How good is your country's depth?

[Vieux Talonneur]

Whoever much I bash Eddie Jones (and I do at every opportunity) with the amount of injuries over the past 5+ years he must struggle to plan ahead. Makes me a little sick to defend him but how can you future proof with the constant injuries we've had.

Have our injuries been that much worse than other countries?

Injuries are inevitable. Planning for contingencies and succession is part of the coach's job. In many positions there has been no clear succession and with our, alleged, strength in depth it just makes it all the more galling that he stuck with the old faithfuls when so out of form for so long. You can't accuse Jones of not selecting a shedload of players in his squads, but a lot of that's been scattergun and you can accuse him of not having clear succession plans and not giving back ups a proper chance to gather experience, which makes the transitions harder when they're needed.

 

[retired9]

Anyone from Wales/Scotland want to pitch in?

Yeah I'd have a crack at Scotland but tbh I'm too lazy to dig out all the names of contenders!

 

[Welsh Exile]

For me, assuming everyone is fit and we needed to win a tournament starting tomorrow, my first team would look like this:

1. Wyn Jones
2. Owens
3. Francis
4. Beard
5. AWJ
6. Navidi
7. Tipuric
8. Faletau
9. Williams
10. Biggar
11. Adams
12. Halaholo
13. North
14. LRZ
15. Williams

2nd team:

1. Carre
2. Elias
3. Brown
4. Rowlands
5. Carter
6. Ellis Jenkins (I know he's not a 6 but was pretty decent there in the autumn)
7. Basham
8. Wainwright
9. Davies
10. Jarrod Evans (in reality he's not even in Pivacs top 4 fly half's)
11. Holmes
12. Tomkins
13. Davies
14. Lane
15 Mcnicholl

3rd team

1. Smith
2. Dee
3. Lewis
4. Seb Davies
5. Rhys Davies
6. Shane Lewis Hughes
7. Jac Morgan
8. Moriarty
9. Hardy
10. Sheedy
11. Ioan Lloyd
12. Jonny Williams
13. Watkin
14. Rogers
15. Halfpenny

4th team

1. Thomas
2. Roberts
3. WillGriff
4. Screech
5. Christ
6. Lydiate
7. Macleod
8. Morgan Morris
9. Webb
10. Costelow
11. Giles
12. Scott Williams
13. Aneurin Owen
14. Ashton Hewitt
15. Protheroe

Would really struggle with a 5th team especially in front 5 but number 8 in terms of specialists is a bit of a concern as well typing that out. Hooker is a problem postition for us as Ken is probably done I'd say and then we've got Elias, Dee this new bloke Roberts and Dewi Lake as an uncapped youngster. Shame about Ifan Philips horrific injury as I'd him him involved for sure but guess we've got to hope Roberts turns out to be really good as Lake will be a few years in the making.

2nd row depth not great, I think we've really been hit hard with having Cory Hill and Jake Ball leaving as they were solid players, but another i'd like to see developed like Carter is Morgan Jones and a kid at Exeter who was in our under 20s Dafydd Jenkins.

Back row, especially 7, is really strong and back 3 is fine (though for the life of me I do not get Ioan Lloyd not being involved, I saw him play at 12 the other day and he was great before he got injured but I see him as a future world class 10 for us, hopefully)

There's probably a few obvious people I'm forgetting here and even more young players. Would be nice if we could go into the WC with no/minimal injuries but it seems like it never happens.

 

[Scotty]

For me, assuming everyone is fit and we needed to win a tournament starting tomorrow, my first team would look like this:

1. Wyn Jones
2. Owens
3. Francis
4. Beard
5. AWJ
6. Navidi
7. Tipuric
8. Faletau
9. Williams
10. Biggar
11. Adams
12. Halaholo
13. North
14. LRZ
15. Williams

2nd team:

1. Carre
2. Elias
3. Brown
4. Rowlands
5. Carter
6. Ellis Jenkins (I know he's not a 6 but was pretty decent there in the autumn)
7. Basham
8. Wainwright
9. Davies
10. Jarrod Evans (in reality he's not even in Pivacs top 4 fly half's)
11. Holmes
12. Tomkins
13. Davies
14. Lane
15 Mcnicholl

3rd team

1. Smith
2. Dee
3. Lewis
4. Seb Davies
5. Rhys Davies
6. Shane Lewis Hughes
7. Jac Morgan
8. Moriarty
9. Hardy
10. Sheedy
11. Ioan Lloyd
12. Jonny Williams
13. Watkin
14. Rogers
15. Halfpenny

4th team

1. Thomas
2. Roberts
3. WillGriff
4. Screech
5. Christ
6. Lydiate
7. Macleod
8. Morgan Morris
9. Webb
10. Costelow
11. Giles
12. Scott Williams
13. Aneurin Owen
14. Ashton Hewitt
15. Protheroe

Would really struggle with a 5th team especially in front 5 but number 8 in terms of specialists is a bit of a concern as well typing that out. Hooker is a problem postition for us as Ken is probably done I'd say and then we've got Elias, Dee this new bloke Roberts and Dewi Lake as an uncapped youngster. Shame about Ifan Philips horrific injury as I'd him him involved for sure but guess we've got to hope Roberts turns out to be really good as Lake will be a few years in the making.

2nd row depth not great, I think we've really been hit hard with having Cory Hill and Jake Ball leaving as they were solid players, but another i'd like to see developed like Carter is Morgan Jones and a kid at Exeter who was in our under 20s Dafydd Jenkins.

Back row, especially 7, is really strong and back 3 is fine (though for the life of me I do not get Ioan Lloyd not being involved, I saw him play at 12 the other day and he was great before he got injured but I see him as a future world class 10 for us, hopefully)

There's probably a few obvious people I'm forgetting here and even more young players. Would be nice if we could go into the WC with no/minimal injuries but it seems like it never happens.

I did wonder on Wales tbh depth wise but that's a good effort tbh. How would that 3rd team do against Italy?

 

[Welsh Exile]

I did wonder on Wales tbh depth wise but that's a good effort tbh. How would that 3rd team do against Italy?

Ummm, not sure. Would give them a good game I'm sure. The back line is strong in that third team albeit with 2 inexperienced players on the wing but making up for it with Halfpenny's experience at full back. Back row is decent too but that front 5 is not anything you'd be too worried about even though I personally have quite high hopes for Rhys Davies.

 

[Don't Skip Leg Day]

For me, assuming everyone is fit and we needed to win a tournament starting tomorrow, my first team would look like this:

1. Wyn Jones
2. Owens
3. Francis
4. Beard
5. AWJ
6. Navidi
7. Tipuric
8. Faletau
9. Williams
10. Biggar
11. Adams
12. Halaholo
13. North
14. LRZ
15. Williams

2nd team:

1. Carre
2. Elias
3. Brown
4. Rowlands
5. Carter
6. Ellis Jenkins (I know he's not a 6 but was pretty decent there in the autumn)
7. Basham
8. Wainwright
9. Davies
10. Jarrod Evans (in reality he's not even in Pivacs top 4 fly half's)
11. Holmes
12. Tomkins
13. Davies
14. Lane
15 Mcnicholl

3rd team

1. Smith
2. Dee
3. Lewis
4. Seb Davies
5. Rhys Davies
6. Shane Lewis Hughes
7. Jac Morgan
8. Moriarty
9. Hardy
10. Sheedy
11. Ioan Lloyd
12. Jonny Williams
13. Watkin
14. Rogers
15. Halfpenny

4th team

1. Thomas
2. Roberts
3. WillGriff
4. Screech
5. Christ
6. Lydiate
7. Macleod
8. Morgan Morris
9. Webb
10. Costelow
11. Giles
12. Scott Williams
13. Aneurin Owen
14. Ashton Hewitt
15. Protheroe

Would really struggle with a 5th team especially in front 5 but number 8 in terms of specialists is a bit of a concern as well typing that out. Hooker is a problem postition for us as Ken is probably done I'd say and then we've got Elias, Dee this new bloke Roberts and Dewi Lake as an uncapped youngster. Shame about Ifan Philips horrific injury as I'd him him involved for sure but guess we've got to hope Roberts turns out to be really good as Lake will be a few years in the making.

2nd row depth not great, I think we've really been hit hard with having Cory Hill and Jake Ball leaving as they were solid players, but another i'd like to see developed like Carter is Morgan Jones and a kid at Exeter who was in our under 20s Dafydd Jenkins.

Back row, especially 7, is really strong and back 3 is fine (though for the life of me I do not get Ioan Lloyd not being involved, I saw him play at 12 the other day and he was great before he got injured but I see him as a future world class 10 for us, hopefully)

There's probably a few obvious people I'm forgetting here and even more young players. Would be nice if we could go into the WC with no/minimal injuries but it seems like it never happens.

How has Moriarty dropped so low down the pecking order. He was such a class act a few years ago.

 

[Welsh Exile]

How has Moriarty dropped so low down the pecking order. He was such a class act a few years ago.

To be fair you could quite easily put him in the second team (and he probably is closer to that 2nd team than the 3rd in Pivacs eye) and swap him out with Ellis Jenkins. For me personally, and this is a problem we've got with more players than just Moriarty, but he's not had much rugby over the last year or so it seems. He got through 60 odd minutes for the dragons last week but that's it in quite a while. Ellis Jenkins, on the other hand, while coming off the back of a even worse time than Moriarty, has at least equipped himself well in the autumn against top opposition so that's why he gets the nod for me. Moriarty is a solid international player imo but it's also just an area we annoyingly have the majority of our best talent in.

Now i've said that Moriarty will start against Ireland but I think he'll be on the bench with Ellis starting if I had to put money on it.