Tuesday 29 October 2024 #017
Good morning team, and welcome to Tuesday’s news. It’s a quiet time in Australian rugby, the Wallabies are in camp preparing for their northern tour and the Australia XV is getting ready for their shorter tour. There’s always something to talk about though including the location of next year’s Wallabies home test matches, some observations by Simon Cron about our forwards. And the Rugby Australia Awards 2024 finalists, which were announced today.
2025 Wallabies test matches
Rugby Australia announced the locations for the Rugby Championship test matches next year, and it’s great news for rugby fans in Perth as they’ll be hosting a Bledisloe Cup test for just the third time. The results to date have been split, with one win each, so it’s a pretty happy hunting ground for the Wallabies and hopefully they can get the job done. I thought it might be the ground with the best record for Australia, but it’s the Sydney Football Stadium where the Wallabies are 4 from 6. The test in Perth doesn’t happen 4 October 2025 though and there’s plenty of action before then.
The full set of Wallabies home test matches for next year includes:
British & Irish Lions Tour
Wallabies v British & Irish Lions, Saturday, 19 July at Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Wallabies v British & Irish Lions, Saturday, 26 July at Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne
Wallabies v British & Irish Lions, Saturday, 2 August at Accor Stadium, Sydney
The Rugby Championship/Bledisloe Cup
Wallabies v Argentina, Saturday, 6 September at Queensland Country Bank Stadium, Townsville
Wallabies v Argentina, Saturday, 13 September at Allianz Stadium, Sydney
Wallabies v New Zealand, Saturday, 4 October at Optus Stadium, Perth
I’m sure I’m not the only fan who thinks it would be good for the Wallabies to have a test or two before we play the Lions next year, so it will make the northern games and Super Rugby form next year more important.
It’s also great to see the Wallabies heading to Townsville to take on Argentina next year. The good folk of North Queensland love sport and there has always been a strong rugby community in Townsville, so it should be a wonderful occasion.
The piggies
It feels like we should be grateful that Rugby Australia has secured the services of Mike Cron to coach the Wallabies forwards this year as we head north for a potential Grand Slam before facing the might of the British & Irish Lions in 2025.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported: “In the run-up to the spring tour, Cron has had the opportunity to work closely with the majority of his front-rowers, having watched Allan Alaalatoa, Angus Bell, Matt Faessler, Brandon Paenga-Amosa, James Slipper, Isaac Kailea and Billy Pollard compete at Test level. He is also familiar with versatile Western Force prop Tom Robertson, who has returned from his sabbatical at Oxford University.
However, he admitted being surprised at the skills gap in the scrum when he started his role with the Wallabies. “I was surprised with some of the skills they probably needed, probably at a younger age, and we just had to go back a wee bit to make sure we nailed that and bring them through,” Cron said
The gulf between the starting props – Angus Bell at loosehead and Taniela Tupou at tighthead – and their replacements is massive in terms of scrum stability. Cron has watched Tupou since his schooldays at Auckland’s Sacred Heart College and describes him as “probably the most explosive prop I’ve ever coached”. But in the Rugby Championship, Tupou averaged just 42 minutes on the field, compared to 49 minutes for Bell. Cron is not concerned about getting more minutes out of Tupou, but is interested in listening to the prop and ensuring he is providing the best work he can in the time he is on the field.
Cron believes the Wallabies front row will be able to stand up to any challenge thrown at them in Twickenham, given their bruising encounters across the Rugby Championship. “From where they started, they’ve done well, and now we go into another baptism of fire up there,” Cron said. “You just go towards it, and I’m sure they’ll do well.”
My opinion, this just demonstrates why we need more players playing more games at the professional level to choose from. Sure, we need to make sure the code doesn’t actually go broke, but the lack of a third tier and proper development pathways for young players to mature in, or for mature players to improve in, remains our biggest structural problem in Australian rugby.
You can’t say that our athletes aren’t as physically capable, and talented as the other countries, they just don’t have an environment that gives them the time and space, and coaching to be the best players they could be.
Rugby Australia Awards – Finalists
The Rugby Australia Awards night is on Wednesday night and the finalists were announced by Nathan Williamson over at rugby.com.au here.
In addition to Super Rugby awards for the men’s and women’s teams, the major awards will be:
John Eales Medal
Fraser McReight
Rob Valetini
Harry Wilson
You’d have to think that Rob Valetini would be the favourite given the number of games he has played this year, and the consistency of his play, but McReight and Wilson were also excellent.
Wallaroos Player of the Year
Ash Marsters
Maya Stewart
Tabua Tuinakauvadra
This is harder to pick than a broken nose, Tuinakauvadra gets through a ton of work, Marsters has been excellent, but Maya Stewart has been phenomenal on the wing for the Wallaroos and is my pick.
Shawn Mackay Medal
Men’s
Ben Dowling
Nathan Lawson
Dietrich Roache
Women’s
Madison Ashby
Madison Levi
Faith Nathan
I’m going with the try scorers in the Sevens so it’s Nathan Lawson and Madison Levi.
Try of the Year.
There’re six great tries to choose from in the video.
1. Maya Stewart v ACT Brumbies
2. Desiree Miller v Melbourne Rebels
2. Maddison Levi v France (Hong Kong Bronze Medal match)
3. Tim Ryan v Blues
4. Filipo Daugunu v Wales (first Test)
5. Tom Wright v Wales (second Test)
6. Maya Stewart v Wales (WXV)
It’s hard to go past the Aussie 7s try with Maddison Levi scoring against France, with Daugunu’s in second place, but they are all worth a look.
We’ll see how I went when they announce the winners on Wednesday night.
That’s a wrap
That’s it for this week, as always, thanks for reading today’s ramblings, and I look forward to the comments section.
