wales team

First topic message reminder :

Wales team
Byrne, Halfpenny, Davies, Roberts, North, Hook, Knoyle, James, Hibbard, A Jones, Davies, AW Jones, Lydiate, Williams, R Jones Reps: Bennett, Bevinton, Powell, Tipuric, lloyd Williams, Stephen Jones, Brew

With Rees now out I really hope Gatland has the minerals to give Warburton the captaincy for the WC.

IMO R Jones is not guaranteed his starting slot where as Sam is.

Why powell, turnbull is so much better than him at 6,mccusker and jones is better than him at 6 ancd 8. And why no Iestyn as said above, even for cover, though i think id like him in instead of james even with little recent int caps. I think bevington will b good in the future but dont think hes near int standard at the mo.

Glad knoyle is playing, why no chateris?

Shame about jenkins (and rees) hope he recovers soon

SP,

With regards to Iestyn Gatland very rarely if ever goes outisde his origianl selection so can't see Thomas going.

As to Powell then you have Turnbull Delve McCusker Jones all better than him.

Can't understand why they are possibly taking Jenkins and Henson if they injured, replace them before he has to name the squad.

Ur very right bedford unfortunately

maybe charteris has booked his place no gatland wants to find the best second row partnership,

and who knows bedford, gatland thinks its worth the risk and after all his head is on the line, i trust him i mean how could gatland know the risk that bennet wasnt actually sh*t but just not on form, i mean none of us knew that

That looks a well balanced side. Some great combos here, Byrne needs game time , North and 1/2p could be lethal come the WC, Knoyle and Hook could work very very well. As Delve is not fit I can see why Jones is at 8 but not convinced with Davies/AWJ. No Turnbull , and no call up for your current best loosehead Iestyn Thomas Unbelievable.

I can see 2nd half Brew coming on with 1/2p moving to FB

flyhalf,

Hope ur right on the Brew Halfpenny thing. Brew needs another run and would like to see Halfpenny given a go at XV

I don't think we'll see Halfpenny go to full back. I think we might see subs along the line of:

North off for Brew
James off for Bevington
AWJ off for Powell (with Jones going to 2nd row)

maybe (but I hope not)

Davies off for Jones (with Hook to 12)

luckless_pedestrian wrote:I'm a bit annoyed that Jon Davies is playing outside Jamie Roberts again rather than inside him. I hope he gets enough ball to show what he can do, he's such a good player but has never shown it on the international stage (due to being outside Jamie Roberts when he hasn't been passing the ball).

I love how Roberts is again blamed for this, and this doesn't just go out to you mind.

Davies has played both sides of Roberts and looked average. He's capable of making a good break but then usually messes it up with a terrible pass. He's too quiet and seems to go into a shell come these international fixtures, quite the opposite of his Scarlets pal Scott Williams who oozes confidence on this circuit. I think Roberts had two really good games at 12, I can still remember the English crowd jeering everytime he steamrolled into one of their players, as if they could also feel the pain. Also for the record, Roberts did spend most of the time in the 12 channel and in that position on saturday for those saying "He played better at 13." I'm hoping Williams makes the squad as so far it seems he has a lot more to offer for Wales than Davies. I assumse Hook may be covering 13 at the world cup aswell.

Flyhalf:

I agree with your comments 100%, Turnbull should get more game time instead of Powell and I Thomas should be in the squad with Gethin struggling, if not Thomas why not Duncan Jones he is better than Yapp IMO.

nottins_jones wrote:

luckless_pedestrian wrote:I'm a bit annoyed that Jon Davies is playing outside Jamie Roberts again rather than inside him. I hope he gets enough ball to show what he can do, he's such a good player but has never shown it on the international stage (due to being outside Jamie Roberts when he hasn't been passing the ball).

I love how Roberts is again blamed for this, and this doesn't just go out to you mind.

Davies has played both sides of Roberts and looked average. He's capable of making a good break but then usually messes it up with a terrible pass. He's too quiet and seems to go into a shell come these international fixtures, quite the opposite of his Scarlets pal Scott Williams who oozes confidence on this circuit. I think Roberts had two really good games at 12, I can still remember the English crowd jeering everytime he steamrolled into one of their players, as if they could also feel the pain. Also for the record, Roberts did spend most of the time in the 12 channel and in that position on saturday for those saying "He played better at 13." I'm hoping Williams makes the squad as so far it seems he has a lot more to offer for Wales than Davies. I assumse Hook may be covering 13 at the world cup aswell.

I agree with Scott Williams over JD2, and also with your assertion that Roberts spent more time in the 12 channel than outside. His best moments however came when he played the outside channel. The cover was weaker, he ran better lines, and he looked far more dangerous there. A lot of his time in the 12 spot was because he is the defensive co-ordinator for the backs now - and as we all know, we spent a LOT of time defending. With Henson out for at least 5 or 6 weeks, i would like to see Hook at 12 offensively with Roberts outside him, and bringing Roberts inside for the defensive line.

Would also like to see Hook at 12, but if it's with Roberts then Gatland will most probably put him back to 13. Not only is Roberts one of our top defenders but he's also carried well; I believe he was vital to Wales getting space out wide in the first warm-up as it took a few defenders to bring him down. He was hitting some good lines then and hitting them pretty hard. The things is that he never finds time to offload because he usually has one tackler around his legs and two on his back; he needs to watch a few tapes of Sonny Bill and try to mirror him IMO.

Feel sorry for Turnbull not had a real shot at it 20 minutes here 10 there. i,m a big fan of Lydiate,s but think he should have been rested this week and Turnbull given the start as has been said he,s a lot better player than Powell

glamorganalun, you say its our best team so far, does that mean Hook should do very well?

What's going on here - is this the team vs Argentina?

If so would defo have put Turnbull ahead of Powell.

Also just read this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/welsh/14546077.stm

Time to give Iestyn Thomas a ring. Why is Yapp in the squad ahead of him?

Looks like a strong team, maybe the closest to our first choice so far. Warburton, Phillips and Shane getting some time off. A home farewell for Martyn, another look at Knoyle and probably Lloyd Williams, a chance to assess Byrne's form. A few questions marks elsewhere yet to be resolved.

Gatland wants to win this game to build momentum and has made his picks accordingly, leaving aside the first three mentioned.