Wallaby EOYT 2016

[Stargazer]

Wallabies to face Ireland

1 Scott Sio (28 Tests), 2. Stephen Moore (c) (115 Tests), 3. Sekope Kepu (75 Tests), 4. Rory Arnold (8 Tests), 5. Rob Simmons (69 Tests), 6. Dean Mumm (55 Tests), 7. Michael Hooper (63 Tests), 8. David Pocock (64 Tests)
9 Will Genia (74 Tests), 10. Bernard Foley (40 Tests), 11. Henry Speight (9 Tests), 12. Reece Hodge (8 Tests), 13. Tevita Kuridrani (43 Tests), 14. Dane Haylett-Petty (12 Tests), 15. Israel Folau (50 Tests)

Reserves (one to be omitted)
Tolu Latu (2 Tests), James Slipper (84 Tests), Allan Alaalatoa (8 Tests), Kane Douglas (29 Tests), Lopeti Timani (5 Tests), Sean McMahon (13 Tests), Nick Phipps (51 Tests), Quade Cooper (65 Tests), Sefanaia Naivalu (4 Tests)

Beth Newman  /  Nov 24, 2016

Test regulars return for Wallabies to face Ireland

[Stargazer]

Ireland

1 Jack McGrath (St. Mary's College/Leinster) 35, 2. Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster) 99 (c), 3. Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster) 10, 4. Iain Henderson (Ballynahinch/Ulster) 27, 5. Devin Toner (Lansdowne/Leinster) 41, 6. CJ Stander (Munster) 9, 7. Sean O'Brien (UCD/Leinster) 44, 8. Jamie Heaslip (Dublin University/Leinster) 90 (Vice Captain)
9 Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster) 52, 10. Paddy Jackson (Dungannon/Ulster) 18, 11. Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster) 53, 12. Garry Ringrose (UCD/Leinster) 2, 13. Jared Payne (Ulster) 18, 14. Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster) 68, 15. Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster) 71

Reserves:
16 Sean Cronin (St Mary's College/Leinster) 55, 17. Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster) 61, 18. Finlay Bealham (Buccaneers/Connacht) 5, 19. Ultan Dillane (Galway Corinthians/Connacht) 7, 20. Josh van der Flier (UCD/Leinster) 4, 21. Kieran Marmion (Galway Corinthians/Connacht) 8, 22. Joey Carbery (Clontarf/Leinster) 2, 23. Simon Zebo (Cork Constitution/Munster) 27

jmcconnell

News

[Crucial]

Why can't Cheika ever name a team without having "one to be omitted"?
Does he seriously not know his own plan or always playing silly games.
It can't always be an injury thing. No one else does it except sometimes bracketing.

[Crucial]

That JDVF guy for Ireland deserves a start I'd have him in a AB squad going by last week. Adds some dynamics to the back row without losing strength

[Sapetyvi]

@Crucial Sean O'Brien isn't half bad either. Pretty positive problem to have.

Wallabies will drop either Sean Mac or Naivalu. Hope Naivalu is retained, even if Hooper and McMahon both can be thrown to the backs in an emergency, but still better to have someone else to sub than Cooper if an outside back goes down in the first half.

[Derm McCrum]

@Sapetyvi said in Wallaby EOYT 2016:

@Crucial Sean O'Brien isn't half bad either. Pretty positive problem to have.

Wallabies will drop either Sean Mac or Naivalu. Hope Naivalu is retained, even if Hooper and McMahon both can be thrown to the backs in an emergency, but still better to have someone else to sub than Cooper if an outside back goes down in the first half.

And then there's Dan Leavy - if he can deliver his club form on the test stage. He's been outplaying vdF and SOB at Leinster so far this season, IMHO.

[SimonAdd_2]

Stander, O'Brien and vdF all seem quite similar players though - stocky ball carriers without a ton of arial ability or breakdown nous? Ireland can't really start all 3, so they're always going to be competing for one or two places.

EDIT: Is O'Mahony likely to come back into the picture? Looked the goods a while back and offers something a bit different.

[NTA]

French Baabaas game here:

Nov 24, 2016

REPLAY: Wallaby XV vs French Barbarians

[NTA]

Jono Lance finally gets a shot in gold and he's injured inside the first 10 minutes. Poor bastard.

[NTA]

French are playing rough as fuck, holding players into ruck , bit of claret around, and the ref is giving them the odd wee rub

The odd Hollywood too

[Billy Tell]

@Pot-Hale said in Wallaby EOYT 2016:

@Sapetyvi said in Wallaby EOYT 2016:

@Crucial Sean O'Brien isn't half bad either. Pretty positive problem to have.

Wallabies will drop either Sean Mac or Naivalu. Hope Naivalu is retained, even if Hooper and McMahon both can be thrown to the backs in an emergency, but still better to have someone else to sub than Cooper if an outside back goes down in the first half.

And then there's Dan Leavy - if he can deliver his club form on the test stage. He's been outplaying vdF and SOB at Leinster so far this season, IMHO.

At 6, against inferior opposition. But I entirely agree he looks extremely promising.

[Billy Tell]

@SimonAdd_2 said in Wallaby EOYT 2016:

Stander, O'Brien and vdF all seem quite similar players though - stocky ball carriers without a ton of arial ability or breakdown nous? Ireland can't really start all 3, so they're always going to be competing for one or two places.

EDIT: Is O'Mahony likely to come back into the picture? Looked the goods a while back and offers something a bit different.

IMO he's better in the lineout. But otherwise Stander is the superior player.

That Irish pack has to now be considered in the top 3 in world rugby.

The backline this weekend is a step down though without Sexton and Henshaw starting, Earls has his fans but I find he is 1 guaranteed costly howler per game - we shall see.

[NTA]

Wallabies up 8-3. Its dirty as fuck compared to a regular pro game. I don't see a lot of Top 14

[NTA]

Time for Godwin to step up in the absence of Jono Lance.

Nathan Charles back from the bin. He's been really smashing it. Hard to believe the bloke has a serious illness.

[NTA]

French ref has decidied that forward passes don't exist for anything wearing blue hoops

[mariner4life]

Two questions.

1. What was the final score this morning? I had to leave before it finished. Rough old game, kind of fun to watch. Wallabies looked the better side, but just couldn't convert opportunity in to points. It did look like 2 scratch teams going at each other though.

2. What the fuck is with that Wallaby back row for the weekend? You watch the Irish loosies on the rampage against the ABs and you pick Mumm at 6, and Pocock at 8? Fucking hell.

[NTA]

Score was 19-11 - le Baabaas scored a late one under the posts.

Yeah. I can't believe that. Would have preferred Timani at 8.

[antipodean]

1. 19 - 11
2. Be interesting to see if Chieka calls the shots on the game day 23 while being ignorant of the tactics developed by his assistants? In truth, I can see why they've picked Mumm - they need him in the lineout against Ireland. Pocock's picked because an enormous amount of people think he's the bestest rugby player ever.

[akan004]

I really couldn't see Ireland winning this game after the two massive games against the ABs. Just did not think they would have enough in the tank but am not so sure now after seeing the wallaby selections. Speight is even luckier than Savea in that he offers absolutely nothing but keeps on being selected. At least fatty Jules was once the best winger in the game. But depowering the pack by not selecting Tamani is where I think the wobs have got it seriously wrong. Their monster pack approach in recent games is one of the key reasons for their improvement and now Cheika decides to go back to something that didn't work well. Not sure about that. Still give the wobs a slight edge if it's a fine day but will back the Irish to win this if it's a wet game.

[KiwiMurph]

There does look to be a fair amount of firepower on the bench for the Wallabies. Perhaps they are thinking the Irish will tire after the AB games and the Wallabies can take advantage in the last 30 or so with guys like Timani, McMahon, Douglas and Latu (although one of those is likely to be omitted from the matchday bench).