Where to play O'Connor

[The Ethicist]

Why isn't he at 12?
The Gits/O'Connor combo has put tries on this season. We clearly don't have another decent 12. We have several good options at 13.
O'Connor is also supposed to be learning the ropes of a 10.
He makes a good 15? I'm not convinced. His positional play was poor resulting in 2 runaway tries.
Pelesasa has a very ordinary passing game although he can make a break. Too many passes went behind the runner or on the ground. A winning team needs stability at 9, 10 and 12. Combination is everything. JOC to 12 please

[Flamethrower]

I'd run him at 10 for the rest of the year.

[Thequeerone]

Only if his hand ain't broken - put Gits at 12

[The Ethicist]

I won't argue. No better way to learn thanm to play the position in my opinion. Play Gits at 12. It won't happen however.

[mudskipper]

If you run O'Connor at 10 for the rest of the year you' ll only kill of his confidence just like what the Tahs did with Beale last year... The kid joined to Force to learn form Gits, keep him learning as much as possible this year and you never know he may stay for next year...

[Burgs]

Secondly, I think it is a bit rough to say that "His positional play was poor resulting in 2 runaway tries". In both instances we were deep in attack and in control of the ball and he was involved in that attack. The tries came from (dubious) turnovers followed by same frankly pathetic efforts (Pek comes to mind, and others) to secure the loose ball.
To say he was out of position is to say the Fullback should never ever enter the backline when deep in attack. More the point, why did no one else drop back when he was up as had been happening successfully previously and afterwards.
Pre match most of us were agreeing that him being at Fullback would give him more time to move and to enter the backline as required, that is exactly what he was doing.

As to "Where...", I think while Gits is #10 then we can't afford a second small at #12, regardless of who it is.
Therefore I see the option of JO'C at #15 with Shepherd and Mitchell on either Wing as a fantastic back three unit.
He can watch the "master" in action from behind and learn what goes right and wrong from there.

Assuming we have him next season, I would have him at #12 as Gits was at the Brumbies and have/find/create a long kicking serviceable passing Flyhalf to play inside him (ie the Bernie) as the straight man. That may be Daruda, it would of been Jimmy or Chucky (as I'm sure Pally would recall) and it could of been MacKay if he ever stayed fit.

[Burgs]

Bugger, lost my "firstly" somewhere...
Basically saying that it is only on TWF that we keep labelling him as a Flyhalf.
To learn off Gits' is to learn how he operates, not to learn to be a Flyhalf as Gits is also an Inside Centre.
JO'C sees himself at #12, Deanes sees JO'C at #15 and there is plenty of competition at #10 on the east coast.

[blueandblack]

Secondly, I think it is a bit rough to say that "His positional play was poor resulting in 2 runaway tries". ...

Agreed. I don't blame him for the tries. They should have been stopped earlier (Drew wasn't far off stopping the first one, but the Sharks should never have reached that far upfield).

[robyn <3]

That is a good question. I would REALLY love to see this young man become a flyhalf. He could be so good. SO good. But the rugby coaching world seems to be against my wishes, so:

At 15 I feel he is more than competent. Drew was a major flump and should never be allowed into a ocean blue 15 jumper if Cameron or JOC are around. James was great under high ball and pressure and took those high knock/s with much skill and was alright. I agree with you Burgs. Unless the man was running right at James and James saw a beetle and fell over crying and let the man past then we can't blame the laps in defense on him alone. And since he didn't do that, we can't blame just James. It's like saying this is all down to Giteau when a try is scored (this is for you too Mudskipper). It isn't. Its attack-team-force that scored the try not attack-team-Giteau and we all like that name better. James' wingers should have come back to help him and weren't 2 of the trys run-aways? The guy was positioned to attack then, not defend.

15 is handle-able but he would be sooo good at 10!

Learning from Giteau will help him no end so I am prepared to let Giteau play at 10 if he lifts his game and gets a gameplan rather than running aimlessly across the field and confusing the hell out of me in the process please.

[Rex Messup]

James is rather small for a professional rugby player granted that he is but a boy. He is an easy target under the high ball and will get a barrage. Opposition players can easily out jump him and his small frame makes him an easy target in an aerial contest.

His speed was badly exposed by some South African sprinters.

His defensive technique isn't solid enough or sure enough to make try saving tackles.

He doesn't have a long kicking game either

You can't hide at fullback. You can't hide when you are small. The backrow can at least cover him at 10/12 a lot easier.

The Force has quality fullbacks already

[robyn <3]

Crapioli, in the post before I meant flyhalf, not fullback. I speak jibberish, OK?

James is rather small for a professional rugby player granted that he is but a boy. He is an easy target under the high ball and will get a barrage. Opposition players can easily out jump him and his small frame makes him an easy target in an aerial contest.

Do you mean he is an easy target to tackle under high ball? Did we watch the same game last night? James was OUTSTANDING under high ball, Steyn and Terblanche bombing huge kicks down at him and he took each one cleanly no knock ons not even when he WAS taken out in the air he held on and shown great skill!

His speed was badly exposed by some South African sprinters.

That is true, his lack of lightning speed was exposed but then if he had had his wingers back with him it would have helped in defense.

His defensive technique isn't solid enough or sure enough to make try saving tackles.

What is wrong with his defensive technique? I haven't spotted anything too bad?

You can't hide at fullback. You can't hide when you are small. The backrow can at least cover him at 10/12 a lot easier.

The Force has quality fullbacks already

We haven't put him there to hide him, because he's not hiding. He's involved in the game and... I don't see how he's hiding there.

Drew's a bit rubbish at 15, I think our number 1 fullback is Cameron who REALLY needs to stop injuring himself. But Cameron plays so fantastically on the wing scoring machine which Drew, I don't know, either Cameron's getting all the luck with the games he plays at 11 but Drew's not scoring like Cameron is on the wing. If our 11 14 15 were Cameron Drew James I think that would not be something to mess with!

However, Nick Cummins... He's been great. Any word on his injury? He's a chance for the wallabies this year and I'd love him to play on the wing for some more games.

James is good at 15. But he would be SO MUCH GOOD-ER AT 10!

[Rex Messup]

He is short and easy to outjump
If you are taller and larger and have a 30m run up, it is easy to get the ball from someone short and flat footed. Merely a physical thing. If he starts at fullback regularly, he will be targeted. The Sharks chased their kicks poorly and didn't specifically target him with people trying to outjump him for the ball. Some smarter coaches will pick up on it.
He hasn't played a lot of fullback and it shows. He isn't going to stop rampaging wingers on the fly by sticking his arm out or going for ankle taps either.
He looks good at 12 outside Giteau however

[mudskipper]

At one point after a breakout which the Sharks didn't score, Sharks No.8 Ryan Kankowski gave James a pat on the back as a sign of respect... I think other teams respect the young guy having a go... It was a nice sporting moment...

[robyn <3]

Mudskipper you said something nice about a force boy! Kind of. Praise!!

I missed that moment, I was probably squealing. But I hope to catch the replay later this week. I'll look out for that.

[laura]

He is more than capable of playing at 15. He wouldn't be selected if he couldn't hack it. The excuse of him not being too small is a cop out IMHO. If he's old enough to play and good enough for Robbie Deans to have picked him then he sure as day is big enough and good neough for the Force to select him week-in week-out.

Wherever he plays he will have an impact, just depends how good the opposition's defence/attack is. His size might make his tackles a little less hard hitting but that doesn't detract from the fact that he is still making the tackles and stopping the opposition. Like ALL players it doens't always work, but that's part of the game and is size has relatively little to do with that eg. his chase and tackle attempt on Pietersen (I think), he came much closer to getting him than I expected he would have been able to.