The Rugby Thread

[GiorgioII]

Here are the teams for Wales Versus South Africa at the Millenium Stadium:

Wales: 15 Gareth Thomas (captain), 14 Hal Luscombe, 13 Sonny Parker, 12 Gavin Henson, 11 Shane Williams, 10 Stephen Jones, 9 Dwayne Peel, 8 Ryan Jones, 7 Colin Charvis, 6 Dafydd Jones, 5 Michael Owen, 4 Brent Cockbain, 3 Adam Jones, 2 Steve Jones, 1 Duncan Jones.
Replacements: 16 Mefin Davies, 17 Gethin Jenkins, 18 Luke Charteris, 19 Martyn Williams, 20 Gareth Cooper, 21 Ceri Sweeney, 22 Tom Shanklin.

Spring***s: 15 Percy Montgomery, 14 Breyton Paulse, 13 Marius Joubert, 12 De Wet Barry, 11 Ashwin Willemse, 10 Jaco van der Westhuyzen, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Joe van Niekerk, 7 Juan Smith, 6 Schalk Burger, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 Eddie Andrews, 2 John Smit (captain), 1 Os du Randt.
Replacements: 16 Hanyani Shimange, 17 CJ van der Linde, 18 Gerrie Britz, 19 Tim Dlulane, 20 Michael Claassens, 21 Jean de Villiers, 22 Brent Russell/Gaffie du Toit.

This should be a great game. The elusivness of the Welsh backs such as Williams, Thomas and Henson will have to be at their very best to oudo the superb South African forwards of Burger, Matfield and Van Niekerk. The southern hemisphere giants aren't short of classy backs themselves with the likes of Joubert, Willemese and Montgomery. I think we can expect a South African victory although it could be close.

[GiorgioII]

Of course there will be another game this weekend that should be very exciting when the Scots come up against world cup finalists Australia.

Scotland: 15 Stuart Moffat, 14 Sean Lamont, 13 Graeme Morrison, 12 Andrew Henderson, 11 Chris Paterson, 10 Dan Parks, 9 Chris Cusiter, 8 Allister Hogg, 7 Donny MacFadyen, 6 Scott Gray, 5 Scott MacLeod, 4 Nathan Hines, 3 Bruce Douglas, 2 Gordon Bulloch (captain), 1 Allan Jacobsen.
Replacements: 16 Ross Ford, 17 Craig Smith, 18 Alastair Kellock, 19 Jon Petrie, 20 Mike Blair, 21 Andy Craig, 22 Hugo Southwell.

Australia: 15 Chris Latham, 14 Clyde Rathbone, 13 Stirling Mortlock, 12 Matt Giteau, 11 Lote Tuqiri, 10 Stephen Larkham (vice-captain), 9 George Gregan (captain), 8 John Roe, 7 Phil Waugh (vice-captain), 6 George Smith, 5 Daniel Vickerman, 4 Justin Harrison, 3 Alastair Baxter, 2 Jeremy Paul, 1 Bill Young.
Replacements: 16 Brendan Cannon, 17 Matt Dunning, 18 Mark Chisholm, 19 David Lyons, 20 Elton Flatley, 21 Mat Rogers, 22 Wendell Sailor

I think Australia will be too dominant in all areas for the Scots to be honest, but the scottish will keep on fighting right until the end, but expect a big Australian win.

[GiorgioII]

I have just finished watching two cracking matches. Wales lost narrowly to South Africa 36-38 and Australia beat Scotland 31-14.

It looked like the Welsh were going to be torn apart by the likes of Burger and Van Niekerk in the Spring***s back row but they made an incredible fightback with tries through Gavin Henson twice and Dwayne Peel. It was one of the best matches I have seen for ages.

Meanwhile Rathbone and Mortlock were dealy for the Wallabies in the first half before the Scots showed passion and determination to make a great second half fightback, but it wasn't enough.

I was really impressed by the two scrum-halves of the british nations today. Peel of Wales and Cusiter of Scotland were outstanding and surely will have fought their way into the reckoning for a Lions place.

[Will317]

Caught some of the Wales match earlier, also heard a bit about the Great Britain game in the Rugby League tri-nations that's going on just now. Very satisfied with the 22-12 win over New Zealand. I didn't watch it though as Palace v. Arsenal was on.

[GiorgioII]

I prefer Union over League so I only caught the highlights of the Britain vs NZ match, but it looks like we did really well. I think maybe we are still in with a chance of winning the Tri-Nations now, although Australia look like the favourites.

[FAJA]

Wales Vs SA was a great match, although I was a little disappointed that Wales went for 3 points on so many penalties instead of trying fo a try, especially the one that Stephen Jones missed, if they had they could well have won. One thing is for sure though, if South Africa crack under pressure like they did against Wales, Ireland will tear them apart next week and so will England.

Scotland Vs Australia was quite painful to watch in the first half, it was certainly surprising to see Paterson miss a fairly easy penalty and disappointing that they managed to concede 28 points in one half. The second half was much more impressive from Scotland. I thought that they did extremely well under the circumstances of being without a lot of their best players. If they can make their second half performace consistent then I think we'll see a good 6 nations performance from them next year.

[GiorgioII]

England's current team is quite poor and I can't see them being much of a threat to South Africa unless all of England's previous greats perform to a standard that we haven't seen of them in a long time. However, Ireland have strengths in the line-out and have a blistering back-line, with or without the injured Gordon D'Arcy and if the Spring***s don't perform agains them then Ireland will surely win the game.

[FAJA]

Originally Posted by GiorgioII

England's current team is quite poor and I can't see them being much of a threat to South Africa unless all of England's previous greats perform to a standard that we haven't seen of them in a long time.

It's still possible that some of England's injured players may just be fit by the 21st, hopefully Wilkinson will be back soon simply because when fit he's a league above any other current English flyhalf with the possible exception of Grayson who's retired, unfortunately it's looking unlikely for South Africa. The biggest problem with England is a lack of scrum halves with dawson out the team and Gomarsall and Ellis injured. Hopefully Andy Robinson will swallow his pride and recall Dawson. If England are lucky with the fitness of players I still think they could win a close game. A lot of players who played well below their best over the past year such as Greenwood and Cohen are starting to look better again. The only really unsolvable problem is the back row, the loss of Hill will be a major blow and I doubt Moody will be back to his best in time.

[GiorgioII]

I agree Faja, but Cohen and Greenwood have been dropped, whilst Jason Robinson has been named as temporary skipper until Wilko is back. Here is the team to face Canada:

15 Jason Robinson (Sale Sharks, capt), 14 Mark Cueto (Sale Sharks), 13 Mike Tindall (Bath, vice-captain), 12 Henry Paul (Gloucester), 11 Josh Lewsey (Wasps), 10 Charlie Hodgson (Sale Sharks), 9 Andy Gomarsall (Gloucester), 8 Martin Corry (Leicester), 7 Lewis Moody (Leicester), 6 Joe Worsley (Wasps), 5 Steve Borthwick (Bath), 4 Danny Grewcock (Bath), 3 Julian White (Leicester), 2 Steve Thompson (Northampton), 1 Graham Rowntree (Leicester).
Replacements: 16 Andy Titterrell (Sale Sharks), 17 Andy Sheridan (Sale Sharks), 18 Ben Kay (Leicester), 19 Andy Hazell (Gloucester), 20 Hall Charlton (Newcastle), 21 Will Greenwood (Harlequins), 22 Ben Cohen (Northampton

After Canada's thumping at the hands of Italy I think we can expect a big win for the world champions and hopefully that will put them in good stead for the clashes with the Spring***s and the Wallabies.

[valdanito]

the famousb all blacks, or better knowsn as the australian national rugby team were special guests at the olimpico on sunday to watch the LAzio Siena math.... and thats about all i know!

[GiorgioII]

Originally Posted by valdanito_10

the famousb all blacks, or better knowsn as the australian national rugby team were special guests at the olimpico on sunday to watch the LAzio Siena math.... and thats about all i know!

The All Blacks are New Zealand Valdanito , but thankyou for trying to contribute to this thread . I didn't know that by the way that they watched the Lazio game, interesting.....

[valdanito]

yeash yeah new zealand australia close enough


yes and its interesting how much into the match they were! they wera all jumping and had lazio scarfs

[Will317]

Originally Posted by GiorgioII

I prefer Union over League so I only caught the highlights of the Britain vs NZ match, but it looks like we did really well. I think maybe we are still in with a chance of winning the Tri-Nations now, although Australia look like the favourites.

I prefer Union too, but I like this tri-nations tournament that's happening ATM.

[GiorgioII]

Ireland: 15 Girvan Dempsey (Leinster), 14 Geordan Murphy (Leicester), 13 Brian O'Driscoll (Leinster, capt), 12 Shane Horgan (Leinster), 11 Denis Hickie (Leinster), 10 Ronan O'Gara (Munster), 9 Peter Stringer (Munster), Anthony Foley (Munster), 7 Jonny O'Connor (Wasps), 6 Simon Easterby (Llanelli Scarlets), 5 Paul O'Connell (Munster), 4 Malcolm O'Kelly (Leinster), 3 John Hayes (Munster), 2 Shane Byrne (Leinster), 1 Reggie Corrigan (Leinster)
Replacements: 16 Frankie Sheahan (Munster), 17 Marcus Horan (Munster), 18 Donnacha O'Callaghan (Munster), 19 Eric Miller (Leinster), 20 Guy Easterby (Rotherham), 21 David Humphreys (Ulster), 22 Kevin Maggs (Bath).

This is Ireland's team to face the Spring***s on Saturday. Horgan has switched from the wing to the centre to partner captain Brian O'Driscoll in the absence of Gordon D'Arcy. South Africa have named an unchagend side from the one that narrowly beat Wales.

I feel that Ireland are probably the best side of all of the British nations and have a fair chance of beating the southern hemisphere giants.

[FAJA]

Pity about D'Arcy, but Ireland have a team there which should certainly give South Africa a challenge. To be honest though, I'd prefer Humphreys starting instead of O'Gara.