USA November International squad

[norcalbuff]

PD,

My point with Brache is that just because someone played OK in the summer, it shouldn't cement their position if they don't fit the rest of the team well. With Ngwenya out, I would have probably gone with both Suniulas in the centers and Emerick on the wing. I'm not sold on Cornelius Dirksen at all. Hope he proves me wrong tomorrow.

 

[norcalbuff]

We have a bunch of guys who are below average kickers but no one who is actually decent at it. I think the only consistent kicker we've had in the last 10 years was Francois Viljoen and his career got cut short due to injury. Finding a decent kicker is even more important than fixing our scrum IMO.

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Bringing Marcel Brache into this is irrelevant as he hasn't made himself available yet for the USA. Also stop making it seem that Suniula was a one match wonder, and the rest of his career was poor. He did well against Canada and also played a part in the USA winning try against Russia in the RWC.



During the RWC I would have agreed with you. But it didn't seem to be a problem in June, I thought at one point that the USA should put Wyles to 13 and Paterson to 15 where he would be used more than at 15, but it would too harsh to drop Suniula after his great performances of late for USA, and Emerick after his performances throughout his career. It's a shame we didn't get to see USA compete for 80 minutes with 15 men against Italy, the 2 red cards basically made it very hard to judge how far the USA really are from Italy.

USA's centre partnership is kind of similar to the make up of Wales to be honest. The two best players are very similar style wise. But then it would probably be better in the short term to pick the two best centres rather than a worse player who plays a different style.

It would be like Wales dropping one of Jonathan Davies or Jamie Roberts for Tom Isaacs because he plays a different style. Until the USA have the luxury of some more depth and the ability to make the choices, they should just pick the best players.

Also a more important issue is the goal kicking, Wyles is an awful goal kicker. Are there any good goal kickers in this USA squad?

I have heard it and seen it all now ... Tom Issacs. Boy is average and not good enough for the Welsh shirt.

 

[psychic duck]

I have heard it and seen it all now ... Tom Issacs. Boy is average and not good enough for the Welsh shirt.

I wasn't saying Tom Isaacs should be called up by Wales. Quite the opposite.

What I meant was that the USA's best two centres are both bosh centres (like Roberts and Davies), but whilst some variety in the centres would be ideal for the USA the players who can offer a different style of play aren't good enough. So the USA would be better off just selecting the two best centres despite them playing the same style.

I compared it to Wales, as it would be like dropping Roberts or Davies who play a similar style, and then putting Isaacs because he offers an alternative style. Obviously Isaacs isn't good enough, so Wales were better off selecting the two best centres Roberts/Davies. For the record, I'm not sure Isaacs is good enough for the Ospreys, keeping him ahead of Prydie was an odd decision by Tandy.