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Scotland v Wales

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Thanks Warren for installing the confidence the Welsh nation needs by picking a useless 9, a 10 who is an interception master and has looked frankly poor when he has played there in the past and a winger who has a broken bone in his hand and cannot tackle for his life.

Life is grand ... thanks Warren.
 
Not so sure. Its an improved selection. No Powell for starters, Byrne in at FB but most importantly Hook in at 10.
Wales biggest problem against England was there inability to make the right decision. They would kick when they should have taken contact, run into touch, get isolated etc.

Another week together, and Hook at 10 will significantly improve things. Wales will be a better team.

I think Scotland will also improve though. It'll be a close game but I still think Scotland will dominate up front and take it by two scores.
 
People have forgotten we won a Grand Slam with Hook at 10.
I know he hasn't played there properly for ages and he is a gamble to be thrown in at stand-off, but he isn't as rubbish as some people are suggesting.
 
cyRil said:
People have forgotten we won a Grand Slam with Hook at 10.
I know he hasn't played there properly for ages and he is a gamble to be thrown in at stand-off, but he isn't as rubbish as some people are suggesting.
Click to expand...

Forgetting he interchanged with Jones a fair bit so its not necessarily fair to say we won with Hook at 10, rather a combination of both. I still stand by my guns, he looked distinctly average there against England, has a massive winde up for throwing passes which makes his susceptible to the interception. Not only that in the recent games he has played he tends to take the wrong options. Granted his time at 10 has been limited, rather have seen Preistland given a go.
 
Cymro said:
Forgetting he interchanged with Jones a fair bit so its not necessarily fair to say we won with Hook at 10, rather a combination of both. I still stand by my guns, he looked distinctly average there against England, has a massive winde up for throwing passes which makes his susceptible to the interception. Not only that in the recent games he has played he tends to take the wrong options. Granted his time at 10 has been limited, rather have seen Preistland given a go.
Click to expand...

You're just gutted I called it yesterday, in my critically-acclaimed blog: www.cyrilsplace.wordpress.com

Cheers peeps!!
:p
 
Byrne is a penalty giving away machine, and rarely makes the right decision - Wales just have to hope that Hook is chosen to take penaltys to touch, because Byrnes are more "give them possession" than "get us good field position"
He may be a specialised 15, but I'd rather have jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none-Hook at 15
Or Priestland
 
I for one am happy to see Hook back at 10. He hasn't looked completely comfortouble in any other position, be it 12, 13 or 15. He may have won Welsh player of the year last year, but he was still nowhere neer as good as he was playing 10. For one we have a chance to look at Hook at 10 from the start of a match, not for 20min when the games already lost and he's asked to save us from dispair. Jones has had some of his worst games for Wales in the past year, although he's slotted in some decent performances, I'm a little worried that he's just slipped the wrong side of the hill, and isn't the man to play 10 at the WC, in much the same way as Martyn Williams has gone backwards a little in the last year. Both may still have important roles to play at the WC, but we need different options in both positions. We have Warburton and Turnbull at 7, but have no-one at 10 after throwing Hook on the scrap pile in that position. At one point Hook was being favourably compared to Dan Carter, that talent hasn't just dissapeared. I think Priestland will get some gametime this 6 nations, maybe 20min against Italy if we're in control, but for the Scotland match, I'm looking forward to Hook being back at 10.

Not quite sure of the reason that Phillips has retained his place. He's been rubbish for a while, with his basic skills letting him down. Hopefully he upps it, or Hook won't have much chance to shine. However I think recalling Byrne is the right move. We need his running lines from deep to stop our backline crabbing across field. He's not in good form, but his basics are still pretty good (just don't use him to kick to touch from penalties). Priestland was the other option there, maybe we'll see him later in the game.

If Stoddard is deemed fit, good enough for me. He won't let a ****ling injury effect his game, he's a tough lad.
 
People say Stephen Jones has been poor ... maybe in his goalkicking but his defense and distribution skills have been good. Can't be blamed for the ball he receives, and to start calling him over the hill im afraid is just plain stupid, how can he be over the hill. Dull even you admitted then he has had some good games, so how can he be possibly over the hill. People need to start looking at who plays at 9 and point more fingers at him rather than Jones, the amount of players out of from in that squad is horrendous, not only that the gameplan will be a lackluster one no doubt with Phillips insisting making the side move lateral rather than forward!
 
Cymro said:
Hang on ... where have people gotten this amazing theory that Hook is the messiah at 10? Seriously from where?
Click to expand...

I've been wondering this too. There's been alot of hype about of Hook at the moment, but if he were Irish I'd have him a long way behind Sexton for the 10 jersey.
 
Given how frequently Wales butchered opportunities against England it makes sense to put a player like Hook in at 10 or 12. From there he gets to make decisions for the centres and can have a bigger impact on the game as a whole.

Personally would have put him at 12, but 10 is sitll an improvement.
 
I honestly do not see all the hype that Hook recieves is justafiable! He can be a solid player but I feel that he does not know what his position is and he needs to try and establish himself into a role quick and cement it. He has been quite sporadic and he never really impresses me when I see him play. Having said that, he doe have a lot of talent, just need to apply it.
 
Hook is not an out half when he played there for 5 or 10 minutes against Engaland he was taking way too long to distribute the ball to the centres and they were going backwards all the time. very bad call by gatland
 
Cymro said:
People say Stephen Jones has been poor ... maybe in his goalkicking but his defense and distribution skills have been good. Can't be blamed for the ball he receives, and to start calling him over the hill im afraid is just plain stupid, how can he be over the hill. Dull even you admitted then he has had some good games, so how can he be possibly over the hill. People need to start looking at who plays at 9 and point more fingers at him rather than Jones, the amount of players out of from in that squad is horrendous, not only that the gameplan will be a lackluster one no doubt with Phillips insisting making the side move lateral rather than forward!
Click to expand...

I completely agree that Phillips has been poor for a while now. His service has gone from bareable to shocking, unfortunately we are stuck with him for this game as Peel is injured and Rees is suspended, and the youngsters in Knoyle and Lloyd Williams aren't ready yet. Still think Knoyle would do a better job though! However I still stick by my comments surrounding Stephen Jones. He has also struggled to find his Lions form, and really hasn't posed any threat with ball in hand for a while. The game has changed quite alot from what it was in '09 where Jones' abilities to control the game and ship the ball on to the in form Roberts (or Henson before him) worked well. In todays game the 10 HAS to pose a running threat, the clues are everywhere. Cooper, Flood, Carter, Trihn Duc, Sexton all flourishing whilst Jones, Parks and Morne Steyn are all struggling!

Whilst I agree that Jones shouldn't be taking all the flak for the England game, considering neither the scrum half or centres performed (although I do put some blame on Jones for not getting the centres into the game), he has been steadily going backwards over the past two years. Even his once very reliable kicking has gone downhill, both to posts and from hand. If there was someone else really pushign for a spot as Hook was in '08, he would have been demoted to the bench ages ago. Now's the time to propperly figure out who's to take over / next in line. Biggars been tried and found wanting, now it's Hooks turn.
 
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Well i guess "everyone" has had what they wished for, Let's just hope that he can perform now (especially seeing as theres been so much hype regarding it all). Would have liked to have seen Peel at scrum half (but now i have read that he's injured) - Phillips hasn't been on form for a while now, and with hook at 10 we'll need more space between the forwards and backs (Phillips' distribution is not the most accurate and could have done with Peel there for this match). To be fair there isn't that many surprises because of injuries and the media - they don't leave anything to the imagination with their 24/7 news coverage and hype regarding everything (self inflicted i guess by checking the Scrum V website everyday :P). On form i can definitely see scotland turning us over on saturday, especially in front of a packed out Murrayfield. Fingers crossed that i'm wrong and Wales find form from somewhere (not that we played extremely bad against england - just weren't very clinical). Bring on the weekend :D
 

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