Hard to argue with the numbers. But I’d take Russell over Smith still, and Jordan isn’t a fullback, so rethink that, perhaps Smith for it instead, Jordan a great bench option. Also, Irish front row for me. And can you leave out James Lowe? Duhan is out for him imo. And I also think you have to have representatives from all nations; Jac Morgan gets the nod over Matt Fagerson
I think Kinghorn would be a better fullback than Smith, and would also like to be able to swap between Smith and Russell at 10 if required during a game. In terms of the general 10 question I’d like to see each of them starting at least once (maybe Russell would start twice depending on how many Scotland players there are in the backline since he is familiar with working with them).
Agree on dropping Duhan for Lowe. I suppose now you mention the all nations inclusion it would be classy to include Wales especially after Scotland got the cold shoulder a few tours ago.
This list is also missing Tuipolotu which is a shame - glad it’s just a fun article based on stats and not the final list!
Yeah, to leave out Sione feels scandalous. I don’t want to break up Huipulotu either. And yeah, I’d probably change tens around too, with the third test deciding what is needed instead. Kinghorn a solid bench option too, but I see him midweek instead. Just too many riches in the backs across the 4 nations!
This might sound weird - and bear in mind I only watch the internationals so domestic form I have no idea about… But in a way to me this feels like a team that’s less than the sum of its parts.
They’re all pretty good to great players but as a team they don’t feel like the individuals would do as well as they would if they were just in their home setup.
eg, Jones outside Aki doesn’t feel anywhere near as strong as Tuipulotu-Jones or Aki-Ringrose.
It feels like an AI has written the article to me in hindsight
Lazy article for sure but I don’t think it’s AI. Usually the LLMs have a cut off point when their most recent training material is from so they can’t pontificate about stuff in the past few months.