A XV from 15?

With the world cup now in full swing, it is always tempting to try to come up with the best XV in world rugby.  However, I find the challenge of assembly a world team where each country can only contribute one player more interesting - do you start with the key positions and then work out?  Do you start with the best teams, or do you start with the worst?  Or do you look for stand out players in any teams and then try to work out a XV?

I don't think there are any places you can hide in world rugby now - poor props and you will get penalised constantly in the scrums and when you're giving away that many penalties it gets hard to get any continuity.  Poor 2nd rows and you struggle in line outs as well as getting pushed back in scrums.  Poor back row and you never get any quick ball, so you're backs struggle to get space to work in.  Poor scrum and fly halves, the outside backs again don't have anything to work with.  Poor centres, you never get over the gain line from first phase ball.  Poor back 3, and you get peppered by high balls and struggle to get any territory.  Consequently, my approach will see me taking the best players from the worse teams first, and then taking good players from the best teams to fit in instead of their best.

The current IRB rankings are:

1(1)	NEW ZEALAND	90.55
2(3)	SOUTH AFRICA	86.71
3(2)	AUSTRALIA	84.84
4(4)	ENGLAND	83.99
5(5)	FRANCE	83.78
6(8)	IRELAND	82.50
7(6)	WALES	80.73
8(7)	SCOTLAND	79.12
9(9)	ARGENTINA	77.30
10(11)	ITALY	73.88
11(14)	CANADA	73.74
12(10)	SAMOA	73.59
13(13)	JAPAN	71.95
14(15)	FIJI	71.01
15(12)	TONGA	70.30
16(16)	GEORGIA	70.00
17(18)	USA	66.38
18(17)	ROMANIA	65.69
19(20)	NAMIBIA	61.24
20(21)	PORTUGAL	60.67

(http://www.irb.com/rankings/full.html)

The first 10 teams are obvious, Tri Nations, 6 Nations and Argentina.  After these, it becomes more awkward.  I will go for the Samoa, Tonga, USA, Georgia and Namibia.  Apologies to the higher ranked teams, especially Canada and Japan, but I think they have players that stand out more in their teams, and are closer to the level of the top 10 nations, (most unlucky here is the Japanese 10 James Arlidge who played exceptionally well against France).

Starting with Georgia, I would take their openside flanker Mamuka Gorgodze, man of the match against England, and voted the best overseas player in France's Top 14 league - beating players such as Contepomi Parisse and Wilkinson.  Namibia would give me their captain and flanker Jacques Burger, who has recently left the Sharks for Saracens and is a bit of a one man wrecking ball.  From Tonga I would have the Saints prop Soane Tonga'uiha, arguably the best prop in the Premiership.With Samoa, the choice is between Henry and Alessand Tuilagi, and Seilia Mapusua, and I think I will have Mapusua at 13 - Exiles fans will tell you how much they missed him since he went to Japan, allowing me to take Takudzwa Ngwenya from the USA to play on the wing - the man who famously outpaced Habana at the last world cup.

Moving into the top 10 Nations, we look at Italy, France, Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales and Argentina.  From Italy the two obvious candidates are Castro and Parisse.  For France and Wales it is the outside backs, Jamie Roberts and the front rows.  Ireland have BOD, POC and Bowe.  Scotland and England have second rows in Courtney Lawes and Richie Gray, and Scrum Halves.  Argentina, the strength is in the pack and in Hernandez who they are sorely missing this World Cup, and one of the stars of the last one.  From this, I would take Parrise, Bowe, Gray, Youngs, Hernandez, Adam Jones, and Servat, although it is very tempting to switch to Lawes/Cusiter - or potentially both second rows leaving room to take du Preez from SA.  This leaves me a second row, full back and inside centre from the Tri-Nations.  I would have Victor Matfield, Sonny Bill Williams and Kurtley Beale.

The Full Team:
1: Tonga'uiha (Tonga)
2: Servat (France)
3: Jones (Wales)
4: Gray (Scotland)
5: Matfield (SA)
6: Burger (Namibia)
7: Gorgodze (Georgia)
8: Parisse (Italy)
9: Youngs (England)
10: Hernandez (Argentina)
11: Ngwenya (USA)
12: Williams (NZ)
13: Mapusua (Samoa)
14: Bowe (Ireland)
15: Beale (Australia)

Looking at the players, only a handful would get close to a normal world XV, possibly only 1, 3, 5, 8, 9, 12, 14, and 15 would be considered with no guarantees about being picked.  However given the exercise here, I think this is potentially one of the better teams possible.

World Cup Preview

The Rugby Union world cup is just around the corner, and the squads have been announced.  So I thought I'd use this opportunity to look at the home nations ahead of the tournament in New Zealand, and see where we stand.


England

Squad

Props : Dan Cole, Alex Corbisiero, Andy Sheridan, Matt Stevens, David Wilson
Hookers : Dylan Hartley, Lee Mears, Steve Thompson
Locks : Louis Deacon, Courtney Lawes, Tom Palmer, Simon Shaw
Loose Forwards : Tom Croft, Nick Easter, James Haskell, Lewis Moody, Tom Wood

Scrum Halves : Joe Simpson, Richard Wigglesworth, Ben Youngs
Fly Halves : Toby Flood, Johnny Wilkinson
Centres : Shontayne Hape, Mike Tindall, Manu Tuilagi
Back Three : Delon Armitage, Chris Ashton, Matt Banahan, Mark Cueto, Ben Foden


With only 3 out and out centres, England do look a little light in this area, and the big shock was Riki Flutey missing out.  However, Armitage and Banahan both have experience playing in the 12/13 shirts so it is understandable.  And with the way that England played in the 6 nations, having big ball carrying centres freeing up space for the back 3 worked then, and I would expect them to use a similar tactic in the world cup.  Which carries on with the choice of loose forwards - only one out and out openside, but any combination of Wood, Haskell and Croft on the flanks have between them the skill set needed, almost more like a Left/Right combination than Open/Blind.  I agree with the choice of 5 props and 3 hookers, and the personnel chosen - in a world cup campaign I think it is essential to have depth in these positions.  With the half backs, I think Wigglesworth is lucky to be there, and I think the only reason he is, is because he can cover 10 too.  I like Simpson and think that he has the pace to keep defence honest near the fringes, which plays into the game plan of the big centres, and that due to the centres we've gone for a 9/10 player instead of bringing in Hodgson and having Flood or Wilkinson covering 12, as this would change the team dynamic too much.

Ireland

Squad

Props :  Tony Buckley, Tom Court, Cian Healy, Mike Ross 
Hookers : Rory Best, Sean Cronin, Jerry Flannery 
Locks : Leo Cullen, Domacaha O'Callaghan, Paul O'Connell, Dennis Ryan
Loose Forwards : Stephen Ferris, Jamie Heaslip, Dennis Leamy, Sean O'Brien, David Wallace (injured).

Scrum Halves : Isaac Boss, Conor Murray, Eoin Reddan.
Fly Halves : Ronan O'Gara, Jonny Sexton 
Centres : Gordon D'Arcy, Brian O'Driscoll, Paddy Wallace
Back Three : Rob Kearney, Tommy Bowe, Keith Earls, Fergus McFadden, Geordan Murphy, Andrew Trimble 

The Irish haven't had a good build up, losing all 4 warm up games, but they have a good sprinkling of match winners throughout their squad, and being able to leave players of the calibre of Fitzgerald and O'Leary at home speaks volumes about the faith Kidney has in the replacements.  Personally, I would've been tempted to take them, as the old adage goes, form is only temporary and I would back them to regain theirs.  The loss of David Wallace may allow them to try something I am keen to see, a back row of Heaslip Ferris and O'Brien - similar to the way Englands worked for the 6 Nations, although I doubt they will.  I think a lot will depend on how well their 9s play as they don't have a large degree of experience between them, but the back line outside is very encouraging.

Scotland


Squad

Props : Geoff Cross, Alasdair Dickinson,Allan Jacobsen, Moray Low, Euan Murray 
Hookers : Ross Ford, Dougie Hall,Scott Lawson
Locks : Richie Gray, Jim Hamilton, Nathan Hines, Alastair Kellock
Loose Forwards : John Barclay, Kelly Brown, Ross Rennie, Alasdair Strokosch, Richie Vernon 

Scrum Halves : Mike Blair, Chris Cusiter, Rory Lawson 
Fly Halves : Ruaridh Jackson, Dan Parks 
Centres : Joe Ansbro, Nick De Luca, Graeme Morrison
Back Three :  Simon Danielli, Max Evans, Rory Lamont, Sean Lamont, Chris Paterson 

Scotland have, understandably, gone with a forward dominated squad.  Their lack of try scoring is well publicised, and I hope that they will get this monkey off their back, with the backs actually doing some planned moves, and seeing lots of support runners for any breaks as this often is a major issue.  Their strengths are in 9s and back three, but a lot will depend on the centres and fly halves.  Nicki Walker is a loss as he was playing quite well for them, but hopefully whoever comes in will do a job for Robinson.

Wales

Squad


Props : Ryan Bevington, Gethin Jenkins, Adam Jones, Paul James, Craig Mitchell
Hookers : Huw Bennett, Ken Owens
Locks :  Luke Charteris, Bradley Davies, Alun Wyn Jones 
Loose Forwards : Toby Faletau, Ryan Jones, Danny Lydiate, Andy Powell, Sam Warburton

Scrum Halves : Tavis Knoyle, Michael Phillips, Lloyd Williams
Fly Halves : James Hook, Stephen Jones, Rhys Priestland
Centres :  Jamie Roberts, Jonathan Davies, Scott Williams
Back Three : Aled Brew, Lee Byrne, Leigh Halfpenny, George North, Shane Williams 

With Wales, I feel the biggest question marks are in the forwards.  With the back row they've only taken 1 specialist 7, who admittedly has been playing excellently, and only their first choice 6 is capable of covering there.  And then 3 players who can play at 6 or 8.  The balance seems off to me.  With the front row, they're missing their captain, so Hooker is a week area, and the first choice props are just coming back from injury so there are question marks there.  I feel this area is where they could struggle.  Behind the scrum, the squad is more or less as expected.  For their sake, I hope Phillips doesn't play too much as he is too ponderous and they need quick ball to get their outside backs to work.  However their back 3 are always exciting to watch, even if Hook, first choice 10, is the best cover at 15.