Friday’s Rugby News sees the Wallabies and Force squad for the weekend, club corner, Schmidt showing respect to Aussie young guns and Stewart taking no chances.
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Wallaby Way
The Wallabies announced their squad yesterday for the first test against Ireland in Brisbane, with a couple of surprises thrown in.
Brandon Paenga-Amosa and Caleb Timu will debut in the starting side, while man-of-the-hour Pete Samu has been named to debut off the bench.
Aside from that, Michael Cheika is going for experience over potential, with the likes of Sekope Kepu earning starts over Taniela Topou. The Pooper has also been recalled into the squad.
Wallabies Squad:
1. Scott Sio (43 Tests)
2. Brandon Paenga-Amosa*
3. Sekope Kepu (91 Tests)
4. Izack Rodda (4 Tests)
5. Adam Coleman (20 Tests)
6. David Pocock (66 Tests)
7. Michael Hooper (c) (79 Tests)
8. Caleb Timu*
9. Will Genia (88 Tests)
10. Bernard Foley (55 Tests)
11. Dane Haylett-Petty (18 Tests)
12. Kurtley Beale (71 Tests)
13. Samu Kerevi (18 Tests)
14. Marika Koroibete (8 Tests)
15. Israel Folau (62 Tests)
Reserves
16. Tolu Latu (4 Tests)
17. Allan Alaalatoa (23 Tests)
18. Taniela Tupou (1 Test)
19. Rob Simmons (82 Tests)
20. Lukhan Tui (4 Tests)
21. Pete Samu*
22. Nick Phipps (61 Tests)
23. Reece Hodge (24 Tests)
The Irish also named their squad yesterday, and will ease their bigger stars into the squad after what has been a long rugby season.
If there is any time for the Wallabies to pounce, it is now. There are a lot of young guns in this Ireland side, but more than half the starting side was the team that beat England to win the Grand Slam. If the Wallabies don’t take their chances and the Irish grind them down, it’s going to be a long series.
Check out our Wallabies-Ireland preview here.
Outside of the international window, the other match of the week sees the return of World Series Rugby in the west. The Western Force are coming up against the likes of the Melbourne Rebels, in what will arguably be the first big test for the resurgent Force.
The first two games were encouraging, but if this squad knocks over a current Super Rugby franchise, then heads will really begin to turn.
The Force have named four changes to the side that knocked over Tonga, with Heath Tessmann, Peter Grant, AJ Alatimu and Henry Taefu coming into the starting lineup. There will also be several changes to the reserves bench.
Force Squad: Harry Lloyd, Heath Tessmann, Chris Heiberg, Fergus lee-Warner, Johan Bardoul, Tevin Ferris, Chris Alcock, Brynard Stander, Ian Prior (c), Andrew Deegan, Brad Lacey, AJ Alatimu, Henry Taefu, Rod Davies, Peter Grant. Reserves: Feleti Kaitu’u, Markus Vanzati, Tom Sheminant, Leon Power, Harrison Orr, Issak Fines-Leleiwasa, George Pisi, Clay Uyen.
The Rebels have named eight former Force players in their squad, including Nathan Charles, Matt Philip and Billy Meakes. Some exciting Shute Shield talent has also been named in the reserves as well, showing the Stockade are willing to give the young-uns a run.
Rebels Squad: Tom Moloney, Nathan Charles, Pone Fa’amausili, Sam Jeffries, Matt Philip, Ross Haylett–Petty, Richard Hardwick, Angus Cottrell, Harrison Goddard, Tayler Adams, Henry Hutchinson, Billy Meakes, Tom English (c), Kiti Ratu, Jack Debreczeni. Reserves: Matt Gibbons, Andrew Tuala, Jermaine Ainsley, Nick Champion de Crespigny, Rohan O’Reagan, Jack Johnson, Michael Ruru, Hunter Paisami, Jack McGregor.
This is going to be a tight one to call. I guess, it could be argued that World Series Rugby really rests on this result. If the Force win, it’ll pick up the attention of nearly everyone as to the potential such a competition could have for Aussie rugby. I however think the Rebels will be a tough game even without a few of their star players.
Check out our Force-Rebels preview here.
The other internationals we’ll see this weekend will include an exciting prospect between Japan and Italy, Les Bleus will look to pull off an unlikely win against the All Blacks, the Springboks will look to make up for their loss last weekend when they play England, the Pumas will host a riding high Welsh team, the USA will host Russia in a political-free affair, and Canada will round off the first week when they host Scotland in Edmonton.
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Club Corner
A lot of club competitions will have the week off while the Wallabies play, however we kick off with the club competitions that will still be kicking on this weekend.
Starting off, the rugby continues in Brisbane this weekend despite the fact that the Wallabies are playing over at Suncorp, with the Hospital Challenge Cup set to play out round nine this weekend. Round eight saw Easts knock over University of Queensland 38-27, GPS pump Brothers 42-19, Wests lose 21-48 at home to Bond Uni, and Norths grabbing a much needed 32-24 win over Sunnybank.
Round Nine Fixtures:
University of Queensland v Brothers
Easts v Souths
Bond University v GPS
Sunnybank v Wests
Norths will have the bye.
The rugby also continues on over in WA, with the Fortescue Metals Group Premier Grade heading on into round nine after having a week off last week.
Round Nine Fixtures:
Palmyra v Kalamunda
Wests Scarborough v Cottesloe
Nedlands v Associates
Coastal Cavaliers v UWA
Southern Lions v Perth Bayswater
ARKs v Wanneroo Districts
Joondalup will have the bye. Lucky buggers will get two weeks off.
And lastly down in Canberra, the John I Dent Cup presented a few surprises in round nine, with Uni-Norths knocking over Gungahlin 25-24, Queanbeyan going down to Tuggeranong 15-22, and Wests getting done over by Easts in their own backyard, 13-42.
Round Ten will, like round eight, see only two matches played.
Round Ten Fixtures:
Easts v Uni-Norths
Royals v Wests
Queanbeyan, Tuggeranong and Gungahlin will have the bye.
As for the competitions taking the weekend off we start in Sydney, where the ninth round of the Shute Shield saw Wests go down 11-24 to the Rats, Southern Districts pull off a upset 23-10 win over Northern Suburbs, Manly getting the job done with a 45-17 win over a resilient Gordon, Eastwood defeating Sydney University in a classic match at TG Millner 32-29, and finally the Wicks rolling Parramatta in the west, 7-35.
Round Ten will kick off next Saturday, June 16th.
Over in South Australia, the Coopers Premier Grade played out round six last week, with Old Collegians going down 29-30 to Brighton, Souths got pumped 17-56 by Burnside, and Woodville got similar treatment, going down 12-55 to Onkaparinga.
Round Seven will kick off next Saturday, June 16th.
And finally in Melbourne, the Dewar Shield saw a couple of big results over Round Seven, with Box Hill going down to Moorabbin 35-39, Melbourne eventually overcoming a determined Footscray 40-25, Uni playing out a 15-15 draw with Power House and Endeavour Hills getting pummelled 10-50 by Harlequins.
Round Eight will kick off next Saturday, June 16th.
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Cheeky Schmidt
There’s been a lot of chat around the Wallabies squad, and unsurprisingly one bloke who has a particular interest in the squad is Ireland’s coach Joe Schmidt.
Channelling his inner Eddie Jones, Schmidt defended his decision to rest key players like Johnny Sexton, Tadhg Furlong and Cian Healy for the first test, saying the decision wasn’t done out of disrespect to the hosts.
“Some of those [Irish] guys have had some reasonably tough weeks and it was an opportunity, really,” Schmidt said to rugby.com.au.
“One of the things with Joey (Carbery) is that we really wanted to get him out there at some stage and we thought the best window was to give him the longest preparation window as possible.
“We decided that it was an opportunity that would probably be more difficult to engineer later in the tour because the longest window of preparation – we trained last Thursday in Dublin and then really trained fully on Tuesday and Thursday of this week.
“It was trying to get a balance.”
Schmidt had a lot of positive things to say about the Wallaby squad, particularly the inclusion of several young-guns.
“It’s no surprise to see someone like Caleb Timu there,” he added.
“Watching him come on for his cameo against the Waratahs on the weekend – it was absolutely blockbusting – as it has been for most of the Super Rugby season.
“Paenga-Amosa, again, probably with the injury to Jordan Uelese it was something that forced upon Cheik but at the same time, it’s a really good opportunity.
“I think young Rodda has really impressed – I remember talking to Brad Thorn when I came over in January to have a look at where we might stay and how we might manage this look at the tour and he mentioned him to me then before the Super Rugby season had started.
“I have kept an eye on him since then and he has really impressed as a young man who is, potentially, going to be in the Wallabies for a long time.”
There was one player though that Schmidt admitted the Irish will have to work hard to pin down.
“We have seen enough of Israel Folau, a number of our lads have played against him a few times and it’s funny – it’s one of the things that people perceive we are good at but I don’t think there is anyone in world rugby that is as good Israel Folau in the air,” he said.
“How do you combat it? I think you’ve just got to go up and do the best you can.”
Tickets for the Brisbane test are still available. For more information, click here.
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Dun give ’em any scraps!
The Junior Wallabies (the Joeys?) have had a tough campaign so far in France, and will face New Zealand in a must win pool clash to keep their campaign alive.
Reds stalwart Hamish Stewart has arrived as an injury replacement, but made it clear that they’ll need to shut down a Kiwi side that ‘lives off scraps’ when he spoke to rugby.com.au.
“New Zealand, they’re very skillful, they live off the scraps and that’s what we’re trying to counter,” he said.
“Our defence will be pretty crucial to try and knock their big forwards down and hopefully if we can knock their forwards down then we’ve got sharp backs, so hopefully we can execute on the sideline.”
Stewart’s arrival couldn’t be at a better time. The youngster has become part of the furniture at the Reds this season, with his efforts including masterminding a gutsy win against the highest ranked Saffa team, the Lions, and producing some solid rugby ever since.
He was the Junior Wallabies’ chief playmaker last year, but then again, back then he hadn’t had much Super Rugby experience.
“It’s a very quick game, Super Rugby, especially with the players who are around,” he said.
“Obviously working a lot harder and you have to think a lot quicker because you don’t get that much time, so that Super Rugby experience has really benefited me a lot.”
One thing that Stewart still needs to improve on though is answering his phone. Michael Cheika invited Stewart to the Wallaby camp as part of their preparations for the Ireland series. However, Stewart missed the call.
The two eventually did link up, but when Stewart received the call to go overseas, Cheika told him that takes priority.
“I did miss his call, which was a bit of a shame,” Stewart said.
“He just told me that I might be needed for the Wallabies training camp and then I got the call for the U20s so he said that takes priority, so that’s about all.”
The Junior Wallabies play New Zealand on Friday morning at 5am. That probably means, by the time you read this, the game will have already finished.
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