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Joined October 2016
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I really think so..! 😁
Manu scores again but Deans' Wild Knights too strong for Hansen's Toyota, McMahon's long-range try
Wright / McReight / Valetini. Handy Test back row.
But Wright or Uru / McReight / Wilson as the Reds backline is almost as good.
Come-on-you-REDS!! 🥊
'Opportunities everywhere': McReight's warning for RA to get serious as Wallabies gun targets big Super season
The slow stampede to greener rugby pastures looks to be off and running – somewhat disappointingly. Cutting the Rebels seems to have finally trampolined it into the players’ consciousness that RA just is not going to ever be able to look after their futures, so better grab a pro contract o/s with big $’s sooner rather than later. Rugby here is on the nose – even broadcasters who are scrambling for tv content from anywhere to fill their endless viewing slots don’t want it. The code seems so unappreciated now that it’s only hardened rugby nuts on forums that stick around for the very short SR season and Tests. RA desperately needs to find a way for the code to be relevant again here, but they’re so invisible you’d never know what they were up to. We have no winning teams to celebrate. No celebrities of the game to write about. No-one for Joe Public to bandwagon, to relate to or to get behind with a passion. The highest profile player here that might even pass as a celebrity who crosses over into mainstream media might be Rob Valetini.. and he’s never mentioned. RA just doesn’t have the modern world front of mind. They seem content sticking with the awful conservatism of yesteryear, while the world changes. Meanwhile – we’re evaporating into obscurity – it’s bizarrely similar to watching test cricket die. No social media virality anywhere for Aus Rugby – no stories. Izzy Folau scores an average try in an average league, and it’s the biggest story of the week – he’s not even here! Difficult times.
Exclusive: 'Fly the coop' - World Cup Wallaby signs with English club as RA loses second forward in as many weeks
Better this than he ends up in the NRL. At least he’s still in the game.
Exclusive: 'Fly the coop' - World Cup Wallaby signs with English club as RA loses second forward in as many weeks
Hate this modern way of listing the players selected in alphabetical order, instead of the batting order. Even worse for rugby selection lists – wading thru 23 out-of-position players instead of reading 1 thru 23 does my head in! 😱
Aussie squad CONFIRMED: Rookie bolter, Smith to captain, McSweeney returns for Sri Lanka tour
Tough kid, skilful enough to be a solid 10 in most global comps, Test rugby might need a bigger body longterm though.. everything’s so supersized and gladiatorial now. Hoping that Lawson Creighton has a breakout 2025 for the Tahs and gets an international call-up. The more good 10’s in the mix, the better!
'Can't shy away from it': Lynagh opens up on being 'targeted', Reds 'vibe', injuries and Lions goals
“You can only use /give it another go the same ole fish n chip paper so many times I’ve found”
You mean Quade – or Noah?
The 20 biggest stories in Australian rugby this year - but is a bigger one still about to drop?
The cricket season’s just kicked off here in Aus, so long form games, short form games, traditional Test cricket, coloured clothing t20 matches, fireworks, bands playing – the entire cricket machine’s been heavily commercialised to maximise every spectacle whenever they play any one of their many formats, and ALL are on free to air telly every night of the week right now. Full saturation, shining a bright light on every dank, dull cricket corner that can be maximised. I flicked from the end of the day’s 8-hour Test tv coverage straight to a T20 game on another channel. Rinse and repeat the very next day. And another t20 game on telly that night. It’s every night. Commercial spectacle overload. Cricket Australia must be making gazillions. How is pro rugby competing with its own premium commercialised product to rope in the great unwashed today by comparison, to stop being swept under the obscurity carpet? It’s nowhere. Where is it on free telly every day in multiple commercialised formats? Nowhere. 4 teams – one format – one very short season, never on free tv, no celebrity factor? It might as well be invisible. RA had better get with the times (which aren’t 1999 by the way), cos if they’re after big money and an immense change in financial fortunes, their stale 20th century product offering is getting schooled.
All Blacks legend joins ex-F1 boss and Boks superstar in ambitious plan to become the City Football Group of rugby
RA needs to prioritise Super Rugby results. Once all 4 of our SR sides are an equal bet playing against all the Kiwi sides (and not lining up for a ritual beating every week), the Wallabies’ results will obviously improve. Maybe the 4 SR coaches and their sub-coaches need to be held to far higher expectations.. fingers crossed we’ll see that dramatic coaching improvement across the board in 2025.
If Joe Schmidt does depart, leave Les Kiss where he is ... for everyone's sake
If Thor decides he’s there on holidays, they’ll struggle to fire a shot.
Reds Pressure Points: Sky's the limit for Les Kiss’ side - unless the Wallabies come knocking
They need to centralise, pronto.. Leave the SR coaches where they are. Those coaches then need to lift SR team results to NZ’s high level. If Schmidt does go, get someone from outside the SR system – don’t poach from it! This is a prime example of why things are a mess here. One head coach leaves and suddenly we’re hacking apart our best SR team by nicking their coach! SR sides need to start constantly winning as a priority! It’s more important than WB wins. The SR sides and coaching teams are looking good for 2025.. leave them alone for a good 5 years now. Wallabies will organically benefit if the layer beneath excels.
Schmidt's old right-hand man emerges as favourite to take over Wallabies if Kiwi calls time after Lions
Hmm.. sounds like these guys have been drinking the non-stop Roar Kool-aid stories about how we’re world beaters now because Sleepy Joe’s masterminded one last-play win against England, and then a few wins against terrible Wales and a few proper minnows.. suddenly we’re “on track for world no.1”. Why blast your delusions of grandeur to the world media when it can only bite you on the R’s when it doesn’t work out? What concrete plans and pathways have they got ready to go to make such outlandish claims?
How did Ireland keep Nucifora for 10 years and you guys couldn’t keep him for 10 minutes? If he was back permanently I might believe you.
The old saying: ‘it’s better to stay quiet and be considered stupid, than to speak out and remove all doubt’ comes to mind. “It’s always the way with Australia’s RA!”
Win Bledisloe Cup every second year, beat the Lions and become the world No.1: RA's bold five-year plan revealed
Yep.. it was a thrill to see the 21yo Irish kid torpedo-ing masterly for touch a few times last weekend.. our guys aren’t even in the ballpark. It astounds me that rugby sides don’t use a left-footer to torp for the right touch line, and a right-footer to torp for the left touch line.. to favour the huge sideways arc the torp takes on either side. A good torp can peel off 60 metres! Done expertly, they’re plenty accurate too!
Hope has been restored: Wallabies' Autumn Nations series 2024 report card
And yet he still doesn’t know who our best players are. Supercoach! 😁
After years of 'crazy selections', Schmidt has 'made up his mind' with Wallabies squad - it's a huge boost
Peter.. Noah has played literally THOUSANDS of intense rugby matches in his 25 years, including a hundred SR matches, and ofc some 25 or more Test matches. Don’t you think, if he could just magically ‘fix’ his short punt kicking, he’d have done it by now? He’s a short kicker like Foley.. improvement isn’t coming – he’s at his limit. He’s not remotely a Test-level 10. If you want a long-punting 10, get Reece Hodge back at flyhalf as a Giteau pick. When he was at flyhalf, we beat NZ in NZ, and he orchestrated a spectacular kick-thru try in the first 5 minutes. Schmidt is the guy who could work wonders with the crazy natural gifts Hodge possesses. He played for years as a flyhalf before we shunted him around to all positions – more coaching mismanagement. And he’s still only 30.
Hope has been restored: Wallabies' Autumn Nations series 2024 report card
The back row of Val, Fraser and Harry was joyous against the 4 slightly-off northern hemisphere sides. But I’m still not sold on Harry as a Test 8. Against the vastly better Nz/Sa and Arg sides next year, we’ll get a savage workout, so I wonder if Harry should sit out and we slot Valetini in at 8, with a hopefully-recovered Liam Wright at 6 and Fraser Mc of course at 7. I just feel with a back row of Liam Wright, Fraser Mc and Bobby V at 8, we’d just about have a standout backline. I think Liam’s a rugby beast at 6 and captain, and Bob V makes a much better 8 than a 6. Of course, who knows how Liam’s going with that injury..?
Hope has been restored: Wallabies' Autumn Nations series 2024 report card
”Opprobrium”?
Thanks – I’ll work that one into Friday arvo’s pissup chat. 👍
Hope has been restored: Wallabies' Autumn Nations series 2024 report card
Yes Ad-o. I thought England and Ireland were surprisingly poor, the less said about an appalling Wales the better, and even Scotland, although they were very good, they were no standout. I still expected a 1-3 loss result, so I’m most pleased with the 2-2 the lads ended up with, and especially happy for the feel good vibes a pass mark has created for them. Let’s get serious though.. tough assignments against VERY good teams await next year – very keen to see if we can improve our very poor 1-5 from this year against them. That would be superb progress if so.
Hope has been restored: Wallabies' Autumn Nations series 2024 report card
Exactly this, Ghost Face! Schmitty’s doing a good job, but let’s be real – Rennie was the schism we needed and just as it was looking like he was getting real depth and progress (aside from the Italy loss) the geniuses at RA unbelievably blew it all to hell. Schmitty’s just getting things calmed down again, like Rennie had them, and getting core players back in, and the team is so much better for it. But I think the best thing since Eddie has been the gaggle of superb coaches around Schmitty that we now have too. Those lads are all making what seem to be individual, superb, real-world improvements to the side as a whole. Everyone (other than Noah and Tate) seem to be slowly upskilling atm. We’re lucky to have all those expert coaches, not just JS. It’s a pity Nucifira bailed out as early as he did. And regarding proper improvement, I guess we’ll see next year when we play NZ, SA and Argentina. If we end up with a better win-loss than the poor one we had this year against them, it’s notable improvement.
After years of 'crazy selections', Schmidt has 'made up his mind' with Wallabies squad - it's a huge boost
The 4 northern teams were all surprisingly below standard though.. England and Ireland were strangely quite poor, Wales were a total shambles (!), and even Scotland were only good – not great. 2-2 was a great result considering where we’ve just come from. Let’s see if the Sleepy Joe progress is actual progress though, when we play the much stronger Southern Hemisphere teams next year, who easily flogged us this year. Bridging the gap there would indicate excellent progress.
The Wrap: Say it ain’t so, Joe - Wallabies desperate for Schmidt to stay on beyond Lions series
If RA could bottle whatever it is Valetini has and sell it to other rugby sides, they’d just about be solvent. As it was, lots of very promising performances from most of the lads. Congratulations to all on a very respectable tour, and moreso on bringing respect and probably fans back to the hallowed WB jersey!
VOTE: Wallabies DIY player ratings vs Ireland
So what. Creighton stood out for his own individual performances in these two games as a 10, a position in which we’re woefully lacking. As I said: ‘I’d like to see him get a run.’ I couldn’t care less if your opinion, that I never asked for, differs.
'Galvanise the group': Why Schmidt isn’t sweating despite 66-year first with Wallabies
Correct.
'Galvanise the group': Why Schmidt isn’t sweating despite 66-year first with Wallabies
Me too. I’d love to see Lawson Creighton get a run in maybe an A side or something.. or even Debreczeni, who’s a handy 10. Creighton was excellent in the wins against NZ teams at the end of last SR season for the Reds – and winning in NZ – that’s a tough gig. He must be at least comparable to Lolesio. But I guess Sleepy Joe’s already checked that out at training etc, and obvs knows better than we keyboard mugs do.
'Galvanise the group': Why Schmidt isn’t sweating despite 66-year first with Wallabies
You’re?
'We switch off': All Blacks great says Super Rugby's future depends on Australia pulling its finger out