Australia Team v Russia, Genius or Madness

No1J

Australia: J O’Connor; R Samo, A Ashley-Cooper, B Barnes, D Michell; Q Cooper, L Burgess; J Slipper, S Moore, S Kepu, J Horwill (capt), N Sharpe, S Higginbotham, D Pocock, B McCalman.
Replacements: T Polota-Nau, S Faingaa, S Ma’afu, R Simmons, R Elsom, W Genia, N Phipps.
Referee: B Lawrence (New Zealand).

Of the 7 front row forwards Deans brought to the WC he has 6 of them in his match day 22, Ben Alexander gets a rest, so all three Hookers get a run.
If that was not enough to grab attention, he has put Samo a 35 year old Back row on the wing, fast as he is, ON THE WING in international rugby?
Wonder what people think of the betting spread now, hmmm.

joshrogan

They'll still beat them easily IMO, might rile Russia up a bit because Australia are taking them as a joke.

Fight_Night

I can understand that if they want to experiment, the Russia game is the one to do it, but Samo on the wing is a joke. I hope Russia play out of their skins give them a good game.

.ak

They're stuck for wing replacements cuz of the injuries they soaked up against USA.

Also he's played on the wing before.

duckysauce

Fight_Night wrote: »

I can understand that if they want to experiment, the Russia game is the one to do it, but Samo on the wing is a joke. I hope Russia play out of their skins give them a good game.

Samo sarted his rugby on the wing , reckon he will have fun there .

thomond2006

No1J wrote: »

Australia: J O’Connor; R Samo, A Ashley-Cooper, B Barnes, D Michell; Q Cooper, L Burgess; J Slipper, S Moore, S Kepu, J Horwill (capt), N Sharpe, S Higginbotham, D Pocock, B McCalman.
Replacements: T Polota-Nau, S Faingaa, S Ma’afu, R Simmons, R Elsom, W Genia, N Phipps.
Referee: B Lawrence (New Zealand).

Of the 7 front row forwards Deans brought to the WC he has 6 of them in his match day 22, Ben Alexander gets a rest, so all three Hookers get a run.
If that was not enough to grab attention, he has put Samo a 35 year old Back row on the wing, fast as he is, ON THE WING in international rugby?
Wonder what people think of the betting spread now, hmmm.

Nearly all their fit players are involved, they're down to bare bones in the backline. No other choice really. None of the injuries are apparently tournament ending (bar Palu's) so they couldn't bring in new faces from outside the 30.

Samo on the wing could get 5 tries if he can run over his opposite number with ease.

buck65

Australia could win this with a BP if they played 10 players.

Digifriendly

buck65 wrote: »

Australia could win this with a BP if they played 10 players.

Only 2 in the backline. Now that would be interesting.

Nelson Muntz

Funnily enough, this is the best center combo they have put out.

Thud

the Russian wingers were very fast last weekend, hopefully the exploit Samo's wing

pickarooney

Eurosport wrote:

Samo's pace was on show in the Wallabies' 25-20 Tri-Nations victory over the All Blacks in Brisbane when he burst clear and outsprinted winger Cory Jane and fullback Mils Muliaina to the line to score a memorable 65-metre try.

Scored a try from the wing against the States the last day too.