RugbyRebels

After Saturday's madness I would be interested to see who you think should be selected for the next match, I would go with:

Domachowski
Dee
Brown or Azzeratti depending if Brown is fit
Beard (Rowlands if available but not sure he has had any training sessions so maybe wait)
Jenkins
Mann
Reffell
Wainwright
Williams
Lloyd
Dyer
Tompkins
North if fit or Joe Roberts
Grady
Winnett

Elias, Thomas if fit or Matthias, Azzeratti if not starting or Griffin, Williams, Botham, Davies, Costelow, Adams

Teddy Williams probably did enough to play himself into the starting 15 but I liked his dynamism off the bench, Adams looked off the pace a bit to me, maybe dropping him to the bench would give him a kick up the arse (and punish him fo the stupid penalty he conceded), Watkin had a poor game, Tompkins survives purely on credit.

One thing to consider is costellow's HIA. If he's ruled out then presumably Cai Evans comes in, probably on the bench.

pompey-zebra wrote: ↑Mon Feb 05, 2024 4:33 pm One thing to consider is costellow's HIA. If he's ruled out then presumably Cai Evans comes in, probably on the bench.

I'm trying to avoid considering that scenario

Numbers wrote: ↑Mon Feb 05, 2024 4:33 pm

pompey-zebra wrote: ↑Mon Feb 05, 2024 4:33 pm One thing to consider is costellow's HIA. If he's ruled out then presumably Cai Evans comes in, probably on the bench.

I'm trying to avoid considering that scenario

This is the squad the Fail says Gatland should pick:

Wales: Cameron Winnett; Josh Adams, George North, Nick Tompkins, Rio Dyer; Ioan Lloyd, Tomos Williams; Corey Domachowski, Elliot Dee, Keiron Assiratti, Dafydd Jenkins, Adam Beard, Alex Mann, Tommy Reffell, Aaron Wainwright.

Replacements: Ryan Elias, Gareth Thomas, Leon Brown, Will Rowlands, James Botham, Gareth Davies, Cai Evans, Mason Grady.

The article says Costellow is probably unlikely to play following his HIA, so in comes Evans.

Adams will be very lucky to keep his place and putting Grady on he wing would offer plenty of threats to the English defence. He was a long way off his best on Saturday.

Definitely bring back North for an anonymous Watkin.

Sandydragon wrote: ↑Mon Feb 05, 2024 9:41 pm Adams will be very lucky to keep his place and putting Grady on he wing would offer plenty of threats to the English defence. He was a long way off his best on Saturday.

Definitely bring back North for an anonymous Watkin.

All of this, especially Watkin. I'd be surprised if Adams was dropped. He's Gats man

Update from the Wales squad:
Botham released with knee injury
Brown injured but still with squad
Dillon Lewis and Seb Davies brought in
Costellow has a neurological neck injury.

My take:

Scrum was actually OK last week, so no reason to change the props.

The lineout was by a long way the worst feature of our dismal first half - we'd have been in the game if that had functioned. So the reasons for it need to be understood.
I would guess that Dee needs to start because Elias was at least partly to blame for what happened. But was there a problem in the 2nd row? If so, perhaps beard doesn't start? So, Jenkins and Rowlands.

If Botham's injured that means Mann starts and Martin's on the bench. Obviously Reffell and Wainwright start.

Obviously Tomos and Ioan.

Hope North's back to team up with Tompkins. Otherwise?? Of course Grady would be the sensible choice but I want him on the wing. Maybe we should skip to the next generation and get Ackerman or Hennessey in? I guess Roberts but I wouldn't expect too much.

Back three: Grady, Dyer, Winnett.

I guess Cai Evans and Adams would be on the bench.

I thought our scrum went reasonably well too and mostly held their own. Not sure about Saturday but if Rowlands comes in he will add some heft. It’s the lines out that worry me. We really need to get that working again and up to RWC standards.

I will be happy if we can put in an 80 minute performance and still competing at the end. Italy showed us the way to take on England moving the ball wide once we’re into the game.

pompey-zebra wrote: ↑Tue Feb 06, 2024 1:06 pm Update from the Wales squad:
Botham released with knee injury
Brown injured but still with squad
Dillon Lewis and Seb Davies brought in
Costellow has a neurological neck injury.

I'm assuming that Gareth Thomas is still unavailable as there's been no update on him being fit again.

ACTUAL TEAM

Thomas
Dee
Assirati
Jenkins
Beard
Mann
Reffell
Wainright
Williams
Lloyd
Dyer
Tompkins
North
Adams
Winnett
Bench
Elias Domachowski Griffin Rowlands Basham Hardy Evans Grady

Tuco Ramirez wrote: ↑Wed Feb 07, 2024 1:13 pm ACTUAL TEAM

Thomas
Dee
Assirati
Jenkins
Beard
Mann
Reffell
Wainright
Williams
Lloyd
Dyer
Tompkins
North
Adams
Winnett
Bench
Elias Domachowski Griffin Rowlands Basham Hardy Evans Grady

I'm pretty pleased with that. Particularly the half backs, and the return of North. I would swap Adams and Grady, and maybe have Martin on the bench instead of Basham, but overall it looks strong.

I think we could win this.

I think I'd of preferred it if Gatland had selected another youngster to come in as replacement for Botham, either Tristan Davies at the Ospreys or Ryan Woodman at the Dragons, both could be very good 2nd row/blinside hybrid players which is what he stated he wanted going forwards.

Numbers wrote: ↑Wed Feb 07, 2024 2:17 pm I think I'd of preferred it if Gatland had selected another youngster to come in as replacement for Botham, either Tristan Davies at the Ospreys or Ryan Woodman at the Dragons, both could be very good 2nd row/blinside hybrid players which is what he stated he wanted going forwards.

Yeah, true. Difficult to know with Seb Davies, I'd assumed his ship had sailed and we were moving on to the next generation. Having said that he's only 27 so should really be in his prime. Maybe Gatland's just waiting for Tshiunza and Rhys Davies to come back from injury.

Son of Mathonwy wrote: ↑Wed Feb 07, 2024 1:40 pm

Tuco Ramirez wrote: ↑Wed Feb 07, 2024 1:13 pm ACTUAL TEAM

Thomas
Dee
Assirati
Jenkins
Beard
Mann
Reffell
Wainright
Williams
Lloyd
Dyer
Tompkins
North
Adams
Winnett
Bench
Elias Domachowski Griffin Rowlands Basham Hardy Evans Grady

I'm pretty pleased with that. Particularly the half backs, and the return of North. I would swap Adams and Grady, and maybe have Martin on the bench instead of Basham, but overall it looks strong.

I think we could win this.

Then again, Grady is just made to run at tired defenders when the game opens up. I expect Adams has had a rocket and is being backed to respond.

Sandydragon wrote: ↑Wed Feb 07, 2024 3:50 pm

Son of Mathonwy wrote: ↑Wed Feb 07, 2024 1:40 pm

Tuco Ramirez wrote: ↑Wed Feb 07, 2024 1:13 pm ACTUAL TEAM

Thomas
Dee
Assirati
Jenkins
Beard
Mann
Reffell
Wainright
Williams
Lloyd
Dyer
Tompkins
North
Adams
Winnett
Bench
Elias Domachowski Griffin Rowlands Basham Hardy Evans Grady

I'm pretty pleased with that. Particularly the half backs, and the return of North. I would swap Adams and Grady, and maybe have Martin on the bench instead of Basham, but overall it looks strong.

I think we could win this.

Then again, Grady is just made to run at tired defenders when the game opens up. I expect Adams has had a rocket and is being backed to respond.

Yeah, hopefully Grady gets a bit of game time, but not because anything happens to North.

Son of Mathonwy wrote: ↑Wed Feb 07, 2024 4:31 pm

Sandydragon wrote: ↑Wed Feb 07, 2024 3:50 pm

Son of Mathonwy wrote: ↑Wed Feb 07, 2024 1:40 pm
I'm pretty pleased with that. Particularly the half backs, and the return of North. I would swap Adams and Grady, and maybe have Martin on the bench instead of Basham, but overall it looks strong.

I think we could win this.

Then again, Grady is just made to run at tired defenders when the game opens up. I expect Adams has had a rocket and is being backed to respond.

Yeah, hopefully Grady gets a bit of game time, but not because anything happens to North.

Yep. Basham can also make an impact off the bench. Watching the England Italy game, if we can keep the tempo up and move the ball to the fringes, we have a good opportunity.

Sandydragon wrote: ↑Wed Feb 07, 2024 4:50 pm

Son of Mathonwy wrote: ↑Wed Feb 07, 2024 4:31 pm

Sandydragon wrote: ↑Wed Feb 07, 2024 3:50 pm

Then again, Grady is just made to run at tired defenders when the game opens up. I expect Adams has had a rocket and is being backed to respond.

Yeah, hopefully Grady gets a bit of game time, but not because anything happens to North.

Yep. Basham can also make an impact off the bench. Watching the England Italy game, if we can keep the tempo up and move the ball to the fringes, we have a good opportunity.

And hopefully not do anything headless, I love his intensity but he needs to keep to the right side of the laws.

Numbers wrote: ↑Thu Feb 08, 2024 9:23 am

Sandydragon wrote: ↑Wed Feb 07, 2024 4:50 pm

Son of Mathonwy wrote: ↑Wed Feb 07, 2024 4:31 pm
Yeah, hopefully Grady gets a bit of game time, but not because anything happens to North.

Yep. Basham can also make an impact off the bench. Watching the England Italy game, if we can keep the tempo up and move the ball to the fringes, we have a good opportunity.

And hopefully not do anything headless, I love his intensity but he needs to keep to the right side of the laws.

At least with Farrell out he won’t be able to put his head into Owen’s shoulder!

normanski wrote: ↑Thu Feb 08, 2024 3:55 pm

Numbers wrote: ↑Thu Feb 08, 2024 9:23 am

Sandydragon wrote: ↑Wed Feb 07, 2024 4:50 pm
Yep. Basham can also make an impact off the bench. Watching the England Italy game, if we can keep the tempo up and move the ball to the fringes, we have a good opportunity.

And hopefully not do anything headless, I love his intensity but he needs to keep to the right side of the laws.

At least with Farrell out he won’t be able to put his head into Owen’s shoulder!

Very true, thats one less law to enforce I suppose. But Basham is quite capable of giving away penalties if he gets carried away; hopefully he can keep his head.

After giving away a string of silly penalties through hot-headeness’ I hope he will put his enthusiasm to good use if he comes on. He could redeem himself by scoring a winning try in the 79th minute!

Obviously I'm hoping for a win here but I've gotta say that I also want Feyi-Waboso to have an unremarkable game. My fear is that the exact opposite will occur.

I think a win is a bit of a stretch, isn't it? To win at HQ we need to be better than England by a distance, and there's no sign of that that I can see.

After last week I think we're entitled to moderate our horror predictions down a tad, but not that far. We've got a comedy lineout and they've got Itoje...

That said, I like the team (all things considered, of course) and I wouldn't be totally shocked if we do the trick of losing at Twickenham while scoring more tries, again. I'd probably settle for that if we can keep the margin to something unremarkable.

Sourdust wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2024 3:58 pm I think a win is a bit of a stretch, isn't it? To win at HQ we need to be better than England by a distance, and there's no sign of that that I can see.

After last week I think we're entitled to moderate our horror predictions down a tad, but not that far. We've got a comedy lineout and they've got Itoje...

That said, I like the team (all things considered, of course) and I wouldn't be totally shocked if we do the trick of losing at Twickenham while scoring more tries, again. I'd probably settle for that if we can keep the margin to something unremarkable.

I think it will be a closer game than many will think. A lot will depend on how our front row fares against the ‘beasts’ in white. If our scrum holds up and we can sort out the lineouts then we should retain enough possession to earn the right to go out wide.

All to play for.

Well, the U20 match was about as much fun as that fixture usually is. I think the seniors stand a better chance.