Wales v South Africa

[cyRil]

Well this is apparently how the Welsh team will lign-up:

01 Gethin Jenkins
02 Matthew Rees
03 Adam Jones
04 Bradley Davies
05 Alun-Wyn Jones

09 Richie Rees
10 Stephen Jones
11 Shane Williams
12 Andrew Bishop
13 James Hook
14 Will Harries
15 Lee Byrne

No word on the backrow yet, as Gatland is apparently still making up his mind / waiting on injury news. So it appears as if Ryan Jones is still touch and go.

Where'd you get that from, www.bullshit.com?

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Where'd you get that from, www.bullshit.com?

Apparently so ... good website I hear :lol:

 

[dullonien]

Ezequiel. I don't 'expect' Wales to win, but I think we've got a good chance of doing so. SA haven't been atall ipressive this year, and even against Ireland they let slip a great lead and could easily have lost in the end. The Welsh pack is stronger than Ireland's (except maybe backrow) and with the backline named, I'm gonna expect much more creativity behind than we saw against Aus.

Massive game for North, but I think he'll do well. I doubt any South African have heard of the lad so it should be a bit of a shock to see his size and his pace. Awesome to have Byrne back, he should dramatically improve our chances of winning. Bit odd that Gatland's gone for a Hook-Shanklin midfield over a Hook-Bishop one. I thought Bishop played better than Shanks last week, and he and Hook have a better understanding due to their pertnership at the O's.

The pack is almost as expected, although I thought Ryan Jones would start if he was fit. JT didn't doo much last week, but maybe he's there as a lineout jumper. Wonder if Ryan is gonne be used as second row cover for this game? Glad to see Powell on the bench, should offer some big impact. I'm also glad Deiniol Jones isn't featuring in the 22, pointless reserve to have. Bennett again!?!?!?!? Rest of the bench picks itself really, although Harries could feel hard done by not to be the wing/fullback cover.

Where'd you get that from, www.bullshit.com?

:lol:

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Sharks back-row forward Willem Alberts was on Thursday confirmed as the replacement loose forward in the Springbok team to meet Wales.

Alberts has passed a test on his troublesome calf to take the number nineteen slot from team-mate Keegan Daniel, who made his debut from the bench in the 23-21 victory at the Aviva Stadium.

"Willem has had an outstanding season for The Sharks as one of the most effective ball carriers in the South African game," said Peter de Villiers.

"He has been nursing the injury since our preliminary training camp before the Absa Currie Cup final and has spent a frustrating couple of weeks watching from the sidelines and is hungry to get back into action."

source: Planet Rugby



There he is guys! Willem Alberts on the bench!

 

[DuncTheDoodle]

Whats Lydiate like? Never seen him play, but Wales really do seem short of top quality back-rows at the moment.

Lydiate will be the man in possesion of the Wales 6 shirt for a long time, trust me. He's proven himself to be a great ball carrier (Simply by being the Dragons' only one.) and also has quite a bit of pace on him for a backrower. Really, the only player we're missing in the back row is Rob McCusker (And Daffydd Jones, but he looks set to retire any minute now) so he'd probably be starting anyway.

Decent team. I can see why they kept Shanks in, but I'd be inclinded to go with Bish. I would have liked to see Rees start, but hey. He'll probably come on a bit sooner this time around.

 

[Draggs]

While I don't think Will Harries has done anything to merit being dropped, I can imagine Gatland would like something besides two quick little wingers.
Lets let Georgie boy have a crack.

Shanks over Bish??? JT over anyone that isn't JT???
Hard luck for Richie, best 9 Wales have had all year.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

I am more confident about this game that the one last week but can still see our boys lose if they don't keep the focus and intensity up from the kick-off to the final whistle. We haven't played even a 60 minute game for a year now. Great to see Alberts there. Hope he (or anyone else) replaces Spies before breaktime (and on a permanent basis).

PdV should have given Mvovo a go; would have been interesting to see the two big young wings battle it out.

Okay, Mvovo isn't that big but he plays a big game, LOL.

 

[Christo Naude]

Lets face it spies has not had a flashy game in a while ( which is what he's known for), but go studie the mall we had against Ireland what a monster of a game he had there. Kankow is all flash no strength. Think back to the game against france last year when he started we got smashed to all corners and he kept running sideways. Spies Bakkies Bismark And Jaun Smit is key to SA whipping any team. It was no surprise that our scrums went so good.

Stupid choice by wales to try and match our strenght at the back by selecting Shanklin. They should have gone the other way and selected a fast nimble back line. Same with there new winger, Habana is going to smoke the big mongrel.

And Hook won't shine this match and its Jones fault. He gets the ball out even slower than Morne

SA to win close but win

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Lets face it spies has not had a flashy game in a while ( which is what he's known for), but go studie the mall we had against Ireland what a monster of a game he had there. Kankow is all flash no strength. Think back to the game against france last year when he started we got smashed to all corners and he kept running sideways. Spies Bakkies Bismark And Jaun Smit is key to SA whipping any team. It was no surprise that our scrums went so good.

SA to win close but win

What mall did you go to?

 

[Peat]

Lydiate will be the man in possesion of the Wales 6 shirt for a long time, trust me. He's proven himself to be a great ball carrier (Simply by being the Dragons' only one.) and also has quite a bit of pace on him for a backrower. Really, the only player we're missing in the back row is Rob McCusker (And Daffydd Jones, but he looks set to retire any minute now) so he'd probably be starting anyway.

Decent team. I can see why they kept Shanks in, but I'd be inclinded to go with Bish. I would have liked to see Rees start, but hey. He'll probably come on a bit sooner this time around.

Cool - just that it seemed to me most of your back-rows were either old and on the downhill slope, never that good to begin with or young and raw like Warburton - Warburton looks like a serious talent, but didn't notice much of Lydiate on Saturday and was wondering what he's like.

 

[SavageLez]

Springboks by >10!

 

[Thingimubob]

Lets face it spies has not had a flashy game in a while ( which is what he's known for), but go studie the mall we had against Ireland what a monster of a game he had there. Kankow is all flash no strength. Think back to the game against france last year when he started we got smashed to all corners and he kept running sideways. Spies Bakkies Bismark And Jaun Smit is key to SA whipping any team. It was no surprise that our scrums went so good.

Stupid choice by wales to try and match our strenght at the back by selecting Shanklin. They should have gone the other way and selected a fast nimble back line. Same with there new winger, Habana is going to smoke the big mongrel.

And Hook won't shine this match and its Jones fault. He gets the ball out even slower than Morne

SA to win close but win

Not watched much Welsh rugby have you? I'll agree that Shanklin shouldn't be there, as Hook and Bishop have been playing together at the ospreys for a long time, and Bishop is on great form atm. But calling George North a 'mongrel' (wtf?!) and assuming that Habana's gonna smoke him, shows me that you havent ever seen how fast the guy can run! Habana isn't exactly on form atm, it's been a while since we've seen the Habana that lit up rugby as the best winger around.
Stephen Jones had a bad game last week, but it's very rare to see him have 2 bad ones in a row so I'm confident he'll be fine. Hook in the centres should at least give us a bit of unpredictability in attack which was what we badly needed last week.
No idea who'll win, gonna be an interesting one!

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Wow hang on now

Shanklin got selected because he was defensively sound last week, he also made yards when he was given ball which is key. It was Shanklins best game for Wales in ages. Calling it stupid shows how much you lack any decent sort of knowledge Naude. Its quite good being that arrogant really, it does not help tho. Wales have looked at what they saw last week and believe that Shanklin can do a good defensive job as well as make hard yards from 13.

What left Stephen Jones down last week was his place kicking, not his distribution and tackling skills which people often and quickly forget.

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

I don't know why but I've got this funny feeling that this game is going to have a lot of aggression at some point. Wales seem to have an idea that the way to get dominance over the SH sides is with some extra physicality and maybe they're right, but I've a feeling that the South Africans are just not in the mood for it this year. I mean, they lost the Tri-Nations and that's wounded them a little. They had a terrible Autumn tour last year, I'm sure they haven't forgotten that.

So, when Wales try and assert some real pressure over them (as they should of course), it may end up having the odd boil-over moment. I could be wrong and my crystal ball might be a bit foggy, but hey behind that fog could be some serious biffo. I suppose some would say that I predict a riot.

I never condone such things, but it could be bloody entertaining.

 

[cyRil]

We talk a decent game, but when it comes down to it we're a bunch of pussies. I've been saying it for a long time that we actually need a hard-nosed **** or two in our team that can play rugby, but can also rough opponents up. Cockbain used to do this to an extent, but we don't have anyone with similar aggression to other teams.
Take the likes of AWJ, Ryan and JT - they're all good players, but they won't smash players up, make massive yards or put someone on a stretcher; whereas you know the South African pack is full of them, so is their bench, and they've left another 14 hard-as-nails pricks back home too.
With Lee Byrne just coming back from a hand injury, you can see it now - he'll make a tackle, go to ground and a Saffa forward will stamp on his hand. I know an action like that is deplorable, but it's that kind of stuff that gives you an edge over the other team and helps win games.
Gatland might be putting extra pressure on in training and in the gym, but when it comes down to fronting up at the top level, we're a bunch of wimps.

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

We talk a decent game, but when it comes down to it we're a bunch of pussies. I've been saying it for a long time that we actually need a hard-nosed **** or two in our team that can play rugby, but can also rough opponents up. Cockbain used to do this to an extent, but we don't have anyone with similar aggression to other teams.
Take the likes of AWJ, Ryan and JT - they're all good players, but they won't smash players up, make massive yards or put someone on a stretcher; whereas you know the South African pack is full of them, so is their bench, and they've left another 14 hard-as-nails pricks back home too.
With Lee Byrne just coming back from a hand injury, you can see it now - he'll make a tackle, go to ground and a Saffa forward will stamp on his hand. I know an action like that is deplorable, but it's that kind of stuff that gives you an edge over the other team and helps win games.
Gatland might be putting extra pressure on in training and in the gym, but when it comes down to fronting up at the top level, we're a bunch of wimps.

I dunno, I'd say that there's some some Welsh players who can dish out a tough game, it's just that it's not that consistent or in unison. Still, with the terrible NH sojourn South Africa endured last year, it'd be an ideal time for Wales to try and wind them up and put them off their game.

I bet if Wales are in front going into the second half, it's going to get really rough.

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Only one is Bradley Davies that has that aggression, Phillips wishes he could but cant!

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

Only one is Bradley Davies that has that aggression, Phillips wishes he could but cant!

Phillips is the type of guy who if he treads the line of ****ling just right, he could really pi*s off a Springbok, wear one from him and get him sent off. That could be handy!

 

[lynam1104]

Phillips reminds me of some actor i dunno why though just does.

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

Phillips reminds me of some actor i dunno why though just does.

Oh yeeeah, that guy. What's his name......old thingimy-jigger....dammit I can't think. Wasn't he in that movie with the other guy, you know, the one with the hat?