Wallabies 2025

[Strewthcobber]

Willson on the left v Oviedo on the right in TRC. Oviedo has some crazy numbers. 100% of his metres were post contact

 

[HogansHeros]

Playing 80 minutes often has probably helped his numbers.

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

That in itself is a huge asset. Having 2/3 backrowers able to go 80 routinely should allow the Wallabies to take more impact players in the tight 5.

 

[Dctarget]

Wouldn't have chosen Wilson and would've had Wright over Jordan at fullback.

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

If Wright was able to finish the Test season he would have been a very good chance but recency bias is a thing.

 

[rugbyAU]

Wouldn't have chosen Wilson and would've had Wright over Jordan at fullback.

Wright only played 5 tests and looked off v Fiji

 

[Slim 293]

I think it's because he has an excellent motor and a very quick recycle. When we don't have the guys generating momentum reliably (and that's very hard to get with such a high possession game), having someone who will consistently take it to the advantage line and provide relatively quick ruck ball is vital.

That said it's much more effective when they utilize the short passing game more, as they did early in the year so Harry, or whoever else gets the tip on, is more likely to find soft shoulders. I'd probably have to go back and look at the tour games again to be sure (definitely not doing that), but I feel like that was one of the areas of our game that really regressed later in the season and it made us a lot more predictable.

I think Wilson benefits from playing a touch wider and being that conduit between the forwards and backs, kind of like Kieran Read...

I feel like his game suffered a bit towards the end of the year, and the team overall, when we didn't have more of those more effective big body carriers hitting it up in the tight, and some of that workload fell back onto Wilson.

And it certainly goes back to the wider discussion of what went wrong with the Wallabies later in the year, and while some people are focused on who was playing 10 week in week out, we lost a number of key impactful players such as McDermott and Wright in the backs who create so many attacking opportunities...

In the forwards we were without Skelton, who despite his lumbering pace always seems to make metres in contact, dominant clearouts to generate quick ball and always drawing in extra defenders around the tackle... and his presence seems to also bring out the best in Frost.

And aside from the fist half of the B&I tour Valetini has not been 100%, and Bell and AAA have been in and out of the team.

The retirements of Slipper and White didn't really help either.

And I've trailed off from my original point, but...

Overall I think it was a pretty good year from Wilson.