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2024 in review: Max Jorgensen’s Giteau-esque swan dive stuns England

Max Jorgensen of Australia scores his team's fifth try during the Autumn Nations Series 2025 match between England and Australia at Allianz Stadium on November 09, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Matt Giteau’s last-minute try against England during the 2015 Rugby World Cup holds a special place in Wallabies history. Giteau linked up with great mate Adam Ashley-Cooper before swan diving over the try line to knock England out of the tournament with a 33-13 humiliation.

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Nine years later, England-born Wallabies winger Max Jorgensen would leave thousands at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium in a state of disbelief with another swan dive that was reminiscent of Giteau’s effort or even Chris Ashton’s trademark try celebration.

It’s blunt, fair and true to say that not many rugby fans gave the Wallabies a genuine chance of winning before taking on the English at the world-famous venue. Legendary England halfback Ben Youngs infamously said “don’t waste my time” when gauging the Aussies’ chances.

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But Jorgensen now holds a special place in Wallabies history, much like Giteau.

 

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Australia started their era under coach Joe Schmidt with two wins over Wales and another positive result against Georgia during the July internationals, but The Rugby Championship proved to be a tough couple of months for the men in gold.

After winning just one of their six matches during that tournament – which included a record 67-27 loss to Argentina a week after beating the same side by a single point – the Wallabies turned their attention towards their Spring Tour ahead of next year’s British and Irish Lions Series.

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Prop Angus Bell claimed the Australians were chasing “four wins” during that end-of-year tour, while some questioned if they’d be able to avoid four losses. But the Wallabies believed, truly, as their 42-37 win over Steve Borthwick’s England showed.

Tries to Tom Wright and captain Harry Wilson laid the foundations for the Wallabies, who ended up taking a hard-earned 20-18 lead into the break after a penalty goal from Noah Lolesio in the 41st minute. Jerem Williams then scored nine minutes into the second term to extend the lead.

But with Ollie Sleightholme crossing for a decisive double, took a 30-28 lead with 12 minutes left to play. The pressure was on the Wallabies, but with Andrew Kellaway creating something special from nothing, they snatched the lead back deep into the contest.

Five minutes left.

But the war was far from won.

Maro Itoje scored with three minutes left to play which saw the English take the lead.

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But once again, the war was far from won.

It seemed the Wallabies were at long odds to claim the win but after throwing it wide left through the hands, Joe Schmidt’s men were rewarded. Fraser McReight linked up well with Len Ikitau, who threw a superb flick pass to Jorgensen who flew down the left edge.

With a swan dive, Jorgensen was the Wallabies’ hero.

Following the full-time whistle, debutant Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii was named the Player of the Match. Rugby Australia’s marquee recruit hadn’t played a minute of Super Rugby after making the move from the NRL, but this selection had proved to be a masterstroke.

 

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While McReight, Ikitau and Jorgensen are credited above for their work in that match-winning score, Suaalii was superb for the Wallabies throughout that 80 minutes. Whether it was throwing brilliant offloads, drawing in defenders or standing tall in defence, Suaalii was in fine form.

“I thought he was strong,” coach Schmidt said. “I thought he was really well supported by Lenny Ikitau, Lenny was outstanding. Even at the end of the game, he took the corner, drew the defender, and released Max Jorgensen. I thought those two dove-trailed pretty well through that midfield.

“Joseph obviously got a few kick-offs back for us, he’s a big of an aerial freak, but at the same time, it was a good learning experience for Joseph as well.

“I know there were some doubts expressed about him being selected and the risk. I think people will now see the opportunity of involving a young man like that, particularly the way he prepared during the week. I thought he was really professional.”

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J
JW 47 minutes ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

I had a look at the wiki article again, it's all terribly old data (not that I'd see reason for much change in the case of SA).

Number Of Clubs:

1526

Registered+Unregistered Players:

651146

Number of Referees:

3460

Pre-teen Male Players:

320842

Pre-teen Female Player:

4522

Teen Male Player:

199213

Teen Female Player:

4906

Senior Male Player:

113174

Senior Female Player:

8489

Total Male Player:

633229

Total Female Player:

17917


So looking for something new as were more concerned with adults specifically, so I had a look at their EOY Financial Review.

The total number of clubs remains consistent, with a marginal increase of 1% from 1,161 to 1,167. 8.1.

A comparative analysis of verified data for 2022 and 2023 highlights a marginal decline of 1% in the number of female players, declining from 6,801 to 6,723. Additionally, the total number of players demonstrates an 8% decrease, dropping from 96,172 to 88,828.

So 80k+ adult males (down from 113k), but I'm not really sure when youth are involved with SAn clubs, or if that data is for some reason not being referenced/included. 300k male students however (200k in old wiki data).


https://resources.world.rugby/worldrugby/document/2020/07/28/212ed9cf-cd61-4fa3-b9d4-9f0d5fb61116/P56-57-Participation-Map_v3.pdf has France at 250k registered but https://presse-europe1-fr.translate.goog/exclu-europe-1-le-top-10-des-sports-les-plus-pratiques-en-france-en-2022/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp has them back up at 300k registered.


The French number likely Students + Club, but everyone collects data different I reckon. In that WR pdf for instance a lot of the major nations have a heavily registered setup, were as a nation like England can penetrate into a lot more schools to run camps and include them in the reach of rugby. For instance the SARU release says only 29% of schools are reached by proper rugby programs, where as the 2million English number would be through a much much higer penetration I'd imagine. Which is thanks to schools having the ability to involve themselves in programs more than anything.


In any case, I don't think you need to be concerned with the numbers, whether they are 300 or 88k, there is obviously a big enough following for their pro scenes already to have enough quality players for a 10/12 team competition. They appear ibgger than France but I don't really by the lower English numbers going around.

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