Seasonal Rugby: South

There are indeed. And if they get a team over here, then I guess problem solved. That's a fair old way from happening though.

 

KP still eligible for SA's Olympic Flower Arranging Team, iirc.

 

As Morgie alluded to, I've been looking at potentially having another forum have a team (in reserve grade) for Season 5. If that happens, they have a full team of proper Irish already so it certainly becomes viable at that stage.

Still, I reckon we can still beat Norths without Skippos and Tartinder so I don't know why we wouldn't go for it.

 

I really don't like that idea. I'd prefer to see South Africa be South Africa - even if they don't have a XV yet.

 

Only a possibility at this stage and fairly unlikely. It'd be done differently from the Crabs anyway. Given how far post counts have moved, any other forum teams would only be entered into the reserve grade and I don't want a Bye in reserve grade, so somehow we'd need two new reserve grade only teams.

 

Based on those ratings and a few other things, here's what I'm thinking for Game 1:

1 Dave Eggman
2 Alan Izett/Tom Delonge
3 Wes Welker
4 Heath Davis
5 Jason Denton
6 Simon Humble
7 Crossfire Hurricane
8 Pretzel Spark
9 Rob Cribb
A Dion Alessi/Aaron Hunt
B Ben Herd
C Geoff Smith
D Gareth Weaver
E Lucas Schaw
F Alistair Son/Regan Hutchinson

16 Morgan Burridge/James Torres
17 Sam Bakkum
18 Benny Read
19 Alex O'Driscoll/Dexter Astele
20 Alistair Son/Regan Hutchinson
21 Dion Alessi/Aaron Hunt
22 Alan Izett/Tom Delonge

Dexter Astele and Joshua Ritchie unlucky based on their Regional form, but there's too many quality front rowers for Ritchie to displace one, and based on his sub-provincial form (which was superb) I've opted for Pretzel Spark in the boot.

Burridge's form in the Regional tournament was hard to ignore, but surely he isn't really a better option than Torres who didn't get many minutes - relatively speaking. O'Driscoll a wild-card based on good form for NSW.

Izett vs. Delonge's an interesting one too. Delonge was good in the Regional tournament, but Izett was a shade better. Probably going for Delonge based on historical performances, but Izett should get some minutes.

Alessi vs. Hunt. Well, Hunt had some good performances from the bench for NSW and Australia and again he might be a good impact option for South.

 

Heads deserves consideration over Smith too.

 

I don't think any of the alternative wingers are better enough. I wasn't exactly dazzled by the defensive work of Fiery, Taylor or Dorn out wide and Escath is much more likely to conjure something out of nothing. But he'd be on a short rope if he doesn't perform. Probably set the orders accordingly to sub him if he's proving a liability.

 

Our other #8s are North, so this doesn't really prove anything except how inferior your lot are