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Brumbies back to full compliment against Waratahs

James Slipper warms up with the Brumbies. Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images

After being rested in line with Rugby Australia’s Rugby World Cup policy, James Slipper, Rob Valetini, Pete Samu, Nic White, and Tom Wright return to the Brumbies’ starting lineup, with Len Ikitau also fit to start at outside centre.

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Slipper will form the front row with Lachlan Lonergan and captain Allan Alaalatoa, with Nick Frost back in the run-on side alongside Cadeyrn Neville in the second row.

Rory Scott will wear the seven jersey with Valetini and Samu back in the back row.

White will partner Noah Lolesio in the halves, with the impressive Tamati Tua starting at inside centre to combine with Ikitau in the midfield.

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The back-three of Corey Toole, Andy Muirhead and Wright is restored, Toole having made a remarkable start to his Super Rugby career on the left wing.

In the finishers, Rhys Van Nek will cover hooker with Fred Kaihea and Sefo Kautai coming on at prop.

Warringah Rats lock Sam Thomson is in line for his Super Rugby debut from the bench, the Scottish second rower having played professionally for Edinburgh in the URC, and both Toshiba Brave Lupus and Kintetsu Liners in Japan’s Top League.

Jahrome Brown will bring plenty of energy in the back row to finish the game.

Ryan Lonergan and Jack Debreczeni will have important roles to play as the finishing halves, with Ben O’Donnell completing the Brumbies’ matchday selection.

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Safeguard Global ACT Brumbies head coach, Stephen Larkham said: “We’re fortunate to be able to bring back a lot of experience for what is likely to be a game played at test-match intensity.”

“They’ve talked about being underdogs, but the Waratahs have a great squad and they’ll come down here under pressure to get a result so we’ll be aware of that.

“We’re expecting our biggest crowd in five years for this game so there’s been a great energy around HQ this week and we’re just excited to get to gameday.”

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Brumbies team to play the Waratahs:

1. James Slipper

2. Lachlan Lonergan

3. Allan Alaalatoa

4. Nick Frost

5. Cadeyrn Neville

6. Rob Valetini

7. Rory Scott

8. Pete Samu

9. Nic White

10. Noah Lolesio

11. Corey Toole

12. Tamati Tua

13. Len Ikitau

14. Andy Muirhead

15. Tom Wright

 

Replacements:

16. Rhys Van Nek

17. Fred Kaihea

18. Sefo Kautai

19. Sam Thomson

20. Jahrome Brown

21. Ryan Lonergan

22. Jack Debreczeni

23. Ben O’Donnell

Via Press Release/Brumbies

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J
JW 45 minutes ago
How law changes are speeding up the game - but the scrum lags behind

Very good, now we are getting somewhere (though you still didn't answer the question but as you're a South African I think we can all assume what the answer would be if you did lol)! Now let me ask you another question, and once you've answered that to yourself, you can ask yourself a followup question, to witch I'm intrigued to know the answer.


Well maybe more than a couple of questions, just to be clear. What exactly did this penalty stop you from doing the the first time that you want to try again? What was this offence that stopped you doing it? Then ask yourself how often would this occur in the game. Now, thinking about the regularity of it and compare it to how it was/would be used throughout the rest of the game (in cases other than the example you gave/didn't give for some unknown reason).


What sort of balance did you find?


Now, we don't want to complicate things further by bringing into the discussion points Bull raised like 'entirety' or 'replaced with a ruck', so instead I'll agree that if we use this article as a trigger to expanding our opinions/thoughts, why not allow a scrum to be reset if that is what they(you) want? Stopping the clock for it greatly removes the need to stop 5 minutes of scrum feeds happening. Fixing the law interpretations (not incorrectly rewarding the dominant team) and reducing the amount of offences that result in a penalty would greatly reduce the amount of repeat scrums in the first place. And now that refs a card happy, when a penalty offence is committed it's going to be far more likely it results in the loss of a player, then the loss of scrums completely and instead having a 15 on 13 advantage for the scrum dominant team to then run their opposition ragged. So why not take the scrum again (maybe you've already asked yourself that question by now)?


It will kind be like a Power Play in Hockey. Your outlook here is kind of going to depend on your understanding of what removing repeat scrums was put in place for, but I'm happy the need for it is gone in a new world order. As I've said on every discussion on this topic, scrums are great, it is just what they result in that hasn't been. Remove the real problem and scrum all you like. The All Blacks will love zapping that energy out of teams.

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