Patchey
First XV
- Joined
- May 4, 2012
- Messages
- 2,681
- Country Flag
haha to be fair I do like the look of Ward a lot. Seems to have overtaken Jamie George in the reckoning.
Taking the locks: That's our 5th and 6th choices respectively (assuming you agree that Kitchener is better than Robson and that Kruis shouldn't be seen as a lock for England)
If we were playing against New Zealands 5th and 6th choices I'd definitely say we have a good chance.
Wade will be fine. His defence is at least on a par with Alex Cuthberts who is over 16st. As for the high ball, Wade is now very good - much improved on a few years ago.
I think George has suffered a lot because of Sarries' rotation policy. Ward is getting a nice amount of game time and is in the form of his life, which really helps his case.
If you look through the Super Rugby/ITM Cup squads the 5/6th best locks in NZ are probably still better than Robson at least. In the back you've got guys like Gareth Anscombe, Ihaia West, Jamieson Gibson-Parkes etc who aren't in the All Black set up now but would easily give us a run for our money. Hansen could field seven or eight uncapped players and probably win against our 3rdish string team. Thats just the depressing reality.