AB, while Banks is adequate, he has not shown he really is the goods.
JP is more likely to cement 15 given the opportunity. Cheers.

Ken, do you read his interviews before you make your selections? 😂 😂 😂

OOP, when carrying on kick returning, he has to find his own holes but he always seems to head for the wall of bricks. You can only hole run in set plays and I have seen him set up to do this in the WBs as I have Hodge. Banks does not seem to have the ability to break tackles like Jordan nor the running guile of Larkham nor a step and twist. He does not have the ability to see the holes in close play. At best he is adequate in carries on kick return. Oh to have a Sevu Reece in the WBs side! Cheers

James548, I agree. However I do have reservations about Beale based on how he performed back in oz where his defence was not good, ran laterally squeezing outside backs of room and also not very secure under the high ball. That being said, so many of our players have improved greatly while overseas. However he must have lost some speed with age. His 1 test camino last year may have been too little to have ingrained him into the WBs systems and culture and did not allow us to see what he can really do. What is his kicking like? He does not have the boot of either Banks or Hodge. There is also the question of his susceptible to injury to consider. I do not at this point think we have any player who can claim the WB FB spot. For me the basics of catch, pass, tackle, read the play, positional play, kicking from hand in play and incisive attacking running is required of a fullback together with clean out and protecting the ball in the ruck. A big body and a good side step are also good attributes. Tom shows many of these attributes but has not yet convinced me he has the ability to read the field and cut through the defence on ball return particularlly at test level. I do like Hodge because when playing at test level he always seems to up his performance. I see there has been some critics of his tackling but they have obviously forgotten the try savers he has made. For me the big boot to get out of our 22 under pressure is important and we either need the big boot of Banks or Hodges particularly if White is not there to do the job. In the Ponies game against the Canes, one of the Canes trys was due to lack of cover by Banks/Muirhead. Who was at fault there? Andy was the worst back in defence slipping of tackles and letting at least 1 more try through. Banks carry of the ball back upfield has little impact in general. He is too predictable. He seems to run at the defending players rather than the gaps. He does not have the impact of Jordan however Jordan needs more development and at this stage not there yet. Back to White, his kicking was nearly always either long enough from the 22 to get to touch beyond halfway and his box kicking allowed chasers to tackle the receiver, stuffing out broken field attacks by the Canes. However, field kicking by other ponies did not seem to achieve much except that it was deep enough that the Ponies defence was sufficently organised when the ball carrier came into contact. The ponies kick and chase has been much better in other games. Back to FBs, there are many in the field but at this stage to me no one has clearly stood out from the crowd as yet. Unfortunately we will only see Banks in play before the Tests. Apart from White, no other 6 can get us out to touch beyond halfway from the 22 and this is a worry. Tate and Gordon has improved from last year to give better backup to White and surprise, surprise, Gordon can actually past straight from the base of the scrum without having to take 3 steps which is great variation 😂 😂 😂 . Cheers.

Really? What makes you say that? I think DR is more pragmatic than having favourites. If there was to be a favourite it would have to be Hodge and because Hodge has been such a constant and useful player in so many positions and DR has been able to pull him into a spot in an emergency from fly half, centre, wing or fb. So what makes Beale a favourite? Cheers.

JT, Thanks for an enlightened article. If players are to get red cards and then go to a judiciary to be judged as a result of the red card and have several weeks off because it is dangerous play, then shouldn’t refs, tmo’s and assistant refs be also cited and front a judiciary when they have failed to awarded a red card and also have several weeks off just like rugby players? After all that is dangerous adjudication. The current system of the refs judging themselves and behind closed doors is not acceptable. There needs to be a more transparent process with refs relegated when they consistently do not perform. This diparity between the peformances of the NH refs and those in the SH should not exist together with different emphasis in interpretations of laws. All we want is consistancy. Cheers.

Hi Highlander, thanks for an excellent piece and I agree commentators who live on their laurels as explayers need to get the boot if they are unable to read stats and disect the moden game in their commentary. It would be wonderful during the break if Stan has a short piece on rugby rules and or tactics to help educate the new followers of rugby. It might also educate some comentators 😂 😂 😂 cheers.
As an aside, can we run a rating by Roarers on commentators at the end of the Super Rugby Pacific Series and send the results to Stan with a request that those who do not get an average rating of 5 out of 10 over say 6 categories be replaced. Cheers

Yeh .Leg, and DC has a sweat tent, white smoke purification, spirit singing with didgeridoo drones coursing through the tents and clap sticks leading the chant. They are singing the other teams away and singing the Tahs up. They should be 100mm taller by next week, 50mm wider and 20kgs heaver. The guys are marked in Tah blue clay during the spirit ceremony. The new Tah spirit song has been kept a secret as it’s too powerful for outsiders to know as it can be manipulated. They are working on chain block to lock it up tight. Don’t be surprised if Tane comes out with blue hair this week. 😂 😂 😂 (blue tears). Cheers

Hi BF, On my honeymoon up in wonderful Shark Bay so only got back to the accomodation after good day out. Your father-in-law would have been on the Conway when it was on the Mersey in Liverpool before the war as it had to be shifted to the Menia Straights between Wales mainland and Anglesey because of the bombing by the Germans. In those times living onboard the ship was very different to my time as they were in very cramped spaces, sleeping on hammocks that were slung every evening and put away every morning so the space cauld be used for other purposes. The ship was a 3 masted ship of the line, of Corvette Class, 92 guns, 4,375 long tons and 65m on tbe gun deck
with 2 decks I believe. There was one tale, (that was true) that a bounty was paid for every rat brought to the duty officer. The boys worked out how to recycle the rat many times. When the rat was brought to the duty officer, he would enter it into the log book with the name of the Cadet against the entry for payment of the bounty then throw the dead rat out the window. Some other cadets would hang down near the water line off ropes further aft and quietly scoop the rat up. It would be then dried and a day later represented as a new rat by a different Cadet to a different duty officer (they changed every day). There is a book called New Chums by John Masefield who was a cadet, QB (quarter boy, as the course at that time was 2 years split into 4 quarters). He also became poet laureate. In my time we were totally shore based as the ship had been wrecked in the swellies between the Robert Stevenson railway bridge and the Menia Road Suspension Bridge by Thomas Telford when being towed to Liverpool for refitting and the current was too strong for the tugs. You only went through on slack tide because, the current coming from Carnarvon in the south along the Menia Straights and that coming around the outside of Anglesey and flowing from the north into the swellies had to be judged. There ate at times a waterfall of a metre between the two streams will occur. A power boat use to take a line of sailing boats through the swellies each Saturday in summer to sail against the locals starting at Menia Bridge or further north at Beaunaris. Wonderful times sailing when the sun was shining but bitterly cold if raining
Colder than dailing om Perth in the middle of winter. I applaud your trying to get rugby included in a state school and understand your frustration when it ended
Well done though. Cheers

If you can kick a ball, you can easily dream you are a Messie, Rinado, etc. without necessarily ever played a represensitive game but just by kicking a ball around in the street. Nearly every oz migrant has played soccer but very few have played rugby. Barcelona is one of the top euro teams and though in general I don’t follow soccer any more, I would have gone to see the game if Messi was playing even though he is now pass his best when he was mesmerising as I would have gone to see Campo, Loumo, QC etc. Cheers.

Sorry JC, I relised now that I have got you mixed up with my old sparring parnter Jacko who worships Thorn who can do no wrong and is the second coming of JC! How I do like razing him up from time to time for a bit of fun but also enjoy his opinions. Now that I realise you’re a Tah’s fan, congratations on their second coming this year under DC. I’ve been mightly impressed as they have been going from strength to strenght. Here’s hopeful they do well and my Force too. Cheers.

Mark, I think sometimes memories become a bit dim over time. To quibble at the current average time of ball in play and not to compare it with even 10 years ago shows little perspective or reconise the advancement in the game. Yes the scrum resets can be annoying but 5 minute line outs? You need to see Spec Savers or a watch maker to have your watch adjusted. I agree on tmo reviews, but it gives you time to layback a bit and go get a beer, a snack or a pee or argue/comment with your mate about the incidence. It does give players a bit of a rest. Playing hooker in my day was hard enough, with the speed, strength and athleticism required of forwards in the modern game, I applaud what they can do. I think you need to be a bit more realistic on what they can achieve without resorting to extra forwards replacements or rotating the starting forwards two or 3 times over the course of the game. Rugby has far more stuppages than American Football but AF fans don’t complain on the outages and full scale change out of defensive and offensive teams. It gives them time to buy drinks and snacks. Cheers.

JC, what an unlucky latter half of the season for your beloved Reds after such a promising start to the season, and there I thought the Reds had some excelent depth as well as tallent too but unfortunately the juries have showen that up as being a little shallow. No better illustrated than at fly half. I can understand Tate’s frustration that too little time and effort has been put onto the develoment of a replacement fly half after James O’Connor. Replacements have got to be given more game time in order to develop. Chasing extra trys and not bringing replacements on to develop them eventually comes back and bites you in the bum. The enforced rest for AB players allows replacements game time and I think it’s a good thing. Cheers

Hi JC, an interesting and enjoyable article to read. One of my real bug bears is the lack of devlopment of rugby in schools, particularly in WA. I started playing rugby in North Wales at HMS Conway I was a few years in advance of the esteemed Sir Clive so our paths did not cross nor did I have a fraction of his skills and being very short sighted was relegated to hooker in the thirds team. I would probably be hit in the face by a high ball rather than catch it (there were no contact lenses then!) The middle of the scrum is a good place to be in keeping warm during matches in very cold weather. Those were times when hookers actually hooked and one way or another you tried to make the opposite hooker uncomfortable and distracted so he was not ready for the strike. Those who could grow a beard (and I could not) would leave a sharp spiky stubby one for game days and a good ploy was to rake the oppositions face as the ball was put in. No doubt, I would have been classified too small by today’s standards to be a hooker. When I came to Australia and played hooker for the UWA seconds in 1967, one week the first team was short of a prop and I was thrust into the breach. Did my back feel it after the game! I can feel it now as I think about it. I’m very stocky and strong in body but nothing prepared me for that experience. I have had a lot of respect for props since then. We use to play against the surrounding Welsh and border counties schools twice a week. Wednesdays and Saturdays, home and away and train Mondays and Thursdays after classes. This is the majority of the school other than those opting out to do cross country running or play hockey. There was a whole school cross country run once a term in the winter terms unless of course, the ground was two hard to play rugby as in 1962 so you were then sent out to do a cross country run in gym shorts, singles and pumps on lieu of playing rugby, even if it was nearly blizzard conditions (memory seems to emblesh a bit over time 😊 ). I think, that rugby in schools was like this all over Wales and in the border counties. Over here in the west, looking on the net, I can hardly find any details on which schools play rugby and non whatsoever about the name of the competition. There is a little bit of rah rah by RA on some rugby festivals they organise for schools to try rugby. The top private boy’s schools play rugby due to tradition and prestige. The public schools generally don’t do sport outside of school hours as teachers are not paid outside of hours whereas in the private schools it is expected that teaching duties include sports coaching and management as part of their duties and renumetation. There are exceptons and that is in state country schools where the community gets very much involved in sport (though not rugby). There has always been certain state schools who specialises in developing skills at different activities. Kent street for cricket and pilot training, John Curtain for performing arts, Applecross for fine arts, I think there is one for tennis and now one at last for rugby!!!. How this works is a puzzle. If only one school, who do they play against??? I think other than the private schools all other junior rugby is developed through club rugby of the established clubs. Where do we go to develop and expand junior rugby from here? Cheers.

Great Article Nick. I never though I would see such controlled kick and chase from an Oz team. It is astonishing the difference between this year and last year. The Brumbies have been vey well coached and it needs the other franchise’s to lift their game. Though I think DC is on track with the Tahs and the change in HC at the Force next year may bring a change there too. As for the Rebels?? I love your disctiption of the adjustments made by Slipper to get an advantage, a real insight. How are you able to discern this? I guess from from slowing down the replay
Something I have not been able to do in Stan. I hope Laurie Fisher is brought onboard for Oz’s RWC coaching team. Cheers.

Hi Matt, Im not a Tah’s supporter but I think the ref got it wrong with the penalty try. When part of the maul broke away, it then was no longer a maul as it was not connected to a Tah’s player, so the forwards infront of the ball carrier was obstructing the no.8 who came onto play because when they broke away, the no. 8 was not in contact with the maul. Cheers.

Highlander. An after thought. There are always comments that Richie is only playing well because the Crusades have a good scrum and would not do so well if they were going backwards. What say you? Cheers.

Which one Nick? Or are you mot allowed to say thst on the Roar? Cheers.

Highlander. Great article. A wonderful insight. I have always been more impressed with Richie than Beau and your analysis confirms my thoughts. Thanks, cheers.

Yes WB. That may give us the money but will it improve the performance? Cheers.

Yet Hoy, Australia has +230 registered players as against +150k in NZ. Which points down to coaching and culture. Cheers.

Yes Jacko, which means not enough is demanded of them by the coaching staff.
It all comes down to coaching and culture and RA supporting them to improve. Cheers.

Joe, the Reds seem to have the talent depth so I can see them being more competitive with better conditioning and training and that is the the same to lesser extent with the Tahs and Ponies. The Force and the Rebels have further to go. The improvement in the Tahs is s crrdit to DCs coaching
Hopefully the Force next yesr wil their new couch will improve. lThe real question is why the likes of Kellaway improve while OS? There are probably other gems in the Oz SR teams like Kellaway. Not identified and developed. Cheers.

Bloody, “comments policy” link is too close to the typing panel. I hit it by accident and lost the screen. Thought it was lost so reposted again. Please Roar shift the position of that link down one line. I’ve lost other posts because of this which did not appear like this one. Cheers

Jacko, yes you are right we need an NPC. Maybe Twiggie should be approached to fund it for 5 years to get it up and running and get momentum. He’s the only one with the money and interest in Rugby. Call it the “Fortescue Cup” or the “Twiggie Forrest Cup”. Gina Rinehart has the money but if she won’t part with some of it to her kids it’s unlikely to part some to RA. However give her a place on the RA board, butter her up and call it the “Gina Rinhart Cup”. That may draw her in. It’s lamentable that we do not have the rich business men that they have in France backing and owning rugby teams. Cheers