Team for South Africa

[Graigwen]

Apparently the announcement has been brought forward to noon today (about ten minutes from the time of writing this), so here is a thread ready for it.

To be honest, there are not too many alternatives available for a lot of positions.

Saturday will be awful.

[Graigwen]

Wales: Blair Murray; Ellis Mee, Joe Roberts, Joe Hawkins, Rio Dyer; Dan Edwards, Kieran Hardy; Gareth Thomas, Dewi Lake, Keiron Assiratti, Ben Carter, Rhys Davies, Taine Plumtree, Alex Mann, Aaron Wainwright.

Replacements: Brodie Coghlan, Danny Southworth, Chris Coleman, James Ratti, Morgan Morse, Reuben Morgan-Williams, Callum Sheedy, Ben Thomas.

[Graigwen]

I am a bit surprised to see Sheedy and Thomas on the bench.

[Graigwen]

Apparently Rogers is having a scan on an injury, according to Tandy.

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[Son of Mathonwy]

Not much to complain about given the limited options. Shame to lose Rogers but great to have Wainwright back.

Surprised that Fender's not involved. Is he injured? (Yeah, just seen the update - shoulder injury)

I think I'd prefer Ratti at 6 to Plumtree, but if Plumtree can rein in the errors he'll be good.

Deaves didn't do anything wrong but with Wainwright back and vs SA his size counts against him.

Mee is good. Shame to have the two wingers coming in cold but that's we we are.

I guess the 23 shirt was between Thomas and Beetham. Coin toss.

Let's see what the Ospreys half-backs can produce. If they get any ball.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Oh yeah, hope we don't pay the price this weekend for not giving our back-up 2nd rowers any game time. I think they should have had a bit of bench time (not sure Freddie Thomas is that much better).

[UKHamlet]

I thought the Saffers might go easy on us. They haven't.

South Africa: Damian Willemse; Ethan Hooker, Damian de Allende, Andre Esterhuizen, Canan Moodie; Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Morne van den Berg; Gerhard Steenkamp, Johan Grobbelaar, Wilco Louw, Jean Kleyn, Ruan Nortje, Siya Kolisi (Captain), Franco Mostert, Jasper Wiese.

Replacements: Bongi Mbonambi, Zachary Porthen, Asenathi Ntlabakanye, Eben Etzebeth, Marco van Staden, Ben Jason-Dixon, Kwagga Smith, Cobus Reinach.

7-1 split.

[pompey-zebra]

7-1 split? Clearly they're worried about matching our forward power.

[Son of Mathonwy]

I thought the Saffers might go easy on us. They haven't.

South Africa: Damian Willemse; Ethan Hooker, Damian de Allende, Andre Esterhuizen, Canan Moodie; Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Morne van den Berg; Gerhard Steenkamp, Johan Grobbelaar, Wilco Louw, Jean Kleyn, Ruan Nortje, Siya Kolisi (Captain), Franco Mostert, Jasper Wiese.

Replacements: Bongi Mbonambi, Zachary Porthen, Asenathi Ntlabakanye, Eben Etzebeth, Marco van Staden, Ben Jason-Dixon, Kwagga Smith, Cobus Reinach.

7-1 split.

Let's hope they lose a few backs early so it bites them.

[Graigwen]

I guess if we bring on Sheedy (who has been playing well) to replace Edwards for any reason, we have to get Thomas on for place kicking?

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[Son of Mathonwy]

I guess if we bring on Sheedy (who has been playing well) to replace Edwards for any reason, we have to get Thomas on for place kicking?

It does look that way . . . although I'm sure Edwards will play for at least 70 minutes if uninjured.

[Sandydragon]

Not much to complain about given the limited options. Shame to lose Rogers but great to have Wainwright back.

Surprised that Fender's not involved. Is he injured? (Yeah, just seen the update - shoulder injury)

I think I'd prefer Ratti at 6 to Plumtree, but if Plumtree can rein in the errors he'll be good.

Deaves didn't do anything wrong but with Wainwright back and vs SA his size counts against him.

Mee is good. Shame to have the two wingers coming in cold but that's we we are.

I guess the 23 shirt was between Thomas and Beetham. Coin toss.

Let's see what the Ospreys half-backs can produce. If they get any ball.

I wondered if we might have gone 6:2 given the size of the Bokke pack.

[Graigwen]

I am going to buy some more beer, I will need a lot for this afternoon.

.

[Sandydragon]

So far it’s fucking horrible to watch.

The scrum is getting battered big time and it looks like men against boys.

[Sandydragon]

Half an hour gone and it’s 21 nil. Bokke actually being wasteful at times.

We can’t keep hold of the ball

[Sandydragon]

Highlights of the half from our perspective:
We’ve retrieved a couple of high balls
One perfectly good driving maul

Otherwise it’s all been South Africa and it’s now 28 nil. In reality, some Bokke mistakes have helped us out and it could be worse.

[UKHamlet]

It’s like a training game for them. I fear we’re going to get nilled. Lucky it’s not their full test side. What a pointless match. We will learn nothing from it because half our first team is missing.

[normanski]

Highlights of the half from our perspective:
We’ve retrieved a couple of high balls
One perfectly good driving maul

Otherwise it’s all been South Africa and it’s now 28 nil. In reality, some Bokke mistakes have helped us out and it could be worse.

And with two minutes to go before half time you keep it as tight as possible. The fourth try is a killer. I can’t see where we can get a score from; their pack is so strong and their backs can cut us at will.

A big rearguard action is needed for the next forty but I fear it might be a record score as we tire.

[UKHamlet]

Just about the worst start to the second half. Lose Wainright to a blood, and then we get a yellow, and they score a try

[UKHamlet]

I just want this to be over

[Sandydragon]

Make that two tries.

This is horrible and I fear it’s about to get worse.

We’re also leaking penalties constantly.

[normanski]

Not the rearguard action we wanted - three tries in ten minutes!

[Sandydragon]

We’re trying too hard when we get the ball and it’s making it easy for the Bokke to counter.

49 nil now. That was a slightly lucky last try but to be fair when it’s going for you, you might as well chance your arm.

And here come the bomb squad

[Sandydragon]

Loads of empty seats at kick off. Bet a few supports will walk out of this match.

[Sandydragon]

I fear were about to lose another player