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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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James O'Connor has been picked at No.10 for the Reds' must win visit to Fiji. Join The Roar for live updates from 2.30pm AEST.…
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Cheers ScottD, glad you found it interesting.
ANALYSIS: Rebels must change breakdown strategy to compete against Kiwi opposition
Glad they helped, always makes talking code easier to explain.
ANALYSIS: Rebels must change breakdown strategy to compete against Kiwi opposition
This is 100% on the money Rassi. I hope it is something the Rebels have flagged with the referees.
It is essentially a penalty offence, tackling someone off the ball, usually they are not even looking to go into the ruck.
It will carve the Rebels up should this be allowed to play out on Friday night. Dmac switching back against the grain with Etene and Stevenson will rip this seem into a large hole.
ANALYSIS: Rebels must change breakdown strategy to compete against Kiwi opposition
Thanks Paul, I’m very glad my writing has helped you understand the game a little better.
Thanks for the article recommendation, will definitely read!
ANALYSIS: Rebels must change breakdown strategy to compete against Kiwi opposition
ANALYSIS: Rebels must change breakdown strategy to compete against Kiwi opposition
Cheers for the comment pm! I am a little concerned that Lonergan has done damage to chances getting picked this year.
White is still an influential player but McDermott has been the most consistent half this year.
However I would still go with White.
The five candidates for the Wallabies No.10 jersey - and the old heads who may sneak in to join them
Gordon has made four dominant tackles, Lynagh three and Lolesio two. Missed tackles are measured all the same, they are missed.
It is also prudent to note that Gordon has made 78, Lolesio has made 59.
They are both very high number of tackles for a 10.
The five candidates for the Wallabies No.10 jersey - and the old heads who may sneak in to join them
It is truly eye opening to see how little and how badly the others tackle. begs the question, why are we so harsh on our players?
The five candidates for the Wallabies No.10 jersey - and the old heads who may sneak in to join them
Ravula-Armstrong has made 19 tackles and missed 17 with no dominant tackles, Leali’ifano is 11/13/0, Dmac is 36/14/4, Patchell is 17/4/0 and Cameron 17/9/0.
By this token all Australia 10s have made more tackles successfully than most NZ, Fiji and MP 10s have attempted. That is a significant workload on the Aussie 10s.
By these calculations only Dmac and Patchell are defending at the rate equal or less than most Aussie 10s.
Interesting reading.
The five candidates for the Wallabies No.10 jersey - and the old heads who may sneak in to join them
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
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
Off the top of my head the Brumbies scored only 7 against the Blues, got thumped by the Chiefs and got stable wins by like 10 points or less than Highlanders and Canes, scoring 27 points in those games.
So I would say they are pretty even with the Rebels. It’s the points leaked which is the difference.
The Reds scored 25 against the Chiefs, 34 against the Blues, 31 (0) against the Highlanders, 33 against the Canes and Crusaders.
So they are clear leaders in that sense. Averaging around 30 points per game against NZ teams.
ANALYSIS: Rebels must change breakdown strategy to compete against Kiwi opposition