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England v Australia - Twickenham, 14 Nov, 4:30am AEDT

qwerty51

Stirling Mortlock (74)
Qwerty where did you hear Tupou has been ruled out? I'm expecting he will be but I can't see anything reported just yet

I guess not official but Christy Doran tweeted he has a source that said "he's no chance". If he was concussed - which he clearly was, he can't play so seems highly likely he's out.
 

PhilClinton

John Hipwell (52)
QC (Quade Cooper) played very flat and was good at bringing his forward runners into the game. No other Oz 5/8 has done this anywhere near as well.
JOC (James O'Connor) needs to do the same and play through the forwards up the middle before going wide.
JOC (James O'Connor) played very deep for the last few years for the Reds, and they were quite effective. But I think that is more a reflection of the standard and line speed of defence in Super Rugby AU vs International test matches.

It is easy to say 'play flatter', but I don't feel we will get that style from anyone in our setup other than QC (Quade Cooper) at the current time. We need to build an attacking structure around the players we currently have, rather than shoehorn them into an unfamiliar style. Same with our centre combo, we can't replicate Kerevi.
 

qwerty51

Stirling Mortlock (74)
Id like to see them bin those shite second man plays.
Literally no point of them without Kerevi who causes so much attention he's drawing in defenders from the outside but so easy to defend without his presence.
 

Joe Blow

Peter Sullivan (51)
JOC (James O'Connor) played very deep for the last few years for the Reds, and they were quite effective. But I think that is more a reflection of the standard and line speed of defence in Super Rugby AU vs International test matches.

It is easy to say 'play flatter', but I don't feel we will get that style from anyone in our setup other than QC (Quade Cooper) at the current time. We need to build an attacking structure around the players we currently have, rather than shoehorn them into an unfamiliar style. Same with our centre combo, we can't replicate Kerevi.
What Cooper did well was to feed his forward runners close to the line. If JOC (James O'Connor) remains deep he cannot do so and it is up to the halfback to do the same. I think McDermott is better suited to this than White.
JOC (James O'Connor) needs to challenge the line occasionally and its difficult to do so from depth. Hopefully he just had an off match, a bit of rust, last week. We will need him to be much better this week. He simply cannot play so deep.
On the podcast someone suggested that we need to play Noah to match Smiths pace……..I disagree and I would be willing to bet that JOC (James O'Connor) is much quicker over the ground than Lolesio. Looking for a much more productive outing for him.
 

Pfitzy

George Gregan (70)
I don't know what everyone is worried about.

The injuries and performance against the Scots have combined to give us a gold-plated Free Pass to lose this game.

Just sit back and enjoy it. Our time will come.
 

Mr Pilfer

Bob Loudon (25)
I still scratch my head that we don't have Harry Wilson as an option for number 8. The guy just gets the job done and gives us go forward which we aren't getting.

Anyway, maybe Rennie will pull a surprise and pick Perese or Foketi in the centres. We know what we are going to get out of the current 2
 

dru

Tim Horan (67)
I'd much prefer a loss to England than to stomach yet another game against New Zealand. In fact the northern tour is quite refreshing.

They are going to win by 20+ though.
 

drewprint

Colin Windon (37)
Georgina Robinson in the SMH saying it’s looking extremely likely BOTH Tupou and AAA will miss the match due to concussion. If so, F me. Really hoping they can pull through. Nothing has gone right since we left Australian shores - looking like the tour from hell!
 

Tazzmania

Ted Thorn (20)
According to G Rob at the SMH: We may see Tom and Ollie on the bench.

"..... Starting tight-head Allan Ala'alatoa and bench weapon Taniela Tupou look set to miss the Wallabies’ blockbuster clash with England after suffering head knocks against Scotland.

Wallabies need to improve ahead of crunch clash with England

Wallabies head coach Dave Rennie admits his side needs to improve ahead of the clash against England next week while skipper Michael Hooper believes there’s still plenty of fire in the belly despite the loss to Scotland.

They are required to observe head injury return to play protocols and will be given every day possible to recover, but the Wallabies have been forced to make contingency plans.

If both are ruled out it leaves Australia without a single specialist tight-head in the squad, a disaster heading into a Test against a formidable English pack.

It has already forced the call up of former Force prop Ollie Hoskins, who plays with London Irish in the English Premiership and has not been sighted in the Australian system since 2016.

Hoskins went into camp on Monday, but the Wallabies are more likely to look to veteran prop James Slipper to move to the tight-head side of the scrum. Angus Bell could start at loose-head, with Tom Robertson joining Hoskins on the bench
....."
 
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