Welcome fellow GAGRs, a bit of a let down last weekend and so now with a week off to hopefully get some injured players back we can start looking forward to the next round of Rugby Championship games. We’ll both be home and so that should at least add a bit in our favour. I’m pretty sure that at the start of the year if you’d told me the Wallabies would win one against SA at their home and only narrowly lose the 2nd I would have gladly accepted it. So while we are all disappointed the clean sweep didn’t occur, the Wallabies are looking good. Certainly looking better than my beloved ABs. I’m not sure Razor’s coaching plan is being fully implemented yet and he seems a little bit off the pace. The strangest thing for me is that I was expecting a few more changes to the team roster and he almost seems a bit gun shy with making the changes that are needed. While I can understand the need to cover for injury, he dropped a few players for good reasons and bringing them back is not a good move going forward. We need to look to the future not be chained down by looking back into the past and for me that has been the biggest disappointment so far in his coaching. Let’s hope he gets over this and we take the Boks down in NZ.
The Puma’s are looking good and while NZ didn’t were poor, that is not taking away anything from the Puma’s who played very well. They have big strong forwards who love to contest, fast backs who make good decisions and they have a good kicking game as well as a varied attack. The Wallabies should win at home, but they will need to be on top of their game for the whole time or it could go badly. While I was disappointed with the ABs, I am loving the contest and knowing that there is a real contest with either team being able to win certainly makes the games more exciting – if slightly frustrating at times.
Final fixtures confirmed for Super Rugby AUS, U19s and U16s competitions
Reported here in Rugby.com.au by Nick W, RA have locked in the Australian domestic rugby calendar. Following in the footsteps of the National Rugby Championship and Super Rugby AU, the inaugural Super Rugby AUS season will run across four weeks, kicking off on Friday, 12th September and concluding on Sunday, 5th October. The competition includes Super Rugby Australia, Super Rugby Mens U19 and U 16 teams. The Super Rugby sides will play out of several suburban grounds as double headers with the existing Super Rugby Men’s U19s competition.
The Super Rugby Men’s U16s will start two weeks later, overlapping with the final regular season round of the AUS and U19s competition, and will run from Saturday, 27th September until Sunday, 2nd November. Both the Brumbies and Western Force have confirmed their squads for the upcoming senior competition, while the Waratahs and Reds will announce theirs following this weekend’s Shute Shield and Hospital Cup deciders. All games of Super Rugby AUS, Super Rugby U19 and Super Rugby U16 will be broadcast live on Stan Sport and the rugby.com.au YouTube channel.
While this is a pretty good initiative and will give players some extra game time that will help their development, I’m very disappointed that there are no Women’s games in this competition. The Wallaroos are doing really well but the lack of quality game time is hurting their development. With the RWC on right now and being held in Australia next, I thought that RA would put a lot more effort into the development of the women’s game. I was talking to a women’s coach last weekend and he was telling me the reason they go off and play NRLW and AFLW is all down to the money. They can get $30K for playing NRLW or nothing for joining the local women’s competition. Not a hard decision for them and while I understand the financial pressures that RA faces, I’m sure they can do better. After all there were a lot of players that had a well funded tour of South Africa without having to do any actual work and maybe taking a smaller squad and having players on standby in Australia just might be a better solution in this tight financial time.
Skelton out of Rugby Championship in (another) blow to Wallabies
Reported here in the shouty site by our favourite Christy D, and in Planet Rugby here by Jared W, it appears Will Skelton will be leaving the wallabies and heading back to La Rochelle for the start of their season against Bordeaux. Skelton had planned on staying with the team hoping he would extend his stay in the Rugby Championships saying “We are having ongoing conversations about what the rest of the Rugby Championship looks like. We will have a think this week and have a chat with the brains trust and see what we get to.” However, it is no surprise that Skelton’s hand has been forced. After the European heavyweights missed the Top 14 playoffs last weekend following a dramatic final round of the regular season, Skelton was always likely to be needed by head coach Ronan O’Gara. He saw first-hand Skelton’s influence against the British and Irish Lions and described the Australian lock as his biggest signing since joining La Rochelle.
After the games against the Lions, he then started in both Tests against the Springboks in South Africa, which saw the Wallabies post their first win at Ellis Park in 62 years. They then took it to the back-to-back world champions once again in Cape Town falling short by 8 points. The Wallabies showed that their growing forward pack could go toe-for-toe with the Boks and now need to tame Felipe Contepomi’s Los Pumas, who are flying high after securing their maiden win over the All Blacks in Argentina, without his presence. The article then goes on with a lot of over stated pundits that makes it surprising he doesn’t walk on water and turn water into wine. Who replaces Skelton remains to be seen, but it’s likely Schmidt will give Lukhan Salakaia-Loto another opportunity to show that he belongs on the international stage after being unused during the opening six Tests of the year. Salakaia-Loto’s strong form did see Schmidt recall the heavy-hitting lock for the trip to South Africa, but the experienced coach kept faith in second-row trio Skelton, Nick Frost and Jeremy Williams. When Skelton next plays for the Wallabies remains to be seen, with Schmidt’s side still to play another nine Tests in 2025.
The Wallabies will play Japan on their way to Great Britain and Europe, with Schmidt’s side to take on England, Italy, Ireland and France. The end-of-year Tests shape as significant ones in the Wallabies’ quest to finish in the top six of the World Rugby rankings – a feat that would ensure they are seeded ahead of the 2027 World Cup draw. “The volume he plays, and he’s certainly contracted beyond there with La Rochelle, so I think it’s realistic that he remains part of the conversation,” Schmidt said of Skelton’s 2027 RWC prospects.
Now no one here will be surprised at my lack of concern with the subject in these two articles. I personally think Skelton is over rated and have yet to see any of these punishing runs that clear other players like skittles, or see him destroy opposition mauls and rucks. I’m obviously just not watching at the right time, but have just not seen it. Last weekend I thought one of the Wallabies biggest issues was Hooper, Valetini and Frost all running out of puff because they had to cover for the lack of plays by both Skelton and Tupou who went missing during the game. For me I’d have both Darcy Swain and Jeremy Williams as the starting locks. While Frost and others are also very good and would be in my team ahead of Skelton, I think those two just complement each other so well. They understand what the other is doing and seemed to be able to predict what was going on so that they could support each other. I think the sum of the two of them together is greater than the sum individually of any two other locks and for me they’d start with others coming in to rotate them out.
French rugby giants want to make All Blacks star Ardie Savea ‘highest-paid player in history
In a move that will please many here in Australia, Stuff reports here that French rugby giants Racing 92 are chasing All Blacks loose forward Ardie Savea. The 31-year-old loose forward is reportedly top of Racing’s shopping list and they’re prepared to pay top dollar. Savea is contracted to New Zealand Rugby through to the end of 2027 but the French club is keen to get in early and grab his signature.
According to The Daily Telegraph in Australia, Racing are willing to make him the “highest-paid player in rugby history”, eclipsing the deals handed to Dan Carter and Matt Giteau in Japan. Savea, the 2023 World Rugby 15’s Player of the Year, played for Moana Pasifika in Super Rugby Pacific this year but will return to play for Japanese club Kobelco Steelers in 2026.
In recent years, Racing 92 have signed players like Springboks captain Siya Kolisi and English star Owen Farrell. Dan Carter headed to France to play for them after winning the World Cup in 2015. He spent three years there before moving to Kobelco Steelers in 2018.
Savea has played 99 tests for New Zealand.
To be fair to Racing 92, getting Savea on board is a good move for any team. He almost single handedly took Moana Pasifika up the table in our Super competition and has been an outstanding player for the ABs for the last few years. In fact in Argentina he was one of the few who added to his reputation in that debacle of a last game. I just hope that he gets a clause in his contract that allows him to be selected for the ABs regardless of where he plays. I personally think he should be the AB captain and play at 8 rather than 7.
