Brumby Runner
Jason Little (69)
Joe Marler out - tested positive for Covid 19. Rest of the squad now tested and waiting for results.
England v Australia - Twickenham, 14 Nov, 4:30am AEDT
- Thread starter Dctarget
- Start date
PhilClinton
Mark Loane (55)
JOC (James O'Connor) played very deep for the last few years for the Reds, and they were quite effective. But I think that is more a reflection of the standard and line speed of defence in Super Rugby AU vs International test matches.
It is easy to say 'play flatter', but I don't feel we will get that style from anyone in our setup other than QC (Quade Cooper) at the current time. We need to build an attacking structure around the players we currently have, rather than shoehorn them into an unfamiliar style. Same with our centre combo, we can't replicate Kerevi.
qwerty51
Stirling Mortlock (74)
Literally no point of them without Kerevi who causes so much attention he's drawing in defenders from the outside but so easy to defend without his presence.
Dctarget
Tim Horan (67)
Sorry Joe, hope you’re alright but wouldn’t mind if you gave it to Curry, Itoje & Smith too.
Rugby Head
Ted Thorn (20)
Even Jonny May, he always seems to tear up whenever he plays Aus.
Joe Blow
John Hipwell (52)
What Cooper did well was to feed his forward runners close to the line. If JOC (James O'Connor) remains deep he cannot do so and it is up to the halfback to do the same. I think McDermott is better suited to this than White.
JOC (James O'Connor) needs to challenge the line occasionally and its difficult to do so from depth. Hopefully he just had an off match, a bit of rust, last week. We will need him to be much better this week. He simply cannot play so deep.
On the podcast someone suggested that we need to play Noah to match Smiths pace……..I disagree and I would be willing to bet that JOC (James O'Connor) is much quicker over the ground than Lolesio. Looking for a much more productive outing for him.
It's England. The least palatable team to whom to lose, ever. Even when I know we should, and probably will.
TSR
Andrew Slack (58)
Reserve Tight head prop though. Second most important player in the team for those of us with long memories.
A mutterer
Chilla Wilson (44)
bites? been awhile since i've seen that from england.
no arms tackles from their 10? now there's some potential.
Mr Pilfer
Alex Ross (28)
I still scratch my head that we don't have Harry Wilson as an option for number 8. The guy just gets the job done and gives us go forward which we aren't getting.
Anyway, maybe Rennie will pull a surprise and pick Perese or Foketi in the centres. We know what we are going to get out of the current 2
Anyway, maybe Rennie will pull a surprise and pick Perese or Foketi in the centres. We know what we are going to get out of the current 2
wamberal
Phil Kearns (64)
Yep, we are getting a lot more than we would out of Foketi. And Ikitau>>>>> either of them. Perese instead of Paisami, maybe.
Pfitzy
Nathan Sharpe (72)
My expectations are low. That's fine. But I cannot contrive to enjoy watching an English win. Particularly the Eddie bit, and the English press bit afterwards.
Derpus
Nathan Sharpe (72)
Miserable fluffybunny*
Tazzmania
Bob Loudon (25)
According to G Rob at the SMH: We may see Tom and Ollie on the bench.
"..... Starting tight-head Allan Ala'alatoa and bench weapon Taniela Tupou look set to miss the Wallabies’ blockbuster clash with England after suffering head knocks against Scotland.
Wallabies need to improve ahead of crunch clash with England
Wallabies head coach Dave Rennie admits his side needs to improve ahead of the clash against England next week while skipper Michael Hooper believes there’s still plenty of fire in the belly despite the loss to Scotland.
They are required to observe head injury return to play protocols and will be given every day possible to recover, but the Wallabies have been forced to make contingency plans.
If both are ruled out it leaves Australia without a single specialist tight-head in the squad, a disaster heading into a Test against a formidable English pack.
It has already forced the call up of former Force prop Ollie Hoskins, who plays with London Irish in the English Premiership and has not been sighted in the Australian system since 2016.
Hoskins went into camp on Monday, but the Wallabies are more likely to look to veteran prop James Slipper to move to the tight-head side of the scrum. Angus Bell could start at loose-head, with Tom Robertson joining Hoskins on the bench....."
"..... Starting tight-head Allan Ala'alatoa and bench weapon Taniela Tupou look set to miss the Wallabies’ blockbuster clash with England after suffering head knocks against Scotland.
Wallabies need to improve ahead of crunch clash with England
Wallabies head coach Dave Rennie admits his side needs to improve ahead of the clash against England next week while skipper Michael Hooper believes there’s still plenty of fire in the belly despite the loss to Scotland.
They are required to observe head injury return to play protocols and will be given every day possible to recover, but the Wallabies have been forced to make contingency plans.
If both are ruled out it leaves Australia without a single specialist tight-head in the squad, a disaster heading into a Test against a formidable English pack.
It has already forced the call up of former Force prop Ollie Hoskins, who plays with London Irish in the English Premiership and has not been sighted in the Australian system since 2016.
Hoskins went into camp on Monday, but the Wallabies are more likely to look to veteran prop James Slipper to move to the tight-head side of the scrum. Angus Bell could start at loose-head, with Tom Robertson joining Hoskins on the bench....."