Wallabies 2020

[upthereds#!]

Agreed, it is always about getting the team balance right

I just get annoyed with the constant focus on "x" weaknesses and not what they contribute.

Quade at his evil best made you not care that he couldn't tackle (neither could Mehrtens and many foreign poster claimed Larkham was a speed bump as well), it is when they aren't contributing enough that the weakness is brought up.

Beale isn't contributing enough to justify covering for his weaknesses

Quades poor defense was easily catered for by putting him in the counter attack/positional kicking position of fullback, whilst jono lance, notoriously slow, was a well known machine tackler who filled in. Very easy and simple swap of 2 players with vastly differing strengths. Beale has nobody like that at the waratahs, and the wallabies took the moving people around thing wayyyyy too far and made it wayy to complicated.

Beale has alot of skills but you are exactly right in that there isn't anybody with a complementary skill set so create balance. The entire Tahs backline is relatively small, not particularly fast (Nawaqaetc got soooo burned by Muirhead and Wright) and noone physically dominant. So a 'flashy' player like Beale has little opportunity to showcase what skills he does have (Quade had Higs, Samo, Tapuai, Digby and Davies on a string), whilst at the same time, has his flaws exposed.

 

[cyclopath]

Rennie has stated today he is fully committed, but wants to meet with the board to re-affirm the aims and structures in place.
I mean, it would have been odd if he had a clause to not come, but still, good news to hear it confirmed.
All else aside, and presuming we see any Test rugby this year, I am very excited about the proposed / likely coaching set-up.

 

[Quick Hands]

Rennie has stated today he is fully committed, but wants to meet with the board to re-affirm the aims and structures in place.
I mean, it would have been odd if he had a clause to not come, but still, good news to hear it confirmed.
All else aside, and presuming we see any Test rugby this year, I am very excited about the proposed / likely coaching set-up.

I suspect we won't see much if any test rugby in 2020. The only conceivable possibility at this stage would be a 3 test series against NZ, which would be at the mercy of travel restrictions and quarantine measures. Certainly it would have to be held in the one country, with revenue split. Auckland in NZ or Sydney in Aust would loom as the places where everyone could be accommodated for 3 weeks and they have the largest stadia. (Although with Homebush unavailable Brisbane/Suncorp are an option subject to the Qld government which has interstate as well as international border restrictions in place)

 

[Bandar]

I suspect we won't see much if any test rugby in 2020. The only conceivable possibility at this stage would be a 3 test series against NZ, which would be at the mercy of travel restrictions and quarantine measures. Certainly it would have to be held in the one country, with revenue split. Auckland in NZ or Sydney in Aust would loom as the places where everyone could be accommodated for 3 weeks and they have the largest stadia. (Although with Homebush unavailable Brisbane/Suncorp are an option subject to the Qld government which has interstate as well as international border restrictions in place)

If there's no crowd permitted why do we need a large stadium?

 

[Froggy]

Crowds may be allowed in if we can wait until October.
No guarantee obviously, but I think we are on track to have pretty much everything but international travel open by the end of the year providing we don't cop a second wave.

 

[Quick Hands]

If there's no crowd permitted why do we need a large stadium?

It will be October or November, so quite likely most social distancing measures in Aust and NZ will be gone by then.

 

[Quick Hands]

Crowds may be allowed in if we can wait until October.
No guarantee obviously, but I think we are on track to have pretty much everything but international travel open by the end of the year providing we don't cop a second wave.

Agree, the way things are going in Aust and NZ there will be travel between the two countries but borders closed to the rest of the world at least until the end of the year.

 

[KOB1987]

Agree, the way things are going in Aust and NZ there will be travel between the two countries but borders closed to the rest of the world at least until the end of the year.

In theory Ireland can still come out too. It would mean they would have to isolate at, say, South Straddie for a couple of weeks. Obviously it would depend a lot on what's happening with NH rugby, they might have a '4 nations' comp going in the UK. But it's doable and I'm sure 50 Irishmen could think of a worse place to be in November.

 

[Brumby Runner]

A three-way tournament between NZ, Ireland and Aus would be just about the perfect way to announce the return of rugby from the virus wilderness.

 

[Quick Hands]

In theory Ireland can still come out too. It would mean they would have to isolate at, say, South Straddie for a couple of weeks. Obviously it would depend a lot on what's happening with NH rugby, they might have a '4 nations' comp going in the UK. But it's doable and I'm sure 50 Irishmen could think of a worse place to be in November.

In theory they could come. Not sure how many international flights will be coming to Australia though. The talk from the PM is that unlikely to be any international travel to/from Australia in 2020. (NZ excepted) Might be an expensive exercise.

 

[Brumby Runner]

Is Qantas still a (the) major sponsor of RA/Wallabies? It would presumably be an investment for them to put on a charter flight if that would get Ireland here for such a tournament.

 

[cyclopath]

Chance of Ireland coming out is about doughnut.

 

[dru]

Chance of Ireland coming out is about doughnut.

Sure. Though it is a strange world and you don't know till we get there.

 

[cyclopath]

Sure. Though it is a strange world and you don't know till we get there.

Folk I know in Ireland with some insight have told me it's highly improbable. I hope they're wrong, but also would hate to see major sports go early on this and run into problems. Even NRL.

 

[Quick Hands]

Is Qantas still a (the) major sponsor of RA/Wallabies? It would presumably be an investment for them to put on a charter flight if that would get Ireland here for such a tournament.

Not as logistically simple as that I don't think. There simply aren't any Qantas flights at the moment going to the UK and back, so any charter would involve flying an empty plane from Australia to London and then flying it back with 35-40 people on it.

 

[Lindommer]

Every chance Qantas could sell plenty of seats for a charter flight to London, in fact I'd wager they could sell the lot. Up to the various governments.

 

[Quick Hands]

Assuming that they'd be allowed back into the country without a 14 day taxpayer funded hotel stay. The government has been pretty consistent in ruling out overseas travel for the rest of 2020 with the exception of NZ.

I'd say the chance of Ireland visiting Australia is as close to zero as possible without hitting zero.

 

[wamberal]

I'd say the chance of Ireland visiting Australia is as close to zero as possible without hitting zero.

I will have to think about that.

 

[KOB1987]

Assuming that they'd be allowed back into the country without a 14 day taxpayer funded hotel stay. The government has been pretty consistent in ruling out overseas travel for the rest of 2020 with the exception of NZ.

I'd say the chance of Ireland visiting Australia is as close to zero as possible without hitting zero.

It's 6 months away so I'm not ruling it out. The government also said these restrictions could be in place for up to 6 months and we are already seeing those starting to be lifted, after about 1 month. Word is they are going to announce some guidelines for community sport to recommence later today, a couple of weeks ago that wasn't even on Mars' horizon. It wouldn't have to be a taxpayer funded isolation, IRFU can find an isolated training base (e'g South Straddie as mentioned earlier) and pay for it themselves.

Ireland are heading into summer, we have done a good job of containing the virus but are heading into winter, and a couple of banana-benders reckon they'll have a vaccine by September. This whole thing is one day at a time.

As it stands right now though, no they won't be coming out.

 

[wamberal]

Ireland are heading into summer, we have done a good job of containing the virus but are heading into winter, and a couple of banana-benders reckon they'll have a vaccine by September.

There are 100 or so entities of one kind or another working feverishly to develop a candidate vaccine. But. The rosiest time frame that I have seen is closer to September 2021. And there are some that say there will never be a vaccine.


There is more likely to be some medications undergoing trials.