23 July 2024 #003. Week 3 of the early test season.
Another weekend with too many rugby games to watch!
While the weekend had some one sided scores due to the tier one teams playing emerging nations, there were plenty of highlights and great play as covered by BLL here.
Team of the Week
Another big disclaimer (or admission): it’s much easier to pick when you see the full match and you know the players, and some players don’t necessarily make the highlight reels. The player selection below was also influenced by the match itself. Australia v Georgia was close and a balanced contest so good individual performances stood out. Similarly NZ performances against Fiji featured.
The reserves are a combination of the players who came off the bench, or were the next best in the position they started in.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
The Olympics start tomorrow
There’re plenty of places to read about the Olympics and the rugby sevens, which kicks off on Wednesday night. One of the big questions is whether Antoine Dupont can lead the French deep into the tournament on home soil.
Men’s tournament
The Australian men feature in the opening game of the tournament against Samoa, and follow that up with games against Kenya and Argentina. The men’s squad looks competitive, especially with the added express pace of Corey Toole.
Nathan Williamson previews the action here. You can also hear all about it on the Dropped Kick Off Pod here.
MEN’S
1. Henry Hutchison
2. Ben Dowling
3. Corey Toole
4. Dietrich Roache
5. Mark Nawaqanitawase
6. Henry Paterson
7. Hayden Sargeant
8. James Turner
9. Matt Gonzalez
10. Nick Malouf (c)
11. Maurice Longbottom
12. Nathan Lawson
Women’s tournament
The Aussie women’s team enter the tournament in great form after clinching the world SVNS title. They kick off their campaign against South Africa and follow up with games against Ireland and Great Britain.
The Aussie women’s team will be trying to capitalise on their recent form and replicate their gold medal in 2016. There’s a lot of experience, pace and winning habits in the women’s team.
WOMEN’S
1. Bienne Terita
2. Sharni Smale
3. Faith Nathan
4. Dominique Du Toit
5. Teagan Levi
6. Sariah Paki
7. Charlotte Caslick (c)
8. Kaitlin Shave
9. Tia Hinds
10. Isabella Nasser
11. Maddison Levi
12. Bridget Clark
Will we see more celebrations like this one?
As Australian rugby fans we should be excited about the chances for both teams, I’m certainly looking forward to it.
Opinion piece from this random guy
Australian teams have been generally very poor playing when we have a player off the field with a yellow card, or red card (with the Wallabies against France from a couple of years ago a notable exception). The mode of operation has generally been kick the ball at every opportunity, hoping that we can secure some sort of field possession and slow the game down. While I understand taking a shot at goal, and eating time that way, I don’t understand why you would kick the ball back to the opposition when they have more players.
It seems to me that the better course of action is to try and retain possession, because while you may have less players, you also have less involved in each play when you have the ball. It looked like the Wallabies tried to play with the ball when Daugunu was off the field and it seemed to pay dividends.
I’m interested in your thoughts on this.
English players do have hearts
On a serious note, the Telegraph reported that Ben Youngs had heart surgery after collapsing at a Leicester training run, and that he’s hoping to make it back onto the pitch in the new season. I’m sure we can all wish Ben a speedy recovery and the best of luck getting back on the pitch.
That’s a wrap for this week
I’m sure that there’s plenty more to cover but I’ll leave it for Yowie, Karl, Happyman, and of course Hoss later in the week.
That’s it for me this week, over to you G&GRs.
