2014 IRB Junior World Championship – New Zealand

[Lee Grant]

Played the 2nd game against Samoa and is apparently fit, so going to assume not up to standard.

Big wraps on the Openside Flanker selected, Rowan Perry from the ACT.

I spoke to Oz U20 Head Coach Adrian Thompson about Perry a while back. He's a huge fan.

Given who the other players were, there was always going to be only one specialist opensider in the squad and Perry got the nod over Gunn.

Dempsey proved himself at 7 last year though he was not (and is not) a specialist. He was always going to be in the squad as was skipper McMahon who is a "notter" but has started in Super Rugby games at 6. Both are good over the ball.

The other two backrowers chosen had to be able to play at no 8; and at 6 if needed to rotate players.

One of these is the smoky in the backrow: Sam Croke, now playing 8 for North Sydney Colts, but he played 6 in the last U20s warm-up game. NSW U20s coach, Tim Rapp, has big wraps on him.

He will be an option in the lineout as will Dempsey and Fakaosilea be. The beefier Fakaosilea will probably be the first choice no. 8 and Croke the dogsbody.

I'm afraid that the absence of an in-form Patrick Sio at no. 8 is going to be telling on this squad. His (virtual) replacement, Fakaosilea, is a hard young player but he doesn't dominate physically as Sio could last year when he was in form.

Nor do the other backrowers: they are skilled workers.

We'll recognise a certain sameness of good skill and work rate in our back row players when we see the physicality of the Pom and SAffer loose forwards.

We will realise that we lack brutality.
.
.

 

[Brian Westlake]

^^^^^^^^
IIRC A Manu Koala Club member FNC?

 

[CTPE]

Is it correct to say that the majority of those selected are 2012 school leavers?

 

[Lee Grant]

Is it correct to say that the majority of those selected are 2012 school leavers?

Yes, though one would have to track back each player to answer the question in a court of law.

Queenslanders leave school earlier than lads from other states so you would normally take pause because there could be more 2011 school leavers than one thinks. But because so few were chosen, that is hardly relevant.

One of the good things about this squad is that it is more seasoned than other recent U20 squads have been.

As I have mentioned before: only Kellaway and Fakaosilea were in one of the Oz Schools' teams last year.

Another thing that looks interesting is the number of lads that did not represent either Oz Schools or the A team regardless of the year.

Without doing a forensic examination and comparing the proportion with that of the 2013 and 2012 U20s, I get the impression that there are more non-Oz Schools' reps this year than recently.

Some folks may think that's a bad thing, but I don't: quite the opposite.

If my impression is correct (and we may have to get Hugh Jarse to confirm it) it may because there was a better selection process this year.

NSW and Qld lads were picked for the Canberra tournament by their state, not by the national body. They had to prove themselves in local trials not by the size of their scrapbooks.

Each of the other states and the ACT picked their own squad for the Combined States selection tournament in Adelaide, which came up with a cracking Combined squad for Canberra.

This is the first year they've had a national selection tournament from which 33 were chosen to go into camp. After adding two more they had two warm up games in their first camp against Samoa to help whittle down their squad of 35 to 28.

I think that this new process will produce Oz U20 players that are older, on average, from this year on—and the training for, and participation in, the national tournament will "age" them more in a rugby sense also.
.

 

[Lee Grant]

is that only 5 QLDers (in the QLD 'set up')? Not good.

As sure as God made little apples there would be more QLD and fewer NSW U20s in the 28 if QLD had the NSW selection trial programme and NSW had theirs.

Both got a game in the PRC but Cheika made sure the NSW guys were going at it week after week for a while and it included stints against the Pampas XV (winners of the PRC) and the Oz Barbarians: both senior sides.

Though they were only trials he wanted to see them training for actual games and playing in them.

Then when they were let loose against other Under 20s in the national tournament in Canberra their better preparation told.
.

 

[RugbyReg]

thanks Lee. It seems indicative of our program at the moment and a worrying sign that needs to be rectified ASAP.

 

[Rocco]

I spoke to Oz U20 Head Coach Adrian Thompson about him a while back. He's a huge fan of Perry.

Given who the other players were, there was always going to be only one specialist opensider in the squad and Perry got the nod over Gunn.

Dempsey proved himself at 7 last year though he was not (and is not) a specialist. He was always going to be in the squad as was skipper McMahon who is a "notter" but has started in Super Rugby games at 6. Both are good over the ball.

The other two backrowers chosen had to be able to play at no 8; and at 6 if needed to rotate players.

One of these is the smoky in the backrow: Sam Croke, now playing 8 for North Sydney Colts, but he played 6 in the last U20s warm-up game. NSW U20s coach, Tim Rapp, has big wraps on him.

He will be an option in the lineout as will Dempsey and Fakaosilea be.

I'm afraid that the absence of an in-form Patrick Sio at no. 8 is going to be telling on this squad. His (virtual) replacement, Fakaosilea, is a hard young player but he doesn't dominate physically as Sio could last year when he was in form.

Nor do the other backrowers: they are skilled workers.

We'll recognise a certain sameness of good skill and work rate in our back row players when we see the physicality of the Pom and SAffer loose forwards.

We will realise that we lack brutality.
.
.

What happened to Pat Sio? Surely he must be injured to not of made the side.

 

[tomasi15]

Sasa Tofilau has been included in the Aus U/20 squad not sure whom for? He was informed on Tuesday night.

 

[tomasi15]

What happened to Pat Sio? Surely he must be injured to not of made the side.

A very interesting and costly omission if Pat Sio is fit. He's fallen off the radar a bit since moving from Norths to Eastwood - Not a good move. Should have definitely been in the Aus Squad.

 

[Lee Grant]

What happened to Pat Sio? Surely he must be injured to not of made the side.

A very interesting and costly omission if Pat Sio is fit. He's fallen off the radar a bit since moving from Norths to Eastwood - Not a good move. Should have definitely been in the Aus Squad.

See my post #340 a couple of pages back.
.

 

[Xaviertofilau]

Sasa Tofilau has been included in the Aus U/20 squad not sure whom for? He was informed on Tuesday night.

Who was the source mate? And they should put him at centre or second five I swear he has the most leathal offload and offensive awareness as well as being solid in the middle.

 

[Lee Grant]

Who was the source mate? And they should put him at centre or second five I swear he has the most leathal offload and offensive awareness as well as being solid in the middle.

Mate - give your nephew a call and tell us: we're hanging on here waiting.

It will be great to have a big bopper in our backline who can play (Southern Districts don't pick too many in their first grade team who are duds.)

If he was informed on Tuesday night then there is no possible misunderstanding that tomasi15 was talking about when Sasa was informed earlier about being added to the squad of 33.

That must have been at the end of April, and the Oz U20 team was announced on Monday morning.

Give him a call Xavier and ask him who was injured.
.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Some more preparatory games for the boys. Thanks to @Gibbo for posting details.

Just when you start developing a healthy tribal dislike for the bloody Gay Gordons, they go and do something like this. Bastards. Makes you want to dislike them even more for not giving you a good reason to dislike them.

The Gordon Rugby Football Club are hosting two representative matches at Chatswood Oval featuring theQantas Wallabies Under 20s.
Saturday 24th May Aust. U20s v NSW Country @ 5:30pm (after 1st grade)
Tuesday 27th May Aust. U20s v Australian Barbarians @ 6.30pm

Details are here

Anyone going to watch?

 

[Lee Grant]

I'll probably be at both of them.

These were scheduled four months ago and it will good to see the lads in action rather than just writing about them in blogs and forum threads—especially the ones from outside Sydney.

On the matter of Sasa Tofilau: there are no clues in cyber space as I write this.

I see the ARU have the profiles of the players up. They will look good after a bit of editing, though I note that they have the correct height and weight of Tom Staniforth, unlike the TV captions a few weeks ago when he started in a Super Rugby game.

I looked at the mugshots to see if one player's profile was missing, but two of them weren't there.

Perhaps the person doing the work didn't have time to put up the profiles of Lalakai Foketi and Brad Lacey before the weekend and had to knock off—or maybe one or both aren't available to go to NZ now.

I hope the Rebels haven't withheld Foketi.

Tofilau could replace either of these players.

Lacey is a fine player but it will be a disaster for Aus if Foketi can't play in NZ as I think that he could be a star of the tournament, as could Staniforth and Placid be.

Or maybe the Tofilau thing is a furphy and the other two names will be up on Monday, first thing, about tennish.

Incidentally, as mentioned earlier: just in case he is in the squad, watch Tofilau in the Sydney TV game tomorrow.
.

 

[tranquility]

Lolo is listed at 107kgs, which if true, is enormous for a first year school leaver in the backrow.

 

[Lee Grant]

Lolo is listed at 107kgs, which if true, is enormous for a first year school leaver in the backrow.

It surprised me a bit too. If it's right, he's certainly put on a bit of pork since he left school.

He was at 100 kgs for Oz Schools last year and 98 kgs the year before; so I didn't expect so much of an increase.

More important than his weight is how big he plays at this level, and it's one of the things I'll be looking at when the team is in Sydney.

It's a good weight for a no.8 to be at 19 years of age if it has been put on by hard work and not mum's cooking. If he gets to Super Rugby, as I expect he will, there will be another 5kgs added, probably.

Typically it will go down a bit first, then up. This weight gain will be to his advantage—if he plays big with it.
.

 

[tranquility]

Too put it in perspective, he is already as big as the young backrowers at the Reds. So you would hope he is running over blokes.

 

[en_force_er]

Sean Macmahon sure ripped in for the Rebels off the bench last night.

I've very interested to see how he plays when he goes from youngest of the young bucks to captain in the space of a month. There'll be all sorts of different pressures and obligations on him.

 

[Lee Grant]

Sean Macmahon sure ripped in for the Rebels off the bench last night.

I've very interested to see how he plays when he goes from youngest of the young bucks to captain in the space of a month. There'll be all sorts of different pressures and obligations on him.

You're right, but he looks like a natural leader.

He's an amazing young player isn't he?

I recently wrote in a discussion of a blog that I had always thought that McMahon was a top schools player but would be too small to be a Super Rugby player.

Back in the day I thought he would never be big enough to be an 8, nor to be a lineout 6—and he was not a fetcher.

I was happy that he had found a niche in Sevens and was surprised that he gave that up especially as he was on track to go to the Olympics.

But you can never underestimate the power of a dream of a young person and he wanted to play Super Rugby.

He (and Colby) are fortunate that the Rebels have an 8 who is an elite lineout jumper to balance things, which enables them to start games on the blindside flank.

But I wonder if, longer term, he should have a go at playing on the open side in whatever team he gets the chance to.
.

 

[en_force_er]

You're right, but he looks like a natural leader.

He's an amazing young player isn't he?

I recently wrote in a discussion of a blog that I had always thought that McMahon was a top schools player but would be too small to be a Super Rugby player.

Back in the day I thought he would never be big enough to be an 8, nor to be a lineout 6—and he was not a fetcher.

I was happy that he had found a niche in Sevens and was surprised that he gave that up especially as he was on track to go to the Olympics.

But you can never underestimate the power of a dream of a young person and he wanted to play Super Rugby.

He (and Colby) are fortunate that the Rebels have an 8 who is an elite lineout jumper to balance things, which enables them to start games on the blindside flank.

But I wonder if, longer term, he should have a go at playing on the open side in whatever team he gets the chance to.
.

Nowadays coaches are showing a willingness to break away from the bull dozer 8, fitter/faster 2nd rower type 6, and on-baller 7 mould.

He could find his niche at the right club but I think they're less willing to break type for country. We'll see in the coming years I suppose.