Team for Australia

[Scrumhead]

Seriously, Farrell has had a hand in so many points today.




For Australia

And yet again, he got away with the illegal hit and scored a try that will mask his flaws in the eyes of the media

I watched in a pub today and it’s clear the ‘man on the street’ thinks Farrell can do no wrong. Apparently ‘we dominated for 80mins and Farrell was ‘world class’ as always’

[Galfon]

The irreplaceables now..Moon, Sink, Wilson.
should be..JR to lead the pack somehow,
has been..Manu showed in 5 mins that this has been the case.
Also May,Daly and Faz at least in the 23.

3 wins from 4 was better than most expected.

.

[fivepointer]

The good bits far outweighed the not so good. At times we looked a bit ponderous and unimaginitive with the ball, at other times we moved it around very nicely. Defensively we looked a bit more secure and did force a number of turnovers.
Felt the forwards were first class. Sinkler has really come on a bunch this autumn. Wilson again very impressive. Shields showed up reasonably well, too.
Big Joe is now here to stay. Nice cameo from Manu. Not sure we're getting the best out of Daly at 15 and the play at half back can be just a bit pedestrian.
Overall, 3 out of 4 with some players coming through isnt a bad return at all.

[Raggs]

Couldn't believe the lack of comment on Ford's pass. Farrell's run and Manu's line, certainly, Ford taking an awful pass, drawing, picking the right decision and giving a great pass, silence.

[Raggs]

Sooo,.. RWC...

Mako, George, Sinkler, Launch, Itoje, Wilson, Underhill, Billy, Youngs, Farrell, Cokansiga, Teo, Manu, May, Daly/Watson/Brown?

LCD, Genge, Williams, Lawes, Hughes, Care, Ford, Daly/Watson/Brown

Better hands in the pack than the backs, but sheer power and gainline presence.

[Mellsblue]

Sooo,.. RWC...

Mako, George, Sinkler, Launch, Itoje, Wilson, Underhill, Billy, Youngs, Farrell, Cokansiga, Teo, Manu, May, Daly/Watson/Brown?

LCD, Genge, Williams, Lawes, Hughes, Care, Ford, Daly/Watson/Brown

Better hands in the pack than the backs, but sheer power and gainline presence.

Your pick or Jones’s?

[Raggs]

Sooo,.. RWC...

Mako, George, Sinkler, Launch, Itoje, Wilson, Underhill, Billy, Youngs, Farrell, Cokansiga, Teo, Manu, May, Daly/Watson/Brown?

LCD, Genge, Williams, Lawes, Hughes, Care, Ford, Daly/Watson/Brown

Better hands in the pack than the backs, but sheer power and gainline presence.

Your pick or Jones’s?

Jones. Though to be honest, with a bit of fear, I don't think I'd necessarily make many changes. Very simple, very direct, but pretty much a "You know what's coming, try and stop us." theory.

[Tigersman]

My team currently looks like
1. Vunipola, 2. George, 3. Sinckler
4. Lawes, 5. Itoje
6. Underhill, 7. Curry, 8. Vunipola
9. Youngs, 10. Ford
12. Farrell, 13. Manu
11. May, 14. Cokansiga, 15. Brown

16. Hartley, 17. Genge, 18. Williams
19. Launchbury, 20. Wilson
21. Care, 22. Daly, 23. Watson

[Puja]

Couldn't believe the lack of comment on Ford's pass. Farrell's run and Manu's line, certainly, Ford taking an awful pass, drawing, picking the right decision and giving a great pass, silence.

If Manu is fit, then Ford/Faz/Manu has to be our midfield. That try was how it works in a microcosm - Manu carries hard and attracts attention, Farrell drifts behind to feed the width or go through the Manu-shaped hole, and Ford takes the ball to the line and makes the right decision depending on which one of them the defence has bitten on.

Puja

[morepork]

Chekia has completely emasculated this Oz team. With all due respeck to England, of course.

[Puja]

My team currently looks like
1. Vunipola, 2. George, 3. Sinckler
4. Lawes, 5. Itoje
6. Underhill, 7. Curry, 8. Vunipola
9. Youngs, 10. Ford
12. Farrell, 13. Manu
11. May, 14. Cokansiga, 15. Brown

16. Hartley, 17. Genge, 18. Williams
19. Launchbury, 20. Wilson
21. Care, 22. Daly, 23. Watson

Quite close to mine - I'd have Daly and Watson starting ahead of Cokanasiga and Brown and the flanks are very close between Robshaw, Curry, Wilson, and Underhill.

Nice dream to believe even 70% of that lot will be fit at the RWC though.

Puja

[Oakboy]

It is strange that the 6N has become the benchmark with these AIs. Ireland and Wales will provide sterner tests than SA. Scotland and France will be tougher than Australia.

We so badly need a SH. Wigglesworth, at 35, looks our best by some margin which is ridiculous.

T'eo is there to stay at 12, I'd say.

Daly's try and general play showed exactly why his best position is on the wing.

[Shiny]

Trying not to open a huge can of worms here but did anyone else think the Farrell as captain decisions were much better today. Taking the points when required instead of kicking for the corner. Maybe Uncle William (Carling) has had a word.

[p/d]

Trying not to open a huge can of worms here but did anyone else think the Farrell as captain decisions were much better today. Taking the points when required instead of kicking for the corner. Maybe Uncle William (Carling) has had a word.

Probably learnt from his 'not taking' the points v NZ

[Puja]

Trying not to open a huge can of worms here but did anyone else think the Farrell as captain decisions were much better today. Taking the points when required instead of kicking for the corner. Maybe Uncle William (Carling) has had a word.

Probably learnt from his 'not taking' the points v NZ

I thought the NZ one was the right call - we'd been dominant in the maul, looking likely to score every time and it would've been a tough kick. Not his fault the ref let the Kiwis bring down an attacking maul and then Sinckler thought about scoring before he'd caught it.

Maybe I'm just unpragmatic, but I was really disappointed with the decision to go for goal at 27-13, after the Cokanasiga run and penalty off the scrum. Our scrum had just walked over Australia, and the cross-field from the last advantage was inches away from a try. Why not have another scrum and see if you can either get another advantage or a pushover try? If you can't when you're 14 points up and utterly dominant in the scrum, when can you?

Puja

[Stom]

I'll be honest, I'm going to find it hard to be all "We're going to win the WC!" after that. Aus were terrible.

If it had been NZ or Ireland playing them, they would have won by 30. Minimum. Hell, they may have put 60 on them, they were that bad.

But we waved them through for 2 terrible tries.

Positives:

Sinck is getting back to his best.
WIlson was really good allround.
Big Joe is a real handful.
Itoje is looking better again.
Moon looks a decent 2nd/3rd choice.

Negatives:

We conceded all those points - missed tackles all over the place.
Daly...poor at FB.
Slade just makes too many mistakes. It's harsh but considering how often the ball comes to him, he needs to make an impact every time.
On that note: the number of times Slade touched the ball. Terrible. Our play was laboured, I thought. We only scored so many points because the Aussie defense was at the standard of an u11 team.
Kicking - just poor. Box kicks were often overhit or infield (except one really good example), while Farrell hit three terrible kicks, one of which directly led to the last try.
The fact we didn't see Ford - Farrell - Tuilagi until the last 5.

[Epaminondas Pules]

Far from perfect, but we put a poor Aus side away. Second half was a big improvement. Add back in both Vunipolas into the mix and some more competition with Genge, Joseph, Watson, Robshaw and Launch and it’s a more dynamic side altogether. Our backrow only had just over 20 caps between them which is saying something! 4th and 5th choice looseheads.

Won 3 out of 4. Bloody hell, as unconvincing as lots was I’ll take that!

[Mellsblue]

I’d go:

Mako
George
Sinckler
Itoje
Lawes
Wilson
Underhill
Billy

Wigglesworth
Ford
Daly
Farrell
Tuilagi
May
Watson

Hartley
Genge
Williams
Launchbury
Curry
Care
Joseph
Cokanasiga

[Epaminondas Pules]

Trying not to open a huge can of worms here but did anyone else think the Farrell as captain decisions were much better today. Taking the points when required instead of kicking for the corner. Maybe Uncle William (Carling) has had a word.

Probably learnt from his 'not taking' the points v NZ

I thought the NZ one was the right call - we'd been dominant in the maul, looking likely to score every time and it would've been a tough kick. Not his fault the ref let the Kiwis bring down an attacking maul and then Sinckler thought about scoring before he'd caught it.

Maybe I'm just unpragmatic, but I was really disappointed with the decision to go for goal at 27-13, after the Cokanasiga run and penalty off the scrum. Our scrum had just walked over Australia, and the cross-field from the last advantage was inches away from a try. Why not have another scrum and see if you can either get another advantage or a pushover try? If you can't when you're 14 points up and utterly dominant in the scrum, when can you?

Puja

It was a good decision just to put us more than two tries ahead. Though they should then have taken a drop goal just to shut Woodentwat up for ten seconds!

[Stom]

I’d go:

Mako
George
Sinckler
Itoje
Lawes
Wilson
Underhill
Billy

Wigglesworth
Ford
Daly
Farrell
Tuilagi
May
Watson

Hartley
Genge
Williams
Launchbury
Curry
Care
Joseph
Cokanasiga

I'd probably end up similar to this. But with Launch starting instead of Lawes and an IC instead of Joseph, because you have no IC cover there. But the options don't scream pick me...

Te'o probably. POWER!!!

But we're starting to put a squad together.

Mako, Genge, Moon, Hepburn
George, Hartley
Sinckler, Williams, Cole
Launch, Kruis
Itoje, Lawes, Ewels
Wilson, Robshaw, Shields
Underhill, Curry
Billy, Hughes, Simmonds, Mercer
tumbleweed
Ford, Farrell
Te'o, Slade, Tuilagi, Joseph
May, Big Joe, Daly, Nowell, Watson, Brown, Ashton

There's a couple of decent teams in there. But there's also some glaring gaps. Mainly at 9 and 12 now.

[Mellsblue]

I’d go:

Mako
George
Sinckler
Itoje
Lawes
Wilson
Underhill
Billy

Wigglesworth
Ford
Daly
Farrell
Tuilagi
May
Watson

Hartley
Genge
Williams
Launchbury
Curry
Care
Joseph
Cokanasiga

I'd probably end up similar to this. But with Launch starting instead of Lawes and an IC instead of Joseph, because you have no IC cover there. But the options don't scream pick me...

Te'o probably. POWER!!!

But we're starting to put a squad together.

Mako, Genge, Moon, Hepburn
George, Hartley
Sinckler, Williams, Cole
Launch, Kruis
Itoje, Lawes, Ewels
Wilson, Robshaw, Shields
Underhill, Curry
Billy, Hughes, Simmonds, Mercer
tumbleweed
Ford, Farrell
Te'o, Slade, Tuilagi, Joseph
May, Big Joe, Daly, Nowell, Watson, Brown, Ashton

There's a couple of decent teams in there. But there's also some glaring gaps. Mainly at 9 and 12 now.

I’d move Tuilagi to 12. It’s all semantics as he’ll be injured.

[switchskier]

Trying not to open a huge can of worms here but did anyone else think the Farrell as captain decisions were much better today. Taking the points when required instead of kicking for the corner. Maybe Uncle William (Carling) has had a word.

Probably learnt from his 'not taking' the points v NZ

I thought the NZ one was the right call - we'd been dominant in the maul, looking likely to score every time and it would've been a tough kick. Not his fault the ref let the Kiwis bring down an attacking maul and then Sinckler thought about scoring before he'd caught it.

Maybe I'm just unpragmatic, but I was really disappointed with the decision to go for goal at 27-13, after the Cokanasiga run and penalty off the scrum. Our scrum had just walked over Australia, and the cross-field from the last advantage was inches away from a try. Why not have another scrum and see if you can either get another advantage or a pushover try? If you can't when you're 14 points up and utterly dominant in the scrum, when can you?

Puja

I guess that the difference between two scores and three is a fairly major one. A 15 point advantage and I think the decision would have been different.

[Rich]

My team currently looks like
1. Vunipola, 2. George, 3. Sinckler
4. Lawes, 5. Itoje
6. Underhill, 7. Curry, 8. Vunipola
9. Youngs, 10. Ford
12. Farrell, 13. Manu
11. May, 14. Cokansiga, 15. Brown

16. Hartley, 17. Genge, 18. Williams
19. Launchbury, 20. Wilson
21. Care, 22. Daly, 23. Watson

A fit Anthony Watson has to get int the starting XV

Cokanasiga pushed May to the right wing despite the numbers on their backs.I'm not sure if this is a piece of gamesmanship from Jones as he did the same thing two years ago in Australia.
I wonder if May would work better than Daly or Watson at full back as he seems to deal with the high ball well.

I still want a midfield of: Farrell (10) - Te'o (12) - Manu (13)

Hartley to start and be sole captain

Wilson at blindside and Hughes on the bench.

[Digby]

Of all the games this was the one with the biggest margin in performance between the sides, but even then we know the Aussies had a sickness bug, and I'd have let the try stand that was ruled out by the tmo and how the Farrell shoulder charge wasn't a penalty try I don’t know

The biggest problem from this game is not knowing how much the intensity was down to sickness in the Aussie camp

[Epaminondas Pules]

Any other tackle than a shoulder and the Aussie scores. For me its a shoulder, though the arm does come up after the event, similarly to the SA one, but much less obvious. Penalty though and thus penalty try for me. Certainly worth the risk as it was a try anyway, and with a ref like Peyper you may as well chance your arm as the guy is a joke. Just look at his explanation to Hooper about their player dropping his shoulder, which as a ball carrier you are perfectly entitled to do. We got away with it. Went in level instead of behind. Happy days.