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Cheika calls up reinforcements from outside his RWC squad

Rob Valetini. (Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)

Australia head coach Michael Cheika may have named his Rugby World Cup squad last month, although he has already had to call in reinforcements to help ease the workload on his players ahead of the tournament.

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Cheika included David Pocock in his 31-man squad, alongside Michael Hooper, Jack Dempsey and Isi Naisarani in the back row, as well as a couple of hybrid lock-flankers, such as Lukhan Salakaia-Loto.

In the back three, Dane Haylett-Petty, Reece Hodge and Marika Koroibete are battling for positions, as well as a number of versatile options such as Kurtley Beale, Adam Ashley-Cooper, James O’Connor and the uncapped Jordan Petaia.

The 52-year-old has felt the need to bolster these two areas, however, with Brumbies back rower Rob Valetini and Rebels utility back Jack Maddocks both being brought in for the upcoming game against Samoa, in order to lighten the workload for players in the 31-man squad.

Valetini, 20, had his 2019 season disrupted by injury, although the powerful ball-carrier has been involved in Wallaby training camps and recently signed a two-year contract extension with Rugby Australia. The return to fitness of Pocock and the form of Naisarani both played against Valetini in his bid to make the 31-man squad last month.

Maddocks, 22, had a strong season for the Rebels, starting 14 games and grabbing 10 tries, and the Scots College product will feel unlucky to have missed the cut, particularly following Israel Folau’s axing by Rugby Australia. The return to Australia of O’Connor didn’t help Maddocks’ case, though, and he was narrowly denied a spot alongside his three Rebels back three teammates in Cheika’s final squad.

With the Wallabies set to take on Samoa in Sydney on Saturday, though, the door remains open for the pair.

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Few teams survive the grueling schedule of a Rugby World Cup without multiple injuries and if Valetini and Maddocks can take their opportunities this weekend, they will both be firmly in Cheika’s thoughts when he takes his initial 31-man squad north to Japan later this month.

Watch: Brian O’Driscoll tips England to win the Rugby World Cup

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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