Steady as she goes for the Wallabies

In a similar thought process as to why Higgers and Horwill are bench players I actually think that Hooper is a great bench player. He had speed and then wouldn't have to do the tight work early that is required. It makes more sense to have a tough grinding workhorse like Hodgson on at the start to secure the breakdown. Then Hooper Comes on with speed and runs the pants off the starting players.

The age of the PR coach is well and truly here. Ewen does things to convince people he is doing his job (sitting on the field at half time, changing hotels in Akld), much like John Kirwin (updating the blue formal wear to install pride, talking up positives after bad losses). Both are experts at convincing the public that everything is happening as planned, when the results are going the other way.

@ Jereme Lane : Douglas has been left out becoz he is moving to Europe, not becoz of his age. most of the top countries have young 2nd rowers of around 25. the few countries using older guys do so becoz they are the better option , like Victor or Bakkies for eg. Had Ali williams been playing in NZ , he would have been in contention for a spot given the injuries atm. it will be very interesting to see how Patrick plays as he has been injured and has no game time in domestic itm matches.

Kepu arrived late at the ruck, keeping Palu closer than he needed to be, causing Fardy to be too close to the ruck as well, giving Morne Steyne his outside shoulder. Palu was a metre slow off the mark, but he also had to handle Habana if Pianaar passed short to Habana coming around the corner. Pianaar passed to Steyne instead, Vermuelen was the dummy runner, and the pass then went from Steyne behind Vermuelen to Le Roux, which had put Foley in the position of having to decide whether Vermuelen could be taken by Fardy still or not. Foley thought he'd better take Vermuelen, so wasn't on Le Roux and Toomua couldn't drift onto De Villiers, so tried to shut Le Roux down before he could pass to De Villiers, but failed. The try resulted from a well-constructed Springbok attack, and slight misalignment in Wallaby defence probably caused by Kepu being late to the ruck. If Foley drifted to Le Roux, Toomua could have taken De Villiers, leaving Serfontain for Horne to then attempt to shut down before he could pass to Hendricks. Horne would have been in a fair position to do that, but if not, Foley may still have reached Hendricks in cover, given that after committing to Vermuelen and effectively having to stop and turn to get across in cover, he still nearly got to Serfontain. So, hard to blame any individual Wallaby in defence. Foley could have gambled that Steyne wouldn't pass to Vermuelen, and Toomua could have stayed alive by not trying to shut down Le Roux. In both cases the Springboks still may have scored anyway, but the Wallabies chances of stopping them would have been much improved.

Line-out calling is a dark art of psychological bluff and counter-bluff, it seems. Victor Matfield has been the recent master of this art, and is probably the reason he has reappeared for the Bulls and now the Springboks this year. Matfield is also fantastic at reading the opponents line-out tactics, and so enabling him to disrupt their throws. Your stats, Scott, really do show that Simmons did a very good job in the line-out calling department. Well done to him for that, particularly because it was against Matfield. There have been plenty of calls for Simmons to be dumped for Horwill, who can also do line-out calls apparently, but there may be a big risk with that because of those calls. Line-outs are always a big part of a match - you have to throw in to at least 10 probably, so it has to be well managed. Reliable line-out ball is gold. Simmons certainly needs to cut out his stupid penalties, but the Wallabies need him to call and jump in line-outs as required.

Hard running across the advantage line is largely a loose forward trait. The three example players you've listed are a blindside flanker and two number 8s, yet you are using those as examples against Simmons. Stupid penalties given away aside, Simmons' workrate has consistently been the highest of the Wallabies locks over the last few years. None of the other locks tried during this time - Douglas, Timani, even Sharpe - were known to 'tirelessly get stuck in' either. Douglas was the closest, but he only managed to produce a high workrate performance once every 2 or 3 games. It's all well and good saying Simmons has to go, but there are no world class locks waiting in the wings, and all other locks tried so far have failed to deliver.

And I doubt we've seen the best of any of those players. Forward play is all about experience. My point is that Douglas shouldn't be ruled out because of past performances. He has time on his side

i dont think picking a winger ahead of a centre on the wing is that telling. you could be right regarding the motives for the move originally but TK has 13 relatively cemented for now. as i said elsewhere, he'll need to start stinking it up for AAC to come in

Chivas we will disagree on Nisbo. I think he is about the best caller around down in these parts. Note not special comments but caller. I think he is excellent. The rest are ordinary

Hi Scott! The Pumas may have an advantage at the scrum due to their shoving together but it generates defensive and offensive weaknesses at the 8 to 10 junction. Sanchez has a lot of tackles as the third row has to stay pushing. Notice Messam's try last week from a "lost" scrum, there were no third rows covering. Also, in Savea's try, there was no third row covering either (even though it was a Hernandez mistake). They are "stuck" to the scrum. In attack, Sanchez has few options of passing to the third rowers as well. The Wallabies should attack the 8-10 area of the Pumas to have a good chance.

I have to say that articles by Scott Allen and Brett McKay are first class. Well done 'The Roar' - this is my number one rugby resource. I am a fan and spent my entire career in the lower grades of every club I played for. Keep up the good work.

I agree J3, I don't like any of them much. Whatever happened to Mexted. He added some colour and actually knows the game. A rarity in this day and age of political correctness and wannabes. I mean Nisbett, TJ and Smith don't look they've even been near a rugby ball, yet they talk about the skills and competencies like they might know to the point where it is sometimes just embarassing. And Marshall is so focused on being the knowledgeable one, because mostly he is surrounded by commentators who know nix except what they pick up from people like him, that he takes it too far and makes left field comments which are wrong and then can't back down from them. At times he is about as relevant as Kearns.

I love how you back your arguments up with stats... Interesting how we get impressions that simply aren't correct.

What about Moore aus best forward. Poc at6 . Agree with the rest eaglejack

have to disagree; been a big fan for years now

Didn't something like that happen in later on in the 2nd half in the 2nd AB test - I seem to recall Folau getting a high tackle when he was in a scoring position and it wasn't picked up by the ref. I guess it just sh*ts me that it's so inconsistent

??? They'd won about 7 games on the trot before the RC.

I don't think Mafi qualifies for a few years.

Totally agree with you on this one Scotty. Totally.

We are going to have to see some proper eight man play then. They'll not do it with our flankers prairie-dogging.