It’d be nice to see Toomua and Harris come home. Having Foley, Cooper, Lance, Leali’ifano, Toomua and Harris all steering the ship (at 10 or even 12 or 15) on Australian soil would make me feel a lot more comfortable about the 5/8 situation.

Hoy, my point was that you could put any 7 in place of Hooper and it probably wouldn’t matter all that much – Poey, Gill, Smith or McCaw in their prime – at the end of the day the back 5 as a unit are still going to be lacking.

Paul, your logic implies that Gary Ablett is a rubbish footballer because they’ve lost more games than won.

Replace Hooper with Pocock in the current setup and what do we get? A couple more pilfers in tight, slow some oppoition ball down, probably one or two extra penalties against us, significantly less run, worse cover defense. Still lacking up-front ball carrying forwards except now we’re also missing the best wider player on the park. Doesn;t change any of the stuff Nick was talking about involving Carter, Hanigan and Higgers (particular those three anyway) getting caught running upright and not having the physical presence we had when any 3 (or four) of Arnold, Timani, Pocock and Fardy were on the park WITH Hooper and Coleman.

The selectors should suck up some pride and give Fardy a call. Who cares if he’s leaving after this year, we need convincing wins more than anything.

4. Arnold
5. Coleman
6. Fardy
7. Hooper
8. Timani
19. Skelton (or anyone willing to really give it a crack… Tui, Phillip, RHP, the other Arnold… anyone who’ll have some kind of impact… )
20. Higginbotham

and can Robertson for Smith while we’re at it…

Exactly, Dave R.

The Rebels’ second row stocks are the weakest of the Australian clubs but I dare say that wouldn’t be the case if they still had Luke Jones, Hugh Pyle and Cadeyrn Neville on the list.

Paul Alo-Emile was one that got away too… and is now lost to Australian rugby after being named for Samoa this weekend. Really rated him as a tightead.

It’s not about when they played opposite each other, it’s about how they both fare at international level.

7. Michael Hooper
Outpointed ‘Rusty’ McCaw, despite the Wallabies being dusted at the breakdown. Criticised for not being as strong over the ball as Liam Gill, but did the business when the match was close. He ran strongly and set up the try for Will Genia with good hands and trademark speed. 8/10.

20. Liam Gill – Was brought on in the second half to improve the breakdown. He didn’t. No rating.

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/union-news/wallabies–player-ratings-20130817-2s49s.html

I’m a big Gill fan, but that kind of sums up how I often felt (albeit more extreme than my own opinions) watching Gill and Hooper play in the same tests. Gill is a better over the ball and a more rounded player but Hooper just has this knack of knocking out a stupid amount of work – cover defense, big tackles, great carries – and making big plays when it counts. That’s not to detract from Gill and I think more time in Wallabies camps/setup/teams would have definitely improved his game (more so than it was naturally progressing while predominantly only playing for the Reds) but I think Hooper gets a pretty harsh wrap from more folks inside Australia than abroad.

If the standard for a bench player is to be nominated for World Rugby Player of The Year, does that mean to start you have to have won it?

That doesn’t leave many players in the world available for selection.

You’re trying to help us? Pretty sure you’re the one that needs help. Maybe start here: www.specsavers.com.au/

Peter, do you think Robertson is actually a better ball carrier than Smith? I’ve always thought Smith was fairly handy in that regard. He’s certainly partial to a big linebreak and gallop down the filed in a similar vein to Sekope Kepu

I hardly notice Robertson when he plays… he’s certainly not dominating the scrum when they pack down so if he’s not smashing rucks like they’re going out of fashion or running the ball what is he doing that Sio or Smith (or even old Benny A) can’t do better?

Yeah Jameswm, Hanigan is twice the lineout option Timani is.

Timani = heft, carries in tight, body shifting, repeated efforts around the breakdown, 4th lineout option

Hanigan = genuine lineout option, more pace, better runner in the loose

I don’t think we need the lineout ability that Hanigan brings over Timani. Carter, Coleman and Higgers are 3 good targets and then Timani is enough for the occasional ‘surprise’ throw. ‘Triple H’ (Hanigan, Hooper, Higginbotham) is too loose for me, the three of them occupy too similar a space… Timani, Higgers and Hooper (tight to loose) is a much better spread across the park and I think Timani’s ball carrying and ruck smashing ability would really add to the current team.

I get your point but I also think to make any fair comparison you’ve probably got to wait until the players in the current team have retired to make an accurate call on it. As much as we’re slagging him now, what if Robertson, as unlikely as it is, goes on to become the most dominant loosehead over the next 10 years? I’m definitely not suggesting that might be the case, but until everything is wrapped up there’s always a possibility. Hypothetically, saythis team clicks, galvanises and goes on the win the 2019 RWC… does that then change your view on them compared to the rolled-gold ’99 team (and yes, it is nice to get nostalgic and look back over that team.. such a great outfit)

I do like the look of some of our potential ‘big boy’ stocks going forward. Coleman, Arnold, Timani, Naisarani (when eligible in a year or so), L Tui, maybe some bolters like Phillip and Rodda, maybe Skelton will be a genuine option after some more time up north (as per Nick Bishop’s article the other day)… I’m, sure I’ve missed some players there too…

He and his twin brother, Alex, moved over to play for Edinburgh in 2013 so at about 21 years old. Does’t look like they got a playing gig after u20s, etc.

Alex is back in Australia with the Rebels but injured his back before the season even started so hasn’t played for them.

Rugnut, I guess you’ll just have to wait 18 years to look back at the current team and make a even comparison.

Does it keep you up at night, Marto?

John, why would anyone trust Smith’s opinion on 7s? What could he possibly know?!

Pretty much seems all the negative press about Hooper comes from our own shores. Which isn’t surprising considering the parochial nature of Australian rugby fans… Player X from area A can’t be good because player Y from area B is good and the two of them both being good is impossible as it is mutually exclusive!

Well said, WNM.

To be fair, as much of a Gill fan as I am, across Gill’s 15 Wallabies tests I never thought he had the same level of impact on a match that Hooper can. Who knows, maybe more time in gold would have improved his game, although it did appear like his last season at the Reds was perhaps his best and he was on an upward trajectory.

I just wish the three of Hooper, Gill and McMahon were all a couple of inches taller with a handful of extra kegs… that’d be a decent loose trio (6. McMahon, 7. Gill, 8. Hooper)

I have concerns over his set piece ability at test level… although I may be off the mark. I guess I’m also thinking that last weekend we had Carter, Coleman, Hanigan and Higginbotham as good lineout targets. I’d like to see Timani go to 6 and he’s a step down in the air compared to Hanigan, so throwing Tui into the mix further reduces the quality of options. If Hardwick is the reserve backrow and comes on for Higgers it gets worse, you could potentially have Tui, Coleman and Timani as targets…. not ideal. I haven’t watched enough of Tui play to comment on his scrummaging but I certainly like his approach to general play. I guess I think of him as more of a project player to develop for 2018 and 2019 being behind Coleman, Arnold and Carter and if he’s going to play in this series I’d probably prefer it to be against Italy.

I’d only be looking at changes in the pack… 1. Smith, 17. Sio (if fit), 6. Timani, 20. Hanigan/Hardwick. Not particularly fussed if Arnold or Carter starts alongside Coleman. Like Arnold more so happy with him to start but at the same time don’t mind him coming off the bench for a bit of starch in the back end of the game. Not sure if Tui is ready to debut in what should be a pretty heated upfront battle, but 4. Arnold, 5. Coleman, 19. Tui is always a possibility I guess… if that’s the case you’d probably want Hanigan as reserve backrower for the lineout option over Hardwick.

For what it’s worth there’s been calls to axe McGahan from Rebels supporters over the last couple of years. Word is that he is a very ‘my way or the highway’ coach which is part of the reason so many players have left the club after falling out of favour (Neville for one) or just sick of the way he runs the club

Also consider the strategy in NOT going all in at the rucks. Last weekend with the noticable absence of Pocock, Fardy and the other known ‘ruck monkeys’ Australia only gave away 6 penalties. That seems incredibly low by our usual standards. As a result of committing less men to the breakdown (particularly trying to steal and slow the ball) there are greater numbers in the line and you’re effectively choosing to back your defensive work over the coming phases to either force a mistake or turnover in the tackle (or out wide with less tight-five ruck pressure) rather than potentially giving away 3 points or 50m in territory (from the resulting kick). You definitely still want to go for the steal and the slowdown where possible but I think with a little more nous in picking your battles and holding the line the team potentially puts itself in fewer stressful situations (ie hard D off a 5m lineout) during the course of a game. I guess I’m also a subsciber to the notion that a team doesn’t necessarily need a world class pilferer in the mold of Pocock (although it doesn’t hurt) as long as you’ve got multiple players across the park who are fairly capable to share the load. It also means you don’t have your one designated/capable pilferer (ie a Pocock at 7 with no support) get taken out of the game by being run at and forced to tackle or avoided altogether – something the ABs seem to have a bit of a knack for doing. If you’ve got two backrowers who are decent enough and a hooker who can get over the ball too then that’s possibly enough to make up for it if you’re timing your run at the steal well.

Yep. 10 stays at 10. Strike winger at 11 (Speight, Naivalu, Koroibete, whoever), Hunt at 12, Kuridrani at 13 (Kerevi can push to reclaim that spot when he’s fit… competition is good) and then there’s the sort-of-interchangeable 14-15 setup, with a kicking winger and the fullback (like how the ABs like to run Smith and Dagg)… right now I’d keep DHP and Folau but I wouldn’t mind seeing Folau and Beale at 14 and 15 respectively when KB is back to fitness with DHP as outside back cover on the bench.

Also might be why we only gave away 6 penalties.

but not to take anything away from Hardwick. Good work from the kid. Should have a positive future in rugby.

Mark, how much other sport was on in Canberra that weekend? I’m guessing there wasn’t much. Call it a 15k crowd, multiply that by 10 (ratio of Can to Mel population) and we’ve got 150k…. there were over 310k punters at various sporting games in Melbourne last week.

Let’s wait and see what the Scotland and Italy tests dish up for crowd numbers before making any rash decisions… it wasn’t too long ago that Perth had 16k for a RC game against the Pumas.