Roar Rookie
Joined August 2017
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Loves to pull out the back, chop low and jam hard. And gardening.
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With each new generation of Australian Rugby leadership ushered in, the hope of rugby fans nation wide is momentarily ignited, before of course the…
Rugby fans young and old, weathered and wishful, rejoiced nation wide upon the announcement of the return of the Messiah. Joseph Suaalii, a rugby…
As the dust settles on an exhilarating and dramatic Autumn Nations series that offered upsets to ruin weekends around the world - and highlights…
For too long the Wallabies have lived under the narrative of a rebuilding team. They have dreamt of all the things that they could…
On Saturday, 24 April, two of Sydney’s elite all-male private schools, Knox Grammar School and St Joseph's College, ventured deep into what can’t exactly…
At the risk of telling the same story that billions of Aussie rugby fans have told the morning after a big Wallabies loss at…
Amid the chaos of Australian Super Rugby teams scoring two wins from 25 matches against their Kiwi counterparts in the Super Rugby Trans-Tasman series…
Everywhere I look in Australian sports media is negative rhetoric surrounding the state of our great, diverse, globally prevalent and – most importantly –…
As an Australian rugby fan, it seems that these days the focus is on the blight of the game at the professional level, the…
After the decision was made to reduce Australian Super Rugby sides to a count of four, and to cut the Western Force, it's safe…
This is the third article for The Roar I've written in two years, on my third account, because I forgot the username and password…
Ahh blast – how embarrassing. In hindsight it definitely didn’t sound right hahahaha
Why Italy beating Australia and Georgia beating Wales is great for Aussie and Welsh rugby
Interestingly we both published a RWC focused article overnight. I actually think increasing the number of teams is the answer personally taking us from 12 to 30 matches per pool. I talk about it here: https://www.theroar.com.au/2022/12/09/why-italy-beating-australia-and-georgia-beating-wales-is-great-for-aussie-and-welsh-rugby/
Can the Rugby World Cup get even better?
I do love the idea of spreading matches more evenly throughout the week however I think huge improvements could be made without doubling players’ workload per week through just more evenly spread fixtures
Can the Rugby World Cup get even better?
Thanks Ken – I would say the agenda of the latter is Not so Hidden though!
Why Italy beating Australia and Georgia beating Wales is great for Aussie and Welsh rugby
Loved the detail of this article.
Just wondering, how do you embed images / video in the article?
Why no man is an island: backfield dynamics in Super Rugby Round 6
Big Fergus at either 5 or 6 mate.
One of the most underrated players in the competition at the moment
Super Rugby Radar: Hot Rodda a huge in for rising Western Force
All for the whole concept of separate domestic comps where each nation fields as many domestic teams as they want, effectively giving them control over their top domestic competition.
But then a crossover tournament involving only X, Y and Z from each of NZ, Aus and the rest would produce a trans tasman / south pacific comp of a higher standard as it would only involve the best of each country.
On the other hand, I really don’t like the idea of these superficial wallabies probable vs possibles competiting in the tournament when in reality a lack of tribalism has been a major downside of Rugby compared to League in Australia for the past 15 years at least.
This is already done in Europe with the Champions’ League involving the best teams from England, France, the rest of the UK, and so on and so forth.
To be or not to Wallaby? A question posed to Tier 2 by the Rennie-vation of Tier 1 rugby
Are you a Bot?
TEAM CONFIRMED: McMahon on bench, Holmes becomes oldest Wallaby in pro era, Tate rested
How is Gordon’s form very poor at International level? I feel like this is so over exaggerated by those who see the highlights of McDermott’s running game but neglect the other 80% of the halfback’s role including service from the ruck and box kicking.
Genia’s article titled “The Folly of our Obsession with Shiny New Things” or something along those lines hit the nail on the head re over reliance on young talent. Surely the current form of QC is enough to show that your best XV isn’t going to be made up of the next batch of U20 stars…
TEAM CONFIRMED: McMahon on bench, Holmes becomes oldest Wallaby in pro era, Tate rested
Hodge ain’t no winger.
Coach’s Corner Issue 27: Who is really the number one team in the world?
Don’t worry mate he is powered by the carnivore diet, he’ll be going till he’s 40 at least!
WILL GENIA: Dave and Quade show folly of our obsession with shiny new things
I definitely think Foley earnt the jersey in 2014, 15, etc. with his ball running style but yeah once things weren’t working as well it didn’t feel as though we had a viable back up plan.
It shouldn’t have been the case with Cooper, O’Connor, Hodge, Paiau’a, CLL, Toomua, Godwin, Stewart and more floating around over the years but we sort of backed ourselves into a corner.
Even when CLL moved to 10 in 2019 it was more out of desperation than anything,
The curse of the Wallabies’ rebuild is finally lifted
Appreciated mate.
Brett McKay also did a good write up that wasn’t so focused on Quade. Got published this morning also. Definitely worth a read
The curse of the Wallabies’ rebuild is finally lifted
I actually still think White is our top Aussie 9 as much as I like what McDermott brings to the game. But that’s why I think it was important that he finished the game for us – having him on the field in the second half was crucial in my opinion.
I thought Tom Robertson could play tighthead – correct me if I’m wrong. Who else might be a good reserve TH? Pone? Holmes??
The curse of the Wallabies’ rebuild is finally lifted
Interesting. Why do you say so? Have always loved a bit of Hodge and have thought the attacking side of his game has been underappreciated due to his kicking prowess causing him to be stereotyped as a kicking player.
The curse of the Wallabies’ rebuild is finally lifted
And young tens we have aplenty: Lolesio, Kuenzle, Pasitoa, Harrison, Donaldson, Lynagh. None of whom I’d prefer over O’Connor or Hodge or now Cooper.
In a way we actually have better Super Rugby depth at 10 than in the 2010s when we had imports Danny Cipriani, Wharenui Hawera, etc filling our ranks. Hopefully now with Kuenzle at the Force we get to see him starting at 10 instead of the Argie – and therefore get an Aussie Five Eighth at each of the clubs with a solid Aussie reserve at most as well.
The curse of the Wallabies’ rebuild is finally lifted
It’s a fair point. If we were to go 6/2 I’d drop Paisami and keep O’Connor.
On the McMahon point – I still don’t get why Wilson isn’t it the squad and why he was even dropped in the first place. I’d therefore personally rather see Wilson than McMahon on form / merit although would definitely appease the idea of getting McMahon in for Swinton eventually.
Swain in for Luhkan I suppose – although would prefer Luhkan if he was available.
The curse of the Wallabies’ rebuild is finally lifted
Appreciate the feedback.
Yeah true, I don’t know why I said Allan considering he was obviously replaced by Tupou.
Of course, Foley the Ice Man enjoyed his fair share of clutch kicks. But I stand by the point that he must hold some kind of record in world rugby for hitting the post hahah
The curse of the Wallabies’ rebuild is finally lifted
That could be where James O’Connor comes in.
Reece Hodge is another solid option too.
Would’ve loved to see Izzy soaring up to catch some of those bombs but alas.
The curse of the Wallabies’ rebuild is finally lifted
With Allan Allaalatoa out, and James O’Connor and Sean McMahon apparently available for selection this week, what side would you select for the second test against the Springboks?
1. Angus Bell
2. Feleti Kaitu’u
3. Taniela Tupou
4. Izack Rodda
5. Matt Philip
6. Lachie Swinton
7. Michael Hooper
8. Rob Valetini
9. Tate McDermott
10. Quade Cooper
11. Marika Koroibete
12. Samu Kerevi
13. Len Ikitau
14. Andrew Kellaway
15. Reece Hodge
16. Brandon Paenga – Amosa
17. James Slipper
18. Tom Robertson
19. Luhkan Salakaia – Loto
20. Pete Samu
21. Nic White
22. Hunter Paisami
23. James O’Connor
The curse of the Wallabies’ rebuild is finally lifted
As you point out Cooper needs a certain type of 12 – the ball running option provided by a Samu Kerevi or Hunter Paisami. The poor bloke was given a couple of tests under Cheika a few years back with Foley at 12 and it just didn’t work at all.
I never understood why Petaia has been brought up as an option at 15. He has been in and out of teams with injury his whole career, and when he has played he’s been a strike runner at 13 or on the wing. I don’t understand where he has demonstrated the tactical kicking ability, defensive nous or playmaking ability to actually be considered anywhere other than 13, wing or maybe 12 in a few years.
I think given the gutsy win it could be safe to assume that Rennie might not make too many sweeping changes and instead bring O’Connor off the bench. I think where O’Connor plays really depends on if Cooper starts at 10 or not. 15 and 13 are two of the most wide open jerseys at the moment. As you point out he has experience at 15 and despite not having played there for a while he definitely could slot in. He also filled the 13 jersey pretty well in 2019 under Cheika so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him reprise that role either.
I think Pete Samu has been pretty good of the bench two weeks in a row now, and personally would prefer to see him again in jersey 20 at least rather than Sean McMahon after 4 years in Japan. I actually would have 6. Samu and 8. Harry Wilson as my choice back rowers however I think the physicality of Swinton and Valetini was better suited to the Big Boks pack.
Part of me loved to see a Force player in the team although yeah Kaitu’u’s reliability and precision could be the answer to the musical chairs act at hooker.
Why Rennie will pull the trigger on O'Connor at 15
???
CONFIRMED: Quade Cooper returns for Wallabies at No.10, Rodda starts, two debutants
Sorry – lost control there for a minute
Can Quade and Samu wind back the clock for the Wallabies?
when you put it that way…
But there’s a few angles to look at this one from aside from the actual footy side of things, for example PR / marketing. And the kid hasn’t even pulled on a jersey yet.
What if the Wallabies picked from the NRL?