Would your World XV be Aussie-free?

I don't think his carrying looked that fantastic great at HC level. His carrying in that competition was exactly the same as his carrying during the 3N. Elsom will often break first tackles but little actually comes of any gains made.

Yeah... no.

I've seen Adam Jones dominate quite a few opposition 1s. He taught Mtawarira a lesson, for example. He's a generally renowned scrummager (who for Wales is perhaps working overtime to support the weak scrummaging of Gethin Jenkins), has excellent handling skills, was one of the fittest Lions (oddly enough), and rarely gets penalised. In short he's ultra reliable - and thus the complete opposite of White, Tialata, Smit, Hayes, Vickery and Castrogiovanni. Beyond him I am a huge fan of Euan Murray and Martin Castrogiovanni, but on form they can't be considered. I used to look at Jones and think that he was just a big unit collecting caps because Wales didn't have any other options but I have changed my mind. He's good stuff. Marconnet is a very, very good prop too. Oooh.. I'm getting all sweaty just thinking about those big calf muscles. Go props!

McCaw's status would keep him in most teams. But George Smith has certainly dominated proceedings this year for the number 7 role. Keeping Australia from humiliation in most games, including the last where when he came off the score soon became an absoloute embarrassment.

Smit! Possibly the worst TH in world rugby at the moment! He and Baxter would be a toss up...

Adam Jones is a fair call, but the mere fact that we're mentioning his name for best 3 in the world is a terrible indictment of contemporary propping. Has he ever beasted an opposition loosehead? I have to go with Hayman, and then probably some Argentine or Italian, and then Julian White, and only then Adam Jones.

Elsom is just a brainless ball carrier. He plays as if he were in the playground - always following the ball. It looks great against mediocre opposition in the Heineken Cup, but it's not remotely good enough at Test level.

I'd agree but I'm not comfortable putting players into incorrect positions. Kearney isn't a particularly good winger, for example. I'm a bit surprised that there's so few good wingers in Australia, NZ and SA. There's an abundance of talent in some positions but all three nations seem to lack wing options.

Well, Kearney and Byrne are two of the best backs in the world from my observation.

Habana has scored some good tries as well. Overall there hasn't been a consistently excellent 11. Luke Fitzgerald had a good 6N but was used badly during the Lions tour and so didn't shine. Shane Williams had a very mediocre (by his standards) 6N but showed glimpses of excellence during the Lions tour. Ugo Monye had a reasonably good season. Heymans had a reasonably good season. Drew Mitchell is an absolute disaster and Sivivatu has been both excellent and appalling. If we were being really pedantic then Heymans or Habana could be replaced by Kearney with Byrne at 15.

Sivivatu's been out for too long this year to be a contender, but Habana? Yeah, his defence and chasing are an important part of the South African game, but it's not enough to make him the best 11 in the world. It's rewarding the Boks system over actual talent.

I think Elsom is a good player, mcxd. He has a real hard physical edge and I enjoyed watching him. I certainly wouldn't turn down the opportunity to have him in the Guinness Premiership, but my opinion is that he was handed a lot of excessive praise. Undoubtedly he did a lot of excellent work with Leinster but I think some of the UK pundits got a bit carried away by the concept of a 6'6 great blond hulking Australian called Rocky. He's good at what he's good at, but very, very bad at what he's bad at, if you see what I mean? Prior to his European sojourn I wouldn't have considered him to be world class.

James, yeah i know I was being a bit harsh in that respect. I suppose i was kind of disappointed and expected a bit more from him thats all.

knives, so you dont rate Elsom then ? 8)

I think Sivivatu has the ability to do anything he wants to, but problematically he rarely does. In terms of test form Heymans and Habana have been better 11s this season, with Shane Williams providing just as much magic but far fewer errors.

Oh yeah... I completely forgot. And I see him play reasonably regularly. Anyway, I still think Adam Jones has improved into the best current test tight head although I have no doubt that Hayman would challenge that perception were he to pull on the black jersey again.

Maybe the Leinster front five gave Elsom a platform to play off that the Wallaby front five couldn't? Also, I would imagine that there's more space in HC rugby than test rugby. Perhaps Leinster utilised Elsom differently than Deans chose to? He still made the same runs in the 3N that he always did (breaking first tackles and then becoming isolated and confused), and I recall McCaw mentioning how effective he was at the ruck contest, so perhaps in the 3N he did what he has always done but with the added expectancy of his European form. Elsom's runs in the HC never led to breakthrough tries so personally I don't think much changed. My perception of Elsom is that he is a physical specimen (check out those forearms) but lacks the skill and guile of a lot of ther 6s. At Leinster he won a silly amount of MOM awards in the Magners League but I don't think that illustrates anything of great note. Irish supremacy in the HC doesn't necessarily mean that the ML is a truly competitive league (I don't think it is), especially given the fact that a lot of the HC teams will rest their players during the ML season. One only has to examine the HC form of Cardiff Blues and then parallel that comparative success with their ML form to confirm this. Put simply, most big provinces/franchises in the ML are geared for European rugby. Would Elsom have managed the same output in the more grinding GP league? Perhaps not. In the HC Elsom was very good, but I don't at any point think that he was superior to the other 6s playing. For example, in the QF versus Harlequins Stuart Barnes listed Elsom as MOM having noted that he had been matched pound for pound by the young English capped 6 Chris Robshaw. Likewise, Barnes gave Elsom the MOM in the HC final having noted that the success of Leinster was essentially attributable to the Leinster front five. Barnes was Elsom's biggest fan and would often wax lyrical about him in his column. That's all well and good but then a myth starts to develop, and indeed it has. All of a sudden a player who nobody would have bracketed close to their world xv is suddenly the saviour of Australian rugby and the best flanker in the game. Even quotes are being taken out of context. Brian O'Driscoll said something along the lines that Elsom's carrying game was freakish and that he added an edge that Leinster had been missing and thus Leinster could not have won the HC without him, and yet I've read quite a few Roar quotes where O'Driscoll had apparently said that Elsom was the greatest player he had ever encountered. The Elsom cult has just snowballed and I wonder where it will stop. Excuse my rant. P.S. Sorry Pothale. I know he's your boy.

Maybe the Leinster front five gave Elsom a platform to play off that the Wallaby front five couldn't? Also, I would imagine that there's more space in HC rugby than test rugby. Perhaps Leinster utilised Elsom differently than Deans chose to? He still made the same runs in the 3N that he always did (breaking first tackles and then becoming isolated and confused), and I recall McCaw mentioning how effective he was at the ruck contest, so perhaps in the 3N he did what he has always done but with the added expectancy of his European form. Elsom's runs in the HC never led to breakthrough tries so personally I don't think much changed.

And as for wingers - Sivivatu would cut all of those mentioned to threads.

Carl Hayman is the worlds best prop by a country mile, so I'm surprised no one has included him, or has everyone forgotten his name now he's not playing for AB's?