Simon Baggott's Roar Profile

– Richie McCaw not suspended for a stray elbow
– Read not suspended for a choke tackle
– Roosters not resigning SBW
– Not selecting O’Connor, Karmichael Hunt, Horwill, Kerevi, Higginbotham, Cooper
– Pocock not captain
– Benn Robinson & Ben Alexander not picked
– Tony Abbott and The Liberals game private schools too many rebates, thus meaning that more useless private schoolboys who don’t have a Steve Waugh edge to them are in the side
– Negative Gearing means young people cant afford to live in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane and as a result end up playing cricket or AFL.

Softening the blow: Why we have already lost the World Cup final

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Nonu is in my world 15. Never has a player expanded his game so much during his career. His jink and long pass is freakish.

I feel the key to this game is to keep him out of the game via intense line speed and pressure on A Smith at the breakdown.

“Take the space” – I have never heard that term before but it is perfect! Exactly what is needed.

TWAS:

Foley test accuracy prior to USA – 78.4%

USA: 6 from 7 – 86%
Fiji: 5 from 6 – 83%

thanks Huw

Linz22 / cs / Gator

Originally I tried to avoid the Cooper / Foley debate as it is very distracting, however re-reading my article it comes across that I wrote it with one eye open.

Stating this, I believe the issues at fly half are not all to do with the fly half. The fly half troubles are the symptom not the cause. Since the win over the All Blacks, the team has failed to win the advantage line collisions and have lacked accuracy at the breakdown. The slows the half back and in turn both QC / BF have been forced to take the ball too deep. The running structures have also been a bit flat and have lacked options – making it easy for the opponents to read the play. Both players have suffered. As for the Uruguay match, I don’t think much can be gained from analyzing the one way traffic an endless front foot ball.

Quade offers a great deal with his lateral passing and vision. He is a massive risk though- 3 yellows in 4 starts. 14 man rugby will result in losing games you should have won. His judo throws are going to be policed and even 2 weeks ago he was in trouble off the field with his twitter antics. Bernard is not as flashy, however his error rate is lower, decision making is generally pretty good & he is our best goal kicker, If we had a 2011 Quade with a 2015 attitude – I would pick Quade but at the moment, he is a second or 3rd pick.

To give perspective, I would take Biggar, Ford, Farrell, Sexton, Carter, Pollard over either at this moment.