Wallabies 2023

[Cancelled Account]

Looks like Rennie is set to pick his overseas players from Japan only for the England series:

Rennie to focus on Japan-based ‘Giteau Law’ picks only for England series

Rory Arnold and other Aussies in France won’t be considered by Dave Rennie for picks for the three-Test series against England in July.

www.smh.com.au

Pretty much guarantees it will be Cooper, Kerevi and Koroibete which is no big surprise.

You just made my day.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Looks like Rennie is set to pick his overseas players from Japan only for the England series:

Rennie to focus on Japan-based ‘Giteau Law’ picks only for England series

Rory Arnold and other Aussies in France won’t be considered by Dave Rennie for picks for the three-Test series against England in July.

www.smh.com.au

Pretty much guarantees it will be Cooper, Kerevi and Koroibete which is no big surprise.

This is a good thing, IMHO. Developing good relations with Japan I think will help us long term. If we are to lose some good players to another league, I would rather it be Japan than England or France. I think the players come back to the Wallabies fresher and there is less travel as well.

 

[chiraag]

Lalakai Foketi re-signs with Australian Rugby, NSW Waratahs

www.rugby.com.au

So a Waratah that's a very fringe wallaby (at best) gets a 2 year contract with an RA top-up, but FLW (Fergus Lee-Warner) who has been playing consistently and banging the door down for national selection for the last 3 years at the Force can't even get a phone call from the Wallabies coaching staff and therefore decides to go overseas.
And some wonder why we have such a chip on our shoulder here in the west...

 

[Braveheart81]

If FLW (Fergus Lee-Warner) is really just looked at as a potential 6 at test level and we've got Swinton, Leota, Valetini all ahead of him there then it's not really surprising he hasn't been picked.

He's a good player but I don't know that he's banging down the door for national selection. Rennie clearly doesn't see him as close to a call up.

 

[Derpus]

Possibly Tah bias but FLW (Fergus Lee-Warner) hasn't been banging the door down at all. He's a solid Super Rugby player for one of the worst teams in the comp.

Has he even made an extended squad?

 

[PhilClinton]

Lalakai Foketi re-signs with Australian Rugby, NSW Waratahs

www.rugby.com.au

So a Waratah that's a very fringe wallaby (at best) gets a 2 year contract with an RA top-up, but FLW (Fergus Lee-Warner) who has been playing consistently and banging the door down for national selection for the last 3 years at the Force can't even get a phone call from the Wallabies coaching staff and therefore decides to go overseas.
And some wonder why we have such a chip on our shoulder here in the west...

I was going to say he's probably picked up the RA dollars that To'omua is leaving behind - but I think they were already given to Perese.

Oh well, Tahs fans have nothing to complain about - they've got RA worthy centres in their team, pretty much a shoe in to win the competition now.

 

[Drew]

I think his combination with Perese might have helped

 

[PhilClinton]

It is an interesting one regardless from an RA top up perspective - he is only one year younger than Kerevi, and 4 years older than Paisami. You'd think he'd have to leapfrog both those players to feature heavily in the Wallabies in the near future.

 

[Derpus]

What's an RA top up worth? does it vary player to player? could be a fairly minor top up.

 

[Braveheart81]

It could certainly be very little or non-existent.

Almost all re-signings now where a player is remotely on the Wallaby radar feature a RA press release. RA is a contracting party to every Wallaby eligible player I believe.

 

[Slim 293]

If FLW (Fergus Lee-Warner) is really just looked at as a potential 6 at test level and we've got Swinton, Leota, Valetini all ahead of him there then it's not really surprising he hasn't been picked.

He's a good player but I don't know that he's banging down the door for national selection. Rennie clearly doesn't see him as close to a call up.

And then you've got the likes of Uru who has been more promising, and Wilson might have to play 6 to accommodate Valetini at 8 under Rennie's system...

 

[Ignoto]

Lalakai Foketi re-signs with Australian Rugby, NSW Waratahs

www.rugby.com.au

So a Waratah that's a very fringe wallaby (at best) gets a 2 year contract with an RA top-up, but FLW (Fergus Lee-Warner) who has been playing consistently and banging the door down for national selection for the last 3 years at the Force can't even get a phone call from the Wallabies coaching staff and therefore decides to go overseas.
And some wonder why we have such a chip on our shoulder here in the west...

But you lot have Twiggy money?

 

[Braveheart81]

And then you've got the likes of Uru who has been more promising, and Wilson might have to play 6 to accommodate Valetini at 8 under Rennie's system...

I excluded Wilson because he's so far played 8 but clearly he's also in that backrow pecking order. I agree though he's likely ahead of FLW (Fergus Lee-Warner) for 6 as well.

 

[Tazzmania]

But you lot have Twiggy money?

Western Force have to adhere to the same salary cap as the other franchises.

 

[SteveWA]

But you lot have Twiggy money?

All clubs have the same salary cap, Wallaby top-ups are outside the caps. I'd be more than happy to see a scheme that included Wallaby top-ups in the cap or allowed teams that haven't benefited from the RA largesse to spend a similar amount on their salaries in order to attract or retain good players.

 

[Derpus]

Yeah, unless teams are only allowed a certain amount of players on Wallaby top-ups, the system seems pretty unbalanced. Is our salary cap the same as NZs?

 

[TSR]

Without really thinking through the implications I agree with you Steve. But with the specific case of FLW (Fergus Lee-Warner) he is simply too far down the order to be considered a priority signing. Doesn’t mean you guys can’t be extremely disappointed he isn’t being retained but it’s reality. Personally I’d love some additional money for guys like Mafi, ASY (Angus Scott-Young), Wright, Smith, Blyth & Campbell too, but it’s not realistic.

 

[wamberal]

Lalakai Foketi re-signs with Australian Rugby, NSW Waratahs

www.rugby.com.au

So a Waratah that's a very fringe wallaby (at best) gets a 2 year contract with an RA top-up, but FLW (Fergus Lee-Warner) who has been playing consistently and banging the door down for national selection for the last 3 years at the Force can't even get a phone call from the Wallabies coaching staff and therefore decides to go overseas.
And some wonder why we have such a chip on our shoulder here in the west...

I do not personally think much of Foketi. But if the Wallaby coaching staff do, that's their call. At the end of the day that get paid to do their jobs to the best of their ability. I really doubt that they are biased for or against the players of a particular franchise.

 

[chiraag]

I wasn't questioning why FLW (Fergus Lee-Warner) hasn't been given a top-up, but why he hasn't even been considered as being on the fringes and given a call by the wallabies coaching staff in regards to what he needs to work on to potentially get a call up. I think that's probably all that would've been required to get him to consider staying and is more than warranted by his consistent form over the last 3 years. From his likely point of view (and mine), there's not much more he could have done in the last few years to get a look in for the wallabies, and given he apparently hasn't even got a phone call to say he's on the extended radar, he's probably a bit pissed off and figures he might as well head overseas.

Similar to Leota, he's a 6 at test level, but could also cover 4,5 and 8 in a pinch and therefore a good bench option.
Unlike Wilson and Valetini, he is a primary lineout target, which addresses a major known deficiency in our backrow.
Unlike Swinton, he's actually likely to not get yellow or red carded and give away braindead penalties that tend to cost you games.
And unlike most of the other options at 6, he's also not consistently injured.
He performs all of the core duties of a 6 very well in tackling and ruck security / cleanouts, is a good runner that presents often and is good in maul attack and defense.

 

[chiraag]

I really doubt that they are biased for or against the players of a particular franchise.

I also doubt they are intentionally biased against a particular franchise. However given RA and the Wallabies staff (outside of the players) have pretty much no WA representation, would visit the Force far less than the other clubs (due to it being further away and inconvenient), and likely watch the Force games less often (pure speculation but likely the case), I think there would be a fair bit of inherent unintentional bias.
The evidence seems to confirm this.

Sorry, I'm obviously just very pissed off at losing one of our best players in FLW (Fergus Lee-Warner) overseas and then seeing a recent fringe wallaby get a top up (no matter how small) after the very long history of the Force struggling to get anyone on a top up and therefore being well behind in their overall squad salary.

You would think it's well worth the while of Rugby Australia to get in touch with any eligible Australian in super rugby who has been performing well to let them know they're on the radar and what areas of their game they need to improve on to get a look in. A few phone calls is far cheaper than actual top ups, and would likely result in a lot more of the fringe players staying in Oz in the hopes of eventually getting into the Wallabies.