Tuesday’s Rugby News

10 December 2024

Happy Tuesday G&GRs, and welcome to the last Tuesday news for 2024. I wanted to get this content into the post last week but ran out of time, so here we are.

I’ve put together a summary of the Wallaby player ratings for the year based on the ratings for each game, and some weighted for the role in the game. The weightings I used were:

The rationale for my ratings was that the reserve front rowers and half backs usually get a decent stint on the field and more time to make a difference, while the other reserves may get less minutes and less opportunity to contribute to the outcome. It’s not exact, but a rugby ball isn’t round and bounces funny, so it’s the bet that I was willing to come up given the time I have.

An example of the ratings is the last game against Ireland, Taniela started, scored 6, so his weighted score was 6, whereas Slipper came off the bench, his original score was 6 but weighted by 75% ends up at a 4.5. Similarly, Langi Gleeson scored 5, but came off the bench so the 50% weighting makes it a 2.5 as a weighted score.

The results

I’ve put the results in the table below and I’ve arranged it in line with the starting side and bench that we saw emerge through the Rugby Championship; this (my) side was confirmed by selections on the end of year tour.

Obviously if we are including total scores in a table it preferences the player that played more often and started more often, so we should also look at the average scores, including the average weighted score.

My key takeaways are: our most important players this year were, Bob Valetini, Fraser McReight, Harry Wilson, Len Ikitau and Tom Wright if we’re looking at a combination of total weighted scores and average weighted scores per game. It’s further supported by those players being picked pretty much whenever they were available, and starting each time they were picked.

Overall, I counted 48 players that turned out for the Wallabies this year, including Tane Edmed who got a short stint of the bench against Ireland.

Other thoughts

Some other things that stand out include:

• The second row seems pretty locked in. The coach tried out other players early on before sticking with Frost, Williams, and LSL when they were available. St Joe had a chance to look at Skelton in two games and, while I might’ve pushed his scores up a bit, he’s likely to feature against the Lions next year. I’m not sure if Blyth was injured before the Rugby Championship as he was picked in the earlier tests. Frost, Williams, and LSL stood tall against the northern hemisphere teams and if they stay fit through Super Rugby will stand us in good stead against the Lions. Williams was one of the best performers for the Wallabies this year with super safe restarts and did the hard work all around the ground.
• The front row next year will be a work in progress. Bell, Faessler and Tupou are first picked to start with Slipper, 7As and Kailea filling the bench roles most often.
• Langi Gleeson stands out among the regularly picked players with 9 appearances off the bench. My scoring system makes his weighted scores lower than Carlo Tizzano’s, however, he seems to offer something the coach wants which I assume is the ability play all back row positions. Speaking of Carlo Tizzano, he must feel like he’s next in line behind Fraser but maybe not versatile enough to command a bench spot.
• It’ll be interesting to see how the back row and reserves spots play out next year, with Liam Wright, Charlie Cale, and Seru Uru in the mix. Gleeson will need to continue to aim up to make the match day squads.
• Jake Gordon and Tate seem to be pencilled in as half-backs, and barring injury or significant changes in form, I think we can expect to see more of them in gold next year.
• Noah’s obviously the first choice flyhalf and improved as the season went on. We shouldn’t underestimate the importance of his goal kicking, it is very, very good, but his out of hand kicking needs some work. Donaldson seems to have emerged as the back up, maybe Tom Lynagh can give it a red hot go at Super Rugby and push his case forward.
• The centres – I put Hunter and Ikitau in the centres due to the number of games they each played. Obviously JAS will be in the mix, and may offer a genuine point of difference. Hamish Stewart is one I feel gets overlooked, he could easily fill a bench spot, and provide cover for 10, 12, 13 in place of Donaldson. For mine, I think Kerevi may still feature in the talk about centres, though the coach will have less chances to see him play.
• Two of the back three spots seem to be sorted, Kellaway and Wright played 13 and 12 games, respectively, and were often among the better performers. The question is, who will slot in on the other wing? Each of Daugunu, Pietsch, Jorgensen and Harry Potter looked good this year. Daugunu had a great start to the year before his broken leg, and has shown he can play 13 and wing, so maybe he gets a boost for that.

That’s a wrap

Thanks for reading this article today, and for reading and commenting throughout the year. It’s been fun trying to pull together these news articles and having the opportunity to include a team of week, or player ratings or some such has made it a lot easier.

Lastly, I can’t speak highly enough of the sense of friendship and positivity that this page brings. While we may not always agree on every topic, the discussions and debates are typically well considered and constructed, albeit sometimes verbose. It’s been a pleasure being part of the group this year and I’m looking forward to 2025.

Hopefully this article gives you all something to chew over throughout the day. Have a fantastic holiday period, travel safely, and see you all around the pages next year.