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Wallabies 2024

stillmissit

Peter Johnson (47)
An uncapped 30 year old journeyman? Seems very unlikely in my view.
BH, don't care if he is considered a journeyman IF he is the best available then I'm OK with it. He had a season or two in NZ and looked much better last season at the Brumbies. My view of him in his time at the Rebels? was a solid 10 (without being great) but lacking some ticker.
 

Tomikin

David Codey (61)
I wonder if he could be a smokey for the W's assuming he comes back from injury OK.
Yeah, I don't think he's that guy. To be fair, he fits in the Brumbies model well, as we played off the 9 a lot with White; I think we are missing that a bit this year with Lonergan not as good as White in some of that play. Will be good to see if he comes back and we aren't as clunky.

It will be interesting to see when he returns; I think I put him at fullback, Wright to the wing with Toole, and Murihead to the bench or left right out..
 

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
BH, don't care if he is considered a journeyman IF he is the best available then I'm OK with it. He had a season or two in NZ and looked much better last season at the Brumbies. My view of him in his time at the Rebels? was a solid 10 (without being great) but lacking some ticker.

That's kind of my point. I can't see how anyone would think he's the best available and he falls behind the rest of the options significantly from the age perspective and intertwined with that, his potential.

In my view he'd need to be the obvious standout to be picked above pretty much every other 10 in the country.
 

wamberal99

Jim Clark (26)
I'd prefer to err on the side of inexperience. My audacious pick is HMP. He is tough enough, so far at least. He might be exposed down the track, but there's only one way to find out. If he continues to perform strongly during the Soup season, I would expect him to be in the Wobs squad.
 

Yoda

Ron Walden (29)
I'd prefer to err on the side of inexperience. My audacious pick is HMP. He is tough enough, so far at least. He might be exposed down the track, but there's only one way to find out. If he continues to perform strongly during the Soup season, I would expect him to be in the Wobs squad.
Your dreaming.
 

stillmissit

Peter Johnson (47)
I'd prefer to err on the side of inexperience. My audacious pick is HMP. He is tough enough, so far at least. He might be exposed down the track, but there's only one way to find out. If he continues to perform strongly during the Soup season, I would expect him to be in the Wobs squad.
Could be. The bit I saw of him in the Reds was not as good as coming off the bench last week. He has the talent and he has the D, could be.
 

TSR

Andrew Slack (58)
I'd prefer to err on the side of inexperience. My audacious pick is HMP. He is tough enough, so far at least. He might be exposed down the track, but there's only one way to find out. If he continues to perform strongly during the Soup season, I would expect him to be in the Wobs squad.
I don’t think he’ll continue to start ahead of Lynagh at this stage at the Reds. He may well go past him in time but I don’t think he’s there yet. He looks a great talent I don’t personally think we should rush to push him to the front of the queue.

If we look at how Lolesio & Gordon are now tracking I think it demonstrates there is significant risk in throwing these guys in too early. Not saying it never works but I just think it is a path we should be extremely cautious with.
 

Wilson

Phil Kearns (64)
I reckon the plan will be for Lynagh to start the next three games, and then he'll get a rest for the Highlanders match at Suncorp after getting through the Moana Pacifica match in NZ.

They are managing both these young guy's loads pretty closely, which is good to see
They've got a week off after the Brumbies game so I'm not sure they'll need to rest/rotate for the Highlanders. That said the Moana game the week before is probably the ideal one if they want to.

I do think that Harry McLaughlin-Phillips will be off with the 20s pretty soon though (under 20s Rugby Championship is in April), that may change the strategy a bit when Creighton/O'Connor comes into the 23 as the other 10 option.
 

Brumby Runner

Jason Little (69)
These are different horses TSR and need to be picked on merit. I have always thought BV was the best #6 we rarely play in the Wallabies. Not sure why as his weaknesses are what Wilson has and vice versa. I would play them depending on the opposition. BTW I don't remember Keiran Reid making too many tackle meters. Not suggesting Wilson is another Reid but we need a thinking 8 and not just a battering ram.
But battering ram is what Harry W mostly seems to play. I agree he has other skills, but most of his involvements in a game are hitting up to the defensive line and going to ground. The best I've ever seen Wilson play (comparatively speaking) was as the No 6 for the Aus U20s side. He played wider or down the blind side and regularly split the defence. He doesn't do that at SRP (Super Rugby Pacific) or test level.
 

RugbyReg

Rocky Elsom (76)
Staff member
As I have said about Wilson previously, one of his key assets which is largely overlooked, is when he takes the hit up in the middle, he gets that ball back and presented so quick. As others have pointed out, and has been shown statistically by RugbyPass, the quick ruck ball is a vital aspect of the Reds play this year. Wilson's work in attack is vital to this.
 

Derpus

Nathan Sharpe (72)
Didn't he also end up with quite high post contact metres last year?

Regardless, Valetini's impact for the Wallabies was minimal last year. He was used in extremely predictable situations, often multiple times a game, and was easily accounted for.
 

stillmissit

Peter Johnson (47)
But battering ram is what Harry W mostly seems to play. I agree he has other skills, but most of his involvements in a game are hitting up to the defensive line and going to ground. The best I've ever seen Wilson play (comparatively speaking) was as the No 6 for the Aus U20s side. He played wider or down the blind side and regularly split the defence. He doesn't do that at SRP (Super Rugby Pacific) (Super Rugby Pacific) or test level.
BR, I think the silly bugger was trying to do a bobbieV and failing. I understand Kiss has told him to use his step and offloads and he seems to be performing better for it.
 
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TSR

Andrew Slack (58)
But battering ram is what Harry W mostly seems to play. I agree he has other skills, but most of his involvements in a game are hitting up to the defensive line and going to ground. The best I've ever seen Wilson play (comparatively speaking) was as the No 6 for the Aus U20s side. He played wider or down the blind side and regularly split the defence. He doesn't do that at SRP (Super Rugby Pacific) (Super Rugby Pacific) or test level.
But I don’t think that’s true BR. Especially not this year. In the last two weeks alone he has thrown the last pass in two tries and on the weekend he threw the second last pass in two more aswell - albeit both from the back of rucks but one was a very good one hand flick. Not to mention his between the legs feed to McDermott for his try v the Chiefs. He has thrown 17 passes in the last two weekends and a lot of those are running good support lines and a lot of those are out wide. (And we are only talking attack here. He also has both work rate and accuracy in defence and also seems to be doing his share of the breakdown work).

I don’t think characterising him as a battering ram captures even half of what he does.
 
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stillmissit

Peter Johnson (47)
Didn't he also end up with quite high post contact metres last year?

Regardless, Valetini's impact for the Wallabies was minimal last year. He was used in extremely predictable situations, often multiple times a game, and was easily accounted for.
I don't think Valetini thrives on playing that RL-style player. I suspect there is more to him that has not been unlocked but I could be wrong, he doesn't strike me as a dumb 'take it up the middle' player but is just doing what the coaches have wanted him to do.
 
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