McMahon in, Simmons out in Wallabies lineup to meet Wales

yes he has

8 points is not being demolished

Having observed Chieka's selections from afar at Waratahs and now Wallabies, it seems to me that he challenges players especially after they make mistakes. A sort of "get back on the horse" and try again approach. Most of us see a player make a mistake in a game and naturally lose confidence or trust in that player. Cheka makes them go again and challenges them to improve their performance. He's shown faith and challenged, for example, Foley and Cooper, and Phipps, and Skelton, by trusting them and giving them opportunities to improve to the point where they "win" their position. There is a fine line though between calculated faith and blind faith. Chieka needs Mumm to be as solid and reliable in the lineout as Simmons, before the knock out games start.

Don't worry Wallabies will only be playing two more games

David, I think you are way off calling Hooper a liability. That implies he does more damage than good, which is absolutely incorrect. You could have said he's less of an asset, but not a liability. Hooper should have been yellow-carded, but the ref decided a penalty was enough. The citing officer went over the ref's head to cite him, which I think should not be his function. Hooper's intent was absolutely correct - clear an offending, offside player. His execution was bad (didn't raise his arms), he will hopefully learn and remember to raise his arms next time. Should have copped the yellow for the poor execution, not a suspension. Previous citation was also a joke, for pushing away Mr Diving Argie. Worst is that Diving Argie wasn't suspended (or was he?).

Perhaps you're right World's Biggest. Nor is it inconceivable that the Wallabies will have a bit of a set back after last week's high. But however reckless it is to tempt the fairies, my intuition says that Wales has already played its best rugby while Australia is still coming to the boil, and the mismatch is more likely to show in a result that's closer to 1991 (38-3) than post-2009. The team looks hungry to win, hungry as hell, and Wales will have to dig real deep and catch all the breaks to stop this momentum.

You don't think if they consider the line out an opportunity to attack us they might ensure the kicks go over the fence as I noted?

Quick throw ins perhaps ,if ball isn`t punted into the crowd...

Here's the thing, he doesnt get carded at key moments during the game. He wasnt carded last season in super rugby, and he has only been banned after an over-enthusiastic clean out (which he deserved). He only got a 1 game ban after pleading guilty because of his good disciplinary record.

Sure, I agree with your last bit: it is clouded by the fact that there is some element of dubiousness about the current suspension - maybe a technically correct decision and perhaps not a good choice by Hooper but (as you and I and a lot of other people have said) we see clean-outs like that go unpunished all the time. I'm still not sure how I feel about it. Anyway I suspect that reasonably quickly his carding rate will drop away as he becomes more experienced and judicious in his exuberance.

I'd wager theirs would then.

Dave, Statistically the more tackles a player makes, the more likely he is to receive sanction from one. That will change more player to player. I'd estimate Hooper has made twice as many tackles in the last 3 years as any other Wallaby. This absolutely on face value makes it twice as likely he will be carded for a tackle. Other factors may make this more or less likely (percentage of tackles he is penalized for). How many times has he been carded for illegal clean outs? Once. So not sure where David's comments are any more relevant today than they were before the game.

That's sort of true. His level of involvement and proximity to the action is likely to see him penalised a lot more than other players. But infringing to the point of being carded or cited is not an inevitable proportion of tackles you make. He crosses the line more than he needs to. He's certainly not a liability in the sense Kaks is talking about (below) - ie, overall he does a lot more good than harm to our prospects. But I doubt Cheika has a laugh and gives him a "you little rascal" pat on the head every time he gets carded at a key moment in a big game. More likely he says something like "stop getting f@cking carded!"

Hooper hasn't had seven yellows or citings in three years. He had an unblemished record as recently as the Argie TRC game this year.

Maybe our gameplan for the first half wont involve much kicking to touch?

No argument that the AB's demolished us in Auckland as I was unfortunately there to witness it first hand. AB's are a great team and absolutely deserve their #1 world ranking but it wasn't the Sydney test team that was demolished in Auckland and that is my only point. Look at it whichever way you like (and for fear of repeating myself), we demolished the AB's in Sydney and we demolished England at Twickenham with virtually the same team. I am impressed by the mettle of the current wallaby squad and I wish them all the best to go all the way....GO WALLABIES!!

You just have to say it with a Jamaican accent. It also works if McCalman gets picked.

McMahon played at 7 for the Rising in the NRC a year ago. It doesn't seem to change his style of game, he actually plays very similar to Hooper IMO - short, fast, huge carrying and tackling work rate. Not a typical over the ball 7, but like for like.

Demolished the AB's, hyperbole. What would you call the following week then?

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