Australia Rugby World Cup: Rugby Australia was bold to back Rennie
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But if Australia were to double down on their wagers at next year’s World Cup, they would be lucky to survive the quarter-final stage. That is presumptuous, of course, they can safely circumnavigate their way around two familiar and worrying rivals in the pool matches.
It is the outside belief that World Rugby finalized the World Cup draw three years out from the competition, safeguarding that Australia, who have slipped right down the rankings to ninth, will face Wales (ranked seventh) and Fiji (12) in the initial rounds. Meanwhile, Pool A will see France (2) and the All Blacks (4) square off in a match which twice has helped as a Rugby World Cup final,
Australia Rugby World Cup
While Ireland (1), the Springboks (3), and Scotland (6) will duke it out in Pool B. Pool D has its intriguing challenges, with England (5) opposed by Argentina (8) and Japan (10). But if the Wallabies are to take advantage of a most good-looking draw, which would see them play England or Argentina in the quarters, some brutal assortment calls must soon be made ahead of next month’s coil tour. Specifically, the trip cannot be missed by players who cannot deliver.
Australia is desperate to find a playmaker or at least a workable other than Quade Cooper who may or may not be fit for the Rugby World Cup. They know precisely what to expect from the current inhabitant of the No.10 jersey – Bernard Foley – the bad as well as the good.
While Foley came in for his share of censure following the Eden Park mauling on Saturday, he was generally acclaimed for his return to Test football a week earlier in Melbourne. As it was, his many defensive lapses in that match were fleecy over. And Wallabies fans would have been less charitably disposed towards him had they been aware he blatantly overlooked referee Mathieu Raynal’s repeated orders not to convert the Andrew Kellaway try but to await the decision of the TMO.
He went ahead and kicked it anyway. All of this took place in the introduction to Raynal’s last-minute reversal of a Wallabies consequence, and it doesn’t take much imagination to connect one event with the other. That’s a hard-won conquest against the All Blacks squandered.
RWC 2023
To take Foley on a spring tour would be a waste. If it becomes clear he is needed for the World Cup, he can readily be brought back next year.
For the moment, however, Rennie should weigh up the presentations of Waratahs’ playmakers Tane Edmed and Ben Donaldson and Perth-bound Hamish Stewart at 10 in the three Australia “Tests” in Japan and then select the best two to join Noah Lolesio on the Wallabies tour. Hodge can always act as the knowledgeable back-up. To know more about Australia Vs Portugal Tickets click here.
Rennie won’t do that, though. He will want the safety net – even one with gaping holes in it – that Foley’s experience delivers.
One wonders, too, how far Rennie will push his fascination with Brumbies players.
By my control, he has chosen 18 of the Brumbies’ 35-man squad to play for Australia. That is better than a one-in-two chance on behalf of your country if you play for the ACT. Additionally, Hudson Creighton, Rory Scott, and Ryan Lonergan have been called in Australia A, along with “established” fellow Brumbies players Tom Banks, Nick Frost, Lachie Lonergan, Caderyn Neville, Billy Pollard, and Darcy Swain. Nor, by the by, should we travel the moral dilemmas raised by Swain’s Australia A assortment.
No one is denying the Brumbies were the best Australian outfit throughout the trans-Tasman round
When, frankly, the Waratahs and Reds were hard-hit by wounds. But they only defeated the Tahs 27-20 in their one local derby, while shaping the series with Queensland. They were well beaten in Brisbane, 21-7, while the Canberra match was obvious on the bell by Brumbies five-eighth Rodney Iona land back Fraser McReight for a 16-12 win.
Were it not for Iona’s movements, Brad Thorn would have led Dan McKellar 8-5 in head-to-head coaching clashes. Nor should we forget that during this period the Brumbies edged out the Western Force 39-38 and wore home 29-23 against the Melbourne Rebels.
In short, the Brumbies, while certainly the best local side this year, did not have a monopoly on all the best players, certainly not to the degree reflected in Wallabies assortments. Despite all the warnings, we have stretched the end of the southern hemisphere season still no clearer of the merits of Tate McDermott, Edmed, Donaldson, Suliasi Vunivalu, Jock Campbell, and Perth-bound Stewart.
Rugby Australia has taken a bold leap in checking Rennie’s position for another year. His position is safe. Now it is his turn to counter.
Australian rugby’s countless dilemma as next-gen Wallabies weigh-up upcoming ahead of Rugby World Cup
Australia Rugby World Cup: Australian rugby will learn next week whether Brumbies five-eighth Noah Lolesio will stay at home or head foreign. The 22-year-old playmaker, who has played 11 Tests and wore the No 10 jersey in the opening six Tests last year, is considering a deal in Japan.
“It’s not Tom Banks money,” one source said, mentioning to Lolesio’s colleague who will leave the Brumbies for a deal in Japan that is more than $1m.
Nonetheless, it’s considerably more than his current contract, although he will obtain a Rugby Australia top-up should he stay.
He is the latest Test player to be considering a move overseas, with veteran halfback Nic White reportedly another seeing a pre-World Cup move that would be a blow not only to the Brumbies but the Wallabies too.
The situation Lolesio finds himself in — as does Reds skipper Fraser McReight in his position of flanker — is he is one of a crop of gifted playmakers in the mix to energy the Wallabies forward in the years post the 2023 Rugby World Cup. Until then, Quade Cooper and James O’Connor are careful the frontrunners wear the No 10 jersey.
Ben Donaldson, Will Harrison
Ben Donaldson, Will Harrison, Tane Edmed, Reesjan Pasitoa, and, maybe the most prodigious of the lot, Tom Lynagh, are also competing for the coveted 10 jerseys ahead of a crucial five-year period featuring a British and Irish Lions series and World Cup on Australian shores. The Brumbies and Rugby Australia want to keep Lolesio, but they comprehend the tough decision he faces.
Should Lolesio leave, the Brumbies will certainly pounce on Edmed — the Waratahs playmaker, who is in one of three thrilling young 10s at NSW. Fortunately, RA has skilled workers in contracting manager Nick Taylor and Wallabies boss Chris Webb, who is said to be working well with player agents across the country. To know more about Wales Vs Australia Tickets click here.
Lolesio is toing and froing with whether to stay, but should he join Samu Kerevi in Japan it will leave the Wallabies without a player they have already capitalized in. It will also leave the Wallabies with few players with Test match knowledge in the No 10 jersey. What if veteran fly-half O’Connor and Cooper don’t make the World Cup or miss a chunk of it due to wounds?
O’Connor is out for at least a month with a knee injury
O’Connor is out for at least a month with a knee injury, including the Reds’ vital first trans-Tasman cusp Super Rugby match against the Hurricanes on Saturday. It is the latest wound setback for O’Connor, who debuted for the Wallabies aged 18 in 2008, having also wasted three months last year.
Cooper, too, has also been shelved in Japan this year. He was healthy for last season’s Rugby Championship when he returned to Australian rugby and coxswained the Wallabies to five successive victories, but he has been wound-prone in the past.
Should whichever go down in a Rugby World Cup year, Lolesio would likely be next in line with Matt To’omua as a fallback. Let’s not forget that Stephen Donald was given an SOS by the All Blacks in 2011 and walked up to kick them to splendor over France in the final.
Lolesio is not the only young gun seeing their future.
Who captained the Junior Wallabies to the under-20s World Cup final in 2019
McReight, 23, who captained the Junior Wallabies to the under-20s World Cup final in 2019, is also increasingly receiving frustrated by the lack of opportunities he is being afforded. While his teammates at the junior level, such as No 8 Harry Wilson and prop Angus Bell, have been given time in the saddle, McReight’s growth has been stalled by being in the same position as stimulating captain Michael Hooper.
McReight wants to stay in Australian rugby and wear the Wallabies jersey, but RA risks losing him to a foreign club as was the case with backrowers Liam Gill and, to a lesser extent, Sean McMahon, should coach Dave Rennie not find ways to give him chances in the gold jersey. With a World Cup around the corner, it would be shrewd for the Wallabies to give McReight a preliminary berth at some point rather than a handful of minutes from the seat.
David Pocock
When David Pocock wasted the crucial World Cup pool game against Ireland in 2011, coach Robbie Deans had no other openside flanker to turn to. It hurt the Wallabies’ odds as they had to face the Springboks in the quarter-final and the All Blacks in the semis — a knockout tightrope from which they finally fell.
A home British and Irish Lions series and Rugby World Cup were hypothetical to keep the best young talent on Australian shores, but in a progressively aggressive market, RA is fighting fires on every front. Rennie faces the challenge of trying to win every match and build impetus into the World Cup, too.
Private equity dollars are around the corner, but the additional revenue won’t solve the problem on the entrance now.
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