Mitchell has stood in well for Adam, certainly better than Rhodri Jones and Scott Andrews.
Geth didn't have a great Aus tour, but he will bounce back. We have a very demanding AI series, I hope Robert Howley knows how to manage the team and player rotation. Argentina and Samoa simply must be wins, and we could really do with putting Samoa to the sword like we did with Fiji last year. Argentina will be very difficult, but we will have to see how well they recover from the 4N.
Duck, do Clermont have any up and coming outside halves? James is inconsistent and they have a great backline, it would be a shame to see it wasted.
James was consistently immense for Clermont and was the best in the Top 14 until that Leinster game in 2010, ever since then he is still capable (as that drop goal and the Saracens match last year showed) of doing some great things, but is flaky, not that consistent, and not a player you have full confidence in.
The only real alternative they have in the squad is David Skrela (now 33, although arguably the youngest looking 33 year old around), who is consistently crap for them. He stifles the backline completely.
In 2010, you may remember Clermont tearing apart Leicester to win 40-30 and the backs running riot, and James, Nalaga, Malzieu, Rougerie etc were all on top of their game. However almost exactly when Joe Schmidt left as backs coach over the last couple of seasons they have turned into a boshing forwards side, with good defence and are generally low scoring.
In fact they are almost a carbon copy of Wales, just at club level. Giant wingers (Malzieu and Nalaga), big centre (Rougerie) and another centre who makes breaks but unable to pass (Fofana), dodgy fly half who has done well in for brief periods in the past but now crap (Skrela), plus a strong pack. The only difference between Wales and Clermont is the scrum half Parra who plays a completely different game to Phillips.
Anyway, I think Clermont's lack of ability to get the best of their backs is down to Schmidt leaving, and then they replaced him with the Perpignan (a team who isn't exactly a backs side) backs coach, which was an odd decision.
The Clermont espoirs (academy, literally hopes) is on a great run. They have won the espoirs ***le three times in a row now , and produced players like Fofana, Buttin, Domingo, Ric who have integrated into the first team so they are going well on that level. The academy fly half is actually a Canadian who signed this year called Connor McCann, he's only a teenager though so unlikely going to be selected anytime soon. They would have to get rid of Skrela and buy a new player to have a better alternative to James to get the best from their backs.
