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Round 7 Reds v Brumbies, Suncorp Stadium 2/4 @ 6:45pm AEST

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TSR

TSR

Mark Ella (57)
Braveheart81 said:
In all honesty though, Valetini is probably the guy at the Brumbies asked to do the more similar job to Wilson.

It's interesting though. Wilson, McReight and Uru all appear in the top 10 for most carries this season. The Reds are only 6th in carries amongst all teams and that Reds backrow is taking 35% of all carries for the Reds which is an astounding number.
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On the flip side, the Reds Front Row have a comparatively low work rate compared to their Brumbies counterparts. Tupou obviously offsets that with the quality of his involvements and his scrum work, but I would love to see us get more out of the front row.

In the last Reds v Brumbies game the Reds combined FR had 7 runs and made 6 tackles. The Brumbies FR had 6 runs and made 28 tackles. I don’t have stats for ruck involvements, but you’d imagine the Brumbies probably did a bit more there too. At that level of difference you really need the quality of the work to compensate, but I think that’s a real place for improvement with the Reds.
 
Adam84

Adam84

Nick Farr-Jones (63)
TSR said:
I’ll acknowledge up front there is a lot of me reading between the lines in this post and I may be well off base, but some of the comments I read with regards to the non-selection of Daugunu made me wonder if Thorn has deliberately held him back to get him to a higher level of performance. Whether that is removing some of the errors or getting up to peak fitness (remembering he had a broken arm to recover from).

Thorn has always worked hard to build depth and you could argue that giving game time to the likes of Creighton & Grealy early in the season is a worthwhile risk should we get an injury or two that throws them into the spotlight later in the season - but the only way to do that was to hold back someone like Lipo.

Purely speculation on my part - but I hope he has a barnstorming game this evening.
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If that is occurring, It’s a play straight out of the Wayne Bennet coaching book.. he did similar things with some star players from time to time.
 
TSR

TSR

Mark Ella (57)
Thorn has done similar before himself. Guys like McReight & McDermott have been ‘rotated’ out before with a list of things to work, as has Daugunu himself and there has been plenty of rotation in spots like prop, locks & centres. This is by far the most settled year of selection - which, no doubt, is at least in part to do with the vast increase in experience in the squad.

But the coaching staff & players still know they will only be considered successful when they can take on all comers and that they need to peak in late May & June, not in Early April.
 
RugbyReg

RugbyReg

Rocky Elsom (76)
Staff member
Liam Wright has confirmed it (was there already stated here?) Thorn pushing Lipo to cut out the mistakes and step up as a backline leader.
 
LeCheese

LeCheese

Peter Johnson (47)
RugbyReg said:
Liam Wright has confirmed it (was there already stated here?) Thorn pushing Lipo to cut out the mistakes and step up as a backline leader.
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I put it in the Reds 22 thread.

The right call from Thorn with the alternative options he has at his disposal, and both the squad and Lipo should be better for it. Hoping he has a massive 50th tonight as a result.
 
Lightblue

Lightblue

Arch Winning (36)
TSR said:
Why don’t we just let him play? What he’s already achieved in terms of playing professional rugby and making his test debut is better than 95% of his peers. Whatever people on here think Thorn, Rennie & Cheika all rate him extremely highly. The kid is going well above the average.

Campo deserves his place as one of the greatest Wallabies, but why be-little Petaia?
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My apologies if it came across as ‘belittling’ Petaia. I think he has been overhyped. Good player with plenty of upside but he is not in Campo’s league yet... judge that in another 10 years. In the mean time I will watch and enjoy his talents and hope he achieves plenty in the game.
 
Lightblue

Lightblue

Arch Winning (36)
Merrow said:
BRUMBIES (1-15): James Slipper, Folau Fainga'a, Allan Ala'alatoa (c), Darcy Swain, Nick Frost, Rob Valetini, Jahrome Brown, Pete Samu, Ryan Lonergan, Rod Iona, Andy Muirhead, Irae Simone, Len Ikitau, Tom Wright, Jesse Mogg
RESERVES: Lachlan Lonergan, Scott Sio, Sefo Kautai, Tom Hooper, Ed Kennedy, Nic White, Hudson Creighton, Cameron Clark

Referee: Angus Gardner
Assistant Referees: Damon Murphy, Graham Cooper
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Go the Mogg!
 
Up the Guts

Up the Guts

Steve Williams (59)
Looking forward to Tupou vs. the Brumbies’ front row, Wilson vs. Valetini, and Ikitau vs. Paisami. Shame Banks is out because Petaia vs. Banks would have been great as well.

Battles for Wallaby starting positions right across the park tonight.
 
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