Five things to be excited for in the Wallabies' trial game

^ Hooper is the weaklink in that group. He has been the weaklink in our pack for 4 years.He must not be captain and must be a bench sub at best.

^ Yeah riggggggggggght. Checka has had the same game plan for 4 years, He still picks the same insipid players and we still get spanked by everyone ( even on home soil ). It`ll happen again.

Radical idea Play a 13 at 13

And Folau where you’d get like, maybe 2 highlight tackles where he cuddles blokes, and 12 tries let in.

Foley at 10? So defence is not important?

Hodge just doesnt offer much besides goal kicking. Maybe Matt Tamoua there?

Powell and Gordon have proved themselves at Super level and we have had opportunities like Italy and Fiji to get some game time in to them. Instead we've only got game time in to Genia and Phipps except for injury. Cheika had the opportunity to do better with the 9's

Louwrens is playing in Japan and not good enough anyway.

Thought Sorovi and Stewart went pretty well at the end of the season. The thing that I wonder about from a lot of supporters these days is that they think there is some kid hidding in the background that somehow is international standard. When are most halves at their peak and how much experience does it take to get there? And all this rubbish about Cheika not developing other halves, well they need to perform and learn at least at Super Rugby level and have the required skillset and game. These blokes who keep getting named aren't at that level and need to break through, trying to develop halves by playing them in internationals is just daft.

I agree it was a decent performance in isolation though. Hopefully Cheika builds on it in the RC.

It's the way it always is with the Cheika fans though. Whenever the team does well it is entirely attributable to him, and whenever they lose it is to factors outside his control. We lost 2-1 and could easily have lost 3-0. It went similar to the Lions series in 2013, only then Deans nearly beat a combined team of all the home nations, and this time we couldn't even beat Ireland after they played their second string team in the first test.

Surely this bloke is the only Australian coach to lose two home series in a row? In some ways I agree, that in isolation, losing to number 2 in a series at home isn't quite panic stations... in isolation. But it isn't in isolation. And I don't like losing.

Nah agreed aye, you need humble grafters in there too. I think in the NBA they refer to them as roleplayers. Like Hegarty does that job at the Tahs when he is on.

And we can ill-afford to lose the likes of Izzy P who has apparently signed on with Redcliffe, to give him plausible deniability when asked whether he's inked a contract with the Broncos.

I thought the series against Ireland in isolation was a decent enough performance. Not where we need to be, but not panic stations either. The issues is that it's not isolated. Cheika needed to make up for the poor performances he lead in 2016 and 2017 and didn't do that losing 2-1. I find it hilarious the Sydney Cheika supporters who constantly make excuses. On the GAGR podcast last year, Hugh Caville called the series essentially a referendum on Cheika. Then after losing he immediately attempted to back track.

I hate to admit it, but the Wallabies have made me pessimistic as well... I hate it about myself at the moment... Just pipped by number 2 in the world, who were pretty disappointing to be honest. They should have gone three nil. The fact that we came close was more of an indictment on their long year and depth than anything else. Has we been smarter, I think we could have beaten number 2 in the world, but we played pretty thick rugby in games 2 and 3. Goes to what Cliff is saying... to surprise Ireland with our high kick tactics in game 1, then think they wouldn't adjust in game 2, let alone keep trying it in game 3, was just brainless, apathetic tactics to me. Next, I reckon if you put us against England and Scotland now, we could just capitulate indeed. I mean granted, our forwards are better, but if the drivers of our team can't get the points, we are vulnerable to be over-run, then having to chase points, we don't have that ability, but have a great propensity to panic, and gift points back to opposition. Next, it isn't like Cheika hasn't had time to develop better game/better selections/better results... he has failed all three, with plenty of time.

I’m hoping Deegan puts his hand up tonight. Unfortunately I feel for all the “show us what ya got” tripe from Cheika, his blue boys will walk in next week and it will all be more of the same. I’ve said many times before on this site that Cheika’s most Inspired selections have been forced on him by injury!

I find this game a bit of an insult really. To state early on that they will be having some form of warm up game, and everyone thought "Finally!", then announce an internal trial game, and I thought "As long as it is fair dinkum, not a micky mouse affair!" and then to announce it as it is... really disappointing. Wouldn't you use a serious game to warm up combinations? Isn't that the point of a warm up game? What combinations are going to come out of this game? The lineout maybe. That's it. The rest, i.e. the Tahs, will come in later and take their spots, and still be underdone in 4/5 weeks for Bledisloe game 1 anyway. So this is a lip service, useless venture, taking players out of their club sides at crucial times. Why don't the Wallabies have a proper hit out against someone as a warm up? Do it two weeks out from Bled 1. If people get injured, hell, they just get injured. These days, they are likely to do it in training anyway. I just find this a dreadful waste of time that doesn't fulfill any purpose and I am very disappointed. Having said that, I hope everyone comes out injury free.

That's always been the case though Jez. Some players get by at the lower levels because they develop earlier and then when they come up against men they really lose their advantage. Look at the list of Aus Schoolboys 10s. With the exception of a good period from around 2004-2011, there's not many names that you'd really notice. 2000 Lachlan McKay 2001 Joel Slater 2001 David Dillon 2001 Chris Lyons 2002 Daniel Halangahu 2002 Lachlan Morgan 2003 Matthew Brandon 2004 Christian Leali’ifano 2004 Ben Lucas 2005 Kurtley Beale 2005 Quade Cooper 2006 Kurtley Beale 2006 Quade Cooper 2007 Matt Toomua 2008 Robbie Coleman 2008 James Ambrosini 2009 Rohan Saifoloi 2009 Rodney Esekia 2009 Kyle Godwin 2010 Ed Wylie 2010 Dion Taumata 2011 David Horwitz 2011 Jack Debreczeni 2012 Jake McIntyre 2013 Andrew Deegan 2014 Jordan Jackson-Hope 2014 Jack McGregor 2014 Connor O'Shea 2015 Issac Lucas

Yeah. But they're guilty of deliberately sensationalizing it to try and deceive.