RSA say, 'mike phillips is key to wales'.

First topic message reminder :

Former Springboks full-back Thinus Delport has identified suspended scrum-half Mike Phillips as one of Wales' most important players.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/welsh/13859312.stm



well our opponants would say that. i'm sure they would be really terrified if our scrum half was slow and beligerant.

conversely, the springboks would have no fear of a scrumhalf who has a quick and accurate delivery, and got the ball away from the breakdown quickly.

sarcasm, so early in the morning.

i expect mikky p will go to newzealand, but i dont see him as being key to wales' succes. detrimental more like.

Totallybiasedscarlet wrote:On the issue of Full Backs - Jamie Roberts ought to be trained in the position. He has all the necessary attributes to make a success of the position. He seems to lack a necessary prerequisite for a centre - the will and means to pass effectively.

You're right, but it's not going to happen. Gatland has decided that he likes a hard-running centre and Roberts is that man. Hard-running centres are useful, but Gatland and / or Howley seem to have forbidden Roberts from passing and they've given up entirely on trying anything off first phase other than getting Roberts to take the ball up the middle. The fact that our opponents know this and are waiting for him seems not to have occurred to them.

On Mike Phillips, he has had very good games for Wales, but these have been when he was relatively new and teams didn't expect him to use his physicality to attack around the fringes. He's still a good defensive scrum half, but no longer in attack. Ultimately, it comes down to whether the coaches want an extra flanker or a true scrum half.

lp,

As I said posted earlier with a backrow of Lydiate Delve/Faletau and Warburton we wouldn't need his physicality as an extra flanker.

He still has something to offer the Welsh squad as is a different type of option/player but IMO is not the automatic first choice anymore

Samurai - I watched that Baa Baas game too and was of the opinion that Phillips had a very average game and like you felt that when he came off Wales had far more quick ball and more urgency. I personally don't think I'm being too harsh, but it is just my opinion. I have never liked him as a player, even since he first emerged at the Scarlets. I saw him as a liability and a poor man's scrum half ten years ago. He definitely improved a great deal but that's like saying when I joined Michelle Roux's resteraunt I was hopeless - now I've learned to wash the dishes. He had a season where his spikey attitude distracted the opposition. Then, like so many other welsh "Great White Hopes" he was found out as a one trick pony. He's been in decline ever since. I also happen to think he's very far from the hard man he likes to think he is. Like I said earlier he always scuttles off when someone bigger fronts up to him. It's quite pathetic really. Did you see the Ospreys Blues game where Justin Marshall utterly embarrassed him after he threatened to teach Marshall a lesson? That Lions tour was a flash in the pan where he hit the great height of "Adequate." Before and since he's been an absolute liability and a complete hindrance to any attacking ambition Wales may have. Him and Gatland's utterly useless tactics.

Then again it's all just my opinion and I won't be in the slightest offended if you disagree