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Wales vs South Africa

Tickets have increased in price by £5 this week. Demand must be fairly high, if the WRU want to milk it dry. Mind you, £90 for a family ticket to see one of the 'Big Three' is still very reasonable!
 
Im not overly confident about this one, just have a funny feeling we're not gonna win. I mean, even though confidence should be flying atm after the Blues and Ospreys winning the Amlin and the Magners, I'm just worried about the injuries to some of our best players - mainly Gethin Jenkins and James Hook, but we've lost some real in-form players in Charteris and Aled Brew too.
Personally I'd pick this squad if I was Gatland:

1. Paul James
2. Ken Owns
3. Adam Jones
4. Bradley Davies
5. Alun Wyn Jones
6. Jonathan Thomas
7. Sam Warburton
8. Ryan Jones
9. Mike Phillips
10. Stephen Jones
11. Shane Williams
12. Jamie Roberts
13. Andrew Bishop
14. Leigh Halfpenny (Though I'd love to see Will Harries get a start)
15. Lee Byrne
Subs:
16. Matthew Rees
17. John Yapp
18. Deiniol Jones
19. Andy Powell
20. Richie Rees
21. Dan Biggar
22. Jonathan Davies
 
I'd start Mathew Rees with ken Owens on the bench. Afterall, Rees was the first choice Lions hooker last year. Knowing Gatland though, we'll have Bennett on the bench for some unknown reason. Rest of the team picks itself though.

I was worried about the loss of Hook, but Bishop has been in superb form all season. He was great against Leinster on Sat, and will do well for Wales. We do loose some creativity though! Gethin is a big loss that will be felt in open play, but Paul James has proven to be adequate cover, and Yapp offers inpact off the bench.
 
Olyy said:
The Welsh frontrow hasn't hit previous form since the injuries from Lions either,
Would absolutely love Wales to win, but i think SA will win, probably quite comfortably as well

I'm excited for the match/summer international period either way, i love international rugby, and there's 5 weeks of it starting in one week :D
Click to expand...


Quite comfortably? I would be surprised. Not a true 2nd string side firstly and secondly, these thrown-together teams hardly ever do the job; except for the NZ teams where there is smaller difference between provincial playing styles. For me the question is whether this team can gel and whether guys who probably should not be there will get found out (especially that awful bench). Also, a huge questionmark hangs over that centre combination as interested as I am to see it in action.

For SA I would have liked to see (considering we are resting players and have a couple injured as well):
CJ van der Linde, John Smit, BJ Botha, Bakkies Botha (Andries has played every minute of the S14 while Bakkies was injured), Danie Rossouw, Francois Louw, Jean Deysel, Duane Vermeulen, Sarel Pretorius, Peter Grant, Francois Hougaard, Wynand Olivier, Jacque Fourie, Gerhard van den Heever, Francois Steyn

Wian du Preez, Tiaan Liebenberg, Steven Sykes, Dewald Potgieter, Dewald Duvenhage, Ruan Pienaar, Patrick Lambie
 
Welsh team announced. Hook in for this game before getting shoulder surgery. Shane Williams is out of the summer tests. Overall, Hook is a big boost to Wales, whilst Williams isn't in form.

Wales: Lee Byrne (Ospreys); Leigh Halfpenny (Cardiff Blues), James Hook (Ospreys), Jamie Roberts (Blues), Tom Prydie (Ospreys); Stephen Jones (Scarlets), Mike Phillips (Scarlets); Paul James (Ospreys), Matthew Rees (Scarlets), Adam Jones (Ospreys), Bradley Davies (Blues), Deiniol Jones (Blues), Jonathan Thomas (Ospreys), Sam Warburton (Blues), Ryan Jones (capt, Ospreys).
Replacements: Huw Bennett (Ospreys), John Yapp (Blues), Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys), Andy Powell (Blues), Richie Rees (Blues), Dan Biggar (Ospreys), Andrew Bishop (Ospreys).
 
Why is Shane out of the tests? The BBC article was a bit vague and didn't give any details really - disagree that Williams hasn't been in form, he's had a cracking season, especially for Wales! So he's a big loss imo :/ Glad to see Hook in the team :D pity he won't be going to New Zealand, but still will be good to see him alongside Roberts again, especially seeing that they are both in great form atm. Not overly happy with Tom Prydie starting here, I mean, no disprespect to the Italians, but starting against Italy is a completely different thing to starting against South Africa (under strength team or not). Halfpenny might have been young when he got his cap aga9inst the Springboks, but he was at least 2 years older than Prydie, and had played for the Blues in some big Heineken Cup games. I reckon Prydie is going to be class in the future, he;s got bags of talent, but he just hasn;t had enough Ospreys experience yet imo. Will Harries should have started imo, but I guess I'll have to settle with him now getting called up to the tour squad to New Zealand -might see him get some game time out there.
With Prydie though, does anyone reckon he'll ever get enough game time at the Ospreys anytime soon? They have 3 class international wingers in Shane Williams, Tommy Bowe and Nikki Walker, and now one of the best Magners wingers (imo) Richard Fussell is on his way there too, would it be worth him moving to one of the other welsh regions? Scarlets have had a fair bit of trouble with injuries to wingers ever since Mark Jones got injured, so maybe there's a place for him there? I'm sure he'd be welcome at the Dragons too - they're fantastic at developing young players. Not much point him heading to the Blues, since he'd face the same problem as he does in the O's, with Halfpenny, Tom James and Chris Czekaj all playing well.
 
Hook playing is a bit of a double edged sword really. It's great for this match against SA, as he's in great form and will really add some flair to this backline. However he won't be available to tour NZ, so we'll have to field a different centre partership for those games. Bishop will probably come in at 13 v NZ, who hasn't had much gametime alongside Roberts! It would have been nice for the Bishop/Roberts pairing to get a run out v SA before taking on NZ. However, there's more chance of us winning this game with Hook in the team, which would also be a big boost before facing NZ. Hmmm.

Shane has been in good form with Wales, but he's not really showed much for the O's, even though the rest of the team is on fire. He's always gonna be a big loss, especially against SA, who he's performed well against for the last couple of seasons. BBC hinted at a shoulder injury. Probably best he get's a rest and a full pre-season really though, if we want him at his best come WC. This will be a big test for Prydie. He handled the Italy game with ease, but SA is a big step up!

I don't think there's a need for Prydie to move regions. He's a fullback really, who's getting introduced to international rugby on the wing to begin with. There aren't many quality fullbacks in the Ospreys squad. lee Byrne is of course a great player, but he's not exactly young at 30. So a replacement will need to be brought through at the O's within the next couple of years. Gareth Owen has been tried at fullback, but I still maintain he's better suited to centre. Barry Davies is 29, and probably not quite good enough imo. Prydie is next in line, or even above Barry Davies in the pecking order.

More concern should be raised about Kristian Phillips who's gonna find it difficult getting the gametime he deserves.

Bennett made the bloody bench, what a surprise. Although his performance against Leinster was one of the best I've seen from him. Owens better get some gametime this summer, but it'll now mean a debut against NZ!
 
Owens is playing for the Baabaas against Ireland that night isn't he?
 
Ah right. Wasn't sure if he was only involved for the first Baabaas game. At least he'll be getting some quality experience there then. Has the Barbarian's starting team been announced yet? Hopefully he'll get a start as I thought he showed quite alot when he came on against England.
 
Ah, i just looked it up, he's not in the squad. Just presumed that he would be because he was last week
 
Butch James possibly out due to the match falling outside the international window.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/welsh/8716788.stm

Don't understand this atall. The domestic season is over. What possible reason does Bath (or more specifically Premier Rugby ltd.) have to stop him from playing, other than to **** off Butch James himself? The reasons given are utter bulls**t imo. If a player wants to play then allow them. Same true for the Scottish players.

Can start to see now why Gatland wants his players based in Wales. On the one hand you have English clubs refusing to relese players when their season is over. Then you have the ospreys agreeing to pospone Hooks shoulder operation so he can take part in this game.
 
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Thats good news for Wales but a mahoosive failing for common sense. It must be because of all the rugby Bath will play between now and..... September.

Moronic decision.
 
It is ridiculous when you consider that England based players were allowed to play against the BaaBaa's a few days ago
 
I saw that three Scottish players at Gloucester aren't allowed to play for Scotland against Japan, despite Gloucester saying they're allowed because PRL stepped in stopped it =/
Their next game isn't for two and a half months, it's crazy
 
Noticed that in the past aswell. It normally seems like it's not the clubs decision to stop their own players from doing things, but PRL. Afterall players aren't going to be happy being at the club if they are disallowed from playing internationally. I thought PRL were meant to be an organisation safeguarding the interests of both the premiership clubs and players, not being a nanny organisation with it's primary aim seeming to be upholding IRB regulations and recommendations.
 
Will this be on the red button on BBC in England? It's tennis on BBC 2 here =/
It's on BBC Wales, but i'm house sitting for my parents for the next two weeks, and i'd rather watch it on their massive tv than my laptop :p
 
Wow. I just got a call from PDivvie asking me to hop over and join the squad. See you all there! I will be playing 4 positions at once.
 

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