Masterful Israel Folau champing at the bit

Yo cs, i disagree his 'light frame' is a reason or an excuse - he is 6 ft tall and weighs 14 stone.. what he lacks is the C = the Courage.. One of my favourite players when I was growing up in the 'Manawaaatu' was the bloke they called the 'Hayburner' - Kevin Eveleigh. A small bloke playing No 7 but he terrified the opposition with his tackling; it was all about attitude and commitment!. Aside from that go ahead and support KB in your team because at the end of the day it is about one team scoring more points than the other and i have chaps like Nonu and SBW in my team and you will have KB in yours; so the lord sayeth ! And apology excepted xx :)

It would be interesting to see Skelton and Arnold work in tandem at taking apart an opposition's rolling maul -make for a great spectacle ;-)

Praise the Lord! I detect progress Jib Jabs! So now we're talking about KB's form against the Lions rather than the Crusaders. I'll take that as a concession, thank you. And now we're also arguing over whether KB is a 'poor tackler' rather than a 'non existent' tackler. I'll also take that as a concession, thank you. Round 1 to cs. Round 2: in the lions game he missed 66% of his tackles (2 from 3) (how could a player only make 3 tackles in a game in his position… unless he wasn’t there I suppose…. and miss most of them. The two players outside him made 13 successful tackles from 15 attempts… Dear oh dear, I do detect some effort to fit a pre-determined opinion. KB missed 2 tackles. What does that tell us? Nard missed 4, Naiyaravoro and Cliffy missed 3; Handsome Dave D, Hoilsey and Hoops the Great also missed 2. Good and even great players miss tackles, frequently. Nothing proved here, except that KB's results are not very exceptional. Don't you know that fairness dictates comparisons with the rest of the team, not deliberate adverse selection against the players who would put everyone else in the shade? KB made 3 tackles.This was more than Nard and Kepu, the same as Cliffy, Handsome Dave, and Izzy. Still nothing proved here,except that it's safe to say that KB can and does tackle. Even if we go to the ratios, KB's % is better than Cliffy's and Nard's and the same as Handsome's and Izzy's. So, where were we? (1) My finding re the Crusaders - i.e., that KB is no automatic turnstile - remains intact against the Lions' figures. (2) Jib Jabs is not a fair marker. Round 2 to cs. In conclusion, KB's not a great tackler (as Rob Horne most certainly is; indeed, RH is one of the very best in the game and would put almost anyone else to shame). I'm not sure if I would even class him as a 'good tackler', but I'd put him a notch above 'poor', and certainly no gimmee. About the same as Izzy, probably. I'd also maintain my view that he's got better in the face of heavy targeting by big strong runners because of his relatively smaller frame for a 12. That's all. Sorry for describing you as a Reds supporter.

cs o great blind one ! KB is a poor tackler - in the lions game he missed 66% of his tackles (2 from 3) (how could a player only make 3 tackles in a game in his position... unless he wasn't there I suppose.... and miss most of them... The two players outside him made 13 successful tackles from 15 attempts... by the way i am not a red supporter....

What a complete load of absolute garbage, good grief you leave no illusions as to who you support mate, and after reading the rubbish above which is all about how good the Waratahs are, I only hope they get their backsides kicked. Israel who!!!!!

Yawn ... same old same old. How's your radiogram holding up harry? .. do ya think ya might get one of those new fandangled colour tellies? ... i agree, hoops should get a haircut ... the trouble with kids these days ... all windmills and seagulls ... bloke can hardly get a good night's sleep ... fair dinkum, no accuracy ... all get paid too much ... why, I remember ...*burb*

cs, Beale does not tackle. he simply runs in the direction of attackers and when he realises that he is no where near his target, he throws arms around. he would make a much better windmill than tackler. As far as 12's go, Beale on form is so far behind the likes of Inman, Toomua, kerevi, Gits, Christian L, that we should not be wasting our time discussing his lack of accuracy. next thing you will probably suggest that Hooper should be starting 7 when he is at best 4th available behing Pocock, Gill, Hodgson, Smith. We require a 7 to play on the ball not with seagulls.

Peter, you're starting a whole line of argument that I'm not going to get into. Be fair, I never said he was a 'good tackler'. I refuted the claims that his tackling was a lay down misere and 'non existent', and my points stand. That's all this was about before you entered the scene. Nonetheless, I think it obvious that KB is heavily marked up in attack and targeted in defence, but I'll let that go if you want to pursue it. As for %, let me try to explain the obvious problem this way. If we both went up to the shop, you carrying $200 and me carrying $2, and we both lost 50% of our money in the street, how much information about what happenned do you think the % tells you?

cs - Percentage is far more important than ingeniously portraying that Beale making 5 tackles somehow construes that he is a good tackler. Having a small frame is an excuse, regardless of the reason he misses a lot of tackles. Horne has a small frame as well. KB is not targeted because of his small frame he is targeted because he misses a lot of tackles. Beale had 13 tackles to make, so did AAC, Horne had 10. The number of tackles is more a function of where they are, AAC a centre and Horne a wing. Beales missed tackles were a little bit more than his season average but thats is a function of playing a better team. For the season Beale has missed 36.25% of tackles which is far too many, more than 1/3.

Well, that's the issue as you have now freshly defined it, not as Jibba Jabba presented it. KB made 5 tackles, the third highest in the backs; this cannot be squared with 'non-existent'. This is a prime example of a typical exaggeration, and the point stands. I concede that KB is targeted because of his smaller frame, and is therefore more likely to come up in missed tackle stats, but not for want of ticker in the task and his technique has improved. He missed 4, whereas AAC and Foles missed 3. Big difference! (Incidentally Peter, I'm not sure how trained you are in stats, but I will [possibly gratuitously] point out that % tend to be pretty meaningless and, as the above shows, can be misleading when dealing with small numbers, and generally should be avoided as a matter of principle where possible in such contexts.)

Beale missed 4/9 tackles in that match, he missed 44% of tackles AAC missed 3/10, 30% Horne 0/10 , he missed 0% of tackle. Missing almost half you tackles is the issue.

My case in point: a typical exaggeration from the Red corner. KB made 5 tackles, exceeded in the backs only by AAC (7) and Horne (10), targeting notwithstanding.

Yes it was - his D against the 'saders was non existent - all he did was pat people on the shoulder as they ran past him. Not the play of an international regardless of how good he is offensively especially somene positioned at 2nd 5 .

Hunt has been glaringly unimpressive for a so called superstar !

I'd try to explain it to you Harry, but I'd then have to be batting off objections around here from daylight to doomsday. For now, let me observe that I haven't seen KB going to the wing for quite a few games. This doesn't mean he won't this week of course, since the big Qld runners will otherwise target his smaller frame, but his defence lately has not the lay down misere that banana-benders like to imagine. We'll see soon enough. Go the Tahs!

The reds at least match Tahs 1,2,3,Simmo, Gill in forwards and with 9,10 & 12 in the backs. The rest sadly the Blues are stronger. Can not wait to see Kerevi run over Beale at 12 - oops, sorry Beale will be hiding on the wing. How could Beale be rated better than Australia's 5th best option at 12 can only be answered by his coach.

Birdy you thought it was touch last weekend, qc and co will be turn styling tahs tries like there is no tomorrow. A complete massacre is going to unfold.

I think its going to be a NSW double victory this week against the infidels from the north. Sat night I'll be there at the SFS cheering on the NSW Tahs, then Wednesday the RL SoO should be a victory for the NSW blues also. I think K.Beale will be playing for his WB future against the big powerhouse centre S.Kerevi. They try to hide Beale at left wing in defence but there will be times such as turnovers when Kerevi will be running at him. The other big interest will be how the improved NSW scrum handles the Reds scrum, which has been pretty awesome all year. Hard to say how far the Tahs will go after that. A semi against the Stormers or Cheifs will be a tough ask, even if it is a home game, followed by a final in Wellington. But considering a lot of pundits were predicting the Tahs to finish about 10th or worse, then I look on 2015 as a success for the Tahs and Rebels and a disaster for the Reds and Force. And everyone I know has a warm feeling about the internationals this year. Just fingers crossed for no injuries to cruel us.

Is this tone of wide-eyed awe about Folau 'being back' based on that game of touch rugby I watched last week?

Well I'm praying for a sign that Skelton and Simmons can make a Wallabies tight five look scary and rocklike at the scrum. I'd love to see four props shape like they want to eat a pom. But two would do. And it would be grand if Gill and Dennis could add some more difficulty to Cheika's lists for the RC. If that happens, we might see what the various backs are up for. After all, this game is solely for selectors and anxious WB fans at this stage. Go lads!