Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Dropped Wallaby Tom Lynagh stars as Queensland Reds beat Wild Knights

Tom Lynagh of the Wallabies warms up during The Rugby Championship & Bledisloe Cup match between Australia Wallabies and New Zealand All Blacks at Accor Stadium on September 21, 2024 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Steve Christo - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)

Four-Test Wallaby Tom Lynagh has taken out Player of the Match honours after starring in the Queensland Reds’ 42-28 win over Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights. With the Saitama-Queensland Shield on the line, Lynagh made a statement with this performance.

ADVERTISEMENT

Lynagh has spent plenty of time with Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies this year, but the young playmaker has been dropped to Australia XV duty this month. The 21-year-old will link up with that representative side ahead of matches against Bristol Bears and England A.

Coach Schmidt has instead called NSW Waratahs and North Harbour pivot Tane Edmed into the Wallabies for the first time. Edmed joins regular starter Noah Lolesio and utility Ben Donaldson as the three options to wear the No. 10 jersey in Australia’s top squad.

Video Spacer

Video Spacer

But for Lynagh, matches like this one against the Wild Knights after important. Injuries have kept the flyhalf on the sidelines for various periods during the international season, so it seems the most important thing for him at the moment is game time.

Lynagh linked up with halfback Kalani Thomas in the halves. The No. 10 couldn’t have started the match much better after veering 45 metres past three defenders to set up a 75-metre try to Floyd Aubrey in the opening minutes.

That was the first of Aubrey’s three tries, with Lynagh setting the platform for the second score as well. The Reds had taken a strong lead, but that didn’t mean the match was anywhere near over as the Wild Knights fought their way back.

It was a three point game in the Reds’ favour with just over 20 minutes left to play, but the visitors had it in them to hold on for a confidence-building result away from home. With young players getting a chance to wear the jersey, it was a supremely successful tour for the Reds.

ADVERTISEMENT

Frankie Goldsbrough, Kohan Herbet, Heremaia Murray and Hamish Muller all debuted for the Reds, with this also being the club’s final match of 2024. This result also sees the Saitama-Queensland Shield remain at Ballymore for a third straight season.

“We had to keep finding solutions to come back into the game when moments of momentum went the Wild Knights’ way. I’m really proud of our guys for stemming that as they did,” coach Les Kiss said in a statement.

“The cultural experience of the last three years is important for us. Rugby has that and you can play around the world because of opportunities like this.

“We treasure this relationship where the Reds can meet a great club like the Wild Knights. We don’t take it lightly and we want it to keep building.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Lynagh isn’t the only Reds player who’s set to jet off to Europe to join the Australia XV squad. Joe Brial, Josh Canham, Massimo De Lutiis, Josh Nasser, Ryan Smith, Harry McLaughlin-Phillips and assistant coach Zane Hulton are also due to fly out to London.

The Australia XV will take on Bristol Bears at the iconic Ashton Gate on Friday, November 8, before taking on England A at London’s Twickenham Stoop about nine days later. Meanwhile, the Wallabies will look to take out the Grand Slam starting with England at Twickenham.

Louis Rees-Zammit joins Jim Hamilton for the latest episode of Walk the Talk to discuss his move to the NFL. Watch now on RugbyPass TV

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

2 Comments
H
Head high tackle 16 days ago

I dont understand why Lynagh isnt in the two squads gone north.

P
Phillip 16 days ago

He is. He travelled with the Reds to Japan, now I imagine he'll be linking up with the Australian XV. If he hasn't already.

Load More Comments

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

287 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING Tupou Vaa'i gives first impression of 'big unit' Fabian Holland Tupou Vaa'i on 'big unit' Fabian Holland
Search