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Roar Rookie
Joined April 2011
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Yep, I hope I’m wrong(!!), but I suspect it’ll be a similar score to last year (Drua 41, Reds 17). A lot of changes for the Reds. One thing in their favour is the Drua have had to come back from Perth – that’s got to be a pretty tough trip.
Super Rugby teams round 13: Frost to No.6, Noah back for Brumbies, Aubrey starts for Reds, Pone in for Rebels
1. A bit hairbrained – but could all 3 work together? Wright and Kells on the wings, with Campbell as fullback?
2. I really rate Campbell – an amazing positional player, excellent with ball in hand, good defender (as good as any others), solid under the highball; but my main concern is his size – I worry when he runs into contact in tight – he usually does a great job of finding a bit of space, therefore that extra half second for someone to secure the ball, but when he does get caught in tight, he doesn’t have the strength to fight for the extra half second, and it is often a turnover (same with all of our 10’s except Carter Gordon and Jack Deb). I just wish Campbell had an extra 5-8kg, but of course also was just as lithe.
Kells, Wright, Donno, Jock or Kurtley? What Joe Schmidt's past tells us about the Wallaby fullback sweepstakes
I think between you you’ve cracked it: Physicality + Accuracy = Breakdown success = winning.
Progress is slowly happening: What each of our Aussie Super Rugby teams must do to take the next step
To clarify, I might worry he (Paisami) may be too small – but I don’t think he is. My point above is that Lolesio IS too small. He might be a similar size to Giteau was – but I reckon Gits was way more physical, both in attack and defence. I don’t think Paisami’s playmaking abilities are that much worse than Lolesio’s + he has so many other assets suitable for a 12. I just hope Les Kiss wasn’t joking and Paisami is also an 85% goalkicker 😂
The five candidates for the Wallabies No.10 jersey - and the old heads who may sneak in to join them
I worry Paisami is a tad too small at 12 for test level, let alone Lolesio – he is about 25 kg too small! Can you imagine Danty or Bundee Aki opposite Lolesio on a 5m scrum?!
The five candidates for the Wallabies No.10 jersey - and the old heads who may sneak in to join them
Yep, awesome footy – but atrocious grammar, reading that hurts my brain 😂
'Everyone was dogs': Junior Wallabies roll up their sleeves to beat Springboks in TRC as rising fullback scores twice
P.S. go easy on me – it has been 12 years since my last comment, although I think I’ve probably read every single rugby article in the Roar’s history! Rookie commenter… “Guru” reader! 😂
Wallabies Power Rankings: How every Test contender is shaping up one month into Super Rugby
Lolesio is kicking at 81.3 % to Donno’s 75%. Edmed is at 80% and Lynagh at 71.4%.
Do they happen to break the goalkicking stats down by penalty shot percentage vs. conversion percentage? I worry a straight goalkicking percentage will work against the teams that down go for the easy penalty shots at goal (e.g. the Reds have been kicking to the corner, even when 10 metres out, right in front of the posts. if Lynagh is taking those shots, obviously his percentage would go up.
I agree though 80% is ideal. I’m just shocked Lynagh’s percentage is so low, so wondering if it’s due to the Reds rolling maul tries near the corner…
Wallabies Power Rankings: How every Test contender is shaping up one month into Super Rugby
“The spread of countries involved will bring in new and bigger audiences. I was intrigued, for instance, to hear from one of the New Zealand broadcasters over the weekend that there is dedicated Super Rugby coverage in the UK with Michael Lynagh and Sean Fitzpatrick involved with the discussion.”
I’m living in the UK at the moment, and was pleasantly surprised (shocked) at the amount of SR coverage – their analysis is spot on – the best I’ve seen out of any country. They also have Thinus Delport from a saffa point of view + the English host. The lack of bias is astounding – basically – it is objective, insightful, informed analysis, something I’d never encountered watching sport in Aus or NZ (or hearing SA commentators too, and in my brief travels there).
Having a Singaporean / Japanese / Hongkonger team will only add to the world’s interest, and therefore non-SANZAR country-sourced revenue – an awesome thing for all 3 countries (well, 4 with the new one!).
SPIRO: Super Rugby really is super rugby
Yeah, but even Fitzy calls them the Auckland Blues every weekend here on Sky in the UK. It may not be their correct name, but it’s what pretty much everyone outside of far north NZ calls them.
SPIRO: Super Rugby format gives South African sides unfair advantage
I agree with both of you on different points. Of course he’s a “Rebels star”, and he’s one of the best Wallabies backs we have (not sure if he’s outright the best). But no, I don’t think he should be straight back into the starting team, he should come onto the bench though when fit.
(although I just read a report in the Australian saying he won’t make the SA & Arg tour anyway).
O'Connor hoping for Pretoria return
Good point CizzyRascal – just because the SANZAR nations are 1, 2 and 3 in the world, doesn’t mean they have money to spare – in fact quite the opposite, especially for Aus and NZ. Surely this is what the IRB is meant to spend the money on from the RWC proceeds?!
Is there room for a second division Rugby Championship?
Just a pet hate of mine from the article.. you say “mute” point, but you mean “moot”.
Does Olympic rugby need NRL players?
I’d back us to beat most of them 7 out of 10 times, home or away. Except for SA 5 out of 10 times.
But everything else you said, I completely agree, our depth… well, we don’t have any depth, and in places we don’t even have decent players as first choice. I think 5-8 years ago, people used to say that the All Blacks B team would beat us – I used to think at the time it was just hyperbole, but at the moment, the All Blacks C (or even D) forward pack would still more than dominate ours. I think our backs could match it with their B team though. The Saffas have way more depth than us too obviously, just their cream of the cream isn’t as good as the Blacks.
Wallabies in Auckland: Faint hope is still hope
So I don’t think number 2 is a facade – it’s just a helluva lot behind number 1, I think the rankings are pretty spot on really, with NZ way out, then the rest very tight.
1 NEW ZEALAND 92.29
2 AUSTRALIA 86.19
3 SOUTH AFRICA 85.08
4 ENGLAND 83.09
5 FRANCE 83.03
6 WALES 82.26
Wallabies in Auckland: Faint hope is still hope
I agree South Africa would be very firm favourites at home, and England, Wales and maybe France & Argentina would start as slim favourites, but Italy, Scotland, Ireland, Scotland, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, anyone else wouldn’t start as favourites. Yes, these countries might beat us from time to time, but we’ll beat them more often than not, regardless of where it’s played.
Obviously, NZ are streaks ahead of the field, and I really don’t think their standards are going to slip, so it’s up to the chasing pack to catch them – as long as we can stay at the head of this pack, we’ll be doing ok.
Wallabies in Auckland: Faint hope is still hope
Yes, we were outplayed last week, and have lost something like 21 out of the last 27 tests against the All Blacks, but we’re going ‘pretty well’ against the rest of the Test Nations. No, number 2 isn’t perfect, but it is still pretty bloody good.
Rugby isn’t in that much of a crisis, and it ain’t going to disappear in a hurry. Whilst I love the passion, everyone on these forums needs to chill out a bit, and maybe re-assess until after the Championship – if we come 4th… then I’ll join in on the panic, but even 3rd, isn’t the end of the world!
As long as we stay slightly ahead of the Saffas, and win three quarters of our tests against the 6 Nations countries, I’ll be more than content (although, obviously still craving that number 1 ranking!).
Wallabies in Auckland: Faint hope is still hope
When Campo says: “Genia, Cooper, Barnes, O’Connor, Ioane, Mitchell Beale”
Just to clarify, does he mean:
9. Genia
10. Cooper
12. Barnes
13. O’Connor
11. Ioane
14. Mitchell
15. Beale
or:
13. Ioane
11. O’Connor
Who’s his outside centre basically?
Sorry to be a little slow, I just couldn’t get it from the way he wrote it. Either way, I really like those players, but at the moment, I’d take AAC over JOC until JOC is 100% fit, I’d just ease him back in off the bench for now. I would be interested to see JOC in the 13 jersey at some stage, but not really for the experiment to occur against the All Blacks.
McCabe, Fainga’a, Horne are all very similar (one-dimensional) players, Tapuai is more of a ball-player though, who I wouldn’t mind seeing getting a go at 12 at this level. Harris is another ‘solid’ (but not spectacular) player too.. although obviously a great goal kicker.
To me (and Campo, and 99% of Aussie rugby fans), it’s obvious that Cooper needs to be 10 in the long term – even if we/he struggles a bit in the short term, he IS a player who is absolutely worth persevering with at this level, just like at Super level the last 5 years – he just needs to get used to it, then eventually by next year maybe, he’ll be able to dominate.
CAMPO: Wallabies need to start bashing the All Blacks around
Merging my most hated (reality TV) and most loved (rugby!) things… interesting.
I think my love of rugby would win out and I’d have to cave in and watch. Even if we got one good (S15 standard) player, that’d be considered a success I reckon. Not a bad idea really.
Australia's Next Top Rugby Team
Not trying to nitpick too much – but obviously the Junior World Cup is international rugby!
But yeah, it’s “junior” – so comparing apples to oranges.
Blaming Gill for the losses in the JWC is nonsense though – he was by far and away our best player (well, in the 3 games I watched), and leading a losing team can still be a great learning experience (hardship, camaraderie.. all that crap).
I think Gill and Hoops are neck and neck at the moment, I’d be happy for either of them to start, then the other to come on at the 50 min mark, either at 6 or 7, depending on how the game’s panning out.
Pocock to have surgery, Genia to lead Wallabies
Yeah, agreed. Pocock is still our top 2 player (with Genia), he just did that one really stupid penalty where he slowed the ball with his foot, and all of a sudden everyone’s gone off him. I agree, Hooper is more dynamic with ball in hand, but the rest of Pocock’s game is still miles ahead of Hoops and Gill.
Nonetheless – while we’ll be weakened without him, I’m still excited to see what the 2 youngsters can do. A massive baptism of fire, but the (eternal) optimist in me thinks it could be the making of one of them.
How the Wallabies can be better without Pocock
Vuna reminds me of Forrest Gump playing American Football – you can’t pass the ball to him, but if you place it in his chest and tell him to run (and maybe point him in the right direction), then he is handy.
But yeah, he can’t catch, pass, tackle, read defence/the play, kick, etc.
He is big and fast and hard to tackle though.
Shipperley is a great Super Rugby winger, and has all the skills and ability, but I just think he’s too much of a lightweight for Test rugby, and can’t compete (let alone dominate) in physical contact at that level.
Ioane has got the one wing spot obviously, and I just hope Mitchell can one day return to the player he was 2 years ago, as he was the complete package.
Why not Smith, Holmes, and Shipperly in Wallaby squad?
yeah agree – pretty poor effort on Mitchell’s (first) try in particular
James O'Connor key to the Wallabies' chances
Wow, if he is 91kg, he sure doesn’t look it. I’ve seen 85kg on a couple of websites which seems more accurate. Le Roux certainly seems bigger than Campbell, and doesn’t get ragdolled in the same way. But yes, if Jock is indeed 90kg, then that makes me feel a bit better about him returning to the international fold.
Like a few others, I think the perception of Campbell’s defence suffers from that missed tackle on Penaud – which is ridic, as Penaud has done it to so many other international wingers and fullbacks, who haven’t been tarred with the same brush.
Kells, Wright, Donno, Jock or Kurtley? What Joe Schmidt's past tells us about the Wallaby fullback sweepstakes