Tuesday’s Rugby News: the Wallabies have a cunning plan to down the ABs, Pocock and McMahon might be back, Eddie Jones wants everyone to do their own thing, and Marika Koroibete is in line to play for the Barbarians.
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Wallabies New Plan
The Wallabies have a plan for their next game, a heavy loss against the All Blacks at Eden Park on 22 October. Holding a skull and lamenting “alas, poor Australian rugby scene”, Michael Hooper said the Wallabies shouldn’t be “dramatising” the third and final Bledisloe test.
“It’s just important to think about the footy,” Hooper said (via the SMH). “The more you dramatise the stadium and the field and how long it’s been since we’ve won there, the more you’re making it like it’s a thing when you’re not meant to. At the end of the day, it’s the same pitch, four sticks, same tryline. That’s how we’ve got to face it and go into it.
“They’re the best team in the world at the moment so they don’t need any more confidence than where they’re at. They’ve got a great history where we’re playing them in two weeks’ time. It’s on us as usual.”
Since the last time Australia played New Zealand, the Wallabies have won 3 out of 4 games. Their 33-21 win over Los Pumas meant that the Wallabies finished 2nd in the Rugby Championship. As such, the boys in gold and green feel a tad more confident about themselves.
“We’ve had four games now since we last played them. We’ve learnt a lot as a team, on and off the field, so we’re much better equipped and pumped to play them,” Hooper said. “We’ve got some good things going, a few guys in some great form, so to take that into New Zealand would be awesome.”
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Backrow Might Be Back
Michael Cheika is saying that both David Pocock and Sean McMahon might be back for next Wallabies test on 22 October.
Pocock broke his hand in Perth against Argentina while McMahon did his ankle playing in South Africa, with Lopeti Timani and Leroy Houston took their place at no. 8 on the weekend in London.
“There’s a chance both of them could be back,” Cheika told the SMH. “We have to get back home to wait and see. Both have got situations that towards the end of this week we’ll be clearer on.”
With the boy Leroy set to stay in England, where he’s currently on loan playing for Bath, if both Pocock and McMahon remain injured then Ben McCalman, currently sizing up for the Perth Spirit and coming down from his own injury, would be set to slot in in Auckland.
If only Liam Gill hadn’t made the very smart decision to swap playing for a woefully-run and underperforming Reds side for a richer and comfier experience playing overseas, a move which unfortunately means Cheika has an excuse not to pick him (unlike his time at the Reds).
Meanwhile Kurtley Beale, who’s still recovering from the knee injury he suffered playing for the Waratahs earlier this year, could be put in the “slight chance” column for the Wallabies’ upcoming spring tour.
Cheika sez: “I doubt you’d see him playing over here before the spring tour. He’s ahead of schedule [but] it’s a question of how quickly they bring him back. I wouldn’t know [about spring tour], he’d have to get some football under his belt. It’s in Wasps’ hands right now.”
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Jones: Don’t Copy ABs
Eddie Jones is sick and tired – SICK and TIRED – of every team everywhere trying to copy the All Blacks. Ya hear that?
“The thing that really annoys me about rugby at the moment, and I’ve got to say it, is that everyone tries to copy New Zealand,” Jones told Britain’s Sunday Times (via sport24).
“Why? Come up with your own game. Everything we are doing now is about coming up with a game to beat New Zealand and to make them uncomfortable,” said Jones, who made England good again by copying the traditional English style of playing.
“You can and hopefully will see that by 2018,” added Jones. “One of the great opportunities we have here in England is that we can rebrand rugby, we can develop a new style that gives people an opportunity to play the game differently from New Zealand. That is exciting me more than anything,”
Asked if he thinks he can guide England to a title in 2019, Jones said he reckons he can: “Definitely. We’ve got some changes we need to make but I think the timing is right.”
Jones has been copping flak in England lately, as his grueling England camp – mind, the club competition is underway and the national team don’t play a game until November – has resulted in a broken leg to flanker Sam Jones, who knacked it during a judo training session.
[/one_half] [one_half last=”yes”] Koroi-baabaa-te
Michael Cheika has cooked up a fiendish plan to get Marika Koroibete – the Fijian-born league convert that the Melbourne Rebels have signed up for next season – up to speed in international rugby.
The Daily Telegraph reports that, like Mat Rogers before him, Koroibete will be given a ticket on the Barbarians team to help him acclimatise to the game they play in more than three places.
The Barbarians are set to face off against South Africa at Wembley Stadium in London on 5 November, and the Baa Baas will be coached by none other than Robbie Deans. Other fringe Wallabies also a chance of a potential cameo for the Wembley event are named as Tolu Latu, Luke Morahan, Sefa Naivalu and Henry Speight.
A week later, Koroibete might also play for the Barbarians against his native Fiji in Belfast. The report also reckons that Koroibete will also show up for the midweek, non-cap Wallabies game against the French Barbarians in Bordeaux on 24 November.
In other news, Cheika, ever the champion for running players into the ground, has released seven Wallabies to play in the NRC semi-finals this weekend. Scott Fardy’s beard will shore up the Sydney Rays’ lineout, with Morahan running the other way for the Perth Spirit, and Nick Phipps and Latu (NSW Country) will play against Naivalu and James Hanson (Melbourne Whatsits) in Newcastle.
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