Great work Spiro. I couldn’t agree more with your assessment of the new scrum laws.
Getting a contest back into that part of the game on a daily basis is a long overdue development, with the added benefit of improved safety, and perhaps more focus on scrum technique as opposed to raw power, this cannot be a bad thing.
Fingers crossed some consistency in the refereeing of the area develops and we can once and we can put the scrum controversies to bed for a while!

Finally someone has had the guts to speak up against Haddin. One decent knock in the first test apart he has been awful. Sure he has the right leadership qualities and experience, but if that is why you are picking him, then you might as well pick George Gregan or John Eales behind the stumps. He has to justify his place in the side first and foremost, and clearly he doesn’t.
Paine can play that leadership role and offer a future, and actually keep wicket…no brainer

Nick – would it surpirse you to know I am one “of the great unwashed”?

I have just moved back to the motherland after a few years down under and so have seen a bit more of the Aussies up close than many of the arm chair critics in England.

I am still confident England will retain the urn, but wish people would realise it is far from a foregone conclusion!

Seems like my article has provoked some lively debate, and in some cases (many) vitriol.
Which is a neat parallel for the issues facing the IRB. What someone deems to be a penalty others do not.
In a game as even as the one at the weekend, having a penalty count as one sided as it was and one team complaining that they were unable to compete at the breakdown, while at the same time the other could use, different, illegal tactics is a clear example of a poor game by the referee.
Perhaps the Lions should have adapted to the referee at the breakdown better. But in this day and age why is that necessary?
The IRB need to help the refs out and make things more simple.

Yikes – you have missed the point entirely. I don’t doubt refs work hard, and the mistakes are not deliberate. That said they need to be better and need to be given better direction and more tools, such as using a free kick at scrum time.

I had to read the last couple of paragraphs three times – the wallabies have the edge in the forwards? Really? Just because the front row have more caps doesn’t make them any better than their Lions counterparts. I happily accept that Stephen Moore and Tom Youngs are interchnagable, but Alexander and Robinson are not fit to lace Adam Jones boots. Corbisiero is young and has had injuries that have slowed his progress, but he will prove his class and having Dan Cole (a prop of the quality Australia could only dream) and Vumipola on the bench shows how much better they are in this area than the Wallabies.
Had Alexander and Robinson been born in any other major rugby playing nation I doubt they would have a dozen caps between them.
The Lions 2nd row will edge the wallabies, although I am a big fan of Kane Douglas and respect Horwill’s leadership. In the back row the Lions have the clear edge at 6 and 8 and the wallabies at 7.

In summary – the lions edge all 3 rows of the pack…The wallabies will have to be unbelievable and the lions off their game with a bit of help from the referee to match them

As a head coach Scott Johnson has done nothing on the international stage. I feel he is similar to Rob Howley, in that they are great caches when given a brief and guidance and sticking to their strengths, but when having to form their own strategy and drive other coaches they falter.

Having Dean Ryan on board will help Johnson, but I can’t see him pushing Scotland forward to make that magical performance.

Smart money is on France…England have yet to prove they can win a scrappy affair, or come back from a deficit to win…as such i am still unconvinced.

Such a bizarre story it feels like it must be true. Clearly a naive and immature man.
Unfortunately for him and his family he will have cost himself millions with this episode and his awful performance vs. Alabama – as he will likely slip from the middle of Round 1 to the end of the round or even round 2 in April’s NFL Draft…feels like he would fit in perfectly at the Raiders.
Hopefully he will learn from it and become the player his natural talents suggest he could be.

Nothing I like better than a hypothetical lions team, in fact I wrote one on this site after the world cup…
I do have more than a few issues with your choices though.
Ross Rennie??? Over Sean o’Brien (fresh off going toe to toe with the best no 7 of all time McCaw for 80 minutes and winning on points) or Warburton or even Robshaw (a distant 3rd to the other 2)
Foden and Morgan are also outsiders. Foden makes too many errors and has never quite lived up to his form that sprang him to fMe in his final year at sale and his move to Northampton..
Morgan is well behind Faletau and Heaslip for the 8 jersey….a fine carrier but has shown he offers little else in the tests so far this June. When the rest of he 8 are on the back foot he is anonymous. Could be a good shout for bench duty against he wallabies….being able to bring a carrier of his quality on after 60 mins in a test would be a great weapon…still needs to prove he had other skills between now and selection time to get a seat on the plane.

Nothing I like better than a hypothetical lions team, in fact I wrote one on this site after the world cup…
I do have more than a few issues with your choices though.
Ross Rennie??? Over Sean o’Brien (fresh off going toe to toe with the best no 7 of all time McCaw for 80 minutes and winning on points) or Warburton or even Robshaw (a distant 3rd to the other 2)
Foden and Morgan are also outsiders. Foden makes too many errors and has never quite lived up to his form that sprang him to fMe in his final year at sale and his move to Northampton..
Morgan is well behind Faletau and Heaslip for the 8 jersey….a fine carrier but has shown he offers little else in the tests so far this June. When the rest of he 8 are on the back foot he is anonymous. Could be a good shout for bench duty against he wallabies….being able to bring a carrier of his quality on after 60 mins in a test would be a great weapon…still needs to prove he had other skills between now and selection time to get a seat on the plane.

3- Gary Ablett
2-Scott Pendelbury
1- Chris Judd

3- Lance Franklin
2- Jonathan Brown
1- Adam Goodes

3-Aaron Sandilands
2-Shane Mumford
1-Nic Naitanui

3- Brendan Goddard
2- Brett Deledio
1- Corey Enright

I agree with all this in part.
The wallabies nig issues in the forward pack is not inn the back row. There are plenty of international class players to go around, it is the front 5 that causes issues.
As yet none of the props have been shown to be international class. They are either solid scrummagers who offer nothing else, or useful around the park and a turnstyle at scrum time.
At hooker TPN is a real handful, shame he can’t hit a lineout target for any money, and gives away too many penalties, and cannot stay fit.
In the 2nd row Horwill is solid, hardworking and a good leader, but is not the brutish defender/carrier or the dominant lineout exponent that NZ/SA have shown is the model for modern rugby.
Until the Wallabies find players to cause trouble for opposing front 5’s the make up of the backline will be a moot point, whihc is unfortunate given the incredible talent available behind the scrum (genia, cooper, barnes, JOC, Beale, AAC, Ioane etc etc etc)

Great article…the plight of Parkinson’s sufferers should be publicised not shunned…

Kersi, as someone who bats left handed and bowls right handed I thoroughly enjoyed the article.

I wanted to reiterate the point made by Happy Hooker, these players are not ambidextrous as that would suggest they are equally adept with either hand in the same discipline.

Jammy also points makes the valid point that when batting left handed the dominant hand is the right hand, as such it would seem to be more natural for people who bowl right handed (presumably the right being their stronger hand) to bat left handed.

Interestingly I have played in a couple of games where a fielder was equally strong throwing the ball with either arm. Made life interesting sneaking a second when the ball is hit to what is assumed to be hie weaker side. He did only bolw and bat right handed though.

KPM – Very exciting looking back line but, I am hesitant to say that the likes of Eastmond, Tonkins etc will be successes in Union. League imports, especially in the northern hemisphere have been a bit hit and miss.

The prospect of a backline in in a couple of years time including a seletion of Youngs, Spencer, Eastmond, Farrell, Ford, Cipriani, Tuilani, Tomkins, Ashton, Foden, Wade, Sharples, to name a few is tantalising. Just have to hope the coaching structure is in place to take advantage of it!!

Very excited about the prospect of Tomkins…but this was a piece about players in the 6N and not picking out players who could make it from club rugby.

@kingplaymaker – Noreh hasn’t hasn’t been up to much for years?? He is 19…seems harsh

I agree that B O’D isn;t the player he once was, but i would pick him over Fainga’a/McCabe any day.

Completely agree Brett. I think te Wallabies will be confident going forward in the wide channels with Tuilagi/North etc defending out there, the problem they have is securing enough quick/phase ball to get that width, and not be forced to attack in the 10/12 channel where the likes of Cooper be greeted by some behemoths.

The bad news (more) for Australia, is that should the Lions be getting gouged out wide they will likely have the likes of O Driscoll to slot in and shore up any defensive weaknesses.

Robbie Deans is a smart guy, so I am sure he will have some plans up his sleeve, but he must be nervous about the way the Lions are shaping up….

The same Tom Court who’s remains are still being picked out of the twickenham turf and Alex Corbisiero’s boots?

He is better of staying in Europe and learning to scrummage. That said he might prefer to head south and avoid another embarrassment…

Top stuff…

Personally I hate Mark Nicholas. As a Pom when I lived in the UK, the best part of the cricket moving from Channel 4 to Sky was that Smarmy Mark Nicholas with his dreamy strokes was out of a job. Quite how channel 9 decided it would be a good idea to employ him i can’t figure out?

Did he play international cricket? No. Does he offer insight and have a keen eye for detail? No. Is he as annoying as James Brayshaw? yes.

Surely if you are going to employ a foreign commentator you make it someone who was a fine player and offers value to the commentary (Michael Holding, Barry Richards etc)?

Frankly I am glad that Warney was unavailable for commentary this summer the idea of Mark Nicholas drooling over him for hours on end makes me want to vomit.

That said love Richie, Bill, Tony G and Slats.

Punchy stuff KPM!

Was Johnson the right man for the job? No. Did he perform to expectations? No. Were his selections wrong? Yes often. Did his stubborn bnature restrict development? Yes.

All in all his reign has not been a success and I agree with you in that. To say he is the most inept manager in the history of international rugby is harsh. No, in fact it is completely wrong. Were you asleep during Matt Williams’ riegn with Scotland? or Andy Robinson with England, or Peter De Villers with South Africa??

On other issue that you don’t seem to have addressed is the farce that was going on above Martin Johnson. I am not sure many people would have fared better with constant turmoil and in-fighting in the upper echelons of the RFU. For my money Rob Andrew is the villain of the piece. He has the sllipperiest shoulders around, brushing off blame time and again. The buck passer extraordinaire….the end of Johnson is the end of the 3rd manager since e took up his role of Director of Elite Rugby, during which time England had failed develop, perform or entertain on any consistant basis.

Should Jonno have gone? Probably. But the problem will not be solved until Rob Andrew has gone and stable structure is put in place at the RFU…only then can the new england manager be expected to bring out the best in what is a very talented pool of players

As a proud Pom, watching Warne destroy our batting line over and over while i was growing up was painful on one hand, but on the other you came to like the guy. A true Larrikin, a guy with immense talent, that made everyone believe that they could make it. I still have a slightly deformed ring finger on my left hand from the endless summers trying to bowl leggies in the nets as a schoolboy…and it is all his fault….

Watching the press conference made me wretch….the Warnie I learned to love seems to have been replaced by a drag queen. Clearly his priorities are now purely with self publicity and that is a crying shame. I completely agree that his comeback is a farce and serves to benefit nobody….Sure ticket sales for the big bash may go up initially, but are those extra tickets going to youngsters who are the fuiture of cricket or to people here to see crickets equivalent of the bearded lady? Or maybe catch a glimpse of Liz?

Please Shane, do us all a favour and keep your involvement in cricket to commentary and mentoring aspiring spinners….

CizzyRascal: I couldn’t agree more, in fact I left off a few argentinians Contempomi, Roncero, Albacete, Fernandez Lobbe and of course Ledesma.

Ross: Well said

Anyone who has selected yachvili over Phillips has had their right to an opinion revoked. The Frenchman was good I agree. Phillips was excellent, a real game changer.

Sheek – can you send me some of that good stuff you are clearly taking! Have you actually watched any of France of New Zealand’s games?

Their back row, the match of the AB’s?
Dusautoir is a quality player, especially in defence. McCaw is an all time great who is Dusautoir’s equal in defence but offers much more in attack and at the breakdown.
Harinordoquy is an excellent player on his day. Kieran Read is an excellent player every day. With his back against the wall i expect the frenchman to go missing this weekend. He has had his 1 performance of the tournament.
Bonnaire is fantastic at the lineout. Elsewhere he is anonymous. Kaino has been my player of the tournament. Abrasive in defence, a big ball carrier, strong in the tight and good at line out.
Advantage All Blacks.

Yachvili and Parra are both good no.9’s with excellent kicking games…I have no idea if they can offer anything else as all they have done this competition is kick. Weepu has been fantastic over the last 5 weeks, and although he was off the boil in the semi he still matched Genia. Cruden is unproven, but managed the game well and has the advantage over Parra in that he is a No.10 not a converted 9.

Their scrum and lineout are indeed soild, in fact their lineout is first class. So is the All Black’s. I expect the hosts to have the advantage in the scrum and it to be even at the lineout as NZ use a vairety of different calls to keep Les Bleus off balance.

On paper the French backs may be tricky, but since they never see the ball that is of no consequence. If they do see the ball i doubt they will cause the stoic NZ defence any major issues, seeing as the Wallabies didn’t. As for the French defence out wide, I think they will struggle to contain the pace, power and nous of their foes.

Really can’t see past a crushig all black victory.

The final they deserved is New Zealand vs. Wales!!