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‘Cool customer’ Tom Lynagh set to follow in father’s Wallabies footsteps

By Finn Morton
Tom Lynagh poses during an Australia Wallabies Portrait Session on June 26, 2024 in Gold Coast, Australia. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images for ARU)

Tom Lynagh will follow in the footsteps of his father on Saturday evening if the 21-year-old is called on to come off the bench against Wales. Tom is the son of former Wallabies skipper Michael Lynagh, who is arguably the best No. 10 in Australian rugby history.

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On the eve of the Wallabies’ first Test under new coach Joe Schmidt, the playing group made their way out onto the field at Allianz Stadium for their captain’s run. Lynagh was one of the 23 selected who had the luxury of walking out in a Wallabies jersey.

It’s been quite the journey to get to this point. Lynagh has long been touted as a Wallaby-in-waiting since making the move from Harlequins academy to Queensland. After another strong season based out of Ballymore, coach Schmidt rewarded the youngster.

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Sarah Hirini on retiring legend Portia Woodman-Wickliffe

New Zealand Sevens star Sarah Hirini gets emotional when asked by Finn Morton about Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, who will retire after the Olympics.

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Sarah Hirini on retiring legend Portia Woodman-Wickliffe

New Zealand Sevens star Sarah Hirini gets emotional when asked by Finn Morton about Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, who will retire after the Olympics.

Lynagh was selected as one of three No. 10’s in the Wallabies’ initial squad for the July internationals. There was no room for incumbent Carter Gordon, with the coaching staff selecting the trio of Noah Lolesio, Ben Donaldson and Lynagh.

Schmidt later picked the “cool customer” to do a job on Saturday evening after naming the Queensland Reds pivot on the bench. With a little over 24 hours until kick-off at the time of writing, it’s almost time for Lynagh to forge his own legacy as a Test playmaker.

“He’s a cool customer Tom. You talk to him, he just doesn’t get ruffled. I’ve tried to ruffle him to be fair and put him under a little bit of pressure but he just doesn’t get ruffled. I love that and I think the players around him love it because what you want is that calm,” Schmidt told reporters on Thursday.

“In that real hub, pivot position, you want someone who is not going to be ruffled, who’s going to stay nice and clean and clear in their thinking and then in their delivery or whatever they’re required to do on either side of the ball.

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“I know I’ve spoken about his courage before and I don’t have any doubts about him stepping up there.

“They will bring a big, direct midfield at us. They’ll get Aaron Wainwright running off things and running down channels. Tom’s the sort of guy that, well he won’t say anything, he’ll just get on and do it. If that’s his tackle, he’ll make that tackle.

“I’ve been impressed with a number of players who are able just to stay focused on what needs to be done rather than get ruffled or distracted by things they can’t really control anyway, they can only influence what’s immediately in front of them.”

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Along with Lynagh, Melbourne Rebels prop Isaac Kailea, Queenslander Angus Blyth, the Brumbies’ Charlie Cale and NSW Waratahs outside back Dylan Pietsch are also in line to debut off the bench.

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Schmidt has picked uncapped duo Jeremy Williams and Josh Flook in the starting lineup. But the biggest surprise is potentially the selection of Liam Wright as skipper, with the loose forward set to play his first Test since a draw with Argentina in 2020.

The national selectors have also thrown a bit of a curveball in the halves with Nic White omitted from the matchday 23 completely, while Reds co-captain Tate McDermott will come of the pine. Jake Gordon has been given the nod to start at halfback.

“He’s [Gordon] probably just had the sharpest of the passes of the three guys so far. He’s got that really nice long kicking game, high kicking game and those are elements that I think we can make of,” Schmidt explained.

“You can’t tell Sydney weather early in the week. We had a look and it looked like it was going to be rain but now it’s saying sunny so it’s probably going to be rain.

“We’re 48 hours out and things fluctuate a lot. What we don’t want to fluctuate is whatever does turn up, we turn up with the right sort of armoury and we felt Jake had the right armoury for us to kick the first Test off with.”

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J
JW 3 hours ago
Nigel Owens' verdict on the 20-minute red card trial

Alright, to his credit he did have something to say after that..

“As far as the 20-minute red card idea is concerned, I’m not a fan. As Mathieu has said, I don’t believe it will really solve any of the problems that we have in the game at the moment.

So we might as well start here, which I'm assume was the topic he started with as well. The only reason 20min rec cards were brought in was to make the game fairer, a problem highlighted by their recent frequency.


A player, and team, should receive the same punishment for a particular foul, no matter what. Red cards (as they were) don't achieve that as the punishment is purely dependent and what stage of the game it is (if you think a punishment has an effect on the frequency of offenses, ask yourself if you've noticed more people committing red card offences towards the ends of game). So a team who receives a red card in the first minute of the game, is overly punished and that is obviously going to be the case for the viewers as well. That is the problem a fixed length red card 'solves'.


Now, onto the other topics he raises..

“They should not be seen as red card offences in the first place – so do we need to change the laws instead?

They're not!!!! They are now seen as 20min red card offences. Here at least, you could still be given a straight red no replacement card on the field for 'thuggery'. This is the law change you're asking for!

Too often, players are still not making the effort to go lower.

Going lower is the cause of these problems. There is nothing wrong with upright tackles, they are safe. Shoulder charging and swinging arms are long out of the game Nigel!

if you have been sent off, you have done something reckless that has put another player at great risk

No, not necessarily. But in the few cases where they were, that punishment is for the player. Not the team. You can be sent off for receiving a 'team' yellow, this is a case were the rule should directly be rectified however. It's outside this discussion.

A red card means you deserve to be off the pitch, so I don’t see why there should be a middle ground.

There is still a lot of careless, reckless conduct out there, so I don’t know if introducing these new cards has made much of a difference anyway.”

I don't recall any careless or reckless behaviour, not at least in TRC, what is he referring to? What we did just see was the game last week be saved by the 20min RC rule. We had what Nigel is describing as an accidental head collision which saw Argentina receive a read card (must have been very close to yellow). Normally that would have destroyed the game (and it did for that period), but by returning to 15 players it was still able to be a contest, which Opta suggests would normally have had just a 7 point gap between the teams. This is why there is a middle ground (what you have been saying you want!!).

do we need to change the laws instead?

Back to his poorly made point. I would suggest bigger off field penalties that are far more involved that a 'tackling' school, and obviously not just for the player, the whole team, especially the coachs, needed to be doing the penance. A definite review to team based yellow cards and how infringement sequences can be better handled is required as well.

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