I too have heard that TPN is a great bloke and fairly smart by all accounts. He does bring another dimension to the pack and now that he seems to have gotten over his ‘throw in’ issues he is in front of Stephen Moore, this amazes me as I thought we were lucky to have a great hooker in Moore. Pity we dont have two great locks (2nd row).

When you think about it we have only two guys in the pack that can make opposition forwards consider their safety and that is Elsom and Palu.

Not getting excited about tomorrow, more interested and quizzical I guess. Got this awful feeling the AB’s are going to do us again!!!!

Blinky – you had better get down to Retravision now and order a new one ! You know it is going to happen.

After 50 Palu can be puffed and Smith can come on.

Some of you are awfully tough on Palu – the guy is a sensational player and so strong in contact, plus he can offload. He mightn’s be in as many rucks as Smith or Pocock, but that’s not his job. His job is once he gets there, to smash the opponents and make a difference. He is also the only one who can be jumped on by three opposing forwards but still manage to not go backwards and recycle the ball.

I’ve watched him before and this is nonsense about his lesser workrate – watch him closely in a game, in the replay even, if you don’t believe me. He is there in or one off the ruck plugging holes and driving the attacker back, if they are silly enough to run at him (they tend to avoid him).

Note they have picked TPN to start for the same reason – the guy is a human missile and hurts when he tackles. Strong as anything and a brute in scrums. More power at the breakdown.

A top person too, which I’ve said before.

My view having watched him over the last few years is that he plays well against all teams except NZ. I think that, like a lot of Islander boys, he is just in awe of the All Blacks.

IMHO he should be one of the best 8′s in the world.

This is strange when you think that we had Toutai Kefu and Jim Williams who would lift against the AB’s. Hell! Kefu won us a famous test match in Ealsy’s last match.

We have a few islander boys in our club and you would think the sun shone out of Carter/McCaw and they will not support the Wallabies when we are playing the AB’s. Even when we are not playing them they are reluctant supporters.

I find a lot of the Islander boys playing for the Wallabies have that sort of mentality, with the only exception in recent years being Lote Tuqiri.

Pocock deserves a go at the ABs, and Smith to be given a 30 minutes at the end sounds like a good strategy.

How ever disappointed with:

1) Michell being selected on the bench. He should not even be in the tour.

2) Burgess being selected on the bench, knowing full well that Gits having anxiety attackes when he is half back. Burgess should go back to club Rugby to work on his game.

3) Why is Giteau still palying at 10? Pretty disappointing after Dean’s been talking tough preceeding this game. Who’s the Boss?

4) Cross selection is weak, but who else is there? I can’t see him playing test after this tour. I hope he shows more guts and enthusiasm at his defence.

Oh and please make sure to tell Palu that this is really really really his last chance to show that he has got balls big enough to play test.

Deans is probably lucky he never got the AB coaching position – his selections would have lead to riots in the streets (then again Rocko and Donald missed the scythe for too long)

I think he’s still got it in him.

I remember during the 2008 Super 14 Pocock came up against Richie McCaw and outplayed him. I was in shock that such a young player could have such an amazing impact. This was after watching season after season of McCaw outplaying Smith. I overreacted and instantly thought Pocock would become one of Australia’s best ever players. But then I saw him come up against Smith and Waugh. Both seemed bloody intent on making sure he stayed outside of the Australian team.

This year it was clear Phil Waugh was well and truly passed it. You have to respect Waugh for wanting everything so bad, and it’s not a Waratahs game if Phil Waigh hasn’t spilt some blood. But Deans did the right thing to get rid of him. Aussies didn’t want to see Waugh go, some suggested he should play hooker or something, his competitive nature was such an invaluable commodity that people didn’t want to see him go. But in the end there was only one right decision and that was for Deans to cull him.

So it was Smith v Pocock. This year in the Super 14 Smith has generally been better. Smith hasn’t really had much of an influence of any of the tri nations games though.

I think most people think Smith is still slightly better than Pocock, but a possible consequence of dumping Smith is that it might force Pocock to take more responsibility on the field, stand-up, learn a few things, and improve his game. I’d love to see the David Pocock that outplayed McCaw again. Bob Dwyer once said when you judge who should be selected, you judge them by their best form. It’s then the coach’s job to make sure they reach that level over and over again.

Pocock, to me, hasn’t played as well as he did that day he outplayed McCaw. But gosh I was excited that day he did. Hopefully he’ll make a real fist of this opportunity, because right now Smith (despite his talent) isn’t exerting much of an influence on games, and Pocock could really develope into an awesome player.