Ben Castle the goods.......opinion from the Waikato

[travelling_gerry]

he was probably the 10th ranked prop in the country,

...

[joondalup dave]

i know its eerie that TOCC both felt the same way.

The other 9 are

1 Hayman europe
2 tialata hurricanes
3 somerville crusaders now europe
4 meuuews europe
5 afoa aukland
6 mackintosh highlanders althugh is prob better than afoa
7 fairbrother hurricanes
8 franks crusaders
9 newland highlanders

[mudskipper]

The various internet forums for the tah's and brumbies must currently be very poorly attended with the amount of time & effort that WJ & muddy put in here. Poor things can't find anyone to talk to about their teams.

Coach has created a Rugby Hub, we are the forerunners, the frontiersmen, many pilgrims will soon follow......

[travelling_gerry]

How would you rank the props in Australia?

[chiselhead]

signing castle is a mistake for a couple of reasons.

one he is not that flash if we take all tight heads going round that are from new zealand
he is about 10th.

Toulon have dumped him and they are coming 2nd last , the cheifs have had the weakest scrum of the NZ based teams.

Tight head is the most highly specialized position on the field and we only have 4 provinces to which to pick for the wallabies , it doesnt make sense to pick someone that gives you the least interchangability and no player development.

We have serious depth issues at 3 and this only makes it worse.

Dunning is primarily a loose head by the way.

Baxters last test he took 2 tight heads off sheridan so chisel head i am afraid you are mistaken on that issue. The waratahs scrum has been ranked 2 or 3 in the super 14 in the past 3 years.

the idea of a foreign player rule is to increase crowd interest.

a player like michalak at the sharks would be a sound idea, that worked very well, we sign castle. wtf????

JD, why would we sign Michalak or someone of his ilk? We have half the wallaby backline. We signed Castle because we don't have a decent tighthead and get raped at scrum time............elementary old bean

The waratah scrum scares nobody in the rugby strong nations of NZ or South Africa. Australian scrummaging prowess is the laughing stock of world rugby.......newsflash.

I only know what I see........and I see Baxter take more than 50% of international scrums to ground because his technique is so poor. Baxter is Sheridans b1tch. Perhaps the Australian scrum has improved as a unit but Baxter still sux ass.

The tighthead prop is the most important player on the field, and the next most important is the reserve tighthead. IMHO. I'm not alone in my thoughts

[chiselhead]

How would you rank the props in Australia?

Dunning is the second fattest behind Rodney Blake.
I like Robinson at the Tahs. he's a real tough bastard. We're still waiting for a world class tighthead. Maybe someone will step up this year

[chiselhead]

i know it sounds great to speak like that chisel head but mate your being crude mate, let it go . we are interested in what you have to say on rugby not on your homo erotic diary entries.

Let the big boys play. If you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen

[joondalup dave]

10th best in New Zealand where on earth did you pluck that figure from? Who are the 9 higher up?

You can't judge a guy by one performance. Baxter has made only one very good performance in the entire time I've seen him play. Maybe he has improved but much more likely- based on his performance in the weeks after against Wales and France- he just had a good day at the office. Much like Dunning did in South Africa in 2007 when we lost by three points.

The fact that Toulon dumped him means nothing at all. The Force dumped Brock James after coming last in the Super 14 and he went on to do very well in France. Perhaps Ben Castle will do the reverse.

Tighthead is highly specialised and as such you need a really good teacher to show you the way things are. We don't have a scrum coach. We don't even have any experienced players in the front row (McIsaac and Hardy are good but are inexperienced compare with some).

excellent point however i believe trevor woodman was asked to come over and help the side.

i would be more enthusiastic if toulon had even had him in their sqaud in the past couple of weeks

i dont think dumping brock was that smart just quietly.

[chiselhead]

excellent point however i believe trevor woodman was asked to come over and help the side.

i would be more enthusiastic if toulon had even had him in their sqaud in the past couple of weeks

i dont think dumping brock was that smart just quietly.

Where was Brock going to fit into the current backline? What has he ever done? I don't think signing him in the first place was all that smart actually. He was always just making up the numbers

BC hated France........doesn't everyone?

So he missed the last 2 weeks because they were going to cull him. Relevance?

[Burgs]

Perhaps the concern shouldn't be where exactly BC ranks in New Zealand but the high posibility that regardless he probably will still be better than what Australia have to offer.

We are all fairly well versed on my opinion on the buckle couple however I honestly cannot see them as our RWC option so the likes of Alexander and (name escapes me, the Tah Wallaby debut) need to be allowed to develop now rather than wasting another year.
At Test selection level, likewise a make or break year for RWC for AJ, Takiari, Shepherdson, Henderson etc. They may still be S14 for a couple more years but if they aren't going to make the RWC then find out now.

[joondalup dave]

Let the big boys play. If you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen

that is horrific....... hahahah your on a blog. your not going into battle.

the idea is that being polite is an adult thing to do.

i think you have an excellent set of ideas bud i just dont want to have read the expletives around it. i think your much better than that.

[chiselhead]

that is horrific....... hahahah your on a blog. your not going into battle.

the idea is that being polite is an adult thing to do.

i think you have an excellent set of ideas bud i just dont want to have read the expletives around it. i think your much better than that.

That's what my mum says too
WJ loves the sledge. Just put us on ignore and let us have some fun.

[joondalup dave]

JD, why would we sign Michalak or someone of his ilk? We have half the wallaby backline. We signed Castle because we don't have a decent tighthead and get raped at scrum time............elementary old bean

The waratah scrum scares nobody in the rugby strong nations of NZ or South Africa. Australian scrummaging prowess is the laughing stock of world rugby.......newsflash.

I only know what I see........and I see Baxter take more than 50% of international scrums to ground because his technique is so poor. Baxter is Sheridans b1tch. Perhaps the Australian scrum has improved as a unit but Baxter still sux ass.

The tighthead prop is the most important player on the field, and the next most important is the reserve tighthead. IMHO. I'm not alone in my thoughts

are you going off the game vs england, have you noticed baxter primarily has a high rate of collapse against sheridan?

[joondalup dave]

i am very interested in your ideas mate so i dont want to ignore your posts.

do what muddy does and sledge without the swearing far more satisfying.

[chiselhead]

Australia limped home against England. The Kiwis and Saffers put them to the sword.

Baxter collapses everything. You've never noticed?