Australia v England - 1st Test
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What a journey for Neville! Congrats to the ‘old man’. Debuting at 33. @barbarian or @NTA might be able to recall, but I’m sure he made a wider training squad for the wallabies as a rookie but never made the final squad cut? Now he gets his chance. Should bring a bit of starch to the Wallaby tight 5.
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Made a wider squad a decade ago. From the SMH:
The 120kg, 202cm forward was first called into a wider Wallabies squad in 2012 under Robbie Deans after just three Super Rugby games. His potential also intrigued Ewen McKenzie, Michael Cheika and Rennie enough for them to pick Neville in squads as well. -
Always thought Neville had the goods - but at the time there were other guys running around like Horwill, who was the goods. Then occasionally coaches would get fascinated by others who I thought were not better, or at least not by a lot.
We'll see I guess. He was a bit of a penalty magnet and soft niggler before the left the Rebels, but hopefully some time in Japan and the work at the Ponies has given him a bit more steel.
Certainly next to Swain, he doesn't look like a penalty magnet any more...
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England team announced:
England team to face Australia: Steward; Nowell, Marchant, Farrell, Cokanasiga; Smith, Care; Genge, George, Stuart, Itoje, Hill, Lawes (capt), Curry, B Vunipola.
Replacements: Cowan-Dickie, M Vunipola, Heyes, Chessum, Ludlam, Van Poortlviet, Porter, Arundell.
Overall I'm not too displeased with that 23 although we need to keep Curry fit and firing for the whole 80 minutes or we will lack speed to the breakdown. Underhill or Willis would have been preferable for me on the bench. Not sure about Nowell currently, he's not had much rugby and seems a little off the pace - and out and out pace was never his thing to start with. Good to see Arundell on the bench and I do hope he gets some game time and maybe we'll see if all the hype was warranted.
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@Catogrande Billy from not in the squad to starting LOL
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Aus have the edge for me based on the selections
Aus by 5-8
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@Catogrande has Eddie mistakenly selected a backrow in their preferred positions?
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@Machpants said in Australia v England - 1st Test:
@Catogrande Billy from not in the squad to starting LOL
Understandable IMO. He's been playing very well for Sarries and both incumbent No8s are injured. No-one else has really put there hand up either. Callum Chick seems to be liked by Eddie but has yet to convince and ut in an anonymous performance v the BaaBaas (although there is a who didn't element there).
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@antipodean said in Australia v England - 1st Test:
@Catogrande has Eddie mistakenly selected a backrow in their preferred positions?
He's obviously been keenly following my critiques on here.
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Well, this should make some people feel warm all over.
Owen Farrell's fury after England captaincy snub
England head coach Eddie Jones revealed that Owen Farrell was “very unhappy” at being stripped of the captaincy, but did not rule out the possibility of him taking back the role.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in Australia v England - 1st Test:
Well, this should make some people feel warm all over.
He always looks unhappy unless he's shoulder charging someone.
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that's an abrasive English back row
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@chimoaus said in Australia v England - 1st Test:
@NTA How do you genuinely feel coming into this year? You must be happy with how the Brumbies and Tahs really stepped up this year and plenty of talent showing? I'm really excited in general with how competitive things are getting.
I think it will be the sort of improvement year-on-year that Wallabies fans expect. Definitely our showing in SRP was encouraging, particularly the Tahs.
It could be a good springboard into 2023 I think.
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@NTA said in Australia v England - 1st Test:
@Victor-Meldrew said in Australia v England - 1st Test:
Well, this should make some people feel warm all over.
He always looks unhappy unless he's shoulder charging someone.
So. More happy than not then?
