I would have thought that the obvious weaknesses would have caused at least a couple of changes. The completely unbalanced back-row is a serious cause for concern and was at least partially responsible for the concession of a try last saturday. The inability of the scrum half to break, thus putting further pressure on the outhalf is another serious issue that nothing has been done about for the last two years. And finally the total absense of anything even vaguely resembling his club form from the full back begs the question, if we put up with his weaknesses in defense to benefit from his attacking nous, and then hes not attacking, is he not just a poor international full back?
Dave, my point is why are you still in shock from this team announcement? He was never going to change it. He's clearly been training for the French match and even played the game as if we were playing against the French (e.g. we didn't really need the elaborate clearing of our lines against Italy but we will against France) and I imagine that just like I think Leinster did against Glasgow we trained closer to match day than we will this week thus explaining some lethargy.
On Murphy, he's not playing FB much for Leicester so I'm not sure what FB form you're talking about. Yes, I'd argue he isn't a great international FB but he clearly doesn't see Dempsey there for the WC so he's persisting with Murphy in the hope that the experience will make him a better FB. And he was excellent for us in that position in 2003.
The backrow argument was one to be had when the Italy team was picked, not today. I'd hope that he'll change it slightly for Wales but I'd disagree that it lacked balance. Again, the more the players play together the better they will become. Have some faith in the players if you're not going to have any in the coach.
