside channel is always full of prop forwards or locks anyway, so lets have Roberts running at the line wider out.

Roberts distribution is not the strength in his game, and he cant kick either - so why play him at 12?

Williams and Roberts for me. We all love JD but he has yet to have a decent game in a Wales shirt and the balance doesn't look right with JD and Roberts - Not convinced with Hook in the centre, keep him at 10.

For our backline to work well as a unit we need to sort out the line-out problem.
At the moment they cant be sure if we are going to win our own ball and that would probably explain why Roberts and Davies seem to be standing so flat.

preistland/jones at 10 hook 12 and roberts 13 for me j davies hasn't done it for wales (yet) his time will come

I dont think Davies has played badly the last three games but he has been out shone by the limelight rightfully positioned on Robert who has been in his best form.

Davies is a bright young player and will work it out. I am not worried about the partnership really as the outside backs are scoring good tries in the last three games. Just glad to see we have tough selection decisions for the coaches to make with so many talented options.

I think well know which welsh centre (if fit ) is the best partner for both roberts and davies sadly he appears to never be fit (or focussed on rugby) shame henson could be the making of both of these guys

jb1973 wrote:I think well know which welsh centre (if fit ) is the best partner for both roberts and davies sadly he appears to never be fit (or focussed on rugby) shame henson could be the making of both of these guys

Looked back to his old self last week and then sadly took a knock on the wrist, very unfortunate for us.

He would be fit in time for the last two pool matches should the coaches decide to take him, from what i have read about the injury.

Considering we will be taking at least 7 or 8 players in the 30 who are either injured or in the process of finding form after an injury, i have a strong suspiscion that GH will be in the land of the Long White Cloud sooner rather than later