Wallabies 2023

[Marce]

The side we ran out on Saturday was not full strength and was weakened considerably once Ikitau had his scapula broken in the action of scoring a try by an illegal no arms tackle. These were the front line players not in the 23:

Tupou
Frost
M Hooper
Gleeson
Samu
Petaia
Kellaway
Ikitau for 70 minutes of it
Hodge and/or Foketi were potentially also both left out to allow for the 6:2 bench which went pear shaped once Ikitau went off

Add those players into our squad and it is 20 points stronger

Hooper isn't the on form openside flanker. Not anymore and he's my hero. Samu is the eternal bench's man. Gleeson can't play 80 minutes. Frost hasn't been a regular starter and with Skelton and Arnold now on the squad let's see which one is his spot.

The only 2 starters are Tupou and Kellaway. Ikitau was named, played the game and even scored a try, period.

 

[rugbyAU]

Predicted 33 man squad for Bledisloe:

Props - LH - Slipper, Bell, Gibbon, TH - AAA, Topou, Fa'amausili
Hookers - Porecki, Fainga'a, Faessler
Second Rowers - Skelton, Arnold, Frost, Phillip
Back-rowers - Blindside - Leota, Holloway, Openside - Hooper, McReight, No. 8 - Valentini, Gleeson, Utility - Samu
Halfbacks - White, McDermott
Flyhalf's - Cooper, Gordon
Centres - Foketi, Perese, Kerevi
Outside Backs - Nawaqanitawase, Kellaway, Hodge, Petaia, Wright, Korobiete

Likely 23:

1 - Slipper
2 - Porecki
3 - AAA
4 - Arnold
5 - Skelton
6 - Holloway
7 - Hooper
8 - Valentini
9 - White
10 - Cooper
11 - Korobiete
12 - Kerevi
13 - Petaia
14 - Nawaqanitawase
15 - Kellaway

16 - Fainga'a/Faessler
17 - Bell
18 - Topou
19 - Frost
20 - Samu
21 - McDermott
22 - Gordon
23 - Hodge

 

[LeCheese]

 

[Highlander35]

I think the starting XV for RWC time is more or less settled in EJ (Eddie Jones)'s head. I don't necessarily think it should be, but I anticipate a team (presuming fitness) of roughly the following

Kellaway, Nawaqanitawase, Ikitau, Kerevi, Koroibete, Cooper, White, Slipper, Porecki, AAA, Arnold, Skelton, Holloway, Hooper, Valetini.

I think then there will be two bench arrangements planned, a 5-3 consisting of:

Hooker, Bell, Tupou, Frost, Samu, McDermott, Gordon, Petaia

and a 6-2 consisting of:

Hooker, Bell, Tupou, Frost, Leota, Gleeson/McReight, McDermott, Hodge

Which leaves 7 additional spots.

Extra front row (Hooker, Gibbon, Fa'aumasili), extra lock (Phillip/Neville), extra halfback (Lonergan) and either two outside backs (Foketi & Wright) or one of those two and an extra loose forward (which may be where Eddie goes silly and picks Kemeney rather than whoever misses out on the 6-2 bench named above).

Anyone else selected will "probably" be considered injury cover.

 

[stillmissit]

He lost plenty of games, can we stop acting like the Wallabies were winning under Rennie and he should’ve been retained ffs

We drew twice to Argentinia at home in 2020 and had a record loss away to them in 2022. Rennie was more than capable of producing the result we just had.

Qwerty, I think some posters feel sorry for Rennie as he got the Wallabies to a point of 'Heroic Failure' status. In management, it doesn't matter a toss what you've done and what forces are against you, it is the results that cost you your head and Rennie knew it.

 

[stillmissit]

View attachment 16880

The ebb and flow of the crowd. Very difficult to predict.

 

[Linerunner2023]

Predicted 33 man squad for Bledisloe:

Props - LH - Slipper, Bell, Gibbon, TH - AAA, Topou, Fa'amausili
Hookers - Porecki, Fainga'a, Faessler
Second Rowers - Skelton, Arnold, Frost, Phillip
Back-rowers - Blindside - Leota, Holloway, Openside - Hooper, McReight, No. 8 - Valentini, Gleeson, Utility - Samu
Halfbacks - White, McDermott
Flyhalf's - Cooper, Gordon
Centres - Foketi, Perese, Kerevi
Outside Backs - Nawaqanitawase, Kellaway, Hodge, Petaia, Wright, Korobiete

Likely 23:

1 - Slipper
2 - Porecki
3 - AAA
4 - Arnold
5 - Skelton
6 - Holloway
7 - Hooper
8 - Valentini
9 - White
10 - Cooper
11 - Korobiete
12 - Kerevi
13 - Petaia
14 - Nawaqanitawase
15 - Kellaway

16 - Fainga'a/Faessler
17 - Bell
18 - Topou
19 - Frost
20 - Samu
21 - McDermott
22 - Gordon
23 - Hodge

Need to take out 1 back rower and add a 3rd halfback
Other then that looks good
Also ikatau should be back in time to take over perese

 

[Wallaby Man]

I think the starting XV for RWC time is more or less settled in EJ (Eddie Jones) (Eddie Jones)'s head. I don't necessarily think it should be, but I anticipate a team (presuming fitness) of roughly the following

Kellaway, Nawaqanitawase, Ikitau, Kerevi, Koroibete, Cooper, White, Slipper, Porecki, AAA, Arnold, Skelton, Holloway, Hooper, Valetini.

I think then there will be two bench arrangements planned, a 5-3 consisting of:

Hooker, Bell, Tupou, Frost, Samu, McDermott, Gordon, Petaia

and a 6-2 consisting of:

Hooker, Bell, Tupou, Frost, Leota, Gleeson/McReight, McDermott, Hodge

Which leaves 7 additional spots.

Extra front row (Hooker, Gibbon, Fa'aumasili), extra lock (Phillip/Neville), extra halfback (Lonergan) and either two outside backs (Foketi & Wright) or one of those two and an extra loose forward (which may be where Eddie goes silly and picks Kemeney rather than whoever misses out on the 6-2 bench named above).

Anyone else selected will "probably" be considered injury cover.

I think we will end up with Eddie only taking 2 half backs. And against Portugal we will end up with some Frankenstein experiment where either someone like McReight or Hodge will act as the 9 cover as McDermott plays a whole match to give White a rest

 

[Linerunner2023]

I think the starting XV for RWC time is more or less settled in EJ (Eddie Jones) (Eddie Jones)'s head. I don't necessarily think it should be, but I anticipate a team (presuming fitness) of roughly the following

Kellaway, Nawaqanitawase, Ikitau, Kerevi, Koroibete, Cooper, White, Slipper, Porecki, AAA, Arnold, Skelton, Holloway, Hooper, Valetini.

I think then there will be two bench arrangements planned, a 5-3 consisting of:

Hooker, Bell, Tupou, Frost, Samu, McDermott, Gordon, Petaia

and a 6-2 consisting of:

Hooker, Bell, Tupou, Frost, Leota, Gleeson/McReight, McDermott, Hodge

Which leaves 7 additional spots.

Extra front row (Hooker, Gibbon, Fa'aumasili), extra lock (Phillip/Neville), extra halfback (Lonergan) and either two outside backs (Foketi & Wright) or one of those two and an extra loose forward (which may be where Eddie goes silly and picks Kemeney rather than whoever misses out on the 6-2 bench named above).

Anyone else selected will "probably" be considered injury cover.

Good side
I think out of the 40 man squad jones picked the below 7 may miss out on final 23
T hooper (will be one of Holloway/ Leota/ hooper)
Kemeny
Mcreight or Gleeson (either 2 spec 7s and Samu back up 8 with valetini or Gleeson and Samu to cover 7 with Leota)
Donaldson
Perese
Pietsch
Vunivalu

I can’t see Many Aus a guys getting in! Bar Pone for nongurr
Fainga'a maybe with lack of hookers, Neville, LSL (Lukhan Salakaia-Loto) and Wilson good players but not good enough to switch out current wallabies squad guys

 

[rugbyAU]

Need to take out 1 back rower and add a 3rd halfback
Other then that looks good
Also ikatau should be back in time to take over perese

Yes, Perese will be replaced this is just for the bledisloe

 

[stillmissit]

Here's a stat from the Arg match which supports my ongoing drum bashing regarding the breakdown. Where to Eddie's - 'possession rugby is dead'?

Where Argentina lost the ball at only one ruck of the 119 they set, the men in green-and-gold lost it to pilfers at seven of their 55 breakdowns. Up until the 65th minute of the game, they coughed up the ball within three phases of play on eight different possessions.

A great read: https://www.rugbypass.com/plus/why-eddie-jones-doomed-wallabies-keep-repeating-history/

 

[Joe Blow]

I have to say it and I know it will cause all sorts of bile to aimed in this direction, but Koroibete with one tackle in a game where the Wallabies had to make 200 to Argentina's 80, just perfectly illustrates to me his lack of involvement in this game. He looks like an exocet missile, flying through the air, but his guidance systems were destroyed in this game.

This is incredible. New lows……..

 

[fatprop]

Here's a stat from the Arg match which supports my ongoing drum bashing regarding the breakdown. Where to Eddie's - 'possession rugby is dead'?

Where Argentina lost the ball at only one ruck of the 119 they set, the men in green-and-gold lost it to pilfers at seven of their 55 breakdowns. Up until the 65th minute of the game, they coughed up the ball within three phases of play on eight different possessions.

A great read: https://www.rugbypass.com/plus/why-eddie-jones-doomed-wallabies-keep-repeating-history/

But we had an on baller selected who dominates pilfers
(maybe there are multiple reasons)

 

[stillmissit]

But we had an on baller selected who dominates pilfers
(maybe there are multiple reasons)

Fattie, I thought we might have learnt from Pocock and to a lesser extent Hooper, that one on baller, on their own, is just cannon fodder for the enemy. What happened to the idea that all 15 need to pilfer?
Losing turnovers to Arg whilst not securing our own ball had little to do with McRight.

 

[Joe Blow]

2 games in and many are already jumping off the EJ (Eddie Jones) train. Rennies position was untenable and Jones should be given a little slack while he beds in his players and game plan. We should look for measurable improvement over the next 3 tests rather than silverware and wins considering the opposition.
If we make the semis or better at the RWC all will be singing a different tune. We are no longer the rugby powerhouse of the 90s and early 00s.

 

[stillmissit]

This is incredible. New lows……..

JB, are you suggesting in terms of attacking one of our best players? He had an off night and MarkyMark would have been the same apart from a quick tap and an intercept, the ball didn't make to the wings where they could do much with it, the Arg D just had to slide and their D was pretty good

 

[KOB1987]

JB, are you suggesting in terms of attacking one of our best players? He had an off night and MarkyMark would have been the same apart from a quick tap and an intercept, the ball didn't make to the wings where they could do much with it, the Arg D just had to slide and their D was pretty good

I’m pretty sure the JB is saying it’s a new low for BR to pick on Koroibete for having an off night in a game that everyone else had an off night as well - except I believe for Slipper, AAA, Valetini, White, and Tom Wright apparently had a much better game than the shocker everyone else saw. I’ll give him Ikitau though, he wasn’t out there long but gutsy.

 

[dusk]

What's funny about the Marika conversation is that he didn't even have a bad game. We put him in such high regard that the one game he doesn't excel you HAVE to comment on it? Beyond stupid.

 

[Dctarget]

What's funny about the Marika conversation is that he didn't even have a bad game. We put him in such high regard that the one game he doesn't excel you HAVE to comment on it? Beyond stupid.

His work for Kerevi's try was quality

 

[fatprop]

Fattie, I thought we might have learnt from Pocock and to a lesser extent Hooper, that one on baller, on their own, is just cannon fodder for the enemy. What happened to the idea that all 15 need to pilfer?
Losing turnovers to Arg whilst not securing our own ball had little to do with McRight.

I need to learn the sarcasm emoji