pre-season banter

[jules]

Happy New Year everyone.

I haven't watched any pre-season games, and to be honest I hadn't been paying too much attention to the preseason, but Geeves' first article of the year got me interested.

I tracked down a pretty good summary of the action so far here: http://www.superxv.com/news/

Obviously I was looking close at the Crusaders action, and was really happy to see that Ryan "hat-trick" Crotty looks like he should be able to fill the SBW-sized hole in the mid-field pretty well.

Money-Bill himself seems far more focused on his boxing than rugby now anyway. Although, I had to laugh at the pre-fight fight in the build-up for his bout tomorrow night.

I'm actually quite keen to see the fight now I have to say!

Not sure how enthused I am about Rugbyheads in 2012 at this stage, but I am looking forward to catching up with everyone on the board, and if there is a suitable amount of action here then I might get inspired to do some more work on the site.

Cheers, Jules

[Teach]

... I'm actually quite keen to see the fight now I have to say!

Mmm that was my first reaction, but then my cynical side kicked in and suggested that it was a stage-managed dust-up designed to create that reaction...

[Geeves]

QLD Reds v Brumbies Trail

Well QLD has named the side to take on the Brumbies on in Saturday's trial match.

Reds (v Brumbies): D Murphy, D Shipperley, J Lance, B Tapuai, C Feauai-Sautia, M Harris, N Frisby, R Samo, B Robinson, E Quirk, A Wallace-Harrison, R Simmons, G Holmes, A Anae, B Daley (c). Res: K Davis, J Hanson, S Higginbotham, J Horwill, D Ioane, S Faingaa, W Genia, L Gill, B Lucas, L Morahan, J Schatz, G Shepherdson, J Slipper, A Toua.

Damn but do the reds have some depth this year.  I see Murphy is being trailed at fullback and it will be interesting to see if he joins in the attack as a second 5/8 to keep the nags on their toes.  Harris gets the chance to start at 5/8 but Lucas is on the bench with a lot of last years the starting players.   As predicted McKenzie will keep everyone guessing who will actually get the nod to replace Cooper.  But Quirk and Robinson are starting so it looks as though Link wants the Reds to dominate the breakdown with a double punch combination in pilfering.

I can't wait to see a game review on this

[BallBoy]

worth a read...see attachment

[Teach]

Funny stuff Ballboy.

I liked this bit:

... Rugby sides mandated to include at least one Indian player, one Chinese player, a redhead and a woman .... discovery of 19-year-old natural ginger Belinda Wong proved crucial ...