Team of Week 1

Here is my team based only on the 1st week.

1. Cian Healy - up against a strong scrummager in Slimani, he was part of a dominant scrum.
2. Leonardo Ghiraldini - perfect in the lineout, put himself around ball in hand
3. Tadgh Furlong - same reason as Healy
4. Cory Hill - immaculate calling the lineout and helped to disrupt the Scottish pack on defence
5. Alun Wyn Jones - prominent in the loose, a real leading performance
6. Aaron Shingler - perhaps not fully deserving of MOTM but a great balance of pace and physicality
7. Josh Navidi - won a couple of key turnovers, prominent in linking forwards and backs
8. Sam Simmonds- so explosive, tries and assists to match

9. Gareth Davies - electric pace, always threatened, read Price's pass well for his try
10. Rhys Patchell - Sexton very close for orchestrating a win in Paris, but Patchell's confident attacking display sways it.
11. Steff Evans - great finish for his try, always willing to try things
12. Owen Farrell - dictated the England attack well late on in the game
13. Tommaso Boni - fought hard in a losing cause
14. Anthony Watson - 2 well finished tries, showed class in fullback too
15. Leigh Halfpenny - finished 2 simple chances but faultless in all aspects including kicking

Pretty fair reflection. Think I'd have ford Farrell in there myself. Worked excellently together.

Listened to Wales/Scotland on radio and saw just half of the Paris match so cannot really comment. From the only match I saw in full - Ghiraldini gave away far too many dumb penalties when Italy were in good positions to make this team. Hard to include just Farrell as so much of England's good stuff was Ford/Farrell in combination. I would suggest both or neither

Times has the following XV:

Evans, Guirado, Lee, Henderson, AWJ, POM, Navidi, Simmonds, Davies, Sexton, Evans, Farrell, Williams, Watson, 1/2p

No 7&1/2 wrote:Pretty fair reflection.  Think I'd have ford Farrell in there myself. Worked excellently together.

8 Welsh? Yes it was a good performance but that is quite something.

Pretty fair on reflection that we play italy so hard to suggest based on opposition that loads deserve it and if the same thoughts are kept throughout the tournament a fair point for me. Cory hill was class. No 9 really stood out. I ignored jones as life's too short!

lostinwales wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:Pretty fair reflection.  Think I'd have ford Farrell in there myself. Worked excellently together.

8 Welsh? Yes it was a good performance but that is quite something.

A few close calls, but I erred on the side of positive attacking play, possibly could have Ford or a couple more Irish in there.

my stab.

1. Cian Healy
2. Guilhem Guirado
3. Dan Cole
4. Joe Launchbury
5. AWJ
6. Aaron Shingler
7. Josh Navidi
8. Sam Simmonds

9. Gareth Davis
10. Johnny Sexton
11. Johnny May
12. Scott Williams
13. Tommaso Boni
14. Ant Watson
15. Leigh Halfpenny

The only Scotland hopeful was Hamish Watson who played very well in a losing game but not better than Navidi who seems to have come from abject obscurity to being a tremendous openside flanker.

I'll quantify obscurity by saying all the hype from Wales comes in the form of Warburton and Tipuric but Navidi looked very good against Scotland, granted the fact that our backs kept running down blind alleys, getting Isolated and turned over did a lot to make him look so good.

Why does Guirado always get picked? He wasn't good in the set piece because he can't hook and his throwing wasn't great from the line, neither was his discipline. Hartley, Ghiraldini, Best and Owens all had better games.

Sexton created nothing, Ford/Patchell created buckets.

Indepenent.ie's Six Nations Team of the Week:

15. Leigh Halfpenny (WALES)
14. Anthony Watson (ENGLAND)
13. Ben Te'o (ENGLAND)
12. Bundee Aki (IRELAND)
11. Steff Evans (WALES)
10. Johnny Sexton (IRELAND)
9. Gareth Davies (WALES)
8. Sam Simmonds (ENGLAND)
7. Dan Leavy (IRELAND)
6. Aaron Shingler (WALES)
5. James Ryan (IRELAND)
4. Iain Henderson (IRELAND)
3. Dan Cole (ENGLAND)
2. Guilhem Guirado (FRANCE)
1. Mako Vunipola (ENGLAND)

Didn't Guirado make 30 tackles or something

BamBam wrote:Didn't Guirado make 30 tackles or something

From Planet Rugby:

2 Guilhem Guirado (France): Les Bleus' captain led from the front against Ireland and was very unlucky to finish on the losing side in Paris. Guirado performed well in his core duties and impressed with his decision making but it was on defence that he made the biggest impact and his 31 tackles were most by any player from either side in this Test.

Second place of the weekend? Sam Simmonds with 22.

LondonTiger wrote:Indepenent.ie's Six Nations Team of the Week:

15. Leigh Halfpenny (WALES)
14. Anthony Watson (ENGLAND)
13. Ben Te'o (ENGLAND)
12. Bundee Aki (IRELAND)
11. Steff Evans (WALES)
10. Johnny Sexton (IRELAND)
9. Gareth Davies (WALES)
8. Sam Simmonds (ENGLAND)
7. Dan Leavy (IRELAND)
6. Aaron Shingler (WALES)
5. James Ryan (IRELAND)
4. Iain Henderson (IRELAND)
3. Dan Cole (ENGLAND)
2. Guilhem Guirado (FRANCE)
1. Mako Vunipola (ENGLAND)

Aki and Te'o as the centres? Surely there was a 13 played better than Te'o, who was solid and did his job but nothing more than that for me (of course there was - even on the same pitch...). As for Aki, I was quite disappointed with him - lookeds slow and 1 dimensional.

Gash team of the week:-

Hogg
Seymour
McGuigan
Harris (really merde)
Jones
Russell
Price
Du Preez (tres, tres merde. Aurevoir!)
Watson
Barclay
Toolis
Gray
Welsh
McInally
Reid

LondonTiger wrote:Indepenent.ie's Six Nations Team of the Week:

15. Leigh Halfpenny (WALES)
14. Anthony Watson (ENGLAND)
13. Ben Te'o (ENGLAND)
12. Bundee Aki (IRELAND)
11. Steff Evans (WALES)
10. Johnny Sexton (IRELAND)
9. Gareth Davies (WALES)
8. Sam Simmonds (ENGLAND)
7. Dan Leavy (IRELAND)
6. Aaron Shingler (WALES)
5. James Ryan (IRELAND)
4. Iain Henderson (IRELAND)
3. Dan Cole (ENGLAND)
2. Guilhem Guirado (FRANCE)
1. Mako Vunipola (ENGLAND)

Te'o? I'm an England fan and not immune to one-eyedness, but he barely did anything.

Sexton is in based on one drop-goal. Given the circumstances I suppose it's understandable but Ireland's attack did knack-all for the rest of the game.

No mention of the Italian back rower Negri?? He was very impressive.

I liked the look of the Italian full back. Can't remember his name. Seemed to beat the first tackler each time.

Minozzi. Personally I though Halfpenny was the full back of the week. Very solid.

21st Century Schizoid Man wrote:Gash team of the week:-

Hogg
Seymour
McGuigan
Harris (really merde)
Jones
Russell
Price
Du Preez (tres, tres merde.  Aurevoir!)
Watson
Barclay
Toolis
Gray
Welsh
McInally
Reid

Yeah sadly as a falcon fan, I think he's a good club player, but I did wonder if he had the ability to go up to the next level.

Im not sure he is able to.

GeordieFalcon wrote:

21st Century Schizoid Man wrote:Gash team of the week:-

Hogg
Seymour
McGuigan
Harris (really merde)
Jones
Russell
Price
Du Preez (tres, tres merde.  Aurevoir!)
Watson
Barclay
Toolis
Gray
Welsh
McInally
Reid

Yeah sadly as a falcon fan, I think he's a good club player, but I did wonder if he had the ability to go up to the next level.

Im not sure he is able to.

He didn't look great, but a lot of the blame can be dumped on Huw Jones' door since he pretty much constantly passed to Harris' face and all Williams did was Line him up and smash him. Huw Jones is not a 12.

I do feel Hogg and Watson are harshly placed on the merde list. Hogg's Howitzer kicking kept us in the game till half time and Watson did all he could in futile effort to halt the bloodbath in the backrow.

I'm pretty sure he just put the whole Scotland team in, I wouldn't analyse it too much!

Italy are bottom and have no players there...

For me:

15- Halfpenny - solid game, 2 tries, good kicking, poor alternatives at 15 where Brown and Kearney had games to mostly fuel their critics, Hogg no chance to shine and who was even playing for France? Honorable mention to Minozzi who looked good.
14 - Watson - 2 tries, good in attack, overall impressive match
13 - Williams - good game enabling a good attack
12 - Farrell - impressive in attack, looks like a real 12 nowadays
11 - Evans - really impressive creativity for other players. Honorable mention to Thomas
10 - This is a tough call. Sexton showed big balls but nothing in attack. Patchell and Ford both impressed in attack and did all asked of them. Probably Ford as part of the axis
9- Davies, took the game away from Scotland. Honorable mention for Price, also for Wales
8 - Simmonds, man of the round
7 - Navidi, surprised me with his class
6- O'Mahoney, great game in all respects. Honorable mention to Negri
5 - James Ryan - really impressed me on debut
4 - Henderson - key part of Ireland's suffocating success
3- Cole - best game in years, even carried a bit, great scrum
2- Guirado - deserves so much more than his France team
1- Healy for a great effort against what should have been an imposing French scrum. Mako close

Can't understand sexton at 10, other than the drop he didn't really create anything. Definitely like navidi, thought he was exceptionally good.

Teo shouldn't be anywhere near, JJ showed far more in his cameo

I don't think any Wales players should be in the front-row as there were plenty others that played better. Scotland's props held out well, their replacements did not. I would agree with the back 5 being mostly Welsh, they were simply sensational and didn't put a foot wrong. Simmonds at 8 is a good call too.

Out of the OP's selection I would probably switch Steff Evans with Teddy Thomas, Evans' defence not good enough whilst Thomas got the almost game-changer. Ford played a bit better than Patchell I feel, but it was close.