Bought to you today by Reds & Wallabies Fan (RAWF)
2 March 2025
Good Morning GAGRs and welcome to Wednesday’s rugby news. Cheers to Yowie for covering the news yesterday. For those of our readers who were impacted by cyclone Alfred, I hope you are safe, and on the road to recovery from it.
There’s a bit to cover today, including the Super W rugby from the weekend, and an Australian team of the week.
There is also the big game to preview this week with the top of the table Waratahs head north to take on the Reds. If you haven’t had a chance to watch between 2 posts this week, they have a special episode on the Reds vs Waratahs, and it’s genuinely entertaining watching Maloney, Turinui, and Matt Burke going over the history of the clash, and previewing some old games including 1996 when Qld Winger Damian Smith went on a rampage against Campese and Matt Burke, and then 2003 when the Tahs looked to have the game in the bag, but after a disallowed try to the Tahs, and two quick trys to Qld, the game was over for another year. It’s an amazing stat that Matt Burke didn’t play in a winning super rugby game against Qld. It’s also amazing that neither Turinui nor Burke won a senior game of rugby at Eden Park.
You can see by the pictures below what Damian Smith was trying to do, but in case you want to see more, have a look https://wwos.nine.com.au/videos/rugby/damian-smith-rampage-in-1996/cm843dzut001c0hoghzdejq9e
What will this week bring? Hopefully a Queensland Victory at Lang Park on Saturday night, there’s a crew of us from GAGR going to the game to cheer on the good guys! If there is one coach who can get the most out of the Reds I reckon it’s Les Kiss, former Qld State of Origin player who must just love to beat NSW, c’mon Qld.
The Reds should be getting some reinforcements in the backs this week with Paisami and Lynagh hopefully back to add depth and a full front row squad to pick from. My tip, reds by 12 with our back row carving them up.
Super Rugby W
Tahs vs Force
Round 2 of the Super Rugby W kicked off on the weekend with the Waratahs hosting the Force at Allianz Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The conditions looked good and the Tahs rolled out their special pink strip to celebrate International Womens’ Day. The Tahs welcomed back some firepower with 8 changes to the side, including Piper Duck, Arabella McKenzie, and Desiree Miller on the Wing. The Waratahs had Wallabies across the park, so the Force would need to aim up get the chocolates.
Both team scored early, the Waratahs through Miller, who beat 3 players and dragged another across the line, then Ash Masters followed suit beating 3 players including Maya Stewart and Em Chancellor from 5 metres to score. The Force were the next to score, and it was a great team try with excellent skills, support lines, and brutal carries, which was ultimately finished by Freeman. The Waratahs were the next score with Miller running a great line and showing fantastic footwork to cross right beside the posts. The conversion would take the score to 14-12 to the Force which is where it would stay at half time.
The second half took a while to get the scoring going with Smith crossing for the Force on the hour mark to take the Force out to a 21-12 lead before the Tahs hit back through Nathan on 70 minutes, who like Miller and Masters in the first half, had plenty of work to do, beating 3 players in her 20 metre charge to the line. It was 21-19 to the Force at that stage and the Waratahs set piece turned out to be the difference. A combination of scrum penalty, and maul penalties saw the Tahs pressing and the crossed in the 79th minute to take the lead for the first time after Miller’s initial try.
Final score was 26-21 to the Tahs and the Force will have to wait another year to notch up a win against the Waratahs in Super Rugby W.
Overall, this was an entertaining match to watch, the Force are really building something over in the west and adding depth to Australian womens’ rugby. There are great moments of individual skill, and team cohesion and coordination on display, and with the world cup just around the corner it’s a pity the season isn’t longer to get more experience into the Wallabies playing group.
Fijian Drua vs Qld Reds
The second game of the Super Rugby Weekend would see the Reds travelling to Churchill Park in Lautoka with seven debutants in the squad to take on the Fijian Drua. Notably Sevens stars Teagan Lev and Bella Nasser got a hit out.
The Reds got out to a very handy 14-0 lead with 2 trys in the first 20 minutes, the first from a turnover and some good heads up play saw the new captain Jemma Bemrose run 40 metres to score, while second saw impressive the impressive 17 year old inside centre Shalom Sauaso break 3 or 4 tackles before offloading to number 7 Carola Kreis who raced away to score untouched. The Reds kicked a penalty right on half time to take a 17-0 lead into the sheds.
You could see the rain clouds in the wide shots early in the first half, would the rain make an appearance, would it help either side?
In what is a recurring them for the weekend, the Reds were the next to score when Caitlin Urwin refused to be tackled on the short side and crossed for an unconverted try and a 22-0 lead. Fiji finally put together a run of phases and scored a great team try to bring the score back to 22-5 and they all of a sudden looked dangerous with every phase. The reserves bench and the set piece started to pay dividends with with a pushover try to have the score at 22-12 with less than 10 minutes to play.
Fiji were doing what Fiji do, attacking with ball in hand, when the Qld lock Deni Ross almost intercepted but couldn’t grab it so was shown yellow. Fiji took the scrum, and wow, they were dominant, pushing the Reds scrum backwards and earning a penalty try. It’s game on with 2 minutes to play. It was a scrappy final two minutes, but Qld held on and finished on top 22-19.
Once again, plenty of great skills on offer, and the Fijian bench almost reeled in a large first half deficit. Qld will be better for the hit-out as they look forward to taking on the Waratahs in Brisbane this weekend.
Wallabies Watch
It’s a bit of a hybrid approach to the line-up this week, I managed to watch the Brumbies Blues game, and the Waratahs vs Force game live, then the Reds game on delay after having no power on Sunday to watch the game live. So borrowing a few pointers from some regular commentators including Dave P ad the GAGR crew. So here we go, the team of the week and look forward to the comments section.
- Angus Bell – a stand out again, metres gained, and scrummaging.
- Lachlan Lonegran – Courtesy of Dave P, part of the successful Brumbies side breaking their hoodoo at Eden Park.
- Alaalatoa – The ever present and reliable 7As gets the nod.
- Josh Canham – Was excellent across the park, after an early loose pass.
- Ben Grant – big effort from Shaw on the weekend against the Force
- Tom Hooper -is this a coming of age game for Tom Hooper?
- Rory Scott – part of a winning side so gets the nod ahead of McReight who was very good.
- Charlie Cale – Again, part of a winning side, and gets the nod ahead of Wilson and Gleeson
- Tate McDermott – the most dynamic of the half backs on the weekend.
- Lawson Creighton – Lawson is a good player who was thrown in the deep end over the last few seasons, and looks to be coming out of it a better player.
- Corey Toole – winners are grinners, and guys with genuine gas are even more so.
- Walton – Part of the Waratahs team that put away the Force on the Weekend
- Henry O’Donnell – was physical and did the job on debut(?) against the Force
- Max Jorgenson – got a double against the Force and is growing in to the hype
- Tom Wright – Shades Kellaway this week
- Pollard – part of the Brumbies forward pack that helped them get a win at Eden Park
- Blake Schoupp – Again part of the Brumbies forward pack that got the win in Auckland
- Taniela Toupou – Everyone’s favourite prop to pile onto, but did the job in the scrum against the Force.
- Lachlan Shaw – The Brumbies lock started, and was very good.
- Harry Wilson – Did everything he could to get the Reds into the game on the weekend.
- Ryan Lonergran – kicked the winning penalty from 35 metres out
- Jack Debreczeni – kept the brumbies shape and conviction when he cam on.
- Andrew Kellaway – earns a spot on the bench.
As always, thanks again for reading, and I’ll look forward to the comments section.
P.S. There was a problem with the article originally, and it brought in comments from 4 years ago, so if you commented earlier today, the comments has been lost, apologies.
