Wales XV v England

[steve]

Wales team v England Saturday as follows:

Wales: Lee Byrne; Aled brew, Tom Shanklin, Gareth Thomas (Captain), Dafydd James; Ceri Sweeney, Gareth Cooper; Iestyn Thomas, Huw Bennett, Chris Horsman, Will James, Rob Sidoli, Alun-Wyn Jones, Colin Charvis, Michael Owen

Replacements: Gethin Jenkins, Rhys Thomas, TRThomas, Alix Popham, Mike Phillips, James Hook, Tom James

Anybody think this is a good team?

[ripppppor]

Average team think we will get beat by 20 points!!!

Its a warm up game so its a chance to look at certain players, I would say only 5 of those players will feature in a full strength world cup team!!!!

[airborne]

Steve , I have to agree with Ripppor, I think we will go down heavilly. There was a chance to beat the Old Enemy at Twickenham had the selection been the best players, play your best side and gain confidence. Play a mediocre side then reap all the rewards you deserve !!!!

[steve]

I agree, I can't say I'm overfilled with confidence. I just hope that GJ knows what he's doing, I would have thought that this would have been the best match to put your world cup starting XV out being the match furthest from the RWC and therefore giving your best players the chance to recover.

[bernardgreen]

2ND XV LEAGUE FIXTURES

DATE INT GAMES TYPE 2nd XV VENUE
9/1/2007 LEAGUE CIACS AWAY
9/8/2007 LEAGUE LLANDAFF NORTH 11 HOME
9/15/2007 W v A
9/22/2007
9/29/2007 W v Fiji
10/6/2007 Wcup Qtr F
10/13/2007
10/20/2007
10/27/2007 MALLET
11/3/2007 LEAGUE CARDIFF SARACENS AWAY
11/10/2007 LEAGUE CHSOB 11 HOME
11/17/2007
11/24/2007 LEAGUE FAIRWATER 11 AWAY
12/1/2007
12/8/2007 MALLET
12/15/2007
12/22/2007
12/29/2007
1/5/2008 LEAGUE RUMNEY 11 HOME
1/12/2008 LEAGUE CIACS HOME
1/19/2008 LEAGUE LLANDAFF NORTH 11 AWAY
1/26/2008 LEAGUE CARDIFF SARACENS HOME
2/2/2008 E v W
2/9/2008 W v S
2/16/2008 CHSOB 11 AWAY
2/23/2008 W v IT
3/1/2008 LEAGUE FAIRWATER 11 HOME
3/8/2008 I v W
3/15/2008 W v F
3/22/2008
3/29/2008
4/5/2008 LEAGUE RUMNEY 11 AWAY
4/12/2008
4/19/2008
4/26/2008
5/3/2008
5/10/2008

[ninjawinger]

I think that the warm up games are a chance to try out some different combinations which is fine although you at least want to be in with a shout at winning to build momentum and confidence. With this team I don't think we'll be able to compete, I'd love to be wrong but it doesn't look like a strong selection to me so I reckon a win looks doubtful.

Here's the big question - Why are Gareth Cooper (3rd choice Scrum Half) & Ceri Sweeni (3rd Choice Fly Half) starting this game? It seems highly unlikely that these will even make the final 30 WC squad. Even if they do they won't be playing full games and probably won't feature at all in the big games. My main concern is that they are worried the injury to Stephen Jones is more serious than it looks and that Sweeni might have to go to the WC as Hooks understudy?

I don't think that Jenkins is doing us any favours by wrapping the 1st choice XV in cotton wool between now and the world cup but maybe that's his strategy? Maybe he doesn't want to show his hand before the main stage kicks off? We'll just have to wait a bit longer to find out.

My prediction for Saturday is that the game will be b******s (Big Keefy b******s)

[ripppppor]

This Saturday 4/7/07 there is a training session for all senior players at 2pm down the club for an hr, then the club are putting food on & the club will be open to watch the England Vs Wales match at 4pm!!!!

[ripppppor]

doooo i meant This saturday 4/'8'/07

[airborne]

The game was a disgrace as I said in my previous post, Jenkins will reap what he has sewn !!!!! the team selection was all wrong. How come he allows Steven Jones time to get fit but not Henson !!!! We will never get anywhere with a coach that wears Scarlet tinted glasses !!!!Sidoli would struggle to secure a place in Bloody Llandaff North let alone Wales .

[airborne]

Whle we are at it I think Will James has won his first and last Cap for Wales.

[ninjawinger]

It's quite sad when your proved right, the Welsh performance on Saturday was b******s! What was Gareth Jenkins banging on about afterwards as well? I reckon he is properly nutts, mad as a badger in a sack! He was saying the same old nuts, we would have performed better with more possession, yada yada yada! Surely the point is that the reason we haven't had any possession for the past 15 months under Jenkins is beacuse our set piece and play at the break down just isn't up to the job? He also said that hindesight is a wonderful thing but given the opportunity again he would still pick the same side? What could he have possibly learnt as a coach from Saturdays performance? Other than an average England side totally dominated us for 80 minutes. He's running out of time to start winning games and they don't perform at the world cup we'll be getting yet another coach.