Good morning G&GRs and welcome to another issue of the Tuesday news. If you haven’t had a chance to catch up on all the weekend action, you can read BLL’s excellent summary here. As a Monday bonus drop, Hoss covered the results of a G&GR reader poll for the first unofficial Wallabies squad of the year, you can read about it here.
As usual for a Tuesday, there’s a bit to cover: the Wallaroos have announced their 30 player squad to travel to Fiji this weekend, Australian Sevens players are up for awards and we’ll look at a potential Wallabies team of the week.
Wallaroos to play Fiji – Saturday, 3 May
Two important things are happening this coming Saturday: there’s a federal election and the Wallaroos will head to Fiji for an early season international match. Coach Jo Yapp has trimmed the initial squad to 30 players, with 8 uncapped players making the journey including Sevens players Charlotte Caslick, and Tia Hinds.
While it would be great to see Caslick or Hinds make their debuts this weekend there’s plenty of competition in the squad. Any of the other uncapped players including Katalina Amosa, Ruby Anderson, Ashley Fernandez, Martha Fua, Manu’a Moleka and Faliki Pohiva could be called up to face Fiji.
Congratulations to all of the players in the squad who will travel to Fiji, and in particular the players who make the match day squad. It should be a cracking game to watch and, hopefully, the Wallaroos can get some early season momentum to carry forward.
You can read more about the squad announcement in Nathan Williamson’s article here and you’ll able to catch the game on Stan Sport.
The Wallaroos have a pretty busy home test schedule this year with 3 tests in May against New Zealand, USA, and Canada, before taking on Wales in 2 tests on 26 July and 1 August.
Aussie Sevens in the running for awards
From Nathan Williamson at RA, four Australian Sevens players have been nominated for awards this year:
- Maddi Levi has been nominated for Women’s Player of the year, which is not all surprising given the 51 tries to date this year, and recently becoming the fastest woman to score 200 tries
- Kahli Henwood has been selected on the short-list for Women’s Rookie of the Year award, while
- Aden Ekanayake has been shortlisted for the Men’s Rookie of the Year award, and
- Heidi Dennis is up for Try of the Year for her amazing effort against the Kiwis in Perth.
You can see all of the contenders for the Try of the Year courtesy of World Rugby here, and you can vote for your favourite try by an Aussie.
Rounding out the Sevens theme for this week, the SVNS World Championship is on this weekend in Los Angeles. Good luck to the men’s and women’s teams.
Wallabies Team of the Week
It was a cracking weekend of Super Rugby with some great individual performances by some Aussie players, and a tremendous team performance from the Reds. The Waratahs will hopefully have benefited from the week off, except in the team of the week of course.
So let’s get into it.
- Sef Fa’agase – got a start against the physical Blues side and did a great job.
- Richie Asiata – Qld needed someone to step up with Faessler on the injury list, and Asiata did it in spades against the Blues.
- Zane Nonggorr – looked desperate to contribute across the park, threw himself into tackles and hit ups. The scrum was good.
- Josh Canham – was much more physical against the Blues this week, a real step up in the physical game.
- Darcy Swain – the Chiefs may have smashed the Force, but Swain was good.
- Seru Uru – another good game by big Seru.
- Fraser McReight – working his way back into top form.
- Nicholas Champion de Crespigny – keeps on belting blokes and fronting up.
- Tate McDermott – scored an important try to put the Reds on the front foot.
- Tom Lynagh – his best game for the Reds, and was a deserved best on ground.
- Lachie Anderson – I’m picking him on the other side of the field, made a lot of important contributions including the game sealing try.
- Hunter Paisami – was good against the Blues, and is finding top form.
- Len Ikitau – his usual composed self, with a try in between Naholo’s pair of tries to keep the Brumbies in it.
- Harry Potter – was very good in a well beaten team, scored a double including a sneaky kick off restart.
- Jock Campbell – set up Tom Lynagh’s second try with a great feint through the line and off load. Slipped into first receiver throughout.
- Billy Pollard – tried hard throughout.
- Alex Hodgman – strong performance in the scrum in his time on the field.
- Allan Alaalatoa – scored an early try and tried to drag the Brumbies across the line, but alas, couldn’t.
- Lukhan Salakaia-Loto – is working his way back into good form with a very solid hit out against the Blues.
- Luke Reimer – didn’t dominate with turnovers but tackled everything.
- Ryan Lonergan – will be in the mix for Wallabies honours this year.
- Noah Lolesio – played well in a beaten Brumbies team, made some good cover defending tackles and tried to keep the Brumbies in the game.
- Tom Wright – missed a few tackles (not as many as Toole or Muirhead), but was part of the good things that the Brumbies did.
A Super Season
It’s getting towards the pointy end of the season, all of the Australian teams are a chance of making the finals this year, though the Waratahs will need to lift a bit after their last two weeks with no competition points. It’s hard to ignore the injuries that the Reds have, so hopefully the squad digs deep for their trip to Suva, which actually looks like it will be the curtain raiser to the Wallaroos game.
As always, thanks for reading this far, I hope you have a great Tuesday and look forward to the comments.
Cheers
RAWF
