Wallabies 2023

[Tomthumb]

Kind of a cautionary tale, putting all your hopes and dreams into 34 year old that's injury prone instead of spending the last 2 years developing and coaching the players coming through

 

[Slim 293]

Kind of a cautionary tale, putting all your hopes and dreams into 34 year old that's injury prone instead of spending the last 2 years developing and coaching the players coming through

Australia A squad confirmed for Pacific Nations Cup

Australia A have confirmed their travelling squad ahead of next month's Pacific Nations Cup in Fiji.

www.rugby.com.au

 

[LeCheese]

Yeah, but a knee injury can happen jogging on to the training pitch, apples & oranges

Apples and apples - a concussion can happen in any contact or non-contact drill.

 

[Mr Pilfer]

Just pick Hodge at 10 and kick the bladder out of it. Sometimes it is better to play without the ball as the Sth African's have shown. Most tries we concede are from us stuffing it up

 

[Joe Blow]

Kind of a cautionary tale, putting all your hopes and dreams into 34 year old that's injury prone instead of spending the last 2 years developing and coaching the players coming through

Problem was that we had Foley and Quade and Gits for a bit and no-one else got a look in really. There were not many good options around. Its not as though there are a bunch of top notch test standard 5/8s from Australia aged 20-30 playing in all corners of the world. Somehow we had a generation inbetween that was somewhat thin with 5/8 talent.

 

[stillmissit]

Unfortunately this has to be the case. We can't be heading into a RWC with JOC (James O'Connor) (James O'Connor), Lolesio and Hodge as the fly half options - at least not without trying to get someone else involved. Of course that could be Foley or Beale.

In terms of these options, as we currently see them, fingers crossed that Lolesio gets more opportunity and continues to improve. And hope that JOC (James O'Connor) (James O'Connor) continues to build.

Dru, I'm not convinced that Lolesio is improving fast enough for RWC. He's had a lot of time and starts in the Wallabies for him to show improvements.
If Quade and JOC (James O'Connor) are not strong contenders for RWC then Rennie needs to cast the net wider. Something he must be getting very used to.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

I am doubtful we have a team capable of challenging for RWC23. Other teams are simply peaking at the right time.

Our key positions aren't locked down and our world class players will be coming back from serious injury (Kerevi), taking time away from the game (Hooper) or are getting found out at international level (Tupou).

I've had this nagging thing in the back of mind in a similar vein recently. Unless there is a big step up in performance in the RC and then winning the majority of games on the EOYT I don't think we'll do much damage at the RWC next year. We're just not playing consistently smart enough footy at the moment to give me any confidence. There is a huge amount of heart, desire, togetherness - call it what you will - but our option taking and general game management is not that of a side challenging for the top rung of teams. Part of that is the playing personnel and part of it is their state of development as international players.

I think we're better than when Rennie took over, but not far along enough yet to be challengers IMHO. I hope that with some guys coming back we'll improve enough to take some wins, but there is a lot of work to do.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

If Foley is seriously under consideration then we may be in worse trouble than I thought.

 

[stillmissit]

You'd hope so. If Rennie opts to select Foley ahead of Noah, his confidence will be absolutely shot.

That would be a first rate horror story and I would be convinced that Rennie had lost the plot.

 

[stillmissit]

Edmed is probably the most robust of the young ones. He did not go so well for Aus A so maybe he is not effective when the game is played a little quicker. I reckon Foley is worth a look. He has all the skills but a bit of a popcorn boot. You would need Hodge or Kellaway taking the kicks for line, maybe even Ikitau. Beales boot is no better and he is not really a 10.

How about Koriobeti's boot!!!!!!

 

[Braveheart81]

That would be a first rate horror story and I would be convinced that Rennie had lost the plot.

Quade went far better than expected despite a fair amount of doubt from fans before it happened.

We've got half the match thread saying that JOC (James O'Connor) isn't up to it, a bunch saying they don't think Lolesio is there either and Cooper out for somewhere around a year.

Foley seems like a pretty good option to have a look at.

He should probably draft in one of the young Tahs 10s as well (probably Donaldson) to get some experience in the squad but I wouldn't have thought they were a chance at playing a test.

 

[Tomikin]

Yeah, but a knee injury can happen jogging on to the training pitch, apples & oranges

The fact the Rennie feels it's necessary to have his players smashing each other 2 days before a test match beggars belief. And the fact he didn't learn his lesson and did the exact same thing the following week makes me question his common sense

The late withdrawal of Fainga’a due to a concussion suffered at training on Thursday prompted questions about why the Wallabies were doing contact training so late in the week. Pressed on the matter, Rennie said the Fainga’a injury came via an accidental head clash.

“The thing around it [Fainga’a’s head knock] is it was a non-contact session and someone has thrown an inside ball, and a bit of a lack of awareness and two guys have clashed heads,” Rennie said.


@Tomthumb so your reports of smashing each other 2 days before the test are wrong, and basically just what you have made up in your mind..

 

[Tazzmania]

Just pick Hodge at 10 and kick the bladder out of it. Sometimes it is better to play without the ball as the Sth African's have shown. Most tries we concede are from us stuffing it up

A point of difference is that while the South Africans kick most balls they chase like mad and contest very aggrresivly in the catch area to force an error. Its not a kick and let them come at us stratgey. Thats why most of their kicks are those bloody box kicks.

 

[John S]

That's the difference between Wallabies and everyone else - they flaming well chase the ball where we sort of saunter up the field.

 

[Tomthumb]

The late withdrawal of Fainga’a due to a concussion suffered at training on Thursday prompted questions about why the Wallabies were doing contact training so late in the week. Pressed on the matter, Rennie said the Fainga’a injury came via an accidental head clash.

“The thing around it [Fainga’a’s head knock] is it was a non-contact session and someone has thrown an inside ball, and a bit of a lack of awareness and two guys have clashed heads,” Rennie said.


@Tomthumb so your reports of smashing each other 2 days before the test are wrong, and basically just what you have made up in your mind..

1. Where is this quote from?
2. Non contact drill where guys are colliding hard enough to knock someone out? Haha I have some ice I’d love to sell you

 

[Tomthumb]

That's the difference between Wallabies and everyone else - they flaming well chase the ball where we sort of saunter up the field.

Because they care, don’t chew gum while playing

 

[Lightblue]

Because they care, don’t chew gum while playing

Yes… chewing gum while playing? Don’t get that….

 

[swingpass]

That's the difference between Wallabies and everyone else - they flaming well chase the ball where we sort of saunter up the field.

the exception being Koroibete who chases everything, when the kick is good enough he gets there too and is generally VERY effective, problem is the kicks are often poor - too long, too short, misdirected

 

[LeCheese]

1. Where is this quote from?

Cavalry coming as Wallabies focus on bomb disposal before Boks clash

After an injury-plagued winter, eight sidelined players will return for the first Test against South Africa in Adelaide.

www.brisbanetimes.com.au

2. Non contact drill where guys are colliding hard enough to knock someone out? Haha I have some ice I’d love to sell you

You don't reckon you can have collisions in non-contact drills done at pace? Accidents happen. The next line: “We are obviously conscious of our injury toll but with Folau’s one, it was just a body in front, passive part of our attack structure.”

 

[stillmissit]

Quade went far better than expected despite a fair amount of doubt from fans before it happened.

We've got half the match thread saying that JOC (James O'Connor) (James O'Connor) isn't up to it, a bunch saying they don't think Lolesio is there either and Cooper out for somewhere around a year.

Foley seems like a pretty good option to have a look at.

He should probably draft in one of the young Tahs 10s as well (probably Donaldson) to get some experience in the squad but I wouldn't have thought they were a chance at playing a test.

BH, have we forgotten how average Foley was and even his kicking towards the end became poor? Most pundits were saying we needed more 10 stocks and here we are 2.5 years later and still with 10 issues.
We have a bunch of players who should be in consideration Edmed 22, Donalson 23. Lolesio is 22 is he better than those 2? Carter Gordon is 21. 7 months. There will be guys here who can ID others who they think could step up and we need to find this out now.
We need to see if any of these youngsters can step up? I think waiting until they are 25-26 is a waste but I am not advocating throwing them to the saffa's or the AB's, surely we could give them starts in Australia A or better still get them into the W squad as development players to expose them to what they need to do.