Eloise's Thoughts and Fancies

With no Grand Slam this year I’m not constrained to think of reasons not to pick a XV from a single country. Normally I pick by units, front row, second row etc, but in some places combinations of injuries, suspensions and tactical changes are making that frankly impossible. For the most part I’m sticking to picking units from a single country still, but not always. Rather than picking 1-23, I’m going to pick in sections, and give honourable mentions in each section. Front Row Gros Mauvaka Atonio L'équipe de bombe, that is the French Bomb Squad, Baille, Marchand and Aldegheri all deserve a mention. I don’t think Sheehan is as good an all-round player as Mauvaka and Marchand, particularly in defence, but he is very good at what he does. Shoeman and Fagerson would make my Lions squad and round out this section. Porter would probably make a lot of teams but, for me, he was a) shown up by WillGriff John, and b) he still draws too many stupid penalties. I’m sure many people would ...

As usual, I’m going to pick my team of the tournament with a few simple guidelines I pick by units, not individuals. It will be the whole Welsh front row (ha, not this year) for example, rather than a French tighthead, an Italian hooker and a Scottish loosehead. I pick players who have played the vast majority of the games, at least four, and while I might bend the rules in the front row, played really means started them. (Because front row players are often subbed so close to half time I’m happier about bending the rules there.) This year, we have a Grand Slam winner, so I will default to picking them, if they satisfy rules one and two, unless there’s a compelling reason not to. Whoever they faced, head to head, they did enough for their team to be better on the day. However, picking Irish players in all the positions has a problem. Ireland rotated a load of players for their game against Italy. Then their game against Scotland looked more like a battlefield than a rugby match -...

I sat down to start picking my team of the tournament and quickly ran into a problem. I normally pick units, front row, second row etc, and aim for players that have started most of their games. So we start at the front row and straight away we have a problem because there just isn’t a dominant, starting front row like that. Not including Marx feels crazy but he only started half the games, he came off the bench for the other half. Can I break the rules to pick him? Even if I do, which of the multitude of props he played with do I pick? Montoya and Gallo from Argentina were both consistently great, their other prop a nebbish. De Groot and Taukei'aho for the AB were pretty consistent and while Lomax wasn’t in the same class as Kitshoff or Gallo he would make up a decent front row. But then I’m not picking Marx… Likewise, Am was brilliant and selected in the 13 jersey four times. Thanks to being injured, he missed two games and because of an injury to someone else he played 70+ minut...

The rules of this have existed for a long time. I don’t pick individuals, I pick units, so a front row, locks, etc. and I pick groups that have been together for as long as possible. When there’s a grand slam winner, I need excellent reasons NOT to pick a group from that winning team. This time I’m going to add a bit of commentary in some places though. Front Row : France - Baille, Marchand, Antonio . No one really troubled these three, their replacements are not as dominant and need to get better before the RWC. The Irish front row was the only other one in contention. Second Row : France - Woki and Willemse . The Irish ( Beirne and Henderson ) and Welsh (yes the Welsh, Beard and Rowlands ) locks made this pair wobble at lineout time. Itoje was his cheating self and had one really poor game, one mediocre game but three really quite decent ones. But for all round performance as a unit, this pair really had it all. Back Row : France - Cros, Jelonch, Aldritt . If the Welsh backro...