Kerevi in, Hunt benched as Wallabies side announced for Wales clash

Except you ignore that he used conversions in his stats. Directly comparable.

Scubasteve - was once told by a Coach - if you can hit them hard, then hit them hard but remember the first point of a tackle is to - Knock them down which ever way you can. So if he can hit them and get them down I am not concerned about "knocking them back". And he can tackle in the 12 channel. The 13 channel is his Achilles!!

The only thing that really worries me, apart from the lightweight backrow, is the last time we had the Kerevi-Kiridrani duo as our centres against a fair NH team was in the first two matches against England in June 2016 on Aussie soil. And that didn't go down too well if I recall! The smallish Pom centres of O.Farrell and J.Joseph handled the rampaging Oz-Fiji boys ok for most of the series and that was with Izzy Folau chiming into the backline also. In fact S.Kerevi was dropped for the 3rd match in Sydney for M.Toomua.

This is a direct quote from Nicolas Bishop on All Saint's Day "As a player right now, Hanigan is not fit to lace Fardy's boots." I take that as a pretty fair assessment of Ned's capabilities. I have no problem with Nick Phipps as a reserve as (a) he has plenty of international experience and (b) he is a running/tackling machine. Sure he makes mistakes but most halves have the occasional wild throw, and Phipps brain explosions usually come when the WB are in diabolical straits and he is trying to make something happen. Tom Robertson scrummages OK and is solid in the middle where the big blokes rule. However I think Tom's days are numbered with Taniela Tupou on the plane on Monday and qualified. The Tongan Thor may miss the game against England but I would expect him to be a reserve against ScoootLand.

Galatzo, ".....Navidi is very fast and with Felatau, one of the great eights, Wales will have a better BR than us." Which makes it even more strange to put a cream-puff in. To Hanigan's credit, he tackles around the ankles quite well and rarely misses, he goes for the whole 80 minutes if needed and at 194m he is a reasonable line-out target. But in international rugby (and I have seen him owned in SR also), he is totally ineffective in running the ball up, stopping the big men dead, winning rucks and cleaning out breakdowns. Its just too many negatives, there are plenty of other blokes in Australia who are a better selection. I call it the ABN, Anyone But Ned. I would have L.Tui or M.Philip starting at blindside to do all the damage for 65 mins and keep Hanigan at reserve until we can blood another powerful flanker with a big motor. M.Philip is 199cm and an even better LO merchant but has strength and power that Hanigan can only dream of. That's the sort of bloke you need to stand up to the NH forward packs. Take a look just how well Australia started to play once Jack Dempsey took over the starting #6, and a lot of folks reckoned Dempsey was useless (but better than Ned). Suddenly the WB were on fire, all they needed was some extra power from the backrow.

Cheika's secret tactical plan.

If Foley kicks for goal and the line I think we will lose. Because every player out there will know that Cheika is diminishing their chances to favour his boy.

Hanuman is weak but he is also inaccurate. His ball running is poor because he goes to ground immediately and places the ball badly. Against Japan he placed the ball at the side of the ruck allowing an easy turnover. By contrast, McMahon's technique is good, he keeps running in contact making breakthroughs or at least extra metres and his placement is excellent. Meanwhile, Higgers, Fardy, Gill got shafted notwithstanding much better performance than Hanigan can dream of.

A strange anomaly is that seems to be the only time we do. He was quite average in the 2015 too.

It occurs to me that with Shingler at 198 cm, there is a bigger chance than normal that Genia and Foley (& Beale?) could get kicks charged down.

And from one more in the pedant society: how can Hunt be "benched" (headline) if he hasn't been in the team recently? Usually "benched" means "sent to the bench" from the run-on team.

+1

Foley from in front - Hodge taking the low percentage options. Start Hodge at 10 - he can't do worse, and put Foley on the bench.

@Cliff - a couple of corrections. Simmons was picked in run on side before the injuries to the other locks. How can anyone say Timani is out of form when he's had no game time for months. McMahon is simply too small for a top class No 8 - he's a No 7 or nowhere. You've forgotten about Phipps - the worst halfback in international rugby - Australia has 4 better. I agree with your other comments :)

Didn’t he spill multiple high balls in one of the past 2 games?

Except you ignore the huge anomaly in what they attempt. Foley only attempted 5 penalty goals. Hodge attempted 37. Clearly Foley, or the Waratahs turn down more attempts to kick.

And HarryT wins troll comment of the day. Kerevi is a better defender at 12 than 13, and even at 13 he's better than Foley. Not to mention Kuridrani, Koroibete, and Hodge, who have all been good defensively. But Foley appears to be the best defender in the backline? Life continues to surprise me...

At least the game against the ABs proved that we can still beat the best even when Foley is poor. Just need everyone else to click. I'm sure Hanigan has got this guy Shingler covered.

Philips offers far more in the line out and offers far more around the park while McCalman is as good in the line out and offers far more around the park.

Not according to the stats on the Tuesday Top 5 on GAGR (by a Waratahs fan). I thought he was serviceable without standing out as being good—apparently he caused most of our turnovers and when Powell came on he made twice as many tackles. Phipps has to offer more, he just doesn't.