Leuluai In New Zealand Squad

[MrDave]

Tommy Leuluai is one of two players from Super League picked for the New Zealand Four Nations train on squad, the other being Greg Eastwood of Leeds.

Why does Leuluai keep getting picked for New Zealand, I'm sure they have much better players than him. Rangi Chase has been better than Leuluai in ever area this season but is ignored by NZ selectors.

Full Squad:
Alex Glenn (Brisbane Broncos)
Antonio Winterstein (Brisbane Broncos)
Bryson Goodwin (Canterbury Bulldogs)
Ben Roberts (Canterbury Bulldogs)
Bronson Harrison (Canberra Raiders)
Greg Eastwood (Leeds Rhinos)
Kieran Foran (Manley Sea Eagles)
Steve Matai (Manley Sea Eagles)
Tony Williams (Manley Sea Eagles)
Adam Blair (Melbourne Storm)
Sika Manu (Melbourne Storm)
Junior Sa'u (Newcastle Knights)
Zeb Taia (Newcastle Knights)
Krisnan Inu (Parramatta Eels)
Fuifui Moimoi (Parramatta Eels)
Sam McKendry (Penrith Panthers)
Frank Pritchard (Penrith Panthers)
Nathan Fien (St George Illawarra Dragons)
Jason Nightingale (St George Illawarra Dragons)
Jeremy Smith (St George Illawarra Dragons)
Roy Asotasi South Sydney Rabbitohs)
Issac Luke South Sydney Rabbitohs)
Eddy Pettybourne South Sydney Rabbitohs)
Fetuli Talanoa (South Sydney Rabbitohs)
Shaun Kenny-Dowall (Sydney Roosters)
Joseph Leilua (Sydney Roosters)
Mose Masoe (Sydney Roosters)
Frank-Paul Nuuausala (Sydney Roosters)
Sam Perrett (Sydney Roosters)
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves (Sydney Roosters)
Lewis Brown (New Zealand Warriors)
Aaron Heremaia (New Zealand Warriors)
Lance Hohaia (New Zealand Warriors)
Kevin Locke (New Zealand Warriors)
Simon Mannering (New Zealand Warriors)
Ben Matulino (New Zealand Warriors)
Russell Packer (New Zealand Warriors)
Sam Rapira (New Zealand Warriors)
Jerome Ropati (New Zealand Warriors)
Ukuma Ta'ai (New Zealand Warriors)
Manu Vatuvei (New Zealand Warriors)
Benji Marshall (Wests Tigers)
Thomas Leuluai (Wigan Warriors)

[gpartin]

Tommy has had his best season for us by far, his kicking, passing and strength getting through the line have all improved. As far as I'm concerned he deserves an international spot and I really don't know what he'd need to do to get the recognition he deserves. Rangi Chase is one of those players who looks good against poor opponents but makes far too many stupid mistakes, usually by trying to be too flash and trying to pass the ball before he's even picked it up. He also gives away too many stupid penalties and can't tackle anywhere near as well as Tommy. Because Cas are limited for creative players Rangi's stats look good but at Wigan the work for assists, metres, busts etc are shared between a number of players but the key stats are missed tackles 44 Chase, 32 Tommy (totals 289,415), Errors 35, 12 and penalties 9, 3. Tommy would look like a world beater at Cas and Rangi would be outshone at Wigan.

[MrDave]

Both Tommy and Rangi have played the same number of games this season. Rangi has 7 tries where as Tommy has 6 but the key stat is that Rangi has set-up 31 tries were as Tommy has only set-up 9. The rest of the attacking stats are all in the favour of Rangi. To be fair Leuluai's defence appears to be better and he does make less errors but like cherry.pie said since Rangi is doing a lot more of the work at Castleford he is bound to make more errors.

As a half back if Tommy isn't scoring the tries and he isn't setting them up either what exactly if he doing in the Wigan squad?

[gpartin]

Not being harsh on Chase at all he is a good player but going back a few years Danny Orr was the creative influence at Cas and his stats reflected this, he virtually single handedly won me 500 quid when he was in my fantasy league team. Brough was the same at Wakefield. I think you are being extremely harsh on Tommy with what you're saying about his creativity. When we lost to Saints at the DW and Lockers was out Tommy was man of the match because he was relied on to be creative. Of course Rangi makes more mistakes because he handles the ball more but I've seen enough of him to know that most of his mistakes are down to his own stupidity when he goes to dummy half and usually happen when the team are under pressure, not a great weakness to have against the Aussies, and that's not a reason for all his missed tackles because he's involved in defence far less than Tommy is, he also offloads all the time and the ball ends up getting intercepted time and time again. Again I have no idea what Tommy has to do to get the respect he deserves, he's been outstanding this year and would be totally dominant at Cas.

[gpartin]

Both Tommy and Rangi have played the same number of games this season. Rangi has 7 tries where as Tommy has 6 but the key stat is that Rangi has set-up 31 tries were as Tommy has only set-up 9. The rest of the attacking stats are all in the favour of Rangi. To be fair Leuluai's defence appears to be better and he does make less errors but like cherry.pie said since Rangi is doing a lot more of the work at Castleford he is bound to make more errors.

As a half back if Tommy isn't scoring the tries and he isn't setting them up either what exactly if he doing in the Wigan squad?

did you read my original post? You may not have noticed but we have Sam Tomkins, Lockers, Deacon and Pat with 11 assists or more (there are only 22 players is SL with more than this). Each of our players has a role to play and its working pretty effectively don't you think. Tommy has created space from nothing this year, spinning over the line a few times when it didn't look like there was a try on. He makes some stunning tackles on men much bigger than him but stats don't show this and because he has been playing hooker a fair bit you can't really make a fair comparison with other stats but missed tackles and errors you can. Have a look at how Tommy does against Piggy overall and I'd say its pretty favourable but the same applies really. Look I'm not saying Rangi is poor, he does everything at Cas because there's only Hudson on 11 assists and other than that everything about running the team is pretty much down to him but I genuinely believe Tommy would do the same there and this apparent vendetta you seem to have against him after the best season I've seen him have is ridiculous and no amount of actually watching him put his heart and soul into the game week in week out is going to change your minds.

[GeoffN]

Tommy Leuluai is one of two players from Super League picked for the New Zealand Four Nations train on squad, the other being Greg Eastwood of Leeds.

Why does Leuluai keep getting picked for New Zealand, I'm sure they have much better players than him. Rangi Chase has been better than Leuluai in ever area this season but is ignored by NZ selectors.

He's more likely to have been selected at hooker, though, not scrum half.

[doc]

You wouldn't want Chase to play half back and cover hooker as well. Tommy gives more options to the squad as a whole.