Ma'afu and Samo to return for Wallabies

I'm with PeterK - Simmons had an absolute shocker, completely invisible. He looked like a scared, lost schoolgirl looking for the under 19's Australian side. One of the 2 runs he had he coughed the pill up on NZ 5 metre line just as we were building pressure. Bring Sharpe back and have Vickerman on the bench. The lineout was Ok, NZ really didn't pressure it and we didn't really contest theirs. Will be a different story against SA if Deans is crazy enough to give Simmons another shot against Matfield and Botha

The win by the ABs may not mean much for the RWC but in that case, i prefer to win.. If the ABs can win the Cup this year, it will put to bed the silly idea that a team can win over 75% of all games and not be the best in the world. Winning the world cup means you can play a tournamanet..if we had a round robin world cup...be a different thing. Having said that, it will be awesome when we win...

FOS - Simmons hit 2 rucks and made 6 tackles and 2 runs for 2 metres, far far too lazy.

Actually, I thought Simmons ran the lineout well when he was on - it fell apart when Vickerman arrived - and I asw a few good hits in D and some nice ruck work.

No samo IS NOT SUPER MAN AND THE GOOD NEWS IS FATTY , dan carter and rich mcgaw are not SUPERMAN either with super powers. there just 2 human beings just as all the all black players are. they can be physically injured,choke under pressure(99,03,07), and maybe 2011 at home will be a lot of pressure. DC and mcgaw have had a lot of average games before, especially Mcgaw. When he was coming back recently there was all this talk about pOCOCK BEING BETTER AND mcgaw being to old. the AB'S are just human, just like the brazil soccer team nd this team can be beaten, by Wallabies and england france and south africa. But SAMO offers more than Mcelman and he was part of the QLD reds pack who beat the crusaders pack with the likes of mcgaw read, Franks brothers in it. And samo on his day is as good as any no 8 out there in world rugby but he is no superman no way but i think he can match, Kaino,Mcgaw,and Read. NZ scrum will be different with both franks brothers on and tony woodcock if he gets fit. but if Dan Carter especially gets injured , the ALL BLACKS will still be favourites for RWC but will be more vulnerable for sure. and he can he is only human, I might trip on his shoelaces when he gets of the plane and break his ankle or achillies tendon who knows. ben robinson injury was statically very unlikely. we if TPN,SAMO,AND PALU show some form, can beat the ab's i think, and Dan vickerman is getting fitter to, so it is not all doom and gloom for the wallabies, RWC final is still 9 weeks away, and barrack barnes may come into serious contention now.

Samo is no superman..and he's certainly no Richie McCaw..don't set yourself up to be dissappointed..Samo is not that great a player..

Maafu? Bizarre. wasn't even a starting prop for Brumbies at the beginning of S15 as not as good a scrummager as Alexander and Palmer. Brush up on our French and send a quick, all is forgiven invitation over there...allows backrow of 6 H'botham 7 Pocock 8 G Smith. At least will allow us to compete at breakdown and adds some skill. George would love to play in NZ in Sept/Oct.

Maafu? The guy might be a reasonable scrummager - but really? He is an unfit lazy tight forward. Samo is interesting, it is a shame we cannot find a place for Robinson - he may not be test level but the guy leaves his heart on the paddock, which is what every player in gold should be doing. I just want some energy and enthusiasm from our forwards.

Simmons has to go. He is another non presence similar to Mumm. He made 6 soft tackles, 2 runs for 2 metres, and involved in 2 ruck/mauls. Compare this to the very physical and effectice Horwill 9 tackles none soft, 14 runs for 77 metres and 2 offloads in these, involved in 14 ruck/mauls. I would start Vickerman at least he is physical. Or start Samo at Lock. McCalman is a hard worker but makes NO impact just like Brown. He has to go. Higginbotham must start. Samo must be in the 22. Elsom had a poor game, running sideways missing tackles (6 of them). Personally I would start Higginbotham at 6 and Samo at 8 and Vickerman at 4. Need TPN and Palu back as well.

SAMO or Higgers needs to start. Mccalman should go back to sydney uni

Exactly. I can see where he wants the team to go, but he isn't getting them there with his current coaching squad. I think it's because he's used to working with very determined, strong, bloody minded kiwi's in the Crusaders and the current Wallaby players, and past decade of players, don't have the right mind set that he knows how to work with. As Logan has pointed out, the current squad don't stand up for themselves enough. This is nothing new and shouldn't surprise everyone, as this is the same problem the Wallabies have had for ages. The fronts get bashed and the backs can't work effectively. The trick, is to get the team to play around this deficiency as it isn't going to suddenly get batter. I don't think Deans knows how to play to the teams strengths. Can McKenzie get something extra out of them? He did it with the Reds but inernationals are another level.

McCalman and Simmons were practically invisible, I had to check the teams to make sure they were on the park.

Agree with this as he has changed the guard but not perhaps the overall situation

RR, Perhaps talent scout is the wrong words, although it must be pointed out that Deans' job is not to pick players to play in the S15. His job is to pick players from these teams. My point is, over the past years he has dropped the older players and given new blood a run, when IMO, many of the past coaches probably would have just gone with the same old players. I'm pretty sure if coaches such as Connolly and Jones were still in charge then you wouldn't see the likes of Cooper, Samo or Simmons in the team. You would still see the same old players, perhaps even with Mortlock and Baxter still having a run. Of course coaches like McKenzie make Dean' job much easier, but it was Deans who decided to bring in new young players into the squad and to move out the older veterans. And for the record, I would like to see Deans go after the WC. He has done his job of bringing in a new team. I would now like to see McKenzi take over for a good 8yrs +

Three cheers Robbie Deans from all of Australia, finally Samo is giiven a chance to see if he is still up to this level of rugby anymore. I think he would of been very handy last night. Answer your self this question, does anyone like to have to tackle a Palu, Samo, or Timani. The AB'S sure as hell much prefer tackling the likes of Ben Mcelman, and Rob Simmons, less physical, and less physically intimidating players.

I get you drift and clearly you like Deans - why the hell at 1/2 win/loss can you say its a game he can afford to lose - Australian rugby is going down the toilet with every loss because our real competitors are the other professional sports here in Australia. With every loss goes a bunch of kids who are deciding which sport to play and support. It works the other way when you win so it certainly work on the negative. If he is a wonderful talent scout than please advise which players he has actually "scouted" that were not already identified and playing in the provincial teams by the Super Coaches. Happy for you to provide a list but it won't be long and not overly impressive - make sure you put in the players that did not make it as there a few of those

Finally Samo gets a chance, but is there any chance of subing the coach? I think its quite clear now that he is clueless.

Maybe Deans is sending Sharpe and Samo on the field in SA to just give them a run on in a match he probably doesn't mind losing (returning the SA compliment of sending weaker players). Either way, it would be nice to know. I think Deans is a wonderful talent scout who knows how to get the best out of a young team, but when it comes to making tactical game plans he falls well short. Last nights game plan was a clear example. Those short restart kicks never looked like working the whole game, but he keeps the team trying them; the tallest Wallaby players werent even the ball chasers?? Even though Cooper was kicking at tall AB players. Carter wasn't keen on playing in the AB half last night. The only time he kicked the ball long was when the ball was deep in their half. Why didn't Deans tell Cooper to send the ball long? There was a good chance Carter may have kicked the ball out or in return giving the ball back to the Wallabies? The Wallaby backs were too easy to read, just passing the ball out wide everytime with the odd long pass now and again. Not enough dummy runners, inside passes etc etc. The AB's knew what the Wallabies were up to and and kept shutting them down. The Wallabies had no plan B. The Reds plan was always to keep the ball with the forwards to build a platform to work from. It was only when they had quick ball that they gave the ball out to their backs to play with.....The Wallabies didn't do this last night. But guess who did. The AB's did this effectively and kept the Wallabies backpeddling. In short Deans tries to hard. Someone else mentioned earlier in the week that Deans over-coaches the team. I think this is spot on. He makes plans that don't wrok, has n oplan B and makes strange selections. I still am a Deans fan, but I do think he needs someone in the training team, who can look over his shoulder and tell him what game plan to go with (McKenzie). Woodward did this with England in 03. He had a coach/advisor for just about everything.

Agree Red Rooster, One of the big reasons Deans comes in for criticism is that he doesn't communicate why he makes these odd decisions. You could argue it keeps the opposition guessing but we're not winning the big games anyway so it can't be that big an advantage.

Panic - why don't they just make a decision? They were going to take 24 players (no mention of Sharpe) then suddenly there is a rotation of Sharp and Vickerman (who needs high levele game time) and they keep Timami who is doing nothing. Now suddenly they have added Maafu and Samo. Maybe its because of injuries but they never communicate to the world so its confined to damaging speculation. If its a performance decsion then make the hard decision and leave McCalman at home and replace him with Samo. If it injury then tell us or if it was always planned then tell us otherwise we will write comments that express surprise and confusion because things don't get explained, so the public are left to fill in the gaps - don't blame us for the negativity when you don't explain yourself and ARU don't cry poor all the time when you just keep adding costs instead of hard decisions (2 more players x 2 business class tickets, accommodation and food - 20K) when you could easily leave the non performing assets at home.