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I would be pretty pissed if they didn't offer JT a new contract. Even if that means having 3 contracted 9s in the main squad and more outside backs in the EPS.
I like to pick up Isaiah Mosese from the Rebels EPS. He was over here with the Force academy last year.
Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.
So ideally we would have something like this as our best side. Would this be competitive enough?
1 Cowan
2 Charles
3 Longbottom
4 Lynn
5 Wykes
6 Hodgson
7 Pocock
8 McCalman
9 New Player - Established Super XV quality
10 Ebersom
11 Wara or a new player?
12 Marquee Player
13 Tupou
14 Cummins
15 Mafi
16 Whittaker? whats happened to him or Taione
17 Maafu/Manu
18 Battye or another lock to replace Sharpey?
19 Brown
20 Holmes/Swanepoel?
21 Seymour/Harvey/Godwin
22 Sidey/Rapana/Dellit/Stanley or someone new?
Other - McCaffrey, Faulkner
not bad, but not a lot of depth
I'd be happy with 11 Wara 14 Cummins 20 Swanepoel 21 Seymour 22 Delitt and have the new wings extremely speedy young blokes say 18-20 who can develop.
Rapana could be a weapon from all accounts but would want to see him first. Anyway the usual injuries will sideline a centre and a wing almost every week so Paddy Rapana and Stanley will plenty of time. And Seymour will get time at 10 or 12 so Godwin will make the bench.
The beauty is we are starting to get some depth when it is a toss up between two or three almost equal players in certain positions
The long sobs of autumn's violins wound my heart with a monotonous languor
Whittaker has been injurd. He is contracted for next season.
Angus Cottrell played flanker earlier in the season when McCalman and McCaffrey were out. He was very good. Apparently he has been re-signed but nothing formal has been announced. He can't play at the moment while our other backrowers are available to play.
Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.
I heard the Force were looking at Halangahu. Any truth to this?
Problem with that squad not one of the starting players is 200+cm plus a short 6 doesn't help. We will get taken to the cleaners at line out time.
Generally speaking you aren’t learning much if your lips are moving!!!
I like it! What I like best is that it's a "long-term"-oriented squad. Not a lot of big-name deals, but players who are developing.
Don't necessarily think depth is an issue - the depth in the pack looks OK w/ Whittaker, Manu, Dickie Brown, Cottrell, and Battye. And if things pan out the way everyone hopes and they do sign a gun 12, that leaves Holmes (maybe), Seymour, Harvey, Godwin, Sidey, Rapana, Dellit, Stanley in the backs. Seems like a decent enough bench to pull from, no? Maybe need another speedster to cover the back three.
Sign Tapuai at 12 and a decent 9, and the squad looks strong. Oh yeah, and a good coach (and by "good", I mean "not the Irishman who wants to play 2007 RWC-era 10-man rugby") - let's not forget that!
I think Taione has played often enough to have his EPS contract automatically upgraded, altough I'm not sure how that works with the 30 man squad size. I think Cottrell only played 3 matches so didn't get the automatic upgrade, but he showed enough to warrant being re-signed. Hope James is right about that!