How Goddard is not in the team is a travesty..Strang should also be there.
With a young squad, Goddard Would have brought much needed composure/leadership from last year and being exposed to the super rugby environment..plus the fact he is a fantastic player.
Goddard was kept back in Aus with the Genia injury. Would much rather him in the u20s squad but there was circumstances behind it and not an over sight from the selectors. On saying that, it's a position we are fairly stacked in at u20 level.
It's a shame Hosea is injured is a very good prospect but excited to have the Reds contingent on their way.
If we take a step back and look at the talent it's actually a fairly decent generation of players this one. You add Stewart, Petaia, Valetini, Hockings, Goddard and a few of the 7s guys for depth (Dylan Peitch, etc.) to this match day 23 and we have a fairly good crop of talent this year. Top 4 worthy. Pretty confident we would of beat Wales and probably minced Japan by more.
All isn't doom and gloom
Maybe Super Rugby needs to look at the SAF decision to start a week earlier (ino they did it for a test) but it also meant all their players were available for this tournament. Maybe on the week off we could have a Wallabies A fixture vs Ireland A or Georgia etc, to provide content