Planet Rugby's HEC Team of the Week

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,3551_8983968,00.html

15 Liam Williams (Scarlets) - He continues to impress and deserves applause once again for his performance against Racing Metro. It was close between him and Brice Dulin, Ben Foden and Lee Byrne but the Welshman gets the nod.

14 Wandile Mjekevu (Perpignan) - Came on for Richard Haughton in the first-half and the South African winger did not look back, eating up 126 metres en route to a couple of tries as Perpignan picked up a bonus-point win against Edinburgh.

13 Casey Laulala (Munster) - It has taken him a while to transfer the form he showed when at Cardiff Blues to the Munster jersey but the former Crusaders centre has certainly found top gear now. Silky smooth yet ultra destructive with ball in hand against Gloucester.

12 Cory Allen (Cardiff Blues) - When Jamie Roberts exited for Racing, many at the Arms Park may have been ringing the panic bell about who would fill the 12 spot. That didn't last long as Allen has bags of talent and a big game mentality, shown against Matt Giteau.

11 Sitiveni Sivivatu (Clermont) - Yet another special individual shift from the former All Black. Well over 100 metres on the board as he always kept Quins guessing. A mention for Watisoni Votu, who was equally impressive with ball in hand for USAP against Edinburgh.

10 Jimmy Gopperth (Leinster) - A few supporters were disappointed to see Gopperth get picked ahead of Ian Madigan in week one and two but the former Hurricanes and Newcastle fly-half has surely now won over those doubters. Another assured showing from the New Zealander, who edges out 23-point Connacht fly-half Dan Parks for this jersey.

9 Ruan Pienaar (Ulster) - Five penalties as the Ravenhill outfit stunned Montpellier in France on Saturday. Pienaar and Paddy Jackson also combined very well indeed as they directed Ulster to an excellent victory. A mention for Scarlets nine Rhodri Williams.

8 Robin Copeland (Cardiff Blues) - Like all of his Blues team-mates, Copeland gave everything for the cause against Toulon as he tackled, carried and did the dirty work that secured victory. Both Gillian Galan and Thomas Waldrom are deserving of mentions.

7 Tom Wood (Northampton) - Beats Glasgow man-of-the-match Tyrone Homes to this shirt after a top performance at Franklin's Gardens. Wood appears to be the front-runner for the England captaincy and on this evidence, he would be a man that players would follow.

6 Peter O'Mahony (Munster) - Justin Purll scored the crucial try bonus-point for Perpignan but unfortunately for him we simply had to find O'Mahony a place in our line-up. The Irish back-row forward was a rock once again and continues to improve with every game.

5 Christian Day (Northampton) - A try and an assist for the former Sale lock who mixed power with finesse for the Saints on Sunday. It was a performance that Stuart Lancaster will surely have taken note of as he assesses who are England's back-ups at second-row.

4 Courtney Lawes (Northampton) - Plenty of praise has been given to Day's lock partner after his all-action showing against the Ospreys. He made fourteen tackles on Sunday - most of those being monster hits - while his work around the field was impressive.

3 BJ Botha (Munster) - Solid if not spectacular is just what every coach wants from their tighthead prop and Botha offers that game after game. The South African was also not shy to get around Thomond Park, making the second most tackles in his forward pack.

2 Tom Youngs (Leicester) - Scored one of the Tigers' four try against Treviso in a much-needed bonus-point win. The hooker also took the ball up an impressive seventeen times as the battle for the England two jersey shifts toward the converted inside centre.

1 Emmanuel Felsina (Toulon) - What about that scrum in Cardiff? Toulon had sent on Carl Hayman and Felsina for Martin Castrogiovanni and Xavier Chiocci and the duo did not disappoint. Blues tighthead Scott Andrews will have had nightmares starring Felsina.

Hard to take this seriously when SOB didn't make the team.

So Ulster get the result of the round and only Pienaer who was not the best in the team makes it - yer right

Oh oh...I can already hear the whinge fest and the collective spilling of mochachinos north and east on our little island....

I can only assume they were hoping to engender debate rather than try to show off their knowledge and appreciation of rugby with that selection?

Is that 12 different sides represented?

Well at least that's an advance on Planet Rugby's usual efforts, from my memory, when they stubbornly fixate on a certain few sides and even include water-boys from the chosen few, if necessary, rather than spreading around the appreciation.

ME-109 wrote:Oh oh...I can already hear the whinge fest and the collective spilling of mochachinos north and east on our little island....

I spat mine all over the screen... Munster squeeze past the Gloucester reserves with the help of the referee and TMO and manage to get two starters!

Even Declan Kidney would have spilt his pina colada at that one....

You do get the feeling they watched 2 games, looked at the results from the rest and then picked a player from the winning teams.

Rory Best?

Hard take it seriously when Jimmy Gopperth was made best 10 of the weekend - apart from kicking his goals he was poor and nowhere near the level he was at v Ospreys a week ago. Only saw highlights of Ulster and Perpignan games, but Jackson and Hook looked v good

Three South Africans, not to shabby Nige.

I didn't see the Leinster game, but have seen lots of Leinster fans complaining about Gopperths perfromance- weird team.

Assume Pienaar is ahead of Jackson because of goal kicking, because Pienaar made more mistakes than PJ good as he was.

I'm guessing yer man that picked the team didn't see if either!

Good to see some non familiar names making a good impression. Plenty of tough calls in that team.

No one from Glasgow. Not a single one. Exeter deserved at least one inclusion!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming Planet Rugby. Sky Sports decided, in their infinite wisdom, not to show the Glasgow v Exeter match, which puts PR in a pretty tough position. How can they make an adequate appraisal of Tom Wood against Tyrone Holmes when they weren't able to see just how good Holmes was?

European debates aside, the sooner Sky get given the giant boot they deserve, the better!

Notch wrote:I didn't see the Leinster game, but have seen lots of Leinster fans complaining about Gopperths perfromance- weird team.

Ah ignore that lot, they're probably regular drinkers in Madigan's pubs -

Shaggy knows his tomatoes from his fruit salads so that's good enough for me... yer man Gopperth is quality even if he doesn't look as good in Chino's as Ian or Jonny.

rodders wrote:

ME-109 wrote:Oh oh...I can already hear the whinge fest and the collective spilling of mochachinos north and east on our little island....

I spat mine all over the screen... Munster squeeze past the Gloucester reserves with the help of the referee and TMO and manage to get two starters!  

Even Declan Kidney would have spilt his pina colada at that one....

Nice one Rodders...I would have thought you were disappointed the Ref in the Ulster/Montpellier game didn't make it...he was by far your best player... 

IanBru wrote:No one from Glasgow. Not a single one. Exeter deserved at least one inclusion!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming Planet Rugby. Sky Sports decided, in their infinite wisdom,  not to show the Glasgow v Exeter match, which puts PR in a pretty tough position. How can they make an adequate appraisal of Tom Wood against Tyrone Holmes when they weren't able to see just how good Holmes was?

European debates aside, the sooner Sky get given the giant boot they deserve, the better!

Don't worry about it ... we know our pears from our parsnips. It's only a naming game and it's nice to see SH players keeping the Provinces alive as usual, if that's any consolation.

ME-109 wrote:

rodders wrote:

ME-109 wrote:Oh oh...I can already hear the whinge fest and the collective spilling of mochachinos north and east on our little island....

I spat mine all over the screen... Munster squeeze past the Gloucester reserves with the help of the referee and TMO and manage to get two starters!  

Even Declan Kidney would have spilt his pina colada at that one....

Nice one Rodders...I would have thought you were disappointed the Ref in the Ulster/Montpellier game didn't make it...he was by far your best player... 

Yeah beats having to rely on Pienaar all the time I suppose.

Nice to see one of ours got in. The forwards had to do twice the normal work because our backs struggled with the concept of catching the ball. Youngs was excellent again despite all the scrummaging the backs forced on him he was still in amongst the action all game and his darts were bang on.

From a Saints perspective it is nice to see Courtney Lawes and Tom Wood on the list. Both played very well.

Christian Day had a good game, too, but I am surprised to see no other lock played better. He is a terrific club player, had a good day, and was one of the keys to victory. I am happy to see him get some recognition, but did not see his performance as all-weekend.

BJ Botha??  He wasn't bad but Munsters scrum were far from dominant.

Sky Rugby coverage really is utter cack.

This sums up one of their diddy commentators (Mark Robson) rather well:-

http://bloodandmud.typepad.com/.a/6a00e39824cab28833019b001974a1970b-pi

You can't blame sky for Planet rugby not watching all the available games though.

I knew there was something wrong before I'd got past the comments on the Fullback. I didn't see the Scarlets game so I can't claim that Williams wasn't superb but I did see the Clermont match and I think only his Gran would mention Lee Byrne ahead of Payne. (Sivivatu was great!)

A list that doesn't even have Jackson in the reckoning either suggests to me the guy watched the Saints, Tigers and Toulon and threw in a couple of others from the scorelines. Gopperth and Pienaar got listed because he twit has seen that they scored lots of points.

 

Could do better.

PR team of the week is always rubbish. Favourites from favourite clubs, rarely includes anyone outside that. The slagging on the PR forum used to be hilarious, but now they've mostly given up.

I guess.

Although, I will admit that I would have likely been lauding him as an insightful rugby guru beyond compare had he named 6 Ulstermen!

 

Gopperth was great against the Ospreys. Poor this week.

Paddy Jackson did the business both weeks. And Leicester at home and Montpellier away isn't easy either.

Matowalo!

Paddy Jackson's kicking from hand is O'Gara esque, pins the opposition back and really adds pressure and keeps that big Ulster pack generally in the rights areas of the field. I look forward to welcoming him to Welford Rd and a small pitch that will really test his control.

Can't believe Mike Brown didn't even get a mention.

formerly known as Sam wrote:Paddy Jackson's kicking from hand is O'Gara esque, pins the opposition back and really adds pressure and keeps that big Ulster pack generally in the rights areas of the field. I look forward to welcoming him to Welford Rd and a small pitch that will really test his control.

I doubt we'll be looking for the corners at WR, but Trimble and Bowe will be putting all sorts of pressure on whoever we play anywhere. We seem like a good kicking team, I guess we are, but we're really a good kick chasing team.

yappysnap wrote:Can't believe Mike Brown didn't even get a mention.

Especially as Lee "Clermont's weakest player" Byrne did

There was a point in the second half of the Leinster game when Madigan put in a beautiful kick to the corner from play, took every available inch out of it, landed it 10m out. I look up at the big screen and it shows Jimmy G, I thought oh he must have kicked that one, the fella behind me assured me it was indeed Madigan. So sky were crediting JG with Madigans good play, he wasn't really that good, certainly not team of the week good!

ChequeredJersey wrote:

yappysnap wrote:Can't believe Mike Brown didn't even get a mention.

Especially as Lee "Clermont's weakest player" Byrne did

Agreed, other then getting given the ball on the line to score and conceding a yellow card he did nothing all game. Baffling choice.

Biltong wrote:Three South Africans, not to shabby Nige.

Three Kiwis too mate

nganboy wrote:

Biltong wrote:Three South Africans, not to shabby Nige.

Three Kiwis too mate

Gopperth and Lualuala were a bit fortunate to make the team though.

SOB has probably been the outstanding player of the tournament so far so I reckon his name should just be pencilled on the team every week. Not sure why he was overlooked, maybe because the Leinster game was bit of a turgid affair.

Notch, I really like the way Jackson kicks towards the corners but keeps the ball in play. Coupled with the flying Ulster wingers it gives the defensive cover little time to react and generally forces a rushed kick at a tight angle. Given Payne's ability in broken field or the choice of a lineout deep in opposition territory, however, the kick works out is good for Ulster. His up and unders are pretty effective as well.

ME-109 wrote:Oh oh...I can already hear the whinge fest and the collective spilling of mochachinos north and east on our little island....

I'll whinge, there is no way Gopperth should be on that list, even for the Irish teams you could argue that PJ and Parks were better and I'd even argue that Keatley contributed more to the Munster game than Gopperth did in the Leinster game.

And while SOB was our best player he wasn't one of the 3 best backrow performances for the weekend.

So far this season, Leinster have been getting results, but performance levels have been poor.

I don't think even Jimmy Gopperth's mum would have had him down in a team of the week.

Flood against Treviso, James against Quins and Jackson against Montpellier were all much, much better.

I have started to ignore PR's attempts at impartiality due to their usual tendency to over-emphasis the 3 games anyone in the office actually saw.

George, no Tigers backs are eligible for selection based on the Treviso game.

formerly known as Sam wrote:George, no Tigers backs are eligible for selection based on the Treviso game.

Were they that bad, Sam?