RWC'15 Final Weekend Build Up Thread

pickarooney

Shurimgreat wrote: »

And the NZ lock is called Whitelock. So maybe confused the two. Its hard to mistake Matfield however, he's iconic in the sport.

Is there any plans to start a "team of the world cup" thread by the way?

Whigfield you mean?

I was going to start a tops/flops of the WC thread but I said I'd give Read and Folau a chance to redeem themselves in the final.

Ayerza/Coles/Malherbe
Whitelock/Retallick
Hooper/Louw/Pocock
A. Smith / Biggar
DTHVDM/De Allende/Nonu/Imhoff
B. Smith

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

pickarooney wrote: »

Whigfield you mean?

I was going to start a tops/flops of the WC thread but I said I'd give Read and Folau a chance to redeem themselves in the final.

Ayerza/Coles/Malherbe
Whitelock/Retallick
Hooper/Louw/Pocock
A. Smith / Biggar
DTHVDM/De Allende/Nonu/Imhoff
B. Smith

Kriel deserves a place on the flops team.

Journeyman_1

Bridge93 wrote: »

Do New Zealand have a better scrum? They were battered on Saturday and if Scott Sio is fit I would back the Aussies in that department.
Lineout is NZ for sure
Backrow is fascinating but I'll go with Australia
Halfbacks are NZ comfortably
Centres I'll say even
Back 3 NZ marginally

Will be a great game

I have to disagree here. Nonu is probably the best centre in the world by a distance at the minute. I don't think Kuridrani has been great this season either and goes missing more than you'd like.

I agree with the rest though.

pickarooney

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Kriel deserves a place on the flops team.

I'm trying not to include players carrying injuries in mine so I have only about three players so far. Kriel was anonymous though. Habana managed to score 5 tries despite playing like a drain for most of the tournament so can't very well include him. Unfair to put the Namibians and Americans in.

Actually, if you apply a handicap system so players who perform above their or their teams' level are rewarded it might make a more interesting exercise.

techdiver

subfreq wrote: »

That actually made me laugh out loud when he said it in commentary, but when he then said Matlock my brain locked up like I suddenly didn't actually know the names of the players and had slipped into a parallel universe.

Believe it or not, Lawrence Dallaglio made the exact same mistake on ITV. I'm actually surprised more people didn't hear it.

It was when Whitelock and Matfield were competing for a lineout.

sydthebeat

keeping it to tier 1

healy / youngs / lee
pape / maestri
wood / Billy V / robshaw

youngs / farrell

cutberth / burgess / barritt / Nakaitaci
mclean


id be basing this on perceived promise coming into the competition.
i didnt include players who came in for others due to injury.

Shurimgreat

Could possibly include Bastareaud or most of the French backs. He did nothing against the Irish and can't even remember if he came on against the All Blacks.
Michalak too, I don't think his injury deprived France of much against the ABs.
France did not really turn up at this World Cup. France and England the two biggest teams to flop.

pickarooney

Adjusting mine for handicaps, my best XV. I end up with 0 NZ players though, which is a bit silly.

Sio/Creevy/Malherbe
Henderson/Lavanini
Lam/Mafi/Pocock
Lobzhanidze
McGinty
DTH/De Allende/Bennett/Cordero
Goromaru

efb

Healy?

sydthebeat

efb wrote: »

Healy?

Absolutely

efb

sydthebeat wrote: »

Absolutely

No agreed 100%

pickarooney

He wasn't remotely fit. Bad judgement call from Schmidt from start to finish. He's normally more ruthless but Healy got one chance too many.

I realise Kieran Read hasn't been a standout player this World Cup, but was reading a stat on the BBC saying that he has the most lineout steals of this RWC.

I wonder if the All Blacks are going to use kicking into touch deep in Australian territory as a weapon/tactic for the final. They certainly seemed happy to kick when hot on attack against SA.

.ak

pickarooney wrote: »

He wasn't remotely fit. Bad judgement call from Schmidt from start to finish. He's normally more ruthless but Healy got one chance too many.

The problem is a lot of what these guys do just comes on match day.

He rewarded bowe in the same manner and he played well when it mattered.

rrpc

pickarooney wrote: »

He wasn't remotely fit. Bad judgement call from Schmidt from start to finish. He's normally more ruthless but Healy got one chance too many.

I've noticed over the years with Healy is that he's not a good bench player. For some reason he has his best performances when he starts and is at his most anonymous when he benches.

He was one of the first to be substituted against Argentina (on 50 mins as I recall) and McGrath was ready to go on at 45 minutes.

http://stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/all-blacks/73451740/Statistics-suggest-All-Blacks-are-Rugby-World-Cup-final-favourites

Interesting statistical breakdown ahead of the final. All Blacks have had easier opposition, which skews things a bit.

Pocock is king of the turnover, with as many as Read and McCaw combined.

techdiver

Some good news for the prospects of a good open game, is the weather forecast for Saturday in London is good. Sunny 18 degrees.

Can't wait to go over now.

Moflojo

Basil3 wrote: »

I realise Kieran Read hasn't been a standout player this World Cup, but was reading a stat on the BBC saying that he has the most lineout steals of this RWC.

I wonder if the All Blacks are going to use kicking into touch deep in Australian territory as a weapon/tactic for the final. They certainly seemed happy to kick when hot on attack against SA.

Horses for courses - The SA second row, despite their unbelievable athleticism, were extremely inexperienced and NZ targeted them relentlessly at the lineout. I'm not sure about the knockout stages, but I remember seeing a statistic towards the end of the group stages that Etzebeth hadn't received a single lineout throw for SA; they simply weren't using him and were relying solely on De Jaeger once Matfield got injured. Hence, NZ kicked to touch all day long and put massive pressure on the SA lineout, and it paid off.

The Australian lineout is far more secure, and they have more jumper options than SA, so I doubt NZ will target the lineout as a weakness. It's hard to know where the weakness is in the Australian game - their scrum is solid, lineout is fine, they're the breakdown kings, their defence and tackling has been sensational, and they have an unbelievably good back three. The only slight weakness I'd see is that Kuridrani tends to get a bit isolated in midfield sometimes and relies on his strength to get himself out of trouble - this won't be an option against Nonu. Perhaps having one dedicated 'shooter' in defence could limit the Australian passing options - I don't see NZ committing numbers to the Australian rucks so NZ should have defensive numbers wide to cover.

pickarooney

Kicking points is an obvious weakness and in their last two matches they never pulled away despite scoring a hatful of tries.

Moflojo

Moflojo wrote: »

The Australian lineout is far more secure, and they have more jumper options than SA, so I doubt NZ will target the lineout as a weakness. It's hard to know where the weakness is in the Australian game - their scrum is solid, lineout is fine, they're the breakdown kings, their defence and tackling has been sensational, and they have an unbelievably good back three. The only slight weakness I'd see is that Kuridrani tends to get a bit isolated in midfield sometimes and relies on his strength to get himself out of trouble - this won't be an option against Nonu. Perhaps having one dedicated 'shooter' in defence could limit the Australian passing options - I don't see NZ committing numbers to the Australian rucks so NZ should have defensive numbers wide to cover.

I think defensively Australia could be put to the sword. They have missed a crazy amount of tackles, but their cover defence has managed to save them. A lot of that comes down to how clinical their opposition has been. The All Blacks will definitely be presented with plenty of opportunities to score.

I can't imagine it being anything but an open game, hopefully enjoyable for the neutral. If I was the All Blacks, I would be going hard after Foley. If you put him under pressure and he doesn't play well, then their other option is still even worse.

tbm

This may have been posted elsewhere. I'm a big Nigel Owens fan, but this is a very interesting read:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/opinion/73400315/Mark-Reason-Nigel-Owens-will-referee-the-Rugby-World-Cup-final-or-will-he

Makes me think of the second test in 2012 too, the repeated reset scrums leading to the repeated Carter drop goal attempts.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

South Africa team for the weekend.



Bench: Strauss, Nyakane, De Plessis, De Jager, Alberts, Paige, Lambie, Serfontain

pickarooney

Thought they'd have more bridesmaids out for the sister-kissing.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Teams are in.


Tatafu Polota-Nau, James Slipper, Greg Holmes, Dean Mumm, Ben McCalman, Nick Phipps, Matt Toomua, Kurtley Beale




Busy day for Ben Smith....

shrapnel222

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Teams are in.


Tatafu Polota-Nau, James Slipper, Greg Holmes, Dean Mumm, Ben McCalman, Nick Phipps, Matt Toomua, Kurtley Beale




Busy day for Ben Smith....

amazed folau starts tbh. He played pretty poorly against Argentina. made bad decision after bad decision and gave plenty of good ball away. Beale has played well every time he's come on and deserves to start.

Folau is a beast of a player, but he's just too rusty and needs more game time before getting back to his best.