EoYT 2012; who are the rookies to look out for from your country?

[ZeFrenchy]

He has been quite a topic in the Welsh AI thread. No news on Ryan Jones, I am hoping it is move of a precaution, as he is a vital player.
Beck is another 'rookie' I suppose. I wish we played better rugby, then we could actually utilise him effectively. Our style is so boring, so predictable.

Sorry, my bad. I wasn't sarcastic enough. I edited the post to add a smiley now.:lol:

 

[Draggs]

Sorry, my bad. I wasn't sarcastic enough. I edited the post to add a smiley now.:lol:

Yeah, I wasn't sure if you were or not, so there we go.
Have you heard about this new French centre, plays for Toulouse? Big lad with some gas, wonder when we will see him in the French squad.

 

[ZeFrenchy]

That would be Gaël Fickou. He's in the squad, but he's unlikely to play the first two matches unless there is an injury. He's only 18, he has a lot of talent, but sometimes he tries too hard. He's pushed Yannick Jauzion and Yann David to the bench for Toulouse already. He's playing 13 for Toulouse (though wearing 12), but I think his future is at inside centre for France.
The other uncapped players in the squad are: props Eddy Ben Arous (21 years old, Racing Métro) and Yannick Forestier (30yo, Castres), locks Jocelino Suta (28 yo, Toulon) and Sébastien Vahahaamaina (21yo, Perpignan), backrower Pierrick Gunther (23 yo, Toulon), fly-half Jules Plisson (21yo, Stade Français) and winger Vincent Martin (20yo, Toulon).
Suta and Forestier are rather old, so I think they were called because they were needed, the rest I think won't play much, except Gunther, who may even start against Australia.
He's a hard running, hard tackling flanker, who's also very good at lineouts. I think we will see a lot of him in blue, I just hope he keeps playing for Toulon now that Fernandez Lobbe and Van Niekerk are back.

 

[Draggs]

That would be Gaël Fickou. He's in the squad, but he's unlikely to play the first two matches unless there is an injury. He's only 18, he has a lot of talent, but sometimes he tries too hard. He's pushed Yannick Jauzion and Yann David to the bench for Toulouse already. He's playing 13 for Toulouse (though wearing 12), but I think his future is at inside centre for France.
The other uncapped players in the squad are: props Eddy Ben Arous (21 years old, Racing Métro) and Yannick Forestier (30yo, Castres), locks Jocelino Suta (28 yo, Toulon) and Sébastien Vahahaamaina (21yo, Perpignan), backrower Pierrick Gunther (23 yo, Toulon), fly-half Jules Plisson (21yo, Stade Français) and winger Vincent Martin (20yo, Toulon).
Suta and Forestier are rather old, so I think they were called because they were needed, the rest I think won't play much, except Gunther, who may even start against Australia.
He's a hard running, hard tackling flanker, who's also very good at lineouts. I think we will see a lot of him in blue, I just hope he keeps playing for Toulon now that Fernandez Lobbe and Van Niekerk are back.

Now I failed.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Even I've heard about Gunther and Fickou. Havn't seen them play yet but their names pop up regularly.

OK Bru, I think it was more to do with Burden/our lineouts in general being shite, but yeah, Eben is a monster. Imagine him an du Toit together for 2015...

Yeah I hear you and though Etzebeth didn't make 7 steals I himk his presence and timing is a factor that influences opposition hookers. Much like Matfield being the key figure there even though Spies/Smith/Burger got the actual steals or the opposition hooker overthrows it totally etc.

Not sure - it's between him and David Paice, with Hartley now out (has that been confirmed yet? Not sure, but for the purposes of this post Hartley is out):
Youngs is, apparently, one step above Paice as he was called up due to injury to Rob Webber, before Paice was (for Hartley).
Paice is nothing special but I'd start him over Youngs every day of the week - I can only hope that Lancaster has been watching him play for Tigers...

Why do the coaches always get it wrong. I'm not even being sarcastic.

 

[Draggs]

Not taking anything away from Eben, even with a crap oppo hooker, the steals are still impressive. Funny how Roux was thought to be ahead of him before SR from what I've heard. my only worry is that WP will crock him like Bekker and Burger. I am not a big fan of Coetzee's player management.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Not taking anything away from Eben, even with a crap oppo hooker, the steals are still impressive. Funny how Roux was thought to be ahead of him before SR from what I've heard. my only worry is that WP will crock him like Bekker and Burger.I am not a big fan of Coetzee's player management.

That's two sore points for any WP fan right there. I think it's our game plan thats partly responsible for our amount of injuries; lets let them have the ball and we see how hard we can run into them.

The other sore point is losing Quinn Roux. Maybe its more a case of WP losing promising players in general just as they seem to getting somewhere and are on the verge of cracking the 1st team but AC holds back for just that little too long. I'd actually have prefered Roux to Bekker but it is what it is. Do you think Du Toit is going to get game time for the Sharks this season? Somehow you guys at least manage to hold on to players where we would never have had. Just look the quality of players like Craig Burden and Jacques Botes for instance who have been happy enough to only have fringe roles.

 

[Feicarsinn]

The funny thing is that Roux has played **** all for us so far. Probably 4th or 5th choice at the moment.

 

[Draggs]

Yeah, things ended up working out alright for WP.