Scrumhalf Choices of the Home Nations

Lets look at who the board rate as the best Scrum Halfs possible for the Lions next year.

Pick Three Scrum Halfs from the Poll below.

Just to correct the spelling, it's Conor Murray and Tomás O'Leary

I've voted for Cusiter, Phillips and Murray.

Phillips, Blair, Cusiter for me.

Phillips is a certainty. Not to sure about the others but Murray is too similar to Phillips imo.

... actually no I've changed my mind.. Phillips, Murray and Blair.

Notch wrote:Just to correct the spelling, it's Conor Murray and Tomás O'Leary

I've voted for Cusiter, Phillips and Murray.

Thank you, apologies for the typo, an honest mistake.

Phillips, Youngs and Murray for me.

Phillips, Murray, Williams for me.

Philips - Dickson - murray/blair

All Welsh for me, Murry is looking better but too similar to Phillips.

Phillips, youngs ( I hate him )

slartibartfast wrote:Phillips, youngs ( I hate him )

Don't worry, you're not meant to like scrum halfs. If you like them, they're not doing their job properly

sugarNspikes wrote:

slartibartfast wrote:Phillips, youngs ( I hate him )

Don't worry, you're not meant to like scrum halfs. If you like them, they're not doing their job properly

Seems to be a very popular choice

Youngs, Phillips & Reddan for me.

A bit of a weak area do you guys reckon? Youngs in form is excellent, so have to go with him.

Phillips has been the best over the last year so he's in there, for me.

Last choice is tricky but went for Dickson, as he usually supplies quick ball when anywhere on the pitch bar his own 22.

Phillips (sadly) and Mike Blair would be my choices.

I really dislike Phillips and I do not rate him but he always seems to do the business.

EnglishReign wrote:Last choice is tricky but went for Dickson, as he usually supplies quick ball when anywhere on the pitch bar his own 22.

He does but it's the rest Of his game that falls apart, and when it does it reall falls apart. Saw it vs Scarlets at franklins gardens and against Ireland a couple of weeks ago.

Youngs and care are miles ahead and have as good if not better service.

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:Phillips (sadly) and Mike Blair would be my choices.

I really dislike Phillips and I do not rate him but he always seems to do the business.

So you do rate him but really don't like him..!!!

Ha ha ha, not my favourite man either though I respect what he gets done on the field.

My irish niece met him in a bar in Dublin a few years ago and proudly told me how he had bought her a few drinks and "was very sweet". I told her he was a bad egg.

Very close vote here people.

Phillips is the popular choice but only just.

I think we all knew this would be close. Interesting.

maestegmafia wrote:

EnglishReign wrote:Last choice is tricky but went for Dickson, as he usually supplies quick ball when anywhere on the pitch bar his own 22.

He does but it's the rest Of his game that falls apart, and when it does it reall falls apart. Saw it vs Scarlets at franklins gardens and against Ireland a couple of weeks ago.

Youngs and care are miles ahead and have as good if not better service.

Youngs' service is getting better now but it wasn't brilliant last year. The best part of his game was always his sniping runs, which he's only just regaining the confidence to attempt again. Care is good but Dickson offers something different, he'd be a good impact sub.

Scrum half seems to be a real weakness for the Lions.

No Ben Spencer? He outplayed the likes of Yachvili and Webb in the HC.

No Peter Stringer?

Would personally have both of them over most of that list.

maes, I've seen it mentioned on a number of occasions that Mike Phillips plays like an extra backrow forward for Wales? Is that true, do you think? And if so, how would the Wales backrow perform with someone else in the 9 jersey?

Not an area of great potential strength for the Lions, at least based on the form the SHs showed this 6Ns.

I'd definitely take Phillips - not the best service, but definitely the best of the current guys at cleaning up bad ball and sniping round the fringes.

I think Youngs should still go, as althugh his form was patchy, he has shown some class in the past and offers a good all round game.

Third choice I think would be Blair - as with Youngs, has a decent all round game, and with the added bonus of some leadership experience.

Why do so many like Philips?

His service is often slow and he crabs wayyy too much.

He is useful when he is running with ball in hand. He acts as some sort of extra crash ball centre.

But he is meant to be a scrum half.

I didn't vote for any english halves purely because of the pendantic way they control the ball at ruck time, you can make coffee in the time they use to clear a ruck.

They do that in SA they won't score any tries.

tigertattie wrote:Why do so many like Philips?

His service is often slow and he crabs wayyy too much.

He is useful when he is running with ball in hand. He acts as some sort of extra crash ball centre.

But he is meant to be a scrum half.

+1

He is good at running with the ball in hand and he can break the 1st tackle normally. If I were his stand off though I would be a wee bit miffed with some of the hospital passes he gives sometimes.

You don't want your Scrum Half to be an "extra flanker". You already have 2 flankers on the pitch. I would much rather have my Scrum Half as a Scrum Half than an extra flanker. Gareth Davies I think would be a better shout for Wales and the Lions rather than Phillips.

biltongbek wrote:I didn't vote for any english halves purely because of the pendantic way they control the ball at ruck time, you can make coffee in the time they use to clear a ruck.

They do that in SA they won't score any tries.

Aye Dickson does faff about at the breakdown a lot with his foot on the ball. To be honest the Refs should come down hard on all Scrum Halfs who do that. Dickson was an obvious example in the 6N though.

tigertattie wrote:Why do so many like Philips?

His service is often slow and he crabs wayyy too much.

He is useful when he is running with ball in hand. He acts as some sort of extra crash ball centre.

But he is meant to be a scrum half.

I disagree, his service and control at the back of the ruck outhines anyhting the english halves do. His only weakness as I see it is he doesn't offload once he has broken defences, and thries to always break one more tackle, which usually ends up in another ruck, rather than providing the offload for his team to exploit the space he has created.

Ben Spencer and Dan Robson have more about them than most on that list. Barely any club experience though, let alone international.

EnglishReign wrote:Ben Spencer and Dan Robson have more about them than most on that list. Barely any club experience though, let alone international.

EnglishReign I don't know much about Dan Robson. He doesn't seem to have played for you much at all.

Ben Spencer has played an awful lot more than him.

Just checked the stats

Spencer started 4, replacement in 2 in the HC for Saracens
In comparison Robson wasn't even in the Gloucester HC squad.

In the AP Spencer has had 10 times more game time than Robson.

I don't think 21 appearances for Spencer in a season including all HC games as well as Saxons is barely any club experience! This of course is coupled with his Saxon and U20s appearances.

Phillips (starting), Blair (bench) & Youngs were my choices.

Easiest of this series so far!

Phillips is streets ahead...

gowershowerpower wrote:Phillips is streets ahead...

Maybe only a block or two, but not streets.

biltongbek wrote:

gowershowerpower wrote:Phillips is streets ahead...

Maybe only a block or two, but not streets.

To be fair, Care's on the same block as Phillips, hes just steaming.

tigertattie wrote:Why do so many like Philips?

His service is often slow and he crabs wayyy too much.

He is useful when he is running with ball in hand. He acts as some sort of extra crash ball centre.

But he is meant to be a scrum half.

+1,000,000

The SH players are scared shoitless of Phillips and if he's not there, they'll be laughing there arrogant heads off.

gowershowerpower wrote:The SH players are scared shoitless of Phillips and if he's not there, they'll be laughing there arrogant heads off.

Why are they scared, and why are they arrogant?

Fear indicates lack of confidence, which in turn means you can't be arrogant.

I am starting to wonder, if Wales players are all pants (as has been discussed on numerous threads over the last week) - how the hell did they win the grandslam? and end up fourth at the world cup?

All I can say is that the rest of the countries must be shocking and we're screwed for the Lions.

Comfort wrote:I am starting to wonder, if Wales players are all pants (as has been discussed on numerous threads over the last week) - how the hell did they win the grandslam? and end up fourth at the world cup?

All I can say is that the rest of the countries must be shocking and we're screwed for the Lions.

Wales' strength is in the backs IMO. The bulk of the posts have been for the Forwards positions.

Scared because they know that they may not be able to handle Phillips.
Arrogant because of believing they are more superior.

Both can occur. Just like I can be bored and fascinated.

gowershowerpower wrote:Scared because they know that they may not be able to handle Phillips.
Arrogant because of believing they are more superior.

Both can occur. Just like I can be bored and fascinated.

I am going to assume you make comments based without fact and be fascinated with your boredom.

Comfort wrote:I am starting to wonder, if Wales players are all pants (as has been discussed on numerous threads over the last week) - how the hell did they win the grandslam? and end up fourth at the world cup?

All I can say is that the rest of the countries must be shocking and we're screwed for the Lions.

+1

Barney McGrew did it wrote:

Comfort wrote:I am starting to wonder, if Wales players are all pants (as has been discussed on numerous threads over the last week) - how the hell did they win the grandslam? and end up fourth at the world cup?

All I can say is that the rest of the countries must be shocking and we're screwed for the Lions.

+1

It just happens comfort, SA has no player in the alltime XV depsite being the second best rugby nation in the universe,...











Unless of course you count the Martians.

Assume away.....

A bit bored of your fascination with GSP.

gowershowerpower wrote:'Wales' strength is in the backs IMO.'

Laughable. Strong from 1 to 8. As are 9-15. Insult removed - RD .

Ignoring your silly, teenage insult calling me a female reproductive organ I'll elaborate.

As a Scottish fan I look at the Welsh pack and think who would I take out of that unit to get a 1st team slot for Scotland, the answer is 2 players, maybe 3. As for your backline I would probably take 6 players

To give an example.

1. Gethin Jenkins (Replaces Jacobson)
2. Ross Ford
3. Adam Jones (Replaces Murry/Cross)
4. Richie Gray
5. Jim Hamilton
6. Dan Lydiate (Replaces Strokosch/Barclay)
7. Ross Rennie
8. Dave Denton

9. Mike Blair
10. Rees Preistland (replaces Laidlaw)
11. Alex Chuthbert (Replaces S Lamont)
12. Jamie Roberts (Replaces Morrison)
13. JD2 (Replaces De Luca)
14. Doddie North (Replaces Evans)
15. Leigh Halfpennny (replaces R.Lamont/Hogg)

Hogg I reckon will be a better player eventually but over the course of the 6N that's how I would have augmented Scotland with Welsh players.

Bill - sometimes, I wonder why i even bother with my other eye.

before anything gets started and goes too off-topic,im going to leave it at this, that old saying...

forwards win you games, the backs decide by how much.

insult removed
the point is, if you swap all 15, you may have won a GS!

insult removed.

Comfort wrote:Bill - sometimes, I wonder why i even bother with my other eye.

before anything gets started and goes too off-topic,im going to leave it at this, that old saying...

forwards win you games, the backs decide by how much.

Comfort, these days the referee decides by how much.

gowershowerpower wrote:insult removed,

the point is, if you swap all 15, you may have won a GS!

(insult removed).

GSP, that is where the fascination with you stems from.

Leave the personal attacks.

okee dokee

In my opinion I think all the scrum halves in this 6 nations were average.

For a flanker to be perceived as the 1st choice scrum half for the Lions things must be bad!

Also for Youngs to be seen as most people's 2nd choice also shows this. He is the potential to be class but his form in the 6 nations was very poor bar yet another cameo against tired legs as a replacement.

Scrum half is a real problem position in my opinion.

biltongbek wrote:

Comfort wrote:Bill - sometimes, I wonder why i even bother with my other eye.

before anything gets started and goes too off-topic,im going to leave it at this, that old saying...

forwards win you games, the backs decide by how much.

Comfort, these days the referee decides by how much.

well actually, i suppose that should be more along the lines of "The ballboy wins you games, the TMO decides by how much" if you're a welsh fan!