Wallabies 2024

[Derpus]

Burgess was a flop, playing 12. He could have been a sensational #6, but that would have taken more time of course.

I thought they had him training at flanker with Bath and then suddenly switched him to centre for England's world cup tilt IIRC. Bit bizarre.

I actually think he went alright considering.

 

[JRugby2]

Check out Quade’s Insta…. It’s all about him… great rugby player in certain moments… not sure I’d be asking him any advice. Bernard Foley however is on Between two Posts and is excellent in explaining the complexities of playing 10. He’d be a bloke I’d listen to.

Why is the way he chooses to express himself on social media relevant to his skills and experiences as a professional footballer? Or reflective of the quality of advice he could give to a young, up-and-coming professional at a career cross-roads? The fact you're citing this as a reason why someone shouldn't listen to his advice says waaaay more about you then Quade.

Foley would also be a great source of information - but if your barrier for entry is be on a rugby podcast and give your personal opinion on {topic}, then hate to break it to ya but Quade's done that too.

 

[Alex Sharpe]

You’ve just shown it again. League would absolutely not have been on Carter‘s radar growing up on the South Island of NZ.

JOC (James O'Connor) (James O'Connor) and Quade played the sport and would have followed it as well; it’s absolutely reasonable that they have an attachment to it.

I hate to break this to you but most professional players play both growing up. They tend to pick the one that gives them the best opportunity not sentiment.

Hard to figure out what you are more in love with. Rugby League or your own expert opinion.

I think it’s poor form for for two ex Wallabies who, as you so brilliantly said, were given an opportunity and a career in rugby to encourage junior Wallabies to switch codes. Especially considering the state of the game in Australia at the moment.

I may not be an elite football analyst like you seem to think you are but that’s thats what I think. Time to move the convo on

 

[Yoda]

Why is the way he chooses to express himself on social media relevant to his skills and experiences as a professional footballer? Or reflective of the quality of advice he could give to a young, up-and-coming professional at a career cross-roads? The fact you're citing this as a reason why someone shouldn't listen to his advice says waaaay more about you then Quade.

Foley would also be a great source of information - but if your barrier for entry is be on a rugby podcast and give your personal opinion on {topic}, then hate to break it to ya but Quade's done that too.

Yes Jrugby 2 you got me. Call me old school but I just don’t get why the young need to put everything they do in life on social media as though anyone really gives a f.ck? I only looked at his Instagram to see what rugby stuff he might have commented on … but I was surprised with the content. Look, Quade may be a great source of information too, so I was wrong to say what I posted. Bernard did speak well on the Stan show though.

 

[Italophile]

I thought they had him training at flanker with Bath and then suddenly switched him to centre for England's world cup tilt IIRC. Bit bizarre.

I actually think he went alright considering.

He played as a flanker for Bath, never at 12. England (well, Lancaster) wanted him to play 12. Partly because they were well served for 6s and a bit thin in the 12 department. It played out against a backdrop of some fury over a RL lad being fast-tracked into a rugby Test jersey because they'd spent a lot of money buying him from RL. For a fella with so limited rugby experience he was pretty effective at 12. The shit hit the fan when he was subbed off late in the game against (from memory) Wales and England lost. He was blamed. Yet England were leading when he was subbed. He'd rightly had enough and returned to RL.

 

[Yoda]

He played as a flanker for Bath, never at 12. England (well, Lancaster) wanted him to play 12. Partly because they were well served for 6s and a bit thin in the 12 department. It played out against a backdrop of some fury over a RL lad being fast-tracked into a rugby Test jersey because they'd spent a lot of money buying him from RL. For a fella with so limited rugby experience he was pretty effective at 12. The shit hit the fan when he was subbed off late in the game against (from memory) Wales and England lost. He was blamed. Yet England were leading when he was subbed. He'd rightly had enough and returned to RL.

Yes… I thought with such little time in rugby he bloody killed it. The way they blamed him for the Poms early exit was appalling… the Pom rugby hierarchy are a bunch of knobs. Mad Eddie wanted him to stay in rugby. He definitely would have improved and been a great rugby player.

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

Why is the way he chooses to express himself on social media relevant to his skills and experiences as a professional footballer? Or reflective of the quality of advice he could give to a young, up-and-coming professional at a career cross-roads? The fact you're citing this as a reason why someone shouldn't listen to his advice says waaaay more about you then Quade.

Foley would also be a great source of information - but if your barrier for entry is be on a rugby podcast and give your personal opinion on {topic}, then hate to break it to ya but Quade's done that too.

Yes Jrugby 2 you got me. Call me old school but I just don’t get why the young need to put everything they do in life on social media as though anyone really gives a f.ck? I only looked at his Instagram to see what rugby stuff he might have commented on … but I was surprised with the content. Look, Quade may be a great source of information too, so I was wrong to say what I posted. Bernard did speak well on the Stan show though.

Yeah I think his social media is pretty wank but at the end of the day it's his personal account and how he chooses to use it is up to him. That's only my opinion who isn't much of a user or fan of the platforms so who cares what I think.

He's going to get far more use or professional opportunities out of it which probably shapes he'd use it also.

 

[Strewthcobber]

So I re-watched the famous 26-phase play from last week - stats below

* Started at 15m, finished with a kick on the 42m.
* Net loss of 27m. Korobiete ran back the dropout afterwards to the 39m line, so you could argue it was -24m

* 19 one off passes from half, mostly to forwards. Almost none got over ad-line
* 7 2xphase (mostly Lolesio passing it on)
* 1 4xpass phase, (11th phase) which did look pretty dangerous
* Lolesio touched it 7 times, kicked it twice and passed it on 4 of those.
* Almost the only advance up the field was Korobiete's signature place the ball and pick-up move

Argentina were starting offside, in front of the last foot, on virtually every play

 

[Derpus]

So I re-watched the famous 26-phase play from last week - stats below

* Started at 15m, finished with a kick on the 42m.
* Net loss of 27m. Korobiete ran back the dropout afterwards to the 39m line, so you could argue it was -24m

* 19 one off passes from half, mostly to forwards. Almost none got over ad-line
* 7 2xphase (mostly Lolesio passing it on)
* 1 4xpass phase, (11th phase) which did look pretty dangerous
* Lolesio touched it 7 times, kicked it twice and passed it on 4 of those.
* Almost the only advance up the field was Korobiete's signature place the ball and pick-up move

Argentina were starting offside, in front of the last foot, on virtually every play

It's been like this basically every ruck in every match since England developed the so called 'rush defence' which really just means encroaching as a team rather than individually.

It's weird that they aren't way harder on the offside line because encroaching is the number one way to ensure fuck all is going to happen all match and it's pretty detrimental to the sport as a spectacle.

Maybe they could try setting the offside line further behind the ruck. Wonder if anyone's tried that before...

 

[House is on Fire]

So I re-watched the famous 26-phase play from last week - stats below

* Started at 15m, finished with a kick on the 42m.
* Net loss of 27m. Korobiete ran back the dropout afterwards to the 39m line, so you could argue it was -24m

* 19 one off passes from half, mostly to forwards. Almost none got over ad-line
* 7 2xphase (mostly Lolesio passing it on)
* 1 4xpass phase, (11th phase) which did look pretty dangerous
* Lolesio touched it 7 times, kicked it twice and passed it on 4 of those.
* Almost the only advance up the field was Korobiete's signature place the ball and pick-up move

Argentina were starting offside, in front of the last foot, on virtually every play

I've also watched this back and don't disagree with any of this, however I do think it's encouraging that they were able to retain the ball. They don't yet have the ability to subtly change the point of attack and target the cracks to make gains, whether that is about the shape and setup or about having the nous to see and exploit what is in front of them in real time I do not know. I hope to see them continue to improve in this regard.

Argentina also defended this very well (as per the referee's interpretations of the offside line). It's not easy to break down a solid defence early in the game, but at the very least they did force Argentina to make a hell of a lot of tackles.

 

[Strewthcobber]

I've also watched this back and don't disagree with any of this, however I do think it's encouraging that they were able to retain the ball.

A large part of this is Argentina weren't sending much pilfer pressure at all, and I think we were very lucky to regain the ball after the kick was blocked on the 14th and Koro had a loose carry on the 17th phase that probably should have been stolen by Arg.

What struck me is just how little ball playing there was. No pod play, only one out the back play from the forwards

They can all do it, we've seen it before. This is obviously Schmidt's current game plan.

But when you go back 1m for every carry because it's all just one up hitups straight into the defense it doesn't lead to many point scoring opportunities. A bit more deception required

 

[TSR]

Koribete has been our best winger for half a decade, and he was not much more then a run of the mill NRL player…

Koroibete was an excellent league winger.

 

[TSR]

Their fitness is on another level to Rugby players. It's the repeated efforts and time of play. Take a guy like Payne Haas if we are looking at premier players like Bell and Tupou. Over the 2023 season Haas had 4315 running meters (187m per game), 666 tackles and 113 tackle breaks. His tackle efficiency this year after 432 tackles is 98.2%. You can visually see the difference in the athletes as well. Built different. People can't shut up about how Etzebeth is built because it stands out in Rugby.

Very different sports. People think it's interchangeable but they are very different. I see comments about Timana Tahu who was a very good NRL player for a period of time but lost in Rugby but we've also had Cooper Vuna who was a very average NRL Winger who has since played Rugby for a decade and 18 Tests between Aus and Tonga.

You can see the difference because of the way the training and the type of game it is. You don’t see many of the league guys bench pressing the massive weights some of the Union guys do because it’s not nearly as important in terms of functional strength for them. You also don’t get guys with the same body mass because they’d never keep up. A guy like Haas (who is a freak) shouldn’t be compared to Bell and Tupou. His role is more like Valetini or Wilson. You’re right that Tupou & Bell would be left behind by Haas, but they’d fold him like a cheap suit in a scrum. It’s not a valid comparison.

 

[TSR]

He played as a flanker for Bath, never at 12. England (well, Lancaster) wanted him to play 12. Partly because they were well served for 6s and a bit thin in the 12 department. It played out against a backdrop of some fury over a RL lad being fast-tracked into a rugby Test jersey because they'd spent a lot of money buying him from RL. For a fella with so limited rugby experience he was pretty effective at 12. The shit hit the fan when he was subbed off late in the game against (from memory) Wales and England lost. He was blamed. Yet England were leading when he was subbed. He'd rightly had enough and returned to RL.

There was also a pretty significant issue in that he replaced George Ford at 12 whose dad, Mike, was assistant coach at the time. Pretty sure I recall in an interview later that Burgess revealed it caused a massive split and quite a lot of undermining.

 

[Derpus]

Koroibete was an excellent league winger.

Nah he had a terrible strike rate:

 

[TSR]

Nah he had a terrible strike rate:
View attachment 20492

I have no idea what a good strike rate is for a league winger. That doesn’t look terrible to me but I’ll take your word. But I do know he was a hard working player who was always on hand to do the tough yards on kick return and was better at it than a lot of other wingers at the time.

 

[LevitatingSocks]

Yeah I think his social media is pretty wank but at the end of the day it's his personal account and how he chooses to use it is up to him. That's only my opinion who isn't much of a user or fan of the platforms so who cares what I think.

He's going to get far more use or professional opportunities out of it which probably shapes he'd use it also.

Quade posts on instagram and tiktok like an 18 year old influencer. Down to the angel numbers in his bio with the "444".

It's all pretty weird considering he's 36.

But I don't think that invalidates his perspective on rugby and playing 10. He's been insightful and mature in some of his podcast interviews.

Being cross with Quade for not being a good soldier for RA is misplaced anger. We should really be asking what RA has done to earn the loyalty of players like Quade or Carter Gordon.

 

[Dctarget]

I have no idea what a good strike rate is for a league winger. That doesn’t look terrible to me but I’ll take your word. But I do know he was a hard working player who was always on hand to do the tough yards on kick return and was better at it than a lot of other wingers at the time.

He’s taking the piss

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

You can see the difference because of the way the training and the type of game it is. You don’t see many of the league guys bench pressing the massive weights some of the Union guys do because it’s not nearly as important in terms of functional strength for them. You also don’t get guys with the same body mass because they’d never keep up. A guy like Haas (who is a freak) shouldn’t be compared to Bell and Tupou. His role is more like Valetini or Wilson. You’re right that Tupou & Bell would be left behind by Haas, but they’d fold him like a cheap suit in a scrum. It’s not a valid comparison.

This aint true. Almost every NRL side would have multiple players benching near or over 200kg then expecting them to make 35 tackles.

Compare Haas to a Valetini or Wilson and he's bigger, fitter and faster than them. I love my Rugby even though it seems like I'm bashing them. Also saying a Rugby Prop would fold a league one is moot because of the technicalities of the position over the raw strength.

 

[Wilson]

This aint true. Almost every NRL side would have multiple players benching near or over 200kg then expecting them to make 35 tackles.

Compare Haas to a Valetini or Wilson and he's bigger, fitter and faster than them. I love my Rugby even though it seems like I'm bashing them. Also saying a Rugby Prop would fold a league one is moot because of the technicalities of the position over the raw strength.

I can't speak to the rest of the comp, but the bench press record for the Titans is 190kg, Cowboys 185kg, Dolphins 160kg, and the Broncos is 180kg. There was a fair bit of noise made when De Lutiis set the state record (for a pro-footballer) recently by benching 202.5kg:

https://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/sport/gold-coast-rugby-product-massimo-de-lutiis-produces-lift-for-the-ages-to-earn-incredible-honour/news-story/877a5523fb688d4807b2812089045bb3?amp

That said I don't really the comparisons across the codes like this are of much value, their conditioning and performance goals are different and these metrics have a fair bit of vanity to them anyway.