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Journalist by day, rugby fanatic by night. Always trying to find ways to bring new eyes to Rugby Union, whilst aiming to bring easy to understand analysis to those who already love the game. Objectivity is a must, but passion for one's team is non-negotiable.
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Totally agree there is more to defnece but at a glance which is what people usually base their opinions on, they are all tackling pretty poorly.
The five candidates for the Wallabies No.10 jersey - and the old heads who may sneak in to join them
The tackling numbers are as follows: Lolesio is tackling at 69%, Gordon is at 70% and Donaldson is at 59%, Edmed is around 65% from memory and Lynagh is at 83%.
Gordon and Lolesio have swapped placed as the 3rd and 2nd best defender consistently throughout the season.
Gordon has 4 dominant tackles, Lynagh 3, Lolesio 2, Donaldson 1 and Edmed none from memory.
Defence optics in Aus are very suss haha.
The five candidates for the Wallabies No.10 jersey - and the old heads who may sneak in to join them
Thanks for the comment and views Cassandra! 🏉
The five candidates for the Wallabies No.10 jersey - and the old heads who may sneak in to join them
I’ll take a backhanded compliment over none at all PeterK.
Playmaking is very hard to boil down to a article sized analysis with videos etc, but for mine, Gordon executes the best passes followed by Lolesio.
Donaldson has a good running game while Lynagh and Edmed are both runnning their patterns well.
Donaldson, Gordon and Lolesio all have cracked the line and delivered great offloads or short passes to put people away.
But Lolesio is currently executing the Brums’ gameplan of kick retention and direct play very well.
I think a stat which may assist this is that Lolesio is leading the try assist stats. Of course the Brums have won more games, so this is to be expected.
However, it would be a big issue if he wasn’t leading the numbers.
Finally, people often look at “what would they look like behind a winning pack” Every single one of these players have had a winning packing ahead of them a couple times in the last 12 months, and I would have to say from memory, Lolesio and Gordon have individually been the most impressive in the no.10 jersey for club and country (Lolesio in 2022).
The five candidates for the Wallabies No.10 jersey - and the old heads who may sneak in to join them
Great comment/read Nick! 🏉
The five candidates for the Wallabies No.10 jersey - and the old heads who may sneak in to join them
For the Wales test Schmidt won’t be able to. OS selections will not factor because of resting periods etc.
So that changes the squad from the outset. Secondly, very few believe Jones’ selections held merit, I am of that train of thought as well.
Lolesio is tackling at 69%, Gordon is at 70% and Donaldson is at 59%, Edmed is around 65% from memory. So your slight at Lolesio is unfounded and so is your praise for Gordon in this list specifically.
Campo is like 50+ I think the game has moved on a bit from his days?
They are all around the age of the WC flyhalves, if players their age were good enough for the top nations why not good enough to be third string to help coach in a team ranked 9th?
Not wanting to argue, but can’t just lie down either.
The five candidates for the Wallabies No.10 jersey - and the old heads who may sneak in to join them
I was just naming backs, but yes De Luutis, Bryant, Pearce, Slack-Smith, Hooper, Barrett, Rebels number.8 who’s name excapes me. Very promising crop.
The five Aussie young guns who should be celebrated - and the one who is ready for the Wallabies
That’s why Rugby League is so successful, because the domestic club comp has their champions, heroes and villians, we need to make Super a destination rather than a stop-over. It makes 0 sense from a product or player development view. Only when you are truly exceptional and consistent should you enter the conversation of Wallabies selection, at 23, you are not too young to be considered for a training camp as I have said here for Cale. The others are too young in certain positions for that, but they can work to put in consistent good performance for club and that should be enough for them and us.
The five Aussie young guns who should be celebrated - and the one who is ready for the Wallabies
Agreed, but then again, no one is Ardie haha.
The five Aussie young guns who should be celebrated - and the one who is ready for the Wallabies
Agreed Gary, I think that there has been some odd selection choices made especially in the forwards but our backs look good, but last year really was a great team with Wilson, Bowen, Vaihu, Lancaster, Jorgensen, Ryan, Ronan, HMP, O’Donnell, Gordon, just sometimes a generation is just lacking immediate stars, but it’s early days.
The five Aussie young guns who should be celebrated - and the one who is ready for the Wallabies
Cheers GKL, half of these players were not playing in SRP and the other half were not good enougn and are still not good enough to be included in a Wallabies environment.
The five Aussie young guns who should be celebrated - and the one who is ready for the Wallabies
Thanks Phil! Williams is another one of those players that is playing the wrong position for his size, he should be playing 6. But I do think he is a good Super level second rower and great young player! Keen to see how Bryant goes for the rest of SRP. Tough cookie.
The five Aussie young guns who should be celebrated - and the one who is ready for the Wallabies
Frontrow for Wallabies currenlty looks to be AAA, Tupou, Talakai, Slipper, Hodgeman, Gibbon, Porecki, Faessler, Pollard/Uelese.
I agree secondrow provided LSL is good, we have it covered.
The five Aussie young guns who should be celebrated - and the one who is ready for the Wallabies
Agreed, but I think that a lot of the Wallabies players have cohesion togther as some have 15-20 international games together. This is a similar school of thought as South Africa, club cohesion is not absolutley necessary.
The five Aussie young guns who should be celebrated - and the one who is ready for the Wallabies
Thanks for the big props El Flash, just head to my profile as I have been writing for the Roar for a couple years now, may be one or two pieces there you will also enjoy. I primarely write analysis with video anaylsis which you may enjoy.
Cheers 🏉
The five Aussie young guns who should be celebrated - and the one who is ready for the Wallabies
Agreed!
The five Aussie young guns who should be celebrated - and the one who is ready for the Wallabies
Yep, I just want to highlight Super Rugby talent and I don’t want them to enter the Wallabies conversation, I just want them to be championed for their form in Super and that should be enough for a couple years.
But to build the product of Super we need Super heroes , just as club rugby have club and cult heroes. Let them just have their time in the sun without the burden of another yardstick being thrown at them.
The five Aussie young guns who should be celebrated - and the one who is ready for the Wallabies
Hey Piru,
I think Pearce is doing great and in my piece earlier this year I highlighted Pearce’s importance for the Force’s fortunes.
However, despite having a decent 2024, only hampered by injury and suspension, his 2023 was far more impressive. His ommission was more so about his current form and timeliness of the others, as currenlty having great impact on their teams.
Pearce, Kailea, Massimo De Luttis (Reds), Jack Barrett (Waratahs) and George Blake (Reds) are all the generation which will need to be ready either for 2027 (Kailea, Pearce) or ready to hold a spot of their own after leading into 2031.
The five Aussie young guns who should be celebrated - and the one who is ready for the Wallabies
Thank you for that simple yet perfect first line which saved me a paragraph or two haha. 🏉
I think on Wilson, my only detraction is that he is not great at cleaning out, nor at running into heavy blunt contact. Simply put, he can’t play the game he plays at Super at international.
He is a great player, but the biggest thing his is dominant tackle stats. He can work in attack at test level but defence is a concern.
The five Aussie young guns who should be celebrated - and the one who is ready for the Wallabies
Great comment Cec, saved me having to do this, love your work.
The five Aussie young guns who should be celebrated - and the one who is ready for the Wallabies
I believe Matt Faessler gave it to him. His tenacity and always giving 110% meant the spindly fellow earned the fitting nickname.
The five Aussie young guns who should be celebrated - and the one who is ready for the Wallabies
100% agree, but as I have been observing/hearing, both club rugby around Australia and Super Rugby are becoming a young mans competition, take the median age of now and 10 years ago, I wouldn’t be surprised if the age has dropped from around 30 to 26.
Which is a huge drag on experience and skill, nous.
Retaining the players between 26-31 is more vital than snaring the Jorgensens and Suali’i’s.
We need props, centres, 10s, second rowers, as Ryan proved on the weekend, we have wingers galore.
The five Aussie young guns who should be celebrated - and the one who is ready for the Wallabies
Kailea is a big body and at such a young age is doing the tough stuff first but he is being well managed as well by Foote and co. Just a really exciting time for a young gun who is trying to stamp his name on the comeptition. Hope it continues on this path.
The five Aussie young guns who should be celebrated - and the one who is ready for the Wallabies
I would like to point out that I haven’t said any of those four players are ready or on the radar for Wallabies, merely identifying young talent which have done things which are impressive and have the makings of really good Super Rugby Pacific players.
Championing them for great Super Rugby players should not need to lead anywhere, being a great Super Rugby players should be a claim all in of itself. That’s my point let them just be exciting and excited by good Super form, they need to do much more than that to register on the Wallaby radar, but we need to make Super a significant competition in of itself.
The five Aussie young guns who should be celebrated - and the one who is ready for the Wallabies
From the Super Rugby Pacific official stat decks.
I don’t think anything i have written suggests he is a great defender, on the contrary, it shows everyone bar Lynagh is not great.
The five candidates for the Wallabies No.10 jersey - and the old heads who may sneak in to join them