Sekope Kepu, Nic White join Wallaby World Cup exodus

You were doing really well until you said wallabies fan first and tahs fan second. I suggest you read the posts by jamesswm again ;) you may find his one of our biggest tahs fan on here :) So Brumbies fans are posting based on thier SR club, and your comments are for what's best for the wallabies. If the wallabies = tahs, you are being honest, otherwise what you have written over the years in the roar contradicts your statement. Geez your opening statement refers to winning the SR comp, or should we twist that to the RWC being a comp for the purposes of this arguement

We can only hope they come back in time for the next WC.

This is a great idea. 'x' amount of super rugby caps, or perhaps 'x' amount of test caps, and you can still be picked. They always talk about 'the international factor' being one of the virtues of rugby that the other football codes don't offer, but then get upset when players take up big money contracts in overseas clubs. We need to find a way for it to work in our favour, and having them still illegible after 'x' amount of caps seems a great way of going about it. The standard of Super Rugby would not drop anymore (or much more) than it currently is with the current exodus, and we would have all our best players illegible for the Wallabies. Someone write the ARU a letter.

aha. I see what youre looking for: - 'ABBA' Anything But BA - Can be a car bumper sticker I reckon (hope?) Palmer can sort him out. He's a big boy. And he kinda, sorta did a good job v England 2012.

Rob, I don't disagree but would still like to see him tried at international level again before I see BA selected there again. Ideally we'd have KL, Ma'afu and the Melbourne pair named before we see BA again. I like Faulkner as well. Like Baxter - I don't fault the individual but there are many other scrummagers I would prefer to see selected for the Wallabies. I think we have alternate options who may be better than the incumbents.

Not sure about Holmes at THP, jez. He's around 10kegs off the mark for internationals. His weight peer would be Julian Red from J'Burg. imo Julian is couple of tiers above Holmes. And Julian is a SA's 3rd/4th string THP Holmes does a superb job at SR level. Though his side caught out by a few NRC scrummagers. From memory Eagles, Rams, City. But its not all him on those cases.

Sio isn't a really fair comparison - he is brand new in propping terms and has suffered injury each time he has looked to step up at the end of a long season. We need to be really careful not to burn him out and permanently injure him as happened to Dan Palmer. I'm rather confident that Longbottom would have been better than BA was this year. I think Weeks would have, had he not gotten injured and I suspect PAE would have been better as well. I'll even throw Holmes back into the mix as being worth another look again now - a few years ago I thought he should only be played at LH but consistent time on the TH side is starting to pay off and I think he should be looked at before BA. (you may be picking up on my low opinion of BA from my comment above - just about the only regular TH that I don't think is worth a look at ahead of BA is Ryan who was absolutely pants last year).

Louie, you are the one being willfully ignorant. How can anyone maintain that losing "one of our best halfbacks" is equivalent;ent to losing by far our best tighthead? There are about 5 halfbacks who could play for the Wallabies with no major change to our competitive position. There is one proven globally competitive tighthead in the country now. ONE! There is nothing in this argument to suggest that White isn't a good halfback. But he is nowhere near as important to the Wallabies as Kepu. The loss of Genia and White is not as damaging as losing Kepu. In fact, the loss of Beale, Cooper, Genia, White, and Folau is not as damaging, in my opinion.

Plenty of sarcasm haha. Take this into context. Scott Sio was arguably better in 2013 at Loosehead than Longbottom in 2014 at Tighthead. Yet struggled at test level and was dropped from the squad. He could very well have performed worse than Alexander. For all Alexander's faults, his been the anchor of one of Australia's strongest super rugby scrums for years. Douglas isn't young for a lock though. The very best peak into their 30s. The stock standard ones that Australia generally produces in the tight forwards generally peak in their early 20s and never come into national consideration again. How many Australia tight forwards have gotten better with age, versus how many have debuted before 25 and never again got near where they were in the pecking order?

After reading the comments on this thread from Australian rugby 'supporters' I'm not surprised the players are lining up up leave.

GREAT NEWS !! TWO of the Biggest DUDS to put on a wallaby Jersey

We'll disagree on Douglas, I thought he made good strides in consistency and physicality (along with most of the Tahs pack last season). The point isn't that - it isn't difficult for one of these players to be in "Career best form" (a term of reference you introduced). It is that players with limited test caps Douglas 14 and Longbottom 0 were in their best form in Super Rugby before leaving our shores. I inferred a bit of sarcasm in your initial comment - that many of these OS players aren't actually in CBF but are instead performing well in lower standard comps. Did I misread that? If I did take your point correctly then I stand by my comment on these two players. Particularly when held against the form of Alexander, Horwill, Carter and Skelton. I think they both had plenty to offer the Wallabies last year and in coming years. Douglas is 25 which is still young for a lock and Longbottom at 29 and just starting to peak has a few years on his side as well.

I disagree on Douglas. He was playing just as well in 2013 - with 3 exceptions. The 3 test matches he played where he was one of the worst performers. Yes Longbottom was in "Career best form" but put that into context. He only started for the Force consistently for his last 2 seasons, so it's not that difficult to be in career best form.

It's not so much box kicks generally, it's poor box kicks, or choosing the wrong time for them, or using them as your default mechanism.

Chip on my shoulder? About what? Winning the comp? I can understand Brumby gfans being upset at losing their no.1 half back. I would be too. But as a Wallabies fan first and tahs fan 2nd, I don't see Whiote as a huige loss. He's never going to either be a match-winner for the Wallabies or help that Tahs (except by box kicking to Folau a lot).

So Kepu isn't our best TH? Who is, then? Our scrum goes so well when he goes off the field, right? You're saying White is better than our third string half back Rob? You mean based on his wonderful MOM performances for the Wallabies so far?

Brian, they could start with the +50 test policy, but I think that policy option has now been missed.

Great list on EPSN Scrum of the departures, rumours, etc

I saw someone suggested this plan once before: Overseas selection would be available, but only to players who have accrued more than +50 caps for AUS. This way, they can chase the big paycheck after putting in their time with AUS. This will allow young talent to be selected for Super Rugby, and develop more talent on a higher stage in their absence. Makes sense to me...

Bugger. Very upset about Kepu leaving to join Ma'afu, Longbottom and PAE - particularly in the wake of Palmer leaving then retiring. That is way too much TH talent for us not to have in our Wallaby mix.