25 February 2025
Good morning G&GRs, welcome to the Tuesday news. It’s good to have you back; if you’re new to the site, welcome, we hope you enjoy it.
It was a massive weekend of rugby with Super Rugby, 6 Nations, and the Sevens tournament in Vancouver. If you want a recap of the the games, then check out the Monday News here.
The focus of today is picking an Australian team of the week based on my watching the Australian games and some consultation with the other G&GR writers. We’ll also take a quick look at the Super Rugby Fantasy ladder.
Team of the Week
My picks for the week are below. I’m keeping a running tally each week, and have made some adjustments to last week’s team following discussions with Dave, Rob Hill and Nutta in the comments. It was a difficult round to compare the performance of the Australian teams; how does Queensland’s big victory against Moana compare to the tight game of the Brumbies v Force? Yellow cards also came into it, with some players missing out because of their cheeses.
Virtual Wallabies team of the week, week 2.
- Marley Pearce – was busy in defence and held the scrum up well against the Brumbies.
- Matt Faessler – brought an increased level of control when he came on, and scored a good try to add to his tally.
- Massimo de Lutiis – the young bull was good on debut, the scrum was solid and made his tackles and hit rucks.
- Nick Frost – there’s nothing quite like watching Nick breaking out downfield and he was also busy both sides of the ball.
- Darcy Swain – his inside knowledge seemed to disrupt the Brumbies. Ryan Smith, and Jeremy Williams were both very good as well, except for their respective yellow cards.
- Charlie Cale – picked him out of position, but I thought that he was very good.
- Carlo Tizzano – gets the nod over Fraser McReight for his defensive efforts, try scoring and importantly, not getting a yellow card.
- Harry Wilson – like McReight, big Harry seemed to be everywhere against Moana, including line breaks, support play and throwing the last pass to Harry MP for a late try.
- Tate McDermott – His early involvements led to two early tries, one from close range and one from a kick receipt.
- Tom Lynagh – edges out Ben Donaldson this week with a very good all around performance, missed one tackle on the Moana winger but not many would make that tackle.
- Filipo Daugunu – ran for more than 100 metres, scored a try from close range, and helped to set up another with a bruising run and great delivery to Fraser McReight.
- Ollie Sapsford – of the inside centres, seemed to be the most threatening with ball in hand. Edges out Stewart this week.
- Sio Tomkinson – the Force outside centre got a sublime offload away for Dolly to score an early try. Not the defensive rock that Stewart is, but held the line.
- Harry Potter – his intercept, followed by denying the Brumbies a try at the other end, was a magical start to the game. Edges out Pietsch because of the yellow card.
- Jock Campbell – went with Jock, but overall, the Australian fullbacks were not at their best on the weekend. with poor passes, missed tackles, and silly errors afflicting all of them.
- Nic Dolly – his hands on the run to score the first try were quite amazing.
- Blake Schoupp -it’s harder to notice the props on the replay and the mini game, but Schoupp was trying to get among the action.
- Allan Alaalatoa – 7As was his usual excellent self, and played 77 minutes before being replaced.
- Angus Blyth – the big man from Queensland helped to right he ship when he came on with lineout steals and a try for good measure.
- Fraser McReight – saw yellow for an attempted steal on half time, but was otherwise superb. Threw the last pass to Ryan Smith for a try and scored one himself
- Ryan Lonegran – seemed to be in the best parts of the Brumbies play.
- Ben Donaldson – shaded by Tom Lynagh this week, but another good performance including flawless goal kicking.
- Dylan Pietsch – was abrasive, ran hard and tackled well all game. His try from a cross field kick was superb, but his efforts were a little undone by his yellow card.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
Super Rugby Fantasy
So, week 2 saw some big movement in the super rugby fantasy league with Happyman and Hoss scoring 2nd and 7th place for the week.
Bigmaso had another solid round and stays atop the leader board with a pretty handy lead. Happyman is the best of the G&GR authors in 54th place, and as you can see, yours truly seems to have little idea about what he’s doing.
That’s it for another Tuesday. Thanks again for getting this far, see you in the comments section.
Cheers, RAWF
