All Blacks 42 v Wales 9 FT. Saturday 19 June 2010 - Dunedin.

[Conal]

bishops a good call been on good form for the sprays this season
who would cover ful back if byrne goes down?

 

[dullonien]

That was my one concern with that team. Prydie is naturally a fullback, but would be a big call to shift him. The best cover for fullback in the squad is Csekaj probably who's shown some good form and equipped himself well in the role a couple of times for the Blues. Halfpenny can also cover fullback with reletive experience. Hell, even Jamie Roberts is good quality cover coming to think of it. Any one of the centres could then do a job on the wing, with Jamie Roberts having the most experience there.

 

[Seaton]

yeah i dont mind if the north get hammerd its just rugby is known as a respectful game (here anyway dont know bout the sh)
its just gloating and peoplegoing that the north are pathetic that gets me to be perfectlyhonest im usaly in awe of the flair and skill we see on tour down there but it doesnt make us crap just not as good as you lot

I fully agree with this
The worst is Naas Botha.
I hate that prick, he is so stupid and arrogant, ahhh!

Eveytime Scotland is playing a southern hemisphere nation, and they get the opinions of the panel on the board (of a weekly rugby show), he always says "I feel sorry for Scotland they are very poor and don't stand a chance, bla bla bla" evey time he says this, Scotland end up doing well and sometimes even winning (yes it does happen!)

Thats just the one that stands out for me, but otherwise he begrudges the northern hemisphere teams, even when they are playing each other!

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Just to note I highly doubt Gavin Thomas will play 6, he is an out and out 7 if anything, so Galtand will play him there and Thomas at 6.

Chris Czekaj is not touring he is on the standby list tho.

 

[SelimNiai]

We will win

ba dum tsh

I've always been taught to believe in your team and that they can win any game but I just can't see this one being close let alone us winning. Hopefully we will be competitive for the first hour and then their class will shine through.

NZ 38- 17 Wales and thats me being optomistic.

 

[Darwin]

The AB's will probably be wanting to attack the Welsh out wide - a few people in this thread have already mentioned what an exceptional player Jane has turned into, and I'd have to agree that he's among the best outside backs in the world at the moment. The Welsh wings lack experience, and all seem to be on the small size - are there any regular sized wings in Wales? Though size is not necessarily reflective of defensive ability, I have a feeling that whichever wing is marking Rococoko may be in for a hard night. They will probably be giving up 20kg to Rococoko, and though Rococoko seems to have lost a lot of pace and elusiveness over the last few years, he seems to have gained a lot of power - it normally takes a couple players to take him down now.

I'm picking a relatively convincing All Black win - maybe something along the lines of 32-10. However given the the last two tests matches Dunedin (losses to South Africa and France, both of which I went to) I'd be with any win!

 

[cyRil]

The Welsh wings lack experience, and all seem to be on the small size - are there any regular sized wings in Wales?

Well there are small wingers we could pick, but there's also Chris Czekaj who is 6'+, Tom James who is massive and Tom Prydie the new 'wonderkid' who will probably start on Saturday is 6'4" and 13st 9lb, which isn't small for a guy who's just turned 18.

 

[dullonien]

Prydie isn't atall small. His stats on the Ospreys website stand at 6'4" and probably pushing 14st after training in the Welsh camp. Halfpeny may be a smallish winger, but he's never had any problems with physicallity. Infact did anyone see him before the SA match when they were warming-up in those tight training shirts, he has massive arms!!! He's also very good in the air, get's up well against much taller opposition.

 

[Darwin]

I wasn't aware Prydie was that big - obviously he will bulk up a bit as he gets older. He sounds very promising, I hope he gets a chance to show his skills in this match. I assume he will start on the left wing with Halfpenny on the right? (assuming Halfpenny is fit).

 

[dullonien]

Yup, if Halfpenny's fit. Apparently he had some kind of sthomack bug, so hopefully will be fine. If Prydie can put another solid performance in, I'll be happy. His defense has been faultless so far, want to see him roam infield a bit more this game though, picking lines off Roberts and Bishop who should create space to attack.

Infact I want to see more subtletly in the Welsh attack. If people saw the Ospreys final few games, there were often 3 players in midfield in one spot each running different angles, fixing defenders and ultimately resulting in tries. Bishop's break for Bowe's try v Leinster probably the best example. Bring Prydie or Byrne in alongside Roberts and Bishop and that could create havok, as all are powerful runners, not to mention Roberts can often fix 2+ players by himself!!! This is what's needed imo when the players themselves possibly lack a little creativity (less than Hook anyway), allow the move itself to provide the creativity.

 

[Thingimubob]

I knew Prydie wasn't small, didn't know he was that big though! Yeah it will probably be Prydie on the left and Halfpenny on the right. Cymro is right though, Halfpenny has bulked up LOADS over the past 2 seasons! He's not tall, but he's a fair bit stacked now I saw him in a tight-ish t-shirt in Cardiff not long ago, and he's a hell of lot bigger than he was back in the days when he played for the Wales u20s. So I doubt physicality will be a problem for him, and tbh Rokocoko needs to watch himself too, Halfpenny is one hell of a runner himself! With Prydie, despite th fact he's 14st, he's still slightly got the 'lanky teenager' build going on a little bit, won't be long before he properly bulks himself out though. I felt SA tried to target him defensively in Cardiff, and tbh I thought he stepped up to the mark and was very solid in his tackling! I mean he he hit Odwa Ndungane very hard when trying to stop him scoring!

 

[TRF_Cymro]

I knew Prydie wasn't small, didn't know he was that big though! Yeah it will probably be Prydie on the left and Halfpenny on the right. Cymro is right though, Halfpenny has bulked up LOADS over the past 2 seasons! He's not tall, but he's a fair bit stacked now I saw him in a tight-ish t-shirt in Cardiff not long ago, and he's a hell of lot bigger than he was back in the days when he played for the Wales u20s. So I doubt physicality will be a problem for him, and tbh Rokocoko needs to watch himself too, Halfpenny is one hell of a runner himself! With Prydie, despite th fact he's 14st, he's still slightly got the 'lanky teenager' build going on a little bit, won't be long before he properly bulks himself out though. I felt SA tried to target him defensively in Cardiff, and tbh I thought he stepped up to the mark and was very solid in his tackling! I mean he he hit Odwa Ndungane very hard when trying to stop him scoring!

Nah Dull said it and not me lol. I thought it was Prydie that stopped the try.

 

[Thingimubob]

whoops...sorry my history revision has scrambled my brain a bit...
could be worse...a friend of mine put ''when Hitler send the Armada in 1588...'' in a practice essay :L

 

[Darwin]

I do think the Rococoko v Halfpenny battle could be interesting - I do actually quite like Halfpenny, while I don't really rate Rococoko dispite his strong Super 14 (don't tell nickdz). Though Halfpenny has bulked up, so too has Rococoko - I'd say Rococoko would probably still have close to 20kg weight advantage over Halfpenny. I agree that Halfpenny could cause a lot of trouble if given space, however it seems the Welsh wingers never seem to be given space against NZ.

 

[cyRil]

whoops...sorry my history revision has scrambled my brain a bit...
could be worse...a friend of mine put ''when Hitler send the Armada in 1588...'' in a practice essay :L

Probably beats a mate of mine's actual A Level submission of '...and so the Crimean War finished without a shot being fired.'
D'oh!

 

[Feicarsinn]

Oddly enough, I have my History exam for my leaving cert in about 14 hours. Fortunately neither the Crimean war, the Second World War nor the Spanish Armada are on my course.

 

[Thingimubob]

Oddly enough, I have my History exam for my leaving cert in about 14 hours. Fortunately neither the Crimean war, the Second World War nor the Spanish Armada are on my course.

I have my A Level one in about 8 hours now... I've decided 'screw sleeping, revision is needed!' , yet I'm drawn onto here quite a lot... I unfortunately could have the Armada or Mary Queen if Scots come up in one essay, gotta write about poor people in tudor times in another and finally chaff about support and opposition to the Nazis in my last one. I am totally screwed .

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Oddly enough, I have my History exam for my leaving cert in about 14 hours. Fortunately neither the Crimean war, the Second World War nor the Spanish Armada are on my course.

Sods law dictates that that's all you're going to be able to think about now

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

yeah i dont mind if the north get hammerd its just rugby is known as a respectful game (here anyway dont know bout the sh)
its just gloating and peoplegoing that the north are pathetic that gets me to be perfectlyhonest im usaly in awe of the flair and skill we see on tour down there but it doesnt make us crap just not as good as you lot

There are two posters on TRF lately who seem to think most teams from the North are crap and that seems to be Jake Heke and Iron Mike (well he at least has finally made some acknowledgement that there are some world class players up there). There's not much the rest of us can do except say that it's just their opinion.

Just because there might be a score like 24-12 (or maybe something like that) in the All Blacks favour, it doesn't mean they had an easy run and the team they played was crap. It's just we don't often get the very fullest strength Northern sides down here and missing some of the class guys that usually make the difference will make things hard for Wales. The depth of players is just that little bit more substantial for us.

I certainly hope the Welsh give us a bit of a push, things just came terribly unstuck for Ireland between the 10th and 40th minute last week and couldn't have made the assignment any harder. I'm hoping Wales can make the best of a tough situation and push their game enough to make it exciting. It's not impossible, just a hard ask.

 

[Jake Heke]

There are two posters on TRF lately who seem to think most teams from the North are crap and that seems to be Jake Heke.

If you don't mind quoting me on a few things i have said, I happen to disagree with this statement mate.