Wales and Australia are not as well as represented as one would think, but that is because many of their youngsters have been thrown into International rugby from a young age and therefore do not qualify under the less than 5 caps rule. For example, James O'Connor, Quade Cooper, Will Genia, Sam Warbuton, George North and Toby Faletau.
As always there are some notable absentees which I just couldn't fit into the fifteen which are outlined below, but here are my choices for the top XV anyway! Feel free to disagree...
1. Juan Figallo (Montpellier and Argentina)
2. Craig Burden (Sharks and South Africa)
3. Charlie Faumuina (Blues and New Zealand)
4. Yoann Maestri (Toulouse and France)
5. Eben Etzebeth (Stormers and South Africa)
6. Siya Kolisi (Stormers and South Africa)
7. Michael Hooper (Brumbies and Australia)
8. Peter O'Mahony (Munster and Ireland)
9. Tawera Kerr-Barlow (Chiefs and New Zealand)
10. George Ford (Leicester and England)
12. Jonothan Joseph (London Irish and England)
13. Wesley Fofana (Clermont and France)
11. Julian Savea (Hurricanes and New Zealand)
14. Christian Wade (Wasps and England)
15. Stuart Hogg (Glasgow and Scotland)
Unlucky Absentees
Forwards:
Joe Marler (Harlequins and England)
Robert Kitshoff (Stormers and South Africa)
Liaki Moli (Blues and New Zealand)
Brodie Retallick (Chiefs and New Zealand)
Sam Cane (Chiefs and New Zealand)
Backs:
Andre Taylor (Hurricanes and NZ)
Tim Nanai-Williams (Chiefs and NZ)
Tom Taylor (Crusaders and NZ)
Johan Goosen (Cheetahs and SA)
Ben Tapuai (Reds and Australia)
Beauden Barrett (Hurricanes and NZ
Alex Cuthbert (Cardiff and Wales)
You can watch Celtic rugby on Sky Channels 134 (Sat evenings), 991 and 992 (Friday evenings)! What on earth did Alex Cuthbert (a Grand Slam winning try scorer) do to be classified less of a prospect than Christian Wade?!
ReplyDeleteI think Cuthbert is a great talent and he's not less of a prospect than Wade, but he is reasonably established so I decided to opt for a player who was doing well in the Aviva premiership and was perhaps an 'unknown quantity' for southern hemisphere readers.
ReplyDeleteWales hav great youngsters, but many are known already as they have played a full season or more in International rugby.
Thanks for the comment!
Wales have a lot of young talent coming down the line (Justin Tipuric, Rhys Webb, Liam Williams, Ashley Beck, Matthew Morgan, Jonny Evans, Harry Robinson and Rhodri Jones) in addition to the players already thrown in. The Irish provinces are looking healthy also.
ReplyDeleteYes they do....and it's great for Welsh rugby to have so many at once. I thought Shingler played well when he came on for warburton too. I wasn't making a Welsh xv though!
ReplyDeleteI tried to pick a balanced side but realistically...the sides which have impressed the most in the Junior Championships recently are NZ, South Africa and England... so that is why it has so many players from those countries.
I love watching Wales play at the moment. They have developed a real hard edge and I think they are going to develop into a very impressive side. Thanks for your insight Geraint.
Burden's been around for a while and has not really lived up to expectations.
ReplyDeleteFrom South Africa likelier 2015 stars would be Lions duo Derrick Minnie and Jaco Taute, whilst Bulls backline duo JJ Engelbrecht and Johan Sadie are certainly heading that way.
Siya Kolisi has stunned Nic Koster whose season this was supposed to have been, whilst Eben Etsebeth (who has a wonderful and colorful family history) surely has not done his chances any harm.
Johann Sadie definitely has a lot of x factor. I look forward to him having more game time.
ReplyDeleteJaco Taute also looks a good prospect for the Lions.
I can't say I have seen too much of Minnie or Engelbrecht yet..although I understand the latter has put in some good showings for the Bulls.
The reality is there is a lot of young talent coming through right now. I think we are really beginning to see the fruits of professionalism, as there is so much depth coming through.
I guess Denton is a bit too known for you starting xv but scotland still have a few up and comers apart from hogg.
ReplyDeleteMatt Scott and Alex Dunbar are two good looking centres that, fingers crossed, will have a bright future.
Also Grant Gilchrist is a great prospect to be sided alongside richie grey in the future. He had a stomrmer in the H-cup semi.
I would also give a cheeky mention to Tom Brown who is another good prospect at 15 and should push hogg to better things as well.
Lastly even though he is a bit older Jon Welsh should be beefing up the scottish scrum soon, maybe to replace some old faces.
I realise these might not be world beaters but as a very biased scottish fan I couldn't resist putting their names forward!
No..it's great to hear.
ReplyDeleteI thought Denton had a stunning 6 nations and was superb in the Heineken Cup.
Unfortunatelyy I haven't seen too much of the other individuals mentioned but I think most nations have some great youngsters now. Hopefully Scotland can turn the corner. They have the talent to do so and with Glasgow doing well and Edinburgh surprising in the heineken Cup...they may just garner some more self belief.
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