In what could be an unprecedented spectacle, reports have emerged of an international between the Wallabies and the Great Britain rugby league side on December 6, 2014. This spectacle, to be held at Wembley, should prove a sell out.
Now when I say ‘spectacle’, I concede it could be a ‘debacle’ for one of those sides – and it won’t be the Wallabies.
The leaguies will no doubt get hammered for 40 minutes during the half played under rugby union laws. Great Britain will find out the hard way that in union it is possible to have no possession if your set piece and break down skills are inferior, which they will be.
Someone like Sam Burgess would be a handful when carrying, but he won’t get any ball.
Could you imagine how much havoc David Pocock and co would have in 40 minutes against a bunch of leaguies? It will be carnage.
But will the Wallabies be able to adapt to 40 minutes of rugby league? I say yes, if they make the correct selections.
The nature of league is that so long as you can defend reasonably well you get the ball back every minute or so. The Wallabies will get enough ball to overpower their smaller, less skillful rivals.
So who from the Wallabies might make a 13-a-side team list?
Starting with the forwards, we’d have to assume that Slipper, Robinson, Kepu and co would not be mobile enough for league.
Both Palu and the returning Elsom have some league experience so both of these guys could be the starting props. Let’s face it, they probably won’t be available because they are so injury prone.
I propose Stephen Moore and James Horwill would be good choices at prop. Both can carry and both are good defenders. One Tatafu Polota-Nau could sub on at prop for impact.
Will Genia would most likely still wear the No.9 and fill the hooking role in the half of league. It would be great to see him with the extra room that a league game would present him.
The problem would be his lack of size in defence, so you’d be instructing him to get into marker as often as possible.
As for the back row, I’d suggest Higginbotham and Simmons would make an awesome league second row. I know Simmons started out as a junior leaguie and Higginbotham – well, he would be our equivalent of Sam Burgess albeit a little quicker.
I don’t care who you are, with the defense back 10 metres both these guys would be a handful out wide. I’d imagine Scott Fardy would offer something off the bench.
At No.13 it would be understandable to have Michael Hooper due to his speed, though perhaps Pocock’s muscular presence would be the equivalent of Paul Gallen. Either way, one would start and one would sub on.
As for the backline, I don’t think there would be any real surprises apart from the fact that Great Britain will be overpowered out wide and completely out-skilled.
This is a facet of the game that is the most similar between the two codes, except that rugby union backs aren’t used to the luxury of the 10 metre gap. They could really run amok.
So here is my Wallabies league side with the rugby league numbering system.
1. Adam Ashley-Cooper
2. Joe Tomane
3. Tevita Kuridrani
4. Israel Folau
5. Henry Speight
6. Kurtley Beale
7. Quade Cooper
8. Stephen Moore
9. Will Genia
10. James Horwill
11. Scott Higginbotham
12. Rob Simmons
13. David Pocock (c)
Subs: Tatafu Polota-Nau, Scott Fardy, Michael Hooper, Jesse Mogg
This side would not beat the Kangaroos at their game, but I reckon they’d be too good for Great Britain.
It has also been speculated that the All Blacks are considering a match against the Kangaroos. Now that would be a bell ringer!
The result considering the All Blacks could field the following League side?
1. Israel Dagg
2. Julian Savea
3. Ben or Conrad Smith
4. Ma’a Nonu
5. Cory Jane
6. Benji Marshall
7. Dan Carter
8. Brad Thorn
9. Aaron Smith
10. Jerome Kaino
11. Steve Luatua
12. Kieran Read
13. Richie McCaw
Subs: Liam Messam, Sam Cane, Aaron Cruden, Smith (the other one)
It would be rugby union all the way baby!
Jemain Okinga
Guest
Daly Messenger one for the archives
Reality
Guest
As a fellow Northerner I can't help but agree!
Reality
Guest
Not true Col Quinn, RU is doing very well outside London/SE, what about the west coutry, Bath, Bristol, Worcester, Gloucester, Exeter and the midlands, with Leicester and Northampton. I agree top level RU in the north is not as good as the clubs south of Derby, but not many of the top clubs actually reside in the South East as you say. Ru in the north did better in the Amateur era as that was what separated it from League , now its pro it is in a dip, but I think the re-amalgamation of RU & Rl in England is a certainty, both need each other to compete with AF. Its taken its time but the the old class barriers are finally ( and TFFT!) being broken down. It becoming more acceptable for a working class league player to switch to Union now thanks to Farell, Robinson and co. RU will have to change a fair bit before the merge back to keep the fans happy, but it will happen.
Pickett
Guest
Gillespie and Gilmeister were 95-100 kg second rowers who I am certain would have smashed the crap out of any Springbok behemoths. The same for Jonah Lomu. He would have been cut in half in league.
Ian
Guest
Exactly the reason why this game should not happen at all. The League players will not be able play Union. Watching cross coders and even some of the Union backs attempting to ruck or maul is embarrassing enough. Players with no or little experience rucking and mauling will be penalised out of the game. Then there are the scrums... Please scrap this idea!
Sharptooth
Guest
How fascinating! A 40 minute League / 40 minute union game and winner takes all. I must agree that the Wallabies will take this one with ease. The League 40 they may leek a couple of tries but during the Union 40 they would easily claw back and take over. Most probably end up with a try count of League 4 to Union 8 or 10. Union is far to complex a game for the League players and they would have too many penalties against them which the Union team would kick for touch then use driving malls to to close the game out. To even think of having scrums in this game would be madness, but if the game is to be played under the league rules then the Union rules must also be adhered to as well. The chances of a League player ending up paralyzed are very high so the Union team would inevitably take it easy on them and just milk the penalty each time. To be honest the 40 minutes under league rules would be interesting to watch but the 40 under union would be an absolute slaughter. My impression of this is that the GB League team would not only lose to sides like Australia, New Zealand and South Africa but they would also lose this to all of the current top 10 Union sides in the world rankings. Simply put Union is far too complex and more of a team sport than league.
Andy
Guest
His wiki says so (10.7 unverified), haha and we all know that never lies. With these things they often take on a life of their own. He is very fast, and used to be a winger, so perhaps it's true but likely some time ago. The guy is a beast though and I doubt there are many men of his size who could match him over 100 metres.
Brett the manly fan
Guest
Tony Williams isn't fat. George rose holds a bench press record and Sam thaiday is an animal
chris
Guest
Very true.
chris
Guest
Did you see the Wales v Australia game...hardly a scrum or re-set in sight.
Ben.S
Roar Guru
Jerry, FYI Margot Wells (wife of Alan) who has sprint trained English players like Mike Brown, Tom Varndell, Ugo Monye etc publicly said that all the talk of rugby players clocking 10.5+ times is basically drivel.
Ben.S
Roar Guru
In terms of dynamism players like George and Sam Burgess would eat him for lunch.
sham
Guest
Agree. I am a Bears fan. Back in the 80s they had a huge pack Steve Mayoh and Don McKinnon plus Mark Graham and others. They could look after themselves as well. But and this is a big but, size is not the issue. The Bears often dominated in the forwards but the big forwards got tired and really fast backs – think Steve Mortimer used to carve them up at times. The same thing happens with the Raiders – they have a huge pack as well think Dane Tilse, Tom Leyroy Lars. Again at times they lack mobility and get carved up by smaller quick guys like Isaac Luke. These huge South African forwards may do ok in league but no guarantee. They would probably struggle big time at first as they just would not get as many breathers from kicking, lineouts and scrums in league. As for speed it is speed over the first 20 to 30 metres that really matters and how quick you move laterally. If having a huge pack was key, then the Raiders would be at the top of the ladder and the Bears would have triumphed. They did at times on occasion the bears pack would rip another team apart. Unfortunately they sometimes got carved up by little fast guys. The same thing happened to the All Blacks in the second half of the 1999 Rugby World Cup semi when the French, as only they can, really turned it on. It was smaller fast guys running around big guys. The French rugby league team did the same to Australia in the 1950s.
Rod
Guest
Potentially Kasiano could be great, if he trained hard, got fit. He is unbelievably strong in contact, actually has some ability. If the Wallabies wanted a player for the number 8 position, if he applied himself and was prepared to learn the game, he could be anything. But more than likely, will wonder how good he could have been.
Rod
Guest
I wonder if Sheridans injury problem stem from too much gym work and artificial help. It typically goes hand in hand.
Rod
Guest
Name those great rugby forwards who have killed it in league. The only one I have seen was Ray Price , despite perception he was just as much a league player as a union player as a kid,Kandos Ryan was a league player who in his later teen years got into rugby, played for the Wallabies and than played league late in his career. Thornet is probably the only fairdinkum forward from union to cross over, and was meant to be very good .
Col Quinn
Guest
G'day Clip, I go back to Manchester every 12 months now. It used to be every 3 months when I was working full time. The living standards in north of Sheffield have been dropping consistently over the past 25 years. The London Olympics sucked the life blood out of the rest of the country and the north was particularly badly hit. Money was diverted away from social programs to fund the Olympics but we are not supposed to say anything about that. I was visiting friends in Derbyshire, last Easter and we stayed in Buxton. I was shocked at the deterioration in the economy and number of closed shops. It is worse in the northern counties and my old stamping ground of Rochdale does show signs of third world poverty. Although Soccer is even menacing even summer sports, such as cricket, for sponsorship, not is all financially well with several of the major clubs. Col
cowelly
Guest
My god, you're a special kid. If you did your research properly on that little figure you had, you'd see that it's only been updated to 13 A-League games this season and does not include NRL finals. You'd also regard my original point which was that there are 9 times as many NRL games played in Aus than Super Rugby.. If Super Rugby had that many games, the crowd average would be so diluted it wouldn't even crack 10,000 average. And that 300,000 compared to 500,000 Rugby League participants and as much as you like to think touch football isn't apart of Rugby League, then have that discussion with the ARLC who makes money from Touch Football Australia and has a direct tap into that sport. And as for the media darling, have you actually read The Daily Telegraph or Sydney Morning Herald? If you have, you'd realise that RL is nothing of the sort. But of course, Rugby faces awful discrimination, doesn't it? Poor buggers.
Zane
Guest
I don't think it's fair to say that union has silly rules bro. It's what it is and I for one absolutely love it the way it is. Yes, the scrum laws can be tweaked a bit, but it's the constant contest of possession that makes it appealing for many. While I'm not a league hater, and enjoy some NRL, SOO and test matches very much, it's the non contesting of possession and the predictability of league that has resulted in me not being able to watch it on a more consistent basis. Each to their own I guess.
clipper
Guest
Jorji - that is a realistic view for the future of league in England, but league 'moving back into the fold' will never happen - not just because of the North / South divide, but just the sheer history and bitterness between the two camps. Col - you are quite correct that soccer is engulfing all in it's wake, but I think you are exaggerating the living standards in the north - sure, they're not great, but they haven't slipped to third world standard just yet, unless they've suddenly run out of drinking water or electricity in the last few months.