Wallabies 2020

[wamberal]

I have never seen him play (other than maybe a snippet on the evening news) but if he has the skills, jumping high and catching, maybe he is a possible 15?

 

[Viking]

I have never seen him play (other than maybe a snippet on the evening news) but if he has the skills, jumping high and catching, maybe he is a possible 15?

No, I feel 15 should be a player with great vision, and a kicking game. Something Folau was limited with. Plus jumping and catching isn't something our current crop of fullbacks are missing: DHP, Banks.

 

[Braveheart81]

No, I feel 15 should be a player with great vision, and a kicking game. Something Folau was limited with. Plus jumping and catching isn't something our current crop of fullbacks are missing: DHP, Banks.

At the end of the day though, Folau was a better fullback than any of these options because the things he did well were so much better than his weaknesses relative to the other players.

If Folau was still there we certainly wouldn't be picking both Koroibete and Daugunu on the wings but the reality was we didn't have those type of options at the time.

 

[Warpath]

Folau type and not including homophobia fullbacks are rare, i liked him as a player, not a person..if we go back 10 years, it was rare to see someone who was a good fullback and not posses a kicking game..i think there are a few loiger outside back who could be a decent fullback in 15's, one current name i can think off is Valentine holmes, someone like him should be playing rugby, not nfl or loig.., kalyn Ponga is another and when fit and not broken, Shaun Johnson.. there are talks in fiji rugby camp of running Radradra at 15 for Fiji, at first i laughed it off but that might actually work out, a good fullback doesn't need a kicking game, infact a good fullback is one that rarely kicks IMO and always looks to run the ball, Fiji were blessed to have 2 of those years ago (Norman Ligairi and Metu Talebula) and we would kill for one more..one of the major failures for Australia is that DHP is the only attacking fullback they have had but even he likes to put foot to ball nowadays..

I doubt vunivalu would like to kick but since he will play for the Reds i'd like to see them run him at 15 along with Lipo just to see if they can develop him as more than just a winger, mind you when Radradra came to union, ppl were like, put him on the wing but i was against that cause i don't think he is fast enough for the wing, i said he would be a better centre, i can see the same for Suli, not quick enough for wing but could be deadly at either 13 or 15...when folau came to union, he was tested on the wing even though he played centre in loig, but he quickly developed into being a lethal attacking fullback something which RA lacked back then..they should give the same option to Suli and not just assume him as a winger....Marika even though plays left wing usually does things which most centres cannot but we will never see him at 13....look at speight, always used as a winger when that guy had the potential to play 11-15..

 

[eastman]

I have never seen him play (other than maybe a snippet on the evening news) but if he has the skills, jumping high and catching, maybe he is a possible 15?

I would take him in a heartbeat at the Waratahs as a likely outside- centre option (worst case scenario he would be starting on the wing).

 

[Up the Guts]

It’s unusual for Wallabies supporters in recent times but we’re going to have to get used to a good player or players missing out on the wing when we have Wright, Daugunu, Koroibete, Vunivalu, and Ramm. I don’t think playing one of them in the centres or at fullback with no prior experience is the way to go.

 

[Derpus]

It’s unusual for Wallabies supporters in recent times but we’re going to have to get used to a good player or players missing out on the wing when we have Wright, Daugunu, Koroibete, Vunivalu, and Ramm. I don’t think playing one of them in the centres or at fullback with no prior experience is the way to go.

Can't see it happening with Hansen and Banks around, but id like to see how Write would go at FB.

 

[ruggy]

Not sure if anyone has posted this, but just for intrigue

 

[wamberal]

It’s unusual for Wallabies supporters in recent times but we’re going to have to get used to a good player or players missing out on the wing when we have Wright, Daugunu, Koroibete, Vunivalu, and Ramm. I don’t think playing one of them in the centres or at fullback with no prior experience is the way to go.

How much experience at FB did Folau have?

 

[sendit]

Totally agree. I think it makes a lot of sense from RU that they have him getting exposed as early as possible to their top line coaching team. Good chance to take a nice close look at their new acquisition. They did the same thing with Marika. Geez the Reds backline looks dominant for next year.

It’s just a practical thing too, preseason for the Reds hasn’t quite started yet and when it does it’ll be hard slog fitness and gym work, as a seasoned professional athlete Vunivalu isn’t in great need of this, what he does need is as much time as possible in skills drills and technique all which he will get while training in Wallaby Camp

 

[rugboy]

never heard of those stats before. Where'd you get them? What do they mean? Over how many games are included?

They are from foxsports stats. I agree that tackle % doesn’t tell the whole story that’s why I included the try causes stat. If the centre makes a bad defensive decision and the winger subsequently misses a tackle and a try is scored, The winger’s tackle % is hurt but the centre gets hit with the “try cause”. In this case Vunivalu has 14 try causes in 17 games. Therefore he was the man directly responsible for the poor defence/decision which culminated in the try.

 

[sendit]

NRL gameplay lends itself to a lot of try’s out wide though, I don’t know what the percentage is but most try’s are scored in the outer corridors. Only so much you can do when your opposite number gets the ball on the fly 5m out from your line on a semi-regular basis

 

[Adam84]

They are from foxsports stats. I agree that tackle % doesn’t tell the whole story that’s why I included the try causes stat. If the centre makes a bad defensive decision and the winger subsequently misses a tackle and a try is scored, The winger’s tackle % is hurt but the centre gets hit with the “try cause”. In this case Vunivalu has 14 try causes in 17 games. Therefore he was the man directly responsible for the poor defence/decision which culminated in the try.

i've never see this 'try cause' statistic, i went to Foxsports to see the stat but cant see it either? I would think it would be a highly subjective statistic to calculate as well, tries scored on the wing are usually the fault of a defensive failure in the forwards or centres which ripples out, not usually as a direct result of a wingers mistake.

 

[TSR]

It’s unusual for Wallabies supporters in recent times but we’re going to have to get used to a good player or players missing out on the wing when we have Wright, Daugunu, Koroibete, Vunivalu, and Ramm. I don’t think playing one of them in the centres or at fullback with no prior experience is the way to go.

It’ll be a great problem to have and I don’t think we’re too far away.

I know Nawaqanitawase was found out at Super level this year, but he still had moments of brilliance and is only a kid. Give him a year or two and I think he’ll be in that group too.

 

[qwerty51]

Mark is probably more special than all of them except Korobiete. He's a freakish athlete, once he can get his defence right he'll be right in the mix. He's definitely the best in the air right now and would nearly be as good as Folau purely off his leap.

 

[TSR]

i've never see this 'try cause' statistic, i went to Foxsports to see the stat but cant see it either? I would think it would be a highly subjective statistic to calculate as well, tries scored on the wing are usually the fault of a defensive failure in the forwards or centres which ripples out, not usually as a direct result of a wingers mistake.

I’m happy to take the stats at face value. Or at least I am not going to go to any effort to disprove the opinion of the doubters.

At the end of the day we’ll all soon see if he has the goods or not.

From my perspective the two thing are that we should have realistic expectations for him. Even with his background in rugby shouldn’t expect him to be a superstar from the get-go. Secondly we don’t need him to be. Sure, we want him to fire next year but we have some genuine talent already competing for that spot. If he takes a bit of time to find his feet then so be it. Obviously Qld/RA expect more for their bucks, but it isn’t critical.

 

[Viking]

At the end of the day though, Folau was a better fullback than any of these options because the things he did well were so much better than his weaknesses relative to the other players.

If Folau was still there we certainly wouldn't be picking both Koroibete and Daugunu on the wings but the reality was we didn't have those type of options at the time.

Folau was one of the best if not the best broken play runner and finisher in the game, with the best jump and high ball skills in the game bar none. He was a bad example to use because those athletic abilities were something special. So I agree with what you said.

However, as athletic as Vunivali is, there is nothing to suggest he will be anything close to Folau, and nothing to suggest his strengths will be so great they will overshadow his weaknesses like in Folau's case.

 

[Adam84]

I’m happy to take the stats at face value. Or at least I am not going to go to any effort to disprove the opinion of the doubters.

At the end of the day we’ll all soon see if he has the goods or not.

I’m just asking where this try causes statistic has come from because I tried finding it and can’t see it?

 

[TSR]

I’m just asking where this try causes statistic has come from because I tried finding it and can’t see it?

I know - I wasn’t being critical of your question. I probably didn’t need to post my comment as a reply to yours.

 

[hifflepiff]

Mark is probably more special than all of them except Korobiete. He's a freakish athlete, once he can get his defence right he'll be right in the mix. He's definitely the best in the air right now and would nearly be as good as Folau purely off his leap.

He struck me as a bit over eager in his debut season. Always looking to beat his opposite man on the outside with an inch of space, or throwing speculative offloads.

But I agree. If he can learn to pick his moments and do some tackle practice, he'll be a Wallaby in no time.