Team noos

[Son of Mathonwy]

Cuthbert - is that really the best we can come up with?
Watkin - pretty underwhelming, I thought Hawkins might have had a shot at this, at least from the bench (perhaps an experiment too far though . . . don't want to trip over Georgia).
Anscombe can't be too pleased to be dropped. Neither he nor Priestland shone last week. Still, Costelow deserves a chance.
Jenkins will be interesting.
I assume Christ must be injured?

[Sandydragon]

Wales team to face Georgia: Rees-Zammit; Cuthbert, North, Watkin, Adams; Priestland, T Williams; G Thomas, Owens, D Lewis, Carter, Beard, J Morgan, Tipuric (capt), J Macleod.

Replacements: B Roberts, R Jones, S Wainwright, D Jenkins, Faletau, Blacker, Costelow, Halfpenny.

Interesting to see how MacLeod goes at 8, lots of jackalling options in that backrow.

An interesting selection and a strong team noting availability. LRZ at 15 I'm happy with as it makes sense to develop a player for the full back position given neither Liam nor Halfpenny are getting any younger. Not sure why Halfpenny is on the bench though, not really an impact player but one to come on and steady the ship I suppose. Not sure that the wingers will get a lot of ball with that centre partnership but if these are 2 of our best 3 centres then they should have some game time together. Also, will Tompkins be available for the Australia game? Glad Carter is getting a start and I hope Jenkins gets some game time from the bench. Back row looks a little imbalanced, but we can't play Faletau for every minute and unless Privac was going to call Moriarty or Wainwright into the squad, then this was the game to have a temporary no 8.

Glad that Roberts is on the bench, he has been in great form.

[Wallpaperman]

Think that Rees Zammit will be released back to Gloucester next week as the international window will be closed, if so it makes sense to give Halfpenny a run out as he will be back in the side

[Sandydragon]

Good point. Let’s hope he can remain fit or else it will be Adams’ turn to temp.

[Graigwen]

I think that is a fair enough team, bearing in mind the opposition. There are several vulnerabilities that might be exposed but I think we have to take a few risks in this sort of game to develop the team.

Resting Faletau seems like the right idea, as does Halfpenny on the bench to get a few minutes of game time. The back row is maybe unbalanced again, but this sort of thing has to be tried.

If we are going to play Cuthbert, we must have a plan to give him support when he goes off on a mazey run. Or maybe teach him to put in bouncing grubbers just before he is caught.

Second row could be a vulnerability but probably has to be tried.

An ideal chance for Watkin to shine??????

Most of all, I hope we stay awake and stop giving away idiotic penalties.

Georgia are a good test for us, if we foul everything up we will get beaten, although it is unlikely.

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[Sandydragon]

I think that is a fair enough team, bearing in mind the opposition. There are several vulnerabilities that might be exposed but I think we have to take a few risks in this sort of game to develop the team.

Resting Faletau seems like the right idea, as does Halfpenny on the bench to get a few minutes of game time. The back row is maybe unbalanced again, but this sort of thing has to be tried.

If we are going to play Cuthbert, we must have a plan to give him support when he goes off on a mazey run. Or maybe teach him to put in bouncing grubbers just before he is caught.

Second row could be a vulnerability but probably has to be tried.

An ideal chance for Watkin to shine??????

Most of all, I hope we stay awake and stop giving away idiotic penalties.

Georgia are a good test for us, if we foul everything up we will get beaten, although it is unlikely.

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I'm hoping that's where Tipuric's game intelligence will be useful.

[Sourdust]

I too think the balance is about right.

There's the question of "if not now then when?" as regards trying out new players and combos, but we also have to bear in mind that we have a match a week later that we can't afford to go into undercooked. That, and the fact that we ALWAYS struggle when we pick seconds for these games, and often end up worse off. That team should be able to not just beat Georgia, but do so handsomely, giving us a boost when most of them start the next game.

Of course it's a no-win game, but if we can manage to beat them by 15-20 points and score a few good tries, at least that might form a worthwhile "training run" for the Aus match. The only options for Saturday evening conversation will be (1) "It's easy to look good against Georgia" (2) "We struggled to beat Georgia" (3) "We couldn't even beat Georgia". I'll take (1), please.

[Graigwen]

I'm hoping that's where Tipuric's game intelligence will be useful.

I think he was, understandably, not on target for the All Blacks game. He was much better last week. I am hoping he will be back to his superb best on Saturday.
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[Billyfish]

Quite a few Aussies unavailable for Saturday. We'll eke out a win and Pivac lives to fight another day.

[Sandydragon]

Quite a few Aussies unavailable for Saturday. We'll eke out a win and Pivac lives to fight another day.

I suspect that might be the case. But Privac has beaten South Africa away and Australia. And Argentina who are a decent side.

But seriously, if that is good enough to beat the Bokke seconds, a seriously depleted Aussie team (who could well do us over if we are as bad as last weekend) then God help us when we get to the RWC, or the Six Nations.

Realistically, we should not have lost to either Italy or Georgia. We seem to be looking for tries rather than take penalties at key points, particularly against second tier teams, when frankly we should build a score. We also seem to have no confidence in our our systems, which were working in the fist half but then discipline or skill set let us down and handed back initiative.

[Billyfish]

Quite a few Aussies unavailable for Saturday. We'll eke out a win and Pivac lives to fight another day.

I suspect that might be the case. But Privac has beaten South Africa away and Australia. And Argentina who are a decent side.

But seriously, if that is good enough to beat the Bokke seconds, a seriously depleted Aussie team (who could well do us over if we are as bad as last weekend) then God help us when we get to the RWC, or the Six Nations.

Realistically, we should not have lost to either Italy or Georgia. We seem to be looking for tries rather than take penalties at key points, particularly against second tier teams, when frankly we should build a score. We also seem to have no confidence in our our systems, which were working in the fist half but then discipline or skill set let us down and handed back initiative.

Our attacking game seems particularly naive, I am not sure what the system is. If not Pivac, then SJ needs replacing or someone else brought in to help. It looks like we can manage a decent defence and a (first choice) set piece. LRZ, Adams and even olde Cuthbert Vs Georgia should have been a try-fest.

[Numbers]

Wales: Leigh Halfpenny; Alex Cuthbert, George North, Joe Hawkins, Rio Dyer; Gareth Anscombe, Tomos Williams; Gareth Thomas, Ken Owens, Dillon Lewis, Adam Beard, Alun Wyn Jones, Jac Morgan, Justin Tipuric, Taulupe Faletau.

Replacements: Ryan Elias, Rhodri Jones, Tomas Francis, Ben Carter, Josh Macleod, Kieran Hardy, Rhys Priestland, Josh Adams.

Nice to see Hawkins getting a chance and Lewis deserves to retain his place from last weekend as he was solid in the scrum.

[Sandydragon]

Looks like the strongest team we could put out and pleased for Hawkins. But the team for Georgia looked strong on paper.

[Son of Mathonwy]

In what deranged world does Cuthbert get selected ahead of Adams? Jesus.

Hawkins - I have hopes for him but he has yet to prove himself at the Ospreys, so this is the deep end and then some.

Maybe Pivac is banking on building some coherence out of a critical mass of Ospreys??

[Billyfish]

Does Pivac coach the soccer team too?

[normanski]

Having watched the Ireland match with Australia yesterday, I think we are in for a real trouncing today. The Oz sped at rucks and their clear outs (often close to illegality) spell real danger for Wales at the breakdown where our defence is often suspect.

I can see them beating us by twenty points as our demotivated and passionless players hang their heads in shame.

[Mr Mwenda]

The clear outs are often illegal, the number of penalties and yellow cards they accrue shows that. I'd also say their injury list may also be a consequence of their reckless desperation!

[Graigwen]

Last week I posted "I think that is a fair enough team, bearing in mind the opposition. There are several vulnerabilities that might be exposed...."

and "Georgia are a good test for us, if we foul everything up we will get beaten, although it is unlikely."

Well we did foul everything up fairly comprehensively, and deservedly got beaten.

This week we again have a fairly good looking team on paper. Against a weakened Australian team we ought to win, but I don't have much confidence. We used to win games by our mental strength, now we lose them. Once again I will be watching with England supporters, I hope it is better than last week.

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[pompey-zebra]

Once again I will be watching with England supporters, I hope it is better than last week.

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Yes, me too. Hoping for a bit of cheer after the Georgia game last week, and the Iran game in the football yesterday. But just in case it goes wrong again, I'm conditioning myself by watching the bulls v ospreys game.

[Sourdust]

This is going to be like watching a Graeco-Roman wrestling match between two puffer fish, in zero gravity.

I will never be in the "I hope we lose" camp, but I'm not sure there's much to be gained from a win, apart from the bragging rights. If we score 30+ then maybe, but call me a pessimist, I've got a sneaking feeling we might not manage that.

[normanski]

Mistake from kickoff and we’re three points down.

[Sandydragon]

Now 7-3 up. Nice carrying and excellent finish by Morgan.

Then we mess up the restart again.

[normanski]

If only we can iron out the silly mistakes and force them to make them instead.

[normanski]

Faletau is immense.

[Sandydragon]

Jac Morgan is having a superb game. AWJ rolling back the years as well.

A few points to prove out there today. Need to keep this going .