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Wales v Australia, Sunday 21st 4.30 am ADST.

TSR

Mark Ella (57)
To pick up your point Dru, what I would have liked to see is them smash more rucks.

I agree their tackle stats look really low. Beyond what should be expected. But what we needed from our locks, IMO, was to be both accurate and aggressive at the ruck and really cause some pain.
 

TSR

Mark Ella (57)
Yeah I'd give Arnold a pass mark for his maul work. But his combo with Rodda really isn't working. Both offer nothing as ball carries or any kind of mongrel.
After re-watching a good part of the game this afternoon to make sure I wasn’t talking shit about Rodda’s work off the ball I’ll say Arnold is also doing more than I first thought.

Rennie is using his locks to do lots of donkey work. This includes not only breakdown work but also running as support rather than lead runners.

I’ll return to one of my earlier comments - there is no reason IMO we can’t expect more from them, but to get more from them we are going to need to get more from the whole group. The stats were low across all 23 players because we didn’t have enough attacking ball for them to be better.
 

TSR

Mark Ella (57)
Anyhow - this is the Australian v Wales thread. Not that I think this is irrelevant on selections, but I’ve had more than enough say in this thread already, so I’ll leave my thoughts on the conclusions drawn from the weekend there.
 

Joe Blow

Peter Sullivan (51)
It could be that the centre unit is wrong. I say play Perese at 13 and give JOC (James O'Connor) someone nearby to carry through traffic. I believe Noah was also missing this in the Bleds. He also needs to play flatter most of the time and feed his forward runners. Perese is also good at the breakdown. Ikitau to come off the bench. My side would be
Slipper
Latu
TT
Rodda
Philip
Leota
Hooper
Valentini
McDermott
JOC (James O'Connor)
Daugunu
Paisami
Perese
Wright
Kellaway

FF (Folau Fainga'a)
Bell
AA
Swain
Samu
White
Beale/Lolesio?
Ikitau
 

RebelYell

Arch Winning (36)
Slipper
Latu
Tupou
Arnold
Skelton
Leota
Samu
Valetini
White
Lolesio
Wright
O'Connor
Paisami
Perese
Kellaway

McInerney
Bell
Ala'alatoa
Rodda
C. Fainga'a
McDermott
Ikitau
Beale
 

Rugby Head

Watty Friend (18)
Agreed RebelYell, I think we go all out with the French based players and give them one final chance. Very unlikely they will play in the Rugby Championship next year so may aswell give them most of this game to prove if they are any chance of the RWC 2023.

1. Slipper
2. Latu
3. Tupou
4. Arnold
5. Skelton
6. Leota
7. Faianga'a
8. Valentini
9. McDermott
10. JOC (James O'Connor)
11. Daugunu
12. Paisami
13. Ikitau
14. Perese
15. Kellaway
16. F Faianga'a
17. Bell
18. Hoskins (after seeing the passion in his eyes, give him another shot!)
19. Phillip
20. Samu
21. White (Reverting him to the bench to get on the field with Lolesio, his old head should help)
22. Lolesio
23. Beale
 

Sword of Justice

Vay Wilson (31)
We need a new captain for this one. That would likely be either Slipper or JOC (James O'Connor). JOC (James O'Connor) was very good as captain for the Reds but on the other hand isn't exactly finding running the back line easy at the moment. Slipper would have to go at least close to the full 80 but I'd back him to do that given he did it for Brumbies more than a few times over the last couple of seasons.
 

RugbyReg

Rocky Elsom (76)
Staff member
I wonder who ended up being captain last week when JOC (James O'Connor) and Slipper came off?
 

TSR

Mark Ella (57)
Based in the press conference I believe White was initially then JOC (James O'Connor). Not sure who was when JOC (James O'Connor) came off.
 
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