Recent content by Wilson

Good post from Matt Alvarez on twitter somewhat related to the Hockings discussion: https://x.com/mattfa91/status/1989437805752467876 Guys like Adam Coleman and Rory Arnold also ended up in the 30 cap range, with lots of others below that through the decade - Kane Douglas (19), Sam Carter...

It's the first week of the finals, you can't exactly schedule a Reds game in ahead of time. They also don't have a QLD based opponent to play like all the others. It might be a bit awkward if the Reds end up hosting a QF that weekend, but there isn't any reason they can't host on the Friday and...

I believe in the past line out success was a really good indicator, but that was for a period in the early 2000s and hasn't necessarily held long term. But realistically no single stat will ever be a perfect indicator, the game is much too complex for that. Any combination or complex metric that...

I'm not sure they support the thrust of Payten's article - that Ikitau's inclusion could be more influential for our gainline carrying then Skelton. The list is presented with the caveat that it's limited to those with 8 or more tests, though it's not clear if that's this year, under Schmidt or...

I don't know, we were still very competitive a week later in Cape town, as we were for the last 2 Lions tests. I think it's more indicative of how focused our preparation under Schmidt had been on the Lions tour and peaking for it, alongside our fairly thin depth that has seen us really suffer...

3 McReight 2 Hooper 1 C. Gordon

Unclear. He was on short term academy deal with Quins and this seems to pick up when that finishes. It sounds like they've been talking to him for a while though. If I had to guess I'd say that Quins might have kept him if there was no (or less attractive) competition, but they won't be too...

One year academy deal for Nic Lynagh confirmed: https://reds.rugby/news/latest-lynagh-joins-buildcorp-reds-academy-at-queensland-reds-20251110

Personally I don't think Paisami has been anywhere near as bad as others make out (though he has had his issues, like most of our side), the problems with our centres in attack are largely down to tactics and systems. A Paisami-Ikitau pairing is fairly well established over the last few years...

I kind of do as well, but I think it's worth it for the extra teams. It's definitely not as bad as in the smaller tournaments like the under 20s when a genuine contender can miss out. As much as I'd prefer 4 pools of 6 I can understand why that is an unworkable number games/tournament length...

This is the flow for the knock outs: From World Rugby: https://www.world.rugby/news/1017765/rugby-world-cup-2027-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-draw-format-pools-and-dates

I wouldn't be surprised to see Sua'ali'i drop out here, Schmidt did not exactly sound happy with him or the height of his tackling when asked about their discipline in general: Ideally I'd like to see him in the back 3, but if Schmidt does decide to shift him he may also look at him as a bench...

Why don't you want to see Paisami? Acknowledging that this is the team "you want to see" rather than expect to see, there's next to no chance we'll be running a regular 23 without Paisami if he's fit and available. That is also how it should be, as good as Pakeho was for a debutant last year...

I think you've missed the entire point of the conversation. Whether or not the individual players in question are the 'wrong people' or not is largely irrelevant. We can't select whoever we want from where ever they are because there are more factors at play than RA's selection policy.