Melhor Time
Bench Player
- Joined
- May 5, 2007
- Messages
- 801
Sorry for the delay. This was done over a month ago.
Online here: http://www.rugbymania.com.br/2009/ver_noticia08.asp?codigo=4395
Suggested XV
15 Kurtley Beale (NSW Warratahs)
14 James O´Connor (Western Force)
13 Adam Ashley-Cooper (ACT Brumbies)
12 Berrick Barnes (NSW Warratahs)
11 Digby Ioane (Queensland Reds)
10 Quade Cooper (Queensland Reds
9 Will Genia (Queensland Reds)
8 Richard Brown (Western Force)
7 David Pocock (Western Force)
6 Rocky Elsom captain (ACT Brumbies)
5 Nathan Sharpe (Western Force)
4 Dean Mumm (NSW Warratahs)
3 Benn Robinson (NSW Warratahs)
2 Stephen Moore (AC Brumbies)
1 James Slipper (Queensland Reds)
Reserves
16 Tatafu Polota-Nau (NSW Warratahs)
17 Ben Alexander (ACT Brumbies)
18 James Horwill (Queensland Reds)
19 Wycliff Palu (NSW Warratahs)
20 Luke Burgess (NSW Warratahs)
21 Matt Giteau (ACT Brumbies)
22 Lachlan Turner (NSW Warratahs)
Additional Players: 23 Saia Fainga´a (Queensland Reds), 24 Greg Holmes (Queensland Reds), 25 Scott Higginbotham (Queensland Reds), 26 Dan Vickerman (NSW Warratahs), 27 Matt Hodgson (Western Force), 28 Nick Phipps (Melbourne Rebels), 29 Peter Hynes (Queensland Reds), 30 Rob Horne (NSW Warratahs)
* Drew Mitchell left out as he won´t be ready in time but others in doubt have been included as reports have not written them off just yet.
Key Points
Can Australia win the RWC? Yes, no doubt about it.
Australia is one of the favorites and its position in the IRB World Rankings (third) is a sign of the quality of the Australian team. Australia has an inmpressice RWC history including being the first team to win the tournament twice (1991 and 1999). Australia also has an impressive history of eliminating teams considered as better such as the All Blacks in 1991 and 2003 and the Springboks in 1999. In every Rugby World Cup thus far, Australia have reache the Quarter Finals - something that no other team in Pool C can say they have done. This explains why Australia is entering the tournament as favorites to win its Pool and indeed the Wallabies certainly should.
Since France 2007, the Wallabies have defeated South Africa, Fiji, France, England, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand and Wales and have almost always won matches by playing open, running rugby and in the process scoring many tries. Nevertheless Australia´s success has not been overly impressive considering that, in total, the Wallabies have played 43 international matches for 24 vitroeis, 18 losses and one draw. In other words, Australia has won 56,97% of its matches from 2008-today. It means more wins than loses, obviously, but it isn´t an impressive enough quantity to say with certainty that Australia will go far in this years Rugby World Cup. What the figures actually demonstrate is that Australia is not invincible at all, just ask Samoa. Australia lost more than 40% of tis matches since 2007 and curiously lost its only match vs Samoa as well as its only match vs Scotland by 9-8.
The team has plenty of quality with outstanding players in almost every position. The options in the backs are enormous with an incredible list of first class players. Austrália has two excellent scrum-halves in Will Genia and Luke Burgess and even more options at flyhalf with three great players: Quade Cooper, Berrick Barnes e Matt Giteau. One of the three will be on the bench and another will likely play at inside centre. UBut where Australia really has an enormous list of quality is in the back-three. Even with the injury to Drew Mitchell, the Wallabies have an absurd list of options. there are names such as James O´Connor, Kurtley Beale, Peter Hynes, Digby Ioane, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Cameron Shephard, Lachlan Turner, Luke Rooney and Mark Gerrard. Australia is going to be very dangerous in this area and will probably use Adam Ashley-Cooper at centre, another position in whcih Australia has a lot of quality, but it probably will be Barnes or Giteau at 12 and Ashley-Cooper at 13.
Australia´s backrow today is up there with the best on the planet. The combination of 6 and 7 is indeed the ebst in the business. Australia has the worlds best blindside flanker in its captain, Rocky Elsom and also the worlds best openside flanker in David Pocock. the big names from 2007 such as Richie McCaw, Thierry Dusautoir and Schalk Burger eare inferior in quality to that of Pocock since 2009. Pocock is always present in rucks and has the sixe of an 8. Becaus of this he is very dangerous on both attack and defence. His captain, Rocky Elsom, is also an incredible player and together they will form the best backrow but with a player to spare. Australia´s secondrow is robust and also of quality. It is always visible on the field and helps the Austrlalian strategy of playing with quick ball, using the backs as much as possible.
Despite having so many strong areas in its game, the Wallabeis don´t have great players in all positions. Australia´s eternal problem continues until this day - its scrum. Australia doesn´t have props of the appropriate level. Australia´s scrum is the reason for losing the Quarter Final vs England in Marseilles four years ago. Australian can´t handle solid scrums and it is often to see the Wallabies frontrow collapse. Australian could conceede a high penalty count from this as well as significant disadvantages on the field. Its opponents could utterly destroy Australia in this area and a team with a solid scrum and a strong defensive line can knock them over, this is what happened in the Australia vs England match in Marseilles. In this years RWC Australia should advance to the Quarter Finals without problems in this area of the game but this will not be the case from the Final 8 onwards. If Australia does win its group the Wallabeis will probably face Wales in the Quarter Finala dn then England, France or Argentina in the semifinal. With an appropriate strategym, anyone of these three could defeat the Wallabies. Rugby is about 15 players combining to be a complete team and Australia, like every teams has problems in its game.
Australia has an excellent rugby resumé but has not domestic league. Domestic professional rugby in Australia does not exist nor does a domestic amateur league. Everything is regional or city centred. The country´s best championship is the Shute Shield involving teams from Sydney and a few from outside the city but located nearby. What Australia has is Super Rugby, which is 100% professiona but is a mutlinational competition involves five teams from each of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The Australian Rugby Union (ARU) complicates everything with its policy of only selecting players who play rugby in the country. This created massive problems for the coaches and there have been examples of Australia having to field sides without manyn players avaliable and thus play with a number of players out of position - for instance in 2005 and 2006 with a winger, Mat Rogers, moving to flyhalf. For 2011, as I write, Australia doesn´t have this problem but there are real chances that Australia could lose its place as being amongst the best in the world due to this policy combined with the fact that there is absolutely no professional domestic infrastructre and that the ARU has no interest in changing this. Curiously when Australia won the 1991 World Cup there were only two strong teams - New South Wales e Queensland. When the Wallabies won in 1999 there were three- the same two plus the ACT Brumbies. Australia didn´t have any other professional side. Today Italy has two teams in the old Magners League â€" today the RaboDirect Pro 12 - and also has its own professional league, the Campionato d`Eccellenza. Without question it is a recipe for success in the future and the Italian this year will be better prepared than ever before and in the future even more so.
Australia´s chances of winning tis group are huge but not absolute. Its first match vs Italy, a country that Australia has never lost a match against should be taken carefully die to the progress of the Italians and the teams strengths. It is just a matter of time before Australia lose a match against Italy because Italy is far more competitive now than in any other moment in its history. Since 2007, Italy phas played a lot more running rugby and has always given Australia better contests than in the past. France lost against Italy this year which suggests that nobody can take them lightly. The match consdiered as being the best in the group will be played in Auckland between Australia and Ireland five days after Australia vs Italy. Histrorically, Australia is the big favorite with 20 wins from the 29 matches between the two sides. Since 2007 Australia has won two of the three matches and drew the other. Both teams have strong and weak points, but it is in the backs and in backrows that both teams are the most impressive. But overall, Australia if of a higher quality and should win the match. The winner of the match should win the Pool and go on to face the runner up from Pool D (Fiji, NamÃbia, Samoa, South Africa and Wales). Its a game that both sides have to win because it will facilitate everything in the play-off´s because it will mean a less complicated Quarter Final.
The game against the USA will be the first in mroe than a decade but the third in the history of the Rugby World Cup. The last game was in 1999 with Australia winning 55-19 and conceeding its only try in the tournament. In total Australia has played the USA six times and won every matchl. The first game was 99 years ago with Australia winning 12-8. in 1912 in San Francisco, California. This years match could be interesting to analyze the USA back-three which is made up of three players playing for big European clubs as well as two further professionals, including a Super Rugby player. The fourth match will be the first ever between Australia and Russia. Australia will certainly win but the question is : by how much? Australia could use the match to preapre for the play-offs or could try to show its superiority. In my opinion, Australia should, without question, use the match to prepare, by testing strategies and combinations and not only to score try after try.
Prediction Australia will defeat Italy, Ireland, the USa and Russia to qualify top of the group and face the second best side from Pool D in the Quarter Finals. Australia will certainly impress with ball in hand ans score a lot of tries. The likely opponent is Wales who Australia should defeat to then face one of potentially England, France or Argentina in the Semi Finals. Australia would be favorite but its strategy of playing with the backs could be complicated considering the superiority of the scrums and secondrows of these three sides. Right now, Australia will enter the RWC as favorites to reach the final but my money would be on the Wallabies losing the semifinal and thus being eliminated. Despite so may strenghts, the scrum is such a problem and I cannot forsee a repeat of France vs Australia from 2010.
Online here: http://www.rugbymania.com.br/2009/ver_noticia08.asp?codigo=4395
Suggested XV
15 Kurtley Beale (NSW Warratahs)
14 James O´Connor (Western Force)
13 Adam Ashley-Cooper (ACT Brumbies)
12 Berrick Barnes (NSW Warratahs)
11 Digby Ioane (Queensland Reds)
10 Quade Cooper (Queensland Reds
9 Will Genia (Queensland Reds)
8 Richard Brown (Western Force)
7 David Pocock (Western Force)
6 Rocky Elsom captain (ACT Brumbies)
5 Nathan Sharpe (Western Force)
4 Dean Mumm (NSW Warratahs)
3 Benn Robinson (NSW Warratahs)
2 Stephen Moore (AC Brumbies)
1 James Slipper (Queensland Reds)
Reserves
16 Tatafu Polota-Nau (NSW Warratahs)
17 Ben Alexander (ACT Brumbies)
18 James Horwill (Queensland Reds)
19 Wycliff Palu (NSW Warratahs)
20 Luke Burgess (NSW Warratahs)
21 Matt Giteau (ACT Brumbies)
22 Lachlan Turner (NSW Warratahs)
Additional Players: 23 Saia Fainga´a (Queensland Reds), 24 Greg Holmes (Queensland Reds), 25 Scott Higginbotham (Queensland Reds), 26 Dan Vickerman (NSW Warratahs), 27 Matt Hodgson (Western Force), 28 Nick Phipps (Melbourne Rebels), 29 Peter Hynes (Queensland Reds), 30 Rob Horne (NSW Warratahs)
* Drew Mitchell left out as he won´t be ready in time but others in doubt have been included as reports have not written them off just yet.
Key Points
Can Australia win the RWC? Yes, no doubt about it.
Australia is one of the favorites and its position in the IRB World Rankings (third) is a sign of the quality of the Australian team. Australia has an inmpressice RWC history including being the first team to win the tournament twice (1991 and 1999). Australia also has an impressive history of eliminating teams considered as better such as the All Blacks in 1991 and 2003 and the Springboks in 1999. In every Rugby World Cup thus far, Australia have reache the Quarter Finals - something that no other team in Pool C can say they have done. This explains why Australia is entering the tournament as favorites to win its Pool and indeed the Wallabies certainly should.
Since France 2007, the Wallabies have defeated South Africa, Fiji, France, England, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand and Wales and have almost always won matches by playing open, running rugby and in the process scoring many tries. Nevertheless Australia´s success has not been overly impressive considering that, in total, the Wallabies have played 43 international matches for 24 vitroeis, 18 losses and one draw. In other words, Australia has won 56,97% of its matches from 2008-today. It means more wins than loses, obviously, but it isn´t an impressive enough quantity to say with certainty that Australia will go far in this years Rugby World Cup. What the figures actually demonstrate is that Australia is not invincible at all, just ask Samoa. Australia lost more than 40% of tis matches since 2007 and curiously lost its only match vs Samoa as well as its only match vs Scotland by 9-8.
The team has plenty of quality with outstanding players in almost every position. The options in the backs are enormous with an incredible list of first class players. Austrália has two excellent scrum-halves in Will Genia and Luke Burgess and even more options at flyhalf with three great players: Quade Cooper, Berrick Barnes e Matt Giteau. One of the three will be on the bench and another will likely play at inside centre. UBut where Australia really has an enormous list of quality is in the back-three. Even with the injury to Drew Mitchell, the Wallabies have an absurd list of options. there are names such as James O´Connor, Kurtley Beale, Peter Hynes, Digby Ioane, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Cameron Shephard, Lachlan Turner, Luke Rooney and Mark Gerrard. Australia is going to be very dangerous in this area and will probably use Adam Ashley-Cooper at centre, another position in whcih Australia has a lot of quality, but it probably will be Barnes or Giteau at 12 and Ashley-Cooper at 13.
Australia´s backrow today is up there with the best on the planet. The combination of 6 and 7 is indeed the ebst in the business. Australia has the worlds best blindside flanker in its captain, Rocky Elsom and also the worlds best openside flanker in David Pocock. the big names from 2007 such as Richie McCaw, Thierry Dusautoir and Schalk Burger eare inferior in quality to that of Pocock since 2009. Pocock is always present in rucks and has the sixe of an 8. Becaus of this he is very dangerous on both attack and defence. His captain, Rocky Elsom, is also an incredible player and together they will form the best backrow but with a player to spare. Australia´s secondrow is robust and also of quality. It is always visible on the field and helps the Austrlalian strategy of playing with quick ball, using the backs as much as possible.
Despite having so many strong areas in its game, the Wallabeis don´t have great players in all positions. Australia´s eternal problem continues until this day - its scrum. Australia doesn´t have props of the appropriate level. Australia´s scrum is the reason for losing the Quarter Final vs England in Marseilles four years ago. Australian can´t handle solid scrums and it is often to see the Wallabies frontrow collapse. Australian could conceede a high penalty count from this as well as significant disadvantages on the field. Its opponents could utterly destroy Australia in this area and a team with a solid scrum and a strong defensive line can knock them over, this is what happened in the Australia vs England match in Marseilles. In this years RWC Australia should advance to the Quarter Finals without problems in this area of the game but this will not be the case from the Final 8 onwards. If Australia does win its group the Wallabeis will probably face Wales in the Quarter Finala dn then England, France or Argentina in the semifinal. With an appropriate strategym, anyone of these three could defeat the Wallabies. Rugby is about 15 players combining to be a complete team and Australia, like every teams has problems in its game.
Australia has an excellent rugby resumé but has not domestic league. Domestic professional rugby in Australia does not exist nor does a domestic amateur league. Everything is regional or city centred. The country´s best championship is the Shute Shield involving teams from Sydney and a few from outside the city but located nearby. What Australia has is Super Rugby, which is 100% professiona but is a mutlinational competition involves five teams from each of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The Australian Rugby Union (ARU) complicates everything with its policy of only selecting players who play rugby in the country. This created massive problems for the coaches and there have been examples of Australia having to field sides without manyn players avaliable and thus play with a number of players out of position - for instance in 2005 and 2006 with a winger, Mat Rogers, moving to flyhalf. For 2011, as I write, Australia doesn´t have this problem but there are real chances that Australia could lose its place as being amongst the best in the world due to this policy combined with the fact that there is absolutely no professional domestic infrastructre and that the ARU has no interest in changing this. Curiously when Australia won the 1991 World Cup there were only two strong teams - New South Wales e Queensland. When the Wallabies won in 1999 there were three- the same two plus the ACT Brumbies. Australia didn´t have any other professional side. Today Italy has two teams in the old Magners League â€" today the RaboDirect Pro 12 - and also has its own professional league, the Campionato d`Eccellenza. Without question it is a recipe for success in the future and the Italian this year will be better prepared than ever before and in the future even more so.
Australia´s chances of winning tis group are huge but not absolute. Its first match vs Italy, a country that Australia has never lost a match against should be taken carefully die to the progress of the Italians and the teams strengths. It is just a matter of time before Australia lose a match against Italy because Italy is far more competitive now than in any other moment in its history. Since 2007, Italy phas played a lot more running rugby and has always given Australia better contests than in the past. France lost against Italy this year which suggests that nobody can take them lightly. The match consdiered as being the best in the group will be played in Auckland between Australia and Ireland five days after Australia vs Italy. Histrorically, Australia is the big favorite with 20 wins from the 29 matches between the two sides. Since 2007 Australia has won two of the three matches and drew the other. Both teams have strong and weak points, but it is in the backs and in backrows that both teams are the most impressive. But overall, Australia if of a higher quality and should win the match. The winner of the match should win the Pool and go on to face the runner up from Pool D (Fiji, NamÃbia, Samoa, South Africa and Wales). Its a game that both sides have to win because it will facilitate everything in the play-off´s because it will mean a less complicated Quarter Final.
The game against the USA will be the first in mroe than a decade but the third in the history of the Rugby World Cup. The last game was in 1999 with Australia winning 55-19 and conceeding its only try in the tournament. In total Australia has played the USA six times and won every matchl. The first game was 99 years ago with Australia winning 12-8. in 1912 in San Francisco, California. This years match could be interesting to analyze the USA back-three which is made up of three players playing for big European clubs as well as two further professionals, including a Super Rugby player. The fourth match will be the first ever between Australia and Russia. Australia will certainly win but the question is : by how much? Australia could use the match to preapre for the play-offs or could try to show its superiority. In my opinion, Australia should, without question, use the match to prepare, by testing strategies and combinations and not only to score try after try.
Prediction Australia will defeat Italy, Ireland, the USa and Russia to qualify top of the group and face the second best side from Pool D in the Quarter Finals. Australia will certainly impress with ball in hand ans score a lot of tries. The likely opponent is Wales who Australia should defeat to then face one of potentially England, France or Argentina in the Semi Finals. Australia would be favorite but its strategy of playing with the backs could be complicated considering the superiority of the scrums and secondrows of these three sides. Right now, Australia will enter the RWC as favorites to reach the final but my money would be on the Wallabies losing the semifinal and thus being eliminated. Despite so may strenghts, the scrum is such a problem and I cannot forsee a repeat of France vs Australia from 2010.
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