Giteau vs Pretorius

[pieter blackie]

Lets not kid ourselves, Giteau was the best flyhalf in the super 14 last season. Watch the Force vs Crusaders game last year. He single handedly kept the Force in the game.

Pity that that was the only game he did something

[Nicolas Hart]

Pretorius is a great player, and will make a decent replacement to Giteau but he just isnt in the same class.

We'll have to wait and see.

Matt Giteau is a sensational player as is Pretorius.

The two cannot be compared as yet as their prior performances have been within different teams / groups / structures; regardless of position-specific similarities

We shouldn't be placing ridiculous expectations on Pretorius to be our saviour either; rather the team as a whole will need to perform as a cohesive group to achieve success.

[Darren]

Full credit to Gits - he is a class player, but "class" ain't always best.

For better or worse, I am well looking forward to seeing what Pretorius does ...

[GIGS20]

I'm not suggesting that Pretorius is anywhere near the ball runner that Gits is, Neither am I suggesting that he can singlehandedly keep the team in the game......as a matter of fact the biggest problem I have with Gits is exactly that. He, far too often tried to do it all himself, the rest of the team seemed to be just making up the numbers.

To be fair I don't truly know who to blame, possibly the rest of the team were lazy asses who thought the 4.5 Million dollar man SHOULD be carrying the team on his back, Possibly he was an arrogant prick who never passed the ball because nobody in the World is up to his lofty standards.

I don't know, but I do know that won't be a problem with Andre in the #10........and the kicking out of hand will be much better.

[brokendown gunfighter]

Mitchell never had the courage to put gits back to 12,where he should have been all along

[Sheikh]

Mitchell never had the courage to put gits back to 12,where he should have been all along

To be fair to Mitchell, Gits was the Wallaby 10, so it might have been difficult to move him to 12. We'll see whether this is valid next season if Mitchell plays JOC at 15 (where Deans sees him) or 12 (his better position).

[brokendown gunfighter]

Mitchell also didnt have the courage to switch mitchell from fullback back to the wing

[shasta]

Mitchell also didnt have the courage

You've got me there Gunny. Lack of courage isn't the first attribute that comes to mind with John Mitchell. He appears to have stared quite a few people down over the past 12 months, including the match committee. I'm more prone to think those unmade moves you pointed to were due to that shower.

[farva]

Mitchell never had the courage to put gits back to 12,where he should have been all along

Why would he? Giteau was the best 10 in the competition last year (Carter was injured). He also had the ability to call on the talents of OConnor at 12, who played well there, but would have been killed if thrown in at 10. Giteau to 10 was the best move. Daruda was never an option as he just wasnt good enough (how is he going in France, anyone know?)

And it terms of fullbacks, It was really between Shepherd and Mitchell. Shepherd played on the wing and was excellent, meaning it had to be Mitchell at 15 (wish we had kept Hilgendorf ).

Finally, Pretorius will be very handy to have, being able to mentor some of the young 10s, and also fill the gap. But I would have loved it if Giteau was running out in 2010.

[James]

Why would he? Giteau was the best 10 in the competition last year (Carter was injured). He also had the ability to call on the talents of OConnor at 12, who played well there, but would have been killed if thrown in at 10. Giteau to 10 was the best move. Daruda was never an option as he just wasnt good enough (how is he going in France, anyone know?)

And it terms of fullbacks, It was really between Shepherd and Mitchell. Shepherd played on the wing and was excellent, meaning it had to be Mitchell at 15 (wish we had kept Hilgendorf ).

Finally, Pretorius will be very handy to have, being able to mentor some of the young 10s, and also fill the gap. But I would have loved it if Giteau was running out in 2010.

You're right. As a reflection on the quality of this years' Super 14 Giteau was the best fly-half but you need to factor team performance into that. You look at guys like Morne Steyn and Stephen Donald from the finalist teams and they really just aren't close to being complete packages. How would Berrick Barnes or Andre Pretorius do behind better packs? The Force didn't really have much of an option when it came to 10 and made some poor decisions in hindsight about Hilgendorf and Brock James. No point dwelling too much on the past though.

Shepherd couldn't play fullback this year because his foot wasn't shipshape and that really only left Drew Mitchell (you can see Chris Hickey doesn't rate Mitchell at 15 either as he wants to play Beale there) since DHP is a year or two off being ready. Incidentally does anyone remember Mitchell's first game for the Force back in 2007? Horrifying wasn't it? I wonder if he'll do the same for the Tahs.

Giteau running out in 2010 would be good- if his heart was in the right place. Maybe he would have played better for the Wallabies this year if he didn't have the horrible thought of moving back to Canberra in his mind. Pretorius will be great. He'll thrive under the change of scenery and make all of the Force fans very happy or relieved at least anyway.

[normie]

Why would he? Giteau was the best 10 in the competition last year (Carter was injured). He also had the ability to call on the talents of OConnor at 12, who played well there, but would have been killed if thrown in at 10. Giteau to 10 was the best move. Daruda was never an option as he just wasnt good enough (how is he going in France, anyone know?)

And it terms of fullbacks, It was really between Shepherd and Mitchell. Shepherd played on the wing and was excellent, meaning it had to be Mitchell at 15 (wish we had kept Hilgendorf ).

Finally, Pretorius will be very handy to have, being able to mentor some of the young 10s, and also fill the gap. But I would have loved it if Giteau was running out in 2010.

Agree; It would have been a pointless exercise to move Gits to inside centre unless you had an equally talented (or better) flyhalf to take his place;

I would like to have seen Shep at FB, but I think his ankle was still a bit dodgy and wasn't up to a lot of kicking.

Wish Jimmy was here, too!

[mudskipper]

I'm not sure Beale is fit enough to play 15... Force lacked a good 12 last year... JO'C may fill the role in 2010...

---------- Post added at 17:57 ---------- Previous post was at 17:38 ----------

Andre going to get more ball time with pocock than his last 4 seasons with the Lions...