By Spiro Zavos
September 24th 2008 @ 6:08am
Robbie Deans goes for young class
Alan Jones used to talk about “shape” when selecting a team. It’s a good concept for any selector.
Robbie Deans is clearly trying to re-shape his squad by bringing in a young, strong New Zealand-trained prop, Sekope Kefu, and a couple of talented and classy youngsters in the backs, Quade Cooper and James O’Connor.
It shouldn’t be forgotten that these three players are or were all available for other countries, all three for NZ, and O’Connor for South Africa as well.
My main disappointment with the squad is that the usual failures at prop have been selected. Surely one of the younger props, one of the impressive Sydney University props who played so splendidly against Randwick in the first grade final might have been given a chance?
And Adam Freier has probably reached his used-by date, too.
The retention of some of the older players who should not be in the 2009 squad tells me that Deans is trying to win all the matches on the tour, something last achieved by Greg Smith, who got dropped the next year for Rod Macqueen.
James O’Connor is the great selection. Readers of The Roar will recall that back in April I called him “the next Tim Horan” after his stunning international debut at the Hong Kong Sevens. His subsequent play in the Super 14 did nothing to dampen my enthusiasm for his talents.
It would not surprise me however if Deans looks to turn O’Connor into a first five-eight, in the manner of Daniel Carter. The two players are very similar in build, attitude, skills (although O’Connor isn’t a goal-kicker) and the same flair for a break.
Deans nursed Carter to greatness by playing him at inside centre and fullback. He may do the same with O’Connor. If ,say, a Giteau-O’Connor inside pairing could be established, Berrick Barnes could be developed as a fullback and the Wallabies would have four players - including Luke Burgess - to feed the runners.
But this leaves open the greatest problem with the Wallabies right now - where are the runners in the forwards and the backs?
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Davo said | September 24th 2008 @ 7:05am | Report comment
Spiro, not sure a couple of young uns makes a whole class. Not in the NSW public school system that’s for sure !! Pocock shouldve been picked on this tour last year and is the only one of the three likely to get into one of the Test 22s on this tour.What’s Rob Horne doing ? Injured ? As much potential as O’conner I believe and certainly at this point, a more rugged physique suited to this level of footy. I guess we arent as lacking in outside centres as we are searching for the magic back-up to Giteau.
Giteau also made his Aus debut via the Hong Kong 7s. So there is more to that than drinking and girls getting topless in the stands. Lets hope Australia start to take 7s a bit more seriously and use it as a path for young players to get some international experience and skill development.
Agree about the front row. Laurie Weeks and Jerry Yanuyanutawa have doen enough all year to suggest they can out scrummage any other Aus prop and both do plenty around the field as well. Still who knows, if Dunning, Robinson and Baxter are going backwards literally early in the tour we may see Alexander and Kepu starting in one or more of the tests
sheek said | September 24th 2008 @ 7:32am | Report comment
Spiro,
The great problem of Australian rugby historically, is lack of depth, after the top 25-30. Or is it that we don’t know what some of the next tier players can do, simply because they haven’t been tested at a higher level?
Yeah, I’m a bit curious that Rob Horne & Kurtley Beale have been overlooked. I don’t believe cooper is any better than Beale. Also, agree with the other comments of yours - usual suspects in frontrow, lack of runners in forwards especially.
I suspect Deans would like to make many changes with his team, but he has to try to get the best out of what he’s got, rather than worry about what he hasn’t got.
Time to throw in my old chestnut - establishing another tier of rep rugby is essential. Sydney & Brisbane premier rugby simply can’t fill that role, although their role of producing players for future provincial level should never be under estimated or under valued.
Justin said | September 24th 2008 @ 7:44am | Report comment
I think it is a squad based on the now as we need to qualify as high as possible to ensure an easier draw in the next RWC.
I am not sure you should be taking 5 new props on an international tour - I think some of you are stretching it there. There are 2 novices who will get their shot, I think that is enough.
I believe Deans will have a new look side for next years domestic Tests with a number of promising players having another S14 season under their belts. In this squad there is plenty of inexperience to back up most positions, not sure you can really ask for too much more when we need to setup 2011.
Benjamin said | September 24th 2008 @ 8:00am | Report comment
I’ve said this before - how can Dunning and Baxter continue to be the bogeymen of Australian front row rugby? Talk is cheap and it is far too easy for Spiro to suggest removing the ‘usual failures’. Then what? Has it been forgotten that Sheridan did equally as much damage to Sheperdson as he did to Baxter or Dunning - change doesn’t always lead to results. The fact of the matter is that Australia have no real strength in depth, specifically in the front row. Even if Dunning and Baxter don’t start then they can pass on experience and mentorship to the younger props simply because they will already have faced much of the opposition. That they play in Australia’s bext S14 pack is also highly significant. What with Elsom and Vickermann missing Deans has no choice but to retain experience. It should also be noted that the Australian front row did make a slight improvement during the 3N. Should Deans ignore that on the basis of a good performance in a semi-pro competition?
I would love to see the England pack face off against some of these youthful beauts that Spiro suggests. Good stuff Spiro, keep it coming.
Hoy said | September 24th 2008 @ 8:41am | Report comment
On the issue of Beale vs Cooper, both came through playing together in schoolboys for Aus.
I think Cooper is a lot more creative, and neither can tackle, so what splits them?
For all the hype around Beale, he was strangley quite this year, and Cooper came on a long way with the Reds.
Am I wrong, or are we seemingly creating a one size fits all backrow/second row in Australia. Look at the usual suspects that hang around: Chisolm, McMeninam, Mumm, etc we used to have Heenan. They are all the same stature, but none are quite there yet at the playing level.
Perhaps we have the wrong idea and should not be looking for utility second rowers come blindside flankers.
Whaler said | September 24th 2008 @ 8:42am | Report comment
Deans alluded to the fact that Beale wasn’t in the right physical condition to go on tour, therefore Quade Copper gets his opportunity. Disagree with Spiro’s view that a tour of the Northern Hemisphere is the right time to blood two young props and get rid of our most experienced front rowers, who have delivered strong results for the Tahs this year. Dingo deans has taken the right approach and bought in Sekope Kefu, would not be surprised at all if Sekope comes back as one of the starting props. Once again Deans has picked the best that he has on offer …..would look that Hoiles is on the outer and will struggle to get a look in for the wallabies again ?
Darryl said | September 24th 2008 @ 8:59am | Report comment
Hoy, I think Quade Cooper is an excellent defender. Beale has the size, but the attitude is not there, plus he’s got a bad habit of trying to steal the ball even when he’s first to the tackle and going high. Remember Latham was once an aweful defender when he first started, no one would say that now.
The Link said | September 24th 2008 @ 9:06am | Report comment
Hoy - ‘For all the hype around Beale, he was strangley quite this year, and Cooper came on a long way with the Reds’
Beale - Starting Fly Half for the 2nd placed S14 team and finalists
Cooper - Starting Fly Half for the 12th placed S14 team
You don’t come 2nd with your fly half having a quiet year.
Justin said | September 24th 2008 @ 9:11am | Report comment
Its called forward packs Link, one going forward the other in retreat. Thats a very simple and inaccurate way to compare the two players.
Hoy said | September 24th 2008 @ 9:19am | Report comment
I disagree Link.
I think there is 15 players in a team. You can hardly blame one player for a team’s season, and can hardly put one on a pedestal for the other team’s season, unless that person is world class like Carter. I don’t think either is up to that level just yet.
I think Cooper came on a lot more this year than Beale did after a lot of promise last year. Cooper improved a lot more, and showed more promise this year after a horror year last year. In my opinion Beale didn’t quite stand out so much after he had a good year last year.
Brett McKay said | September 24th 2008 @ 9:48am | Report comment
The omission of Hoiles staggers me as much as the inclusion of Cordingley. Richard Brown and David Pocock definitely needed to be there, but I would have though a running No.8/6 was a must, especially with Palu under a cloud and Elsom tucking into Guiness full-time. Whaler might have hit it on the head, Hoiles may well have had his cards marked…
As for Cordingley, he starts his French contract in January, surely this tour was the chance to see what Ben Lucas or Josh Holmes can do at the next level?!?
The Link said | September 24th 2008 @ 9:49am | Report comment
Hoy, never blamed Cooper for the bad year, nor put Beale on a pedestal. I’m saying Kurtley did not have a quiet year as he steered his side to 2nd in the S14, this cannot be discounted.
Fly Half is arguably the most important position on the field, so there is merit in correlating a sides performance with that of the No.10.
Kurtley has more runs on the board at the moment. Quade has improved, but from quite a low base
Dexter William said | September 24th 2008 @ 9:56am | Report comment
Very surprised that Rob Horn missed out.
stuff happens said | September 24th 2008 @ 10:31am | Report comment
Good article and as usual our problems are in the forwards. I wonder how long Australia will persist with its neanderthal policy of refusing to select o’seas based players as Wallabies.Too precious by half
Football got over this years ago. Half the Brazilian team plays in Europe as an example. The ‘Boks don’t seem to have a problem either.
The greatest asset for rugby over league and AFL is its international programme and yet we continue to deny anyone not based in Australia the opportunity to play.We can’t afford to do this.
Justin said | September 24th 2008 @ 10:43am | Report comment
Stuff - we cant afford to not deny players o/s. If we start doing that many will leave for big dollars which in the long run will mean Fox do not pay as much for the TV rights to SANZAR rugby, then we would become subservient to NH clubs with regard to Test matches. Look at Argentina for a start…football is a different issue as they have their season well planned with windows for just about all the major tournaments.
Ben C said | September 24th 2008 @ 10:46am | Report comment
I think Hoiles and Norton-Knight are suffering from being utility/versatile/jack-ofall-trades players in an era of increased specialisation.
I would have liked some more younger players (Kimlin, J Holmes, Lucas, Thorne) but I can see the need for stability, particularly as they are no mid week/dirt-tracker matches for the younger players. The only selection I really have a problem with is Cordingley. Surely Holmes or Lucas would have been a better choice than a slow, aging half who is leaving shortly. Could we not have given Cordingley a handshake and gold watch as a send off instead?
mudskipper said | September 24th 2008 @ 11:08am | Report comment
I can see an opportunity for James O’Connor to become the Flyhalf for the Western Force 2010 as Giteau is likely to return to the Brumbies when his contracted is completed.
Spiro’s question about Wallaby runner of play makers:
Backs runners, ACC, Tahu, Tuqiri, Cross, Mortlock
Forward runners, Moore, Alexander, Kepu, Brown, McMeniman, and Chisholm can all run the ball. Current non ball runners are Freier, Dunning, Baxter and Waugh.
Last tour for a few guys, it’s important to have an established player group to hand over the Wallabies team culture to the new guys.
I count 18 new 2008 Wallabies on their first Northern Hemisphere tour, Cross, Tahu, Hynes, Alexander, Kepu, TPN, Turner, Burgess, Brown, McMeniman, Pocock, O’Connor, Cooper, Sheehan, Ioane, Mumm, Horwill, Hynes…thats a lot of new blood Deans and Williams have on hand. Its also scrum coach Foley’s last Wallabies tour…
Sam Taulelei said | September 24th 2008 @ 11:47am | Report comment
Stuff Happens
Overseas based players becoming eligible for Wallaby selection won’t solve any problems as under the current calendar they will only be available for the inbound tours in June and the spring tour in November. The expanded Tri-Nations cuts across the beginning of their winter season and that is a more appropriate time that you want to call upon your experienced players based in Europe. Of course that presumes that the European clubs would release those players in the first place, while the RFU have a new agreement with the Premiership clubs about player availability, it only extends to English players.
Furthermore John O’Neill’s comments on Inside Rugby about the proposed changes to the rugby calendar would automatically remove any European based players from playing for the Wallabies, All Blacks or Springboks apart from the spring tour if implemented.
An expanded Super competition in 2010 involving possibly a fifth team in Australia which would see a first round round-robin series, before each country separates into three regional conferences for local derby games and then an expanded six game finals series which could see the Super season running from March to August. They’re petitioning the NH unions to move the June inbound tours to August, followed by the Tri-Nations in September/October and then the spring tour still in November. Whether the NH clubs would be happy to see their international players unavailable in August and November remains to be seen but at first glance from our perspective the season takes on a more logical progression and provides players with more games at the Super level.
Sam Taulelei said | September 24th 2008 @ 11:50am | Report comment
Sorry that line should read “Whether the NH clubs would be happy and agree to see their international players unavailable in August, September, October and November remains to be seen”
Bring Back Melon said | September 24th 2008 @ 12:52pm | Report comment
Mudskipper,
Don’t forget George Smith. You’d have to call him a “ball runner”, wouldn’t you?
(Also not a bad at some other aspects of the game).
LeftArmSpinner said | September 24th 2008 @ 1:17pm | Report comment
Spiro, I was surprised that there was no mention of Beale in your article. He qualifies on all fronts, age, skill, trackrecord and “ticker.”
I can only agree with Davo about Horne. Has the Tahs strength and conditioning team stuffed the two best prospects, Horne and Beale?
While Freier has my admiration and played very well in the GF, Nathan Charles is the future.
Sheek, the depth thing is an invention and excuse of underperforming coaches. In addition to Uni, just look at Easts: Egan, De Bartolo, Toomua; Randwick: Kroll; Gordon, West Harbour: Martin, Parini; Warringah: Eadie, McCabe and the young 5/8 and, of course, Uni’s 2nd grade team. There are plenty of goodun’s. Some can rise to the next level and some can’t.
It is about selection/recruitment and is no less a competitive advantage in rugby than it is in business. E.g. Everyone who knew Burgess, his sire and mare, saw him do trackwork (Grade rugby) or deal with adversity, would tell you that he would succeed.
Justin, there will always be an excuse. History now suggests that the harder the games leading into the RWC finals, the better.
Hoy, whoa there, boy. Strangely quiet??? He led Tah’s to the S14 final and was, with Burgess, the electricity that made the mid season change of strategy such a success. In 2007, his first year in S14, he didn’t have a backs coach. At the start of that season, he wasn’t old enough to get a drivers license. In 2008, the coach went missing after about 5 games.
In Beale’s tackling stats were better than any other S14 5/8, excepting D Carter. Hoy, it is not about blame. It is about results. Link, I agree fully with you.
Whaler, there is no good time to blood props, but some props and players generally, don’t need to be blooded in the true sense. They just have another gear.
So Stuff, which overseas forwards would you select in the Wallabies?
Mudskipper, as regards ball runners, Freier is good with ball in hand but, as you say, not a runner. Maybe it’s a generational thing!!
Greg Russell said | September 24th 2008 @ 1:33pm | Report comment
On RadioSport in New Zealand there was a report yesterday that 3 of the 4 new Wallabies are eligible for New Zealand. Indeed: Quade Cooper was born and raised in the Bay of Plenty, James O’Connor appears to be Australian raised but he has New Zealand born parents (and is also eligible for the Springboks courtesy of a South African grandmother), while it is only a few years since Sekope Kepu played for NZ U21 (although I do not know how much of his life was lived in NZ prior to that).
To this should be added that the Pocock family is from Zimbabwe, from memory moving to Australia when David was 15.
So we have that all 4 of the new Wallabies are essentially products of non-Australian cultures. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that these people have found a welcoming home in Australian rugby. But what is happening to the ability of Australian cultures to produce Wallabies? One must wonder whether kids raised in Australia are now being lost to rugby as a result of the well planned and well financed recruitment schemes of the AFL and NRL.
True Tah said | September 24th 2008 @ 1:53pm | Report comment
Greg,
would Sekope Kepu be likely to feature in the All Blacks if he was still with the Chiefs?
Greg Russell said | September 24th 2008 @ 2:14pm | Report comment
True Tah,
I think we all know the answer to your question. Relevance to my comment?
Jerry said | September 24th 2008 @ 2:24pm | Report comment
It’s hard to say if Kepu would have been an AB - he wouldn’t have threatened to unseat Woodcock, Sommerville or Hayman obviously and on current form he doesn’t look as good as Afoa or Tialata either. Still, there’s been a few left field selections at prop over the last couple of years (Schalger and Campbell Johnston for instance) so it’s hard to really say he wouldn’t have been selected.
Greg - Kepu went to Wesley College in South Auckland, so he was in NZ for at least part of his secondary school life - I read somewhere he moved to NZ aged 3, but don’t know how accurate that is. Still, he’s put his lot in with Australian rugby so fair play - you can’t begrudge him for doing so or Deans for selecting him.
Greg Russell said | September 24th 2008 @ 2:32pm | Report comment
Jerry,
I completely agree that it’s fair play to Kepu (and the others) for choosing to play for Australia, and without question Deans has done the right thing by choosing them.
With my comment I was merely raising the issue of Australian rugby’s reliance on pseudo-imported players like this - it suggests that Australian rugby is losing the ability to produce top players (completely) from within. If one watches the NRL, AFL, Olympics or whatever, one sees quickly that the talent is there. But evidently not much of it is being channelled into rugby.
True Tah said | September 24th 2008 @ 2:40pm | Report comment
Greg,
I see the phrase “potential All Black” being thrown around a fair bit here, I don’t think its really relevant to label any of the three young men as such, they have thrown their lot in with Australia, good on them too, maybe Kepu will really rise to the occassion, he is an athletic young man who showed some promise for the Tahs…I will be following his European tour closely.
Re: Pocock, a fair amount of his schooling was at Churchie in Brisbane, yes he was born in Zimbabwe, but he was developed in Australia. The Bokke had two Zimbos propping for them this year, no one was saying that they were suffering from a lack of props.
mudskipper said | September 24th 2008 @ 2:47pm | Report comment
Bring Back Melon…yes I missed George Smith is definitely a ball runner
Jerry said | September 24th 2008 @ 2:53pm | Report comment
Greg/True Tah - As Cooper & Pocock both arrived in Aus while in high school and O’Connor is Australian born and raised, 3 out of the 4 have had a fair amount of time in the Australian development system. Basically, other than Kepu I’d say they’re all products of Australian rugby, more or less.
cosmos forever said | September 24th 2008 @ 3:58pm | Report comment
What’s the history of AB’s coming from islands like Samoa, Tonga, fiji rather than being NZ born and bred, just out of interest?
Davo said | September 24th 2008 @ 4:02pm | Report comment
Mtawaira, Mujati and Pocock is the nucleus of a pretty good Zimbabwean forward pack. Pity their country is in worse shape than Sonny Bill’s medicare card.
I dont think picking or not picking OS based players is all that relevant at present.Although could become so in the future. But right now, I cant think of any front rowers playing overseas. Or other forwards for that matter except the two recent departees Elsom and Vicks.
Re: Depth. There is plenty I reckon….here is just an obvious run down of players 34-56 from either 2008 Super 14, Aust A program or Aust U20. There are others from Syd/Bris grade who aren’t too far behind. They may not smash the England scrum backwards or carve up the All Blacks but there is still plenty of talent there.
Norton Knight,Shepherd,Horne,T.Smith,Rathbone,Halangahu,Holmes,Hoiles,Robinson,Fava,Kimlin,Hockings,Shepherdson, Faingaa, Yayayatana
Reserves:Nasaganiyavi,Beale,Lucas,Caldwell,G.Holmes,Houston,N.Henderson,Huia Edmonds
True Tah said | September 24th 2008 @ 4:16pm | Report comment
cosmos,
most Islander blokes in the ABs generally are created by the NZ Rugby system, therefore the whole poaching claims are redundant.
I know Joeli Virli sort of what the exception to this, but the majority were created by NZ Rugby.
Jerry said | September 24th 2008 @ 4:42pm | Report comment
There’s obviously a fair few AB’s over the years who’ve been born in the islands, but as TT stated - the vast majority of them are raised in NZ or at least learned their rugby in NZ. Vidiri was pretty close to a poach really, like Kepu he was recruited to play in NZ as an adult but didn’t have any birth link as Kepu does. There’s a few others who came to NZ fairly late - Saimone Taumopeau, Isaia Toeava or Sitiveni Sivivatu are fairly recent examples though both did attend at least part of their high school career in NZ.
bailey4 said | September 24th 2008 @ 7:59pm | Report comment
Kefu was born in Sydney, Australia so he’s very much eligible to play for Australia!!
Cutter said | September 24th 2008 @ 8:38pm | Report comment
Mudskipper said:
“I count 18 new 2008 Wallabies on their first Northern Hemisphere tour, Cross, Tahu, Hynes, Alexander, Kepu, TPN, Turner, Burgess, Brown, McMeniman, Pocock, O’Connor, Cooper, Sheehan, Ioane, Mumm, Horwill, Hynes”
Sorry to be a pedant, but you counted Hynes twice and TPN, MMM and Sheehan have all toured before. So, 14 new tourists which is still a biggish number.
Baxter and, reluctantly, Dunning should tour. The real surprise is that Waugh and Cordingley are going. Pocock is good enough to start a test if Smith was injured and Waugh couldnt be flown over in time. If he’s not, why are they taking him? Cordingley should voluntarily give up his seat for Lucas.
I wouldnt have taken Palu, Tahu or Tuqiri but can understand the reasoning. I would also have taken Kimlin over Chisolm. That is an odd choice.
LeftArmSpinner said | September 25th 2008 @ 2:32am | Report comment
Davo, Nasaganiyavi is useless. Sure, he’s big, very big, and hard to tackle. But he is not that fast and has no ticker. Watch a replay of the Sydney grade GF from last saturday. A really big game and he just didnt show up. dont waste the ink or the effort in turning that Oil tanker around.
cutter, seems that most are in agreement with you. Sad that such a great opportunity to get rid of the softies and test more young guys has been lost. Geez, it is not as if the NH teams are going to be that tough, even at home and they have been sending development teams down south for the past few years.
I suspect that a pack with Kepu/Baxter/ Alexander and Moore, with Horwill and Hocking and with Smith/Pocock, Brown and McMeniman in the backrow (Bench: Charles, Kimlin/Chisholm) would get enough ball for a back line with the likes of Burgess, Beale/Giteau, Barnes/Tahu, AAC/Cross and Hynes/AAC/Mitchell and Turner with SNK and Sheehan completing the bench) would convert possession into points.
Geez, what a mouthwatering prospect. What a shame it wont happen, well at least not this trip!!!
LeftArmSpinner said | September 25th 2008 @ 2:49am | Report comment
It has just dawned on me that with 6 games in six weeks, we may well see all of these guys get at least half a game somewhere along the tour.
Surely, dingo will rest the spine, Moore, Brown/Palu, Burgess, Giteau and AAC together with Smith and Horwill, Smith and a few of the other forwards so that they are fresh for the toughest games, NZ, France and Wales.
That leaves Italy, England and Barbarians for the dirt trackers. Now we are talking!!
Benjamin said | September 25th 2008 @ 2:51am | Report comment
It’s not as if the NH teams are going to be that tough.
Glad to see you keep up to date with world rugby then. Given the Australian away record it seems that the ability of other teams is irrelevant. Just look at the WC. An appalling England side smashed Australia physically. The lack of English ability was far outweighed by their desire and mental strength, something that the Wallabies have proved time and time again to be lacking. Chris Latham made a similarly ill-informed comment along the lines of how Australia had beaten Wales all too easily before and therefore would do so again, clearly neglecting their recent improvements.
It is also completely moot to suggest that a pack of untried players would be able to do a better job than a pack that has included McMeniman, Vickermann and Elsom. Connolly tried new players and Sheperdson got as much of a beating as Dunning and Baxter so what good would Kepu, a player who can’t even usurp the aforementioned two, do against Sheridan, Lo Cicero, Perugini and Woodcock? The same applies to Alexander who can’t even shift Henderson. The only saving grace of the Australian pack is that the NH global ELVs include fewer scrums. Realistically Australia will be doing very well to beat France, Italy and the Barbarians.
Benjamin said | September 25th 2008 @ 2:53am | Report comment
If you seriously think that Deans can afford to turn up to Twickenham with a team of dirt trackers then good luck to you.
bailey4 said | September 25th 2008 @ 7:50am | Report comment
The good thing about Deans is that he takes every game seriously, minus that little j’burg game, either way I don’t think he would be taking England lightly at all. I think more than anything the Wallabies have been waiting for their chance to come up against England since last years disaster, and I don’t think Deans is stupid enough to ignore that!! I do see him probably playing the new recruits against Italy though.
Jason Cave said | September 25th 2008 @ 7:54am | Report comment
The 2008 European Tour will give an indication of where the Wallabies are at, not just their standing in international rugby at the moment, but also the 2011 RWC in New Zealand. The England-Australia Test at Twickenham will tell us a lot about this Wallaby team.
Benjamin said | September 25th 2008 @ 7:57am | Report comment
I would think all games will test Australia in different ways. Italy have the best pack in Europe so Deans might not choose to throw the new pack recruits into the fray there. Recall the recent Italy - Australia test. I would imagine Deans might choose any new pack debutants for the Wales game, bearing in mind that Wales have a much lighter pack. Depending on Welsh injuries I suspect that that might be the hardest test of the series. Gatland has been in the job for nearly a whole year now whereas Johnson, and therefore England, are very much an unknown quantity.
Undercover Prop said | September 25th 2008 @ 8:25am | Report comment
For anyone that didn’t see the Sydney Club Rugby GF on Saturday, Sekope Kepu repeatedly has his head shoved back up his arse by the University pack. His reward, is to be picked for a Wallabies tour??? I’m not saying that the Uni props should be picked as neither have Super 14 experience but surely someone should have to prove themselves competent at a club level before they are picked for the Wallabies.
I think Kepu is still living off the “hype” that came with him when he was signed at the start of the year, simply because he was a 120kg plus prop from NZ. I thought like other people did that we could have a future Wallaby prop that could stand up to the All Black and England scrums, but so far he’s turned out to be pretty useless in my opinion. Nobody in Sydney club rugby circles is talking about how dominanat Sekope Kepu is each week or how good the Randwick scrum is.
I only hope that Deans is aware of all this but sees a little spark in him that he thinks he can develop into something much bigger and brighter. I’ll leave him with you Robbie.
bailey4 said | September 25th 2008 @ 9:31am | Report comment
Obviously Deans has seen something in Kepu that noone else sees, probably the same thing he saw in Horwill, Hynes, Burgess and all those other new cats that were ignored by previous Wallaby coaches…i think we should just wait and see what Robbie has instore for Kepu.
Danny said | September 25th 2008 @ 11:52pm | Report comment
This is somewhat off topic but it is very unfortunate that here in Australia us rugby fans don’t seem to be able to “wax lyrical” like Aussie Rules fans and writers like Martin Flanagan (I was just listening to an interesting ABC Radio Nat program with him on it.
Everyone chips in about the drama of Aussie Rules, from left-wing academics, to right-wing politicians, to lawyers and the local butcher.
Why doesn’t this happen in Union?
Nick (KIA) said | September 26th 2008 @ 8:42am | Report comment
Danny,
I can’t get excited about AFL. Probably result of NZ upbringing, but they always seem to be knocking the ball on. And the crowd cheers everytime someone catches the ball???
Not sure what I’m missing. What do you mean “wax lyrical”? There appears to be plenty of rugby union wax on the Roar…
Ben C said | September 26th 2008 @ 1:44pm | Report comment
Danny
We know how good rugby is and don’t feel a need to talk it up. Rugby is a mature sport without the inferiority complex that exists down south.
(Remove tongue from cheek)
gavin said | September 27th 2008 @ 11:19pm | Report comment
the Sydney Uni front row should be the test front row. Take the 3 of them for synergy.
Beale left out again. Bloody ridiculous. This Dwans is looking worse week after week
Who needs another Horan ?