Rugby League - International

[social]

Yeah I know.



Yeah, awesome tournament - every match was good. How many selections were taking the piss in your opinion? We just didn't have enough big man to strike any fear in NZ.

Bar Smith, most of the forwards plus the centres (Jennings was good but I seriously doubt that he is one of the 2 best in Oz), wings and reserves

Every team gets injuries and you need to rebuild at some time but 11 debutants was ridiculous

 

[NUFAN]

Bar Smith, most of the forwards plus the centres (Jennings was good but I seriously doubt that he is one of the 2 best in Oz), wings and reserves

Every team gets injuries and you need to rebuild at some time but 11 debutants was ridiculous

11 does sound high, but from the final 17 there were obviously less than 11 who hadn't played Tests before the series started - I think there were 7 on debut (3 outside backs, a prop and 3 reserves). With so many injuries, it did force the selectors hands I'm still interested in seeing who you would have actually picked.

 

[NUFAN]

Just to add to that the following 15 were unavailable for selection before the series had started:

Billy Slater Brett Morris Josh Morris Justin Hodges Darius Boyd Johnathan Thurston Matt Scott James Tamou Nate Myles Trent Merrin Matt Gillett Josh Dugan Dave Taylor Andrew Fifita Paul Gallen

Some of those players could have come in handy..

NZ had a few outs too of course, I'm not for one minute making an excuse that we lost, I'm more trying to work out who Social would have picked instead.

 

[the big bambino]

That would be hard to answer as it'd be difficult to recall all the players who cried off injured. Myles and Merrin would have been solid inclusions assuming they were ok and simply overlooked as opposed to injured.

EDIT. You've just answered that question.

 

[Hurricane]

We were missing only three peeps really and had close to our best side

SBW was our name player who was out but I am cheating by even mentioning him as he has switched codes
JWH - said he was fatigued. But he never turns up against australia except for his debut some years ago in England
Hurrell - who would have been incredible in test match football - but SKD was a fine fill in and consistently was a reliable performer and an asset.

 

[Hurricane]

Just to add to that the following 15 were unavailable for selection before the series had started:

Billy Slater Brett Morris Josh Morris Justin Hodges Darius Boyd Johnathan Thurston Matt Scott James Tamou Nate Myles Trent Merrin Matt Gillett Josh Dugan Dave Taylor Andrew Fifita Paul Gallen

Some of those players could have come in handy..

NZ had a few outs too of course, I'm not for one minute making an excuse that we lost, I'm more trying to work out who Social would have picked instead.

I am glad Tamou was out - it is BS that he plays for Australia.

 

[NUFAN]

We were missing only three peeps really and had close to our best side

SBW was our name player who was out but I am cheating by even mentioning him as he has switched codes
JWH - said he was fatigued. But he never turns up against australia except for his debut some years ago in England
Hurrell - who would have been incredible in test match football - but SKD was a fine fill in and consistently was a reliable performer and an asset.

Plus Roger Tuivesa Sheck and Sam Moa. I think that Ben Henry would have taken Lewis Brown's spot too.

 

[BeeGee]

Congrats to the Kiwis. Great tournament.

I haven't watched league since moving to the sates, but I've started getting back into it with this tournament. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy the sport.

 

[social]

Just to add to that the following 15 were unavailable for selection before the series had started:

Billy Slater Brett Morris Josh Morris Justin Hodges Darius Boyd Johnathan Thurston Matt Scott James Tamou Nate Myles Trent Merrin Matt Gillett Josh Dugan Dave Taylor Andrew Fifita Paul Gallen

Some of those players could have come in handy..

NZ had a few outs too of course, I'm not for one minute making an excuse that we lost, I'm more trying to work out who Social would have picked instead.

Tbh. have no idea but selecting one prop in the squad (and a relative novice at that) when you are playing massive packs like the Kiwis and Samoa was always courting trouble

I was amazed to see 3 Broncos on the field at the end (Thaiday, Parker and Hunt) when all 3 had been relatively ordinary for fair swags of the year

 

[the big bambino]

Hunt was good this year and deserved his spot. Parker plays well at rep level and he and Thaiday were always making this team in light of our absent players. I guess it has to be asked: The Matuatia no try - forward yes or no. (imo I thought it was good).

 

[Hurricane]

Hunt was good this year and deserved his spot. Parker plays well at rep level and he and Thaiday were always making this team in light of our absent players. I guess it has to be asked: The Matuatia no try - forward yes or no. (imo I thought it was good).

Make up call for the earlier forward pass-try

Either that or a 50-50 call that he gave to the home side

 

[the big bambino]

All evens out as they say (bcos they're right). I think I'm starting to see "the thing" in Matautia those picking the team obviously could.

 

[NUFAN]

Tbh. have no idea but selecting one prop in the squad (and a relative novice at that) when you are playing massive packs like the Kiwis and Samoa was always courting trouble

I was amazed to see 3 Broncos on the field at the end (Thaiday, Parker and Hunt) when all 3 had been relatively ordinary for fair swags of the year

Yeah no worries. I definitely do think we were a prop light and I was critical of Klemmer's selection at the time. He ran well but missed SKD in the lead up to that first try.

But if you go through the NRL teams it is kind of hard to find a prop who should have been selected. There is Josh McGuire who impressed for Samoa and he was in the train on squad so was probably the unlucky player to miss out. It sounds bizarre but the way Ashton Sims finished the season he might have been a decent option. There is also a guy like Aiden Tolman who always gets overlooked even for NSW and I guess the Raiders Paul Vaughan had a decent year.

Also, I think its incredibly harsh to say that Ben Hunt has been ordinary this year - I have no idea how anyone who has watched the Broncos could say that. Also don't think Parker was ordinary, he has been solid and was great for QLD - Thaiday is overrated though, I don't really understand why selectors make him an automatic selection.

 

[social]

Yeah no worries. I definitely do think we were a prop light and I was critical of Klemmer's selection at the time. He ran well but missed SKD in the lead up to that first try.

But if you go through the NRL teams it is kind of hard to find a prop who should have been selected. There is Josh McGuire who impressed for Samoa and he was in the train on squad so was probably the unlucky player to miss out. It sounds bizarre but the way Ashton Sims finished the season he might have been a decent option. There is also a guy like Aiden Tolman who always gets overlooked even for NSW and I guess the Raiders Paul Vaughan had a decent year.

Also, I think its incredibly harsh to say that Ben Hunt has been ordinary this year - I have no idea how anyone who has watched the Broncos could say that. Also don't think Parker was ordinary, he has been solid and was great for QLD - Thaiday is overrated though, I don't really understand why selectors make him an automatic selection.

Hunt is improving but a step down from, say, Soward and the Pearce of the finals series (ugh, hurt to give credit to a Pearce)

Having said that, odds-on that they were unavailable anyway

Parker and Thaiday were actually pretty good in this series but exposed a bit due to lack of size (IIRC, Sam played as a prop in one match)

Whole balance of the team was off and not helped by the fact that some of the young guys (e.g. Walker) were pretty ordinary when asked to move out of their favoured positions

 

[dermo]

thaiday kills it when he plays as a wide running back rower, don't know why he gets played anywhere else

 

[NUFAN]

Yeah that's the only position for Thaiday or else he just doesn't get involved enough.

I forgot Brenton Lawrence and Willie Mason from my available prop list too.

 

[Mister Wright]

Australia made a mistake in not picking McGuire. He ended the tournament ok, but how Papalii got in ahead of him was bewildering.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Scotland 4 England 0.

Jesus. Memories of the loss to Italy start to swirl...

Sweaties have been good value for it too. Brough looking the best English half - back once again.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Well, 8-0 briefly thanks to some scarcely believable acrobatics from Matty Russell, but we've struck back with a converted try.

 

[Ausage]

Holy **** Scotland.

This is why you don't ignore the games you expect to be blowouts. Sure 99% of them are crap games but you miss the absolute best results.