OK, maybe its a bit early for this stuff, but always provokes interesting debate I'm going to run through who I think the leading players in their position of the weekend are (yes that means you G Smith) and generally will be the starting bloke in that possie given the variable nature of replacements (locks being either 4 or 5 etc). Notwithstanding the quality of the opposition which is an unfair condition to put on players, even if I think a certain G Smith got an armchair ride

1 Holmes (QLD) - of the available options he was the least troubled at scrum time and most involved around the field. Honourable mention to Hardy who covered a lot of ground for a fatty.

2 Cannon (WA) - threw a pretty good lineout and led his scrum well.

3 Blake (QLD) - a couple of good burst runs, solid at scrum time and alright on defence. Again the other options (Henderson, Baxter, Fitter) didn't do much to stand out

4 Chisholm (ACT) - showed great pace for his try, was good at lineout time and good in the tight. Just beats McMeniman whose defence was crucial for the Reds but wasn't as prominent in the set-piece

5 Vickerman (NSW) - owned the lineout up until he left the park where the Tahs went to shit on their own ball

6 Chapman (QLD) - was a real pain in the arse at lineout time and around the field on defence for the Reds, just shading Elsom who had a good game with a try to boot. Heenan for the Brumbies was OK in open space but not much else, and Doherty was good for the Force. Nice to see we're building up some blindside options here who can all do lineout, ball running, and defence. They're all young too.

7 Waugh (NSW) - torrid battle with Croft in a week where there was not a lot of ruck fetching available. Big defence was the standout for Phil where he beat his opposite number, though the fisticuffs were about even

8 Smith (ACT) - played out of position IMHO (Knuckles will not be happy) but made some great runs and should revert to 7 against the bigger Bulls pack with Tawake into 8 next week

9 Cordingley (QLD) - bossed the whole game. Can't understand why he was subbed even if young Berry is excellent. Standout 9 of the week in the Aussie teams

10 Larkham (ACT) - bit of rust knocked off in the first half then sublime handling from there on in. Stay safe Bernie - we needs ya for 2007

11 Ioane (WA) - showed some good toe, great scrambling defence, powerful leg drive and didn't make any mistakes that I saw.

12 Flatley (QLD) - just going for Flatley over Turinui because of his kicking under pressure - this team needs a kicker and his solid defence and mistake-free hands gets him the nod over the ball-playing Giteau and Turinui.

13 Pelasasa (WA) - for sheer level of involvement. He made some mistakes like not offloading, but his penetration through the backline was great. Huxley gets a note for his good defence when he was expected to be poo, and Tuqiri and Mortlock ran strongly but just didn't get enough involvement from outside centre.

14 Sailor (NSW) - has loads of critics, but Dell showed how dangerous he can be running into open space. Honourable mention to Staniforth (WA) and Mitchell (QLD) for being everywhere they needed to be and de-fusing some dangerous attacks.

15 Latham (QLD) - our fullbacks were generally poo on the attack and Hilgendorf, SNK, and Ashley-Cooper all had shocker moments. But Latham's big boot at the back and his defence for QLD was top-notch, saving some tricky situations

Not going to bother with a bench. 6 QLDers, 3 from each of the other sides. "Surely you'd pick a NSW-dominated lineup!" I hear you say? Well no actually. As a team the Tahs did well, but the individuals who stood out for me, once I'd considered their good and bad points, generally came from the other teams, while our blokes worked more on the game plan which ruled out most of our forwards as the play was set to go wide at every chance.