Victoria 1. DA Eggman 2. S Masters 3. BA Storer 4. NR Chance 5. RS Yamadera 6. PF Oz 7. BR Hall 8. TA Miokovic 9. JE Harding 10. DA Alessi 11. DM Diggler 12. JW Taylor 13. RA Boy 14. ZAF MacDonald 15. AJ Son 16. NG Miokovic 17. A Bannerman 18. LO Townsend 19. N Hunt 20. PW Adams 21. CJ Corka 22. DT Lehmann NSW 1. Herr Burger 2. Tom Delonge 3. Aaron O'Neill 4. Morgan Burridge 5. Donald Boland 6. Alex O'Driscoll 7. Keith Rask 8. Pretzel Spark 9. Rob Cribb 10. Aaron Hunt 11. Andrew James 12. Ben Jacobs 13. Kyle Tait 14. Ben Herd 15. Kelvin Fung 16. Ben Read 17. Wes Welker 18. Jimmy Read 19. Jack Dempsey 20. James Hughes 21. Ben Taylor 22. Daniel Speirs
Preview: On paper, this looks like an absolute mismatch. However, the NSW team have struggled to put away equally weak Queensland and Asian line ups in recent games. Can the Victorians prove equally stubborn? This correspondant says "No"! In fact, quite emphatically. I wouldn't be surprised to see the NSW line-up rack up a Seasonal Rugby record for biggest win (currently the Spartans 55 - 0 shellacking of the Crabs holds the record). This Victorian team looks very fragile. Nick Scott, the Victorians' best lock has been left out of the line-up due to "not being Victorian enough" which leaves the Victorians with a the rookie locking pair of Chance and Yamadera which is likely to be ripped apart at both the scrum and the line-out. Where the Victorians have had an advantage before - the front row power of Dave Eggman - is no longer an advantage given the strength and form of the NSW front row. The NSW back row is not a strength of theirs, but even in this position the Victorians come up short. There's a lot of potential in the Oz-Hall-Miokovic back row, but whilst I'd be backing Hall over Rask, Spark is developing into a potential star in the back row and Miokovic's well publicised "tackle issues" give this match up to NSW. In the pivots, Jesse Harding looks massively outclassed. He'll be a beat and a half behind Rob Cribb. Possibly the most interesting match up of the game will be Alessi vs. Hunt. This pair have been fighting for the Wallaroos #10 jersey and the performances of the pair may help decide who starts in round 4 for Australia. The back line battle is easily won by NSW. Their back line oozes class for their legion orifaces. James, Fung, Herd - all quality options. Compare this to the Victorian back line where they offer THE HALF HACK and Rabbit Boy out of position and outclassed, and you can easily see why the NSW team should waltz away with this. Expect Alistair Son to come under fire as last man at full back on a regular basis. My prediction: NSW by 30+
