Bay of Plenty next week. Rodda is ineligible it seems. He'll be busy playing for the bulldogs
Wallabies 2021
- Thread starter KOB1987
- Start date
Bay of Plenty next week. Rodda is ineligible it seems. He'll be busy playing for the bulldogs
Tomikin
Simon Poidevin (60)
ineligible for a friendly ?
LearningCurve
Bill Watson (15)
Didn't Rodda used to play for Easts? What is the deal with Wests getting all these interstate players?
Brumby Runner
David Wilson (68)
Shannon Frizell: Laughing stock. AB's failed to protect their own ruck ball again and again. Thats your fucking job, Crossword Boy. SURELY even Company Man Fozzie can see there's at least 4 better options than this big baby now.
Borrowed this little gem from DP on the NZ team site. Substitute Hooper for Frizell, and that fairly neatly sums up my opinion of MH's shortcoming at No 7.
Borrowed this little gem from DP on the NZ team site. Substitute Hooper for Frizell, and that fairly neatly sums up my opinion of MH's shortcoming at No 7.
Brumby Runner
David Wilson (68)
I have never intimated that Koroibete is the root cause of the Wallabies' problems. I do believe he contributes to them, but not near the sole or main cause. The main cause seems to be the lack of sufficient skills across the backline both individually and as a unit. Maybe coaching needs to be better.
Marika will play the second test, I have no doubt, but just personally I believe we would get better value out of Filipo. He runs almost as hard as Marika, but more often towards the tryline, and he is much more capable of beating tacklers than Marika is at running over them. Filipo has a kicking game and is probably better in defence, as in the ability to read the game and to not be found out of position. I will stick with my opinion, thank you, even realising that we're not likely to see it in action in the near term.
liquor box
Greg Davis (50)
I don't care who the player is, if we get "another Cullen" then bring it on
Rugbynutter39
Michael Lynagh (62)
I would stick with JOC (James O'Connor) / Noah at the moment. JOC (James O'Connor) front runner but with injury Noah gets the gig and latter will improve but needs time in the saddle. I would not try any other experiments as I think we have good young 10s coming through with Noah leading the charge to look at players who play 10. I would not though be dumping Noah for Harrison as latter suggested nothing at super rugby to say he is ahead of Noah at this point so better to pick and stick as Noah is certainly better then his first test and he got better as game against France went on. Not there yet but with more time in the saddle may get there.
Joe Blow
Peter Sullivan (51)
I sort of agree with that Nutter but you qualify it at the end by saying he “may” get there. Thats about it. The RWC is not that far away. I think we should be looking at at least one other option as well. We know JOC (James O'Connor) can do the job but we need a decent backup, or two, beyond him. Hodge can remain a stop gap measure as a last resort.
It seems like Noah has a lot of trouble translating his Super Rugby form to the test arena. Of course there is less time and space. Both Harrison and Donaldson have displayed more polished skills IMHO and probably have better potential to become test class 5/8s.
It seems like Noah has a lot of trouble translating his Super Rugby form to the test arena. Of course there is less time and space. Both Harrison and Donaldson have displayed more polished skills IMHO and probably have better potential to become test class 5/8s.
Adam84
Nick Farr-Jones (63)
I’m one of Filipos biggest fans, but i just cant agree that he should be ahead of Marika.
Marika brings a work rate which is second to none. He made 14 carries and beat 3 defenders durning the 1st test, more then any other player on the pitch. Compare this to guys like To'omua(4 carries) and Wright(3 carries), i don't think Marika is the one who should be looked at for getting dropped.
Joe Blow
Peter Sullivan (51)
Thats an odd comment?
It’s a test side that needs decent options at 10. So far Lolesio does not look the part. Once again, hope he proves me wrong if chosen to start again. That sounds a bit like a broken record.
Rugbynutter39
Michael Lynagh (62)
I don't know if Harrison or Donaldson have done more then Noah at this point. Donaldson has only played a couple of super rugby games so not even part of the conversation yet. Harrison been in past camps and not in the mix / conversation by Rennie and team so suggests they are not the next options to try.
The problem is none of them have done very much yet so everyone is speculating on their ceiling. They have all displayed some good signs, but none jump out as a complete package yet. You, understandably people play favourites to some extent, which is never going to change.
I honestly can't say that one, to me, looks clearly like they'll jump ahead yet on fairly limited evidence.
But Lolesio has been given the shot by Rennie, who probably knows more than most of us, so he needs more than one chance to prove that is the right call. Give him some time. He won't get better by being chopped in and out for every mistake.
If JOC (James O'Connor) is fit, he starts, naturally.
TSR
Mark Ella (57)
I think the two conflicting problems here are that, firstly we don’t enough depth at 10 & secondly you can realistically only give one player experience at a time. One way or another Rennie needs to roll the dice. If we remember back to when Cheika started he tried to build depth at lock by picking a different pairing each test. I don’t think that approach was much of a success either.
I would love Harrison or even Gordon to be in the wider squad, but Lolesio has been the best performed of the options at Super level, so it seems entirely justified for Rennie to back him. Neither Donaldson nor Gordon have hardly any experience even at Super level and Harrison was in the squad last year and Rennie got a good look at him at close quarters.
The other thing is I am not a huge fan of continuous chopping and changing. As is often the case, the perception of the other candidates are potentially benefitting here by not being selected as they are not being exposed to the extra pace and intensity of test rugby. There is simply nothing to say they would perform better and plenty of reasons to expect they wouldn’t. Lolesio will hopefully get better if he knows he has the confidence of the coaching staff and squad which appears to be the case.
I would love Harrison or even Gordon to be in the wider squad, but Lolesio has been the best performed of the options at Super level, so it seems entirely justified for Rennie to back him. Neither Donaldson nor Gordon have hardly any experience even at Super level and Harrison was in the squad last year and Rennie got a good look at him at close quarters.
The other thing is I am not a huge fan of continuous chopping and changing. As is often the case, the perception of the other candidates are potentially benefitting here by not being selected as they are not being exposed to the extra pace and intensity of test rugby. There is simply nothing to say they would perform better and plenty of reasons to expect they wouldn’t. Lolesio will hopefully get better if he knows he has the confidence of the coaching staff and squad which appears to be the case.
wamberal
Phil Kearns (64)
Name some names.
TSR
Mark Ella (57)
It’s interesting you use the adjective ‘mad’.
IMO the selection policy you are advocating is crazy and has been demonstrated not to work.
I’m all for sensible change, but I’m also very much for players earning their spot.
Part of the problem here is that Lolesio is not yet at the level you want in a test 10, but the bigger underlying issue is that he is still the most deserving of the candidates and likely to be closer that that level than any of the others.
It would help him if all of Gordon, McDermott, To'omua and Banks played better around him.