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Axed 12 months ago, Harry Wilson makes Wallabies admission

Harry Wilson of the Wallabies (Photo by Matt Roberts/Getty Images)

Harry Wilson is determined to hold his ground after sealing his whirlwind international revival with a last-gasp win on his Wallabies captaincy debut in Argentina.

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The Queensland Reds favourite was tremendous at No.8 in La Plata on Sunday morning (AEST), denting the line and making a desperate tackle to thwart a try in their after-the-siren 20-19 defeat of Los Pumas.

A year earlier Wilson, who fell out of Wallabies favour after a breakout 2020 Test campaign, was best on ground for club side Brothers in their Brisbane grand final.

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Siya Kolisi says the win was written in the stars

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Siya Kolisi says the win was written in the stars

Not part of Eddie Jones’ World Cup plans, Wilson then enjoyed a European tour with the Barbarians and dominated for the Reds under new coach Les Kiss.

A broken arm cut his Super Rugby season short but, once fit, new Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt brought him straight back to face South Africa and then anointed him as the fourth captain in his six Tests in charge.

Fixture
Rugby Championship
Argentina
19 - 20
Full-time
Australia
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“It feels amazing, pretty special to be sitting here right now,” Wilson said.

The loose forward relished the unlikely premiership a year ago, alongside brother Will who was gunning for back-to-back titles in a stacked Brothers side just hours later at Ballymore on Sunday.

In a canny coincidence centre Hamish Stewart, who made his Wallabies debut on Sunday, was also part of that Brothers side last year.

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“This time last year having the coolest time of my life paying with Brothers and winning that premiership, but to be sitting here after a Wallabies win,” Wilson reflected.

“It’s a pinch yourself moment … I worked hard to get back here and I want to keep building and this is where I want to stay.”

Schmidt had been pleased by Wilson’s lead-by-example approach, demonstrated when his late tackle attempt on opposite number Juan Martin Gonzalez spoiled what looked a certain, match-winning try.

In wet conditions his trademark expansive play had to be shelves, he and his fellow forwards able to play in tight and slowly wear down the hosts.

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The teams will play each other again next weekend but the coach hinted his men might toast their Sunday triumph, Wilson no doubt keeping one eye on proceedings at Ballymore.

“I don’t know what they’ll be doing but I’ll be having a wine, might even have a couple of beers tonight,” Schmidt said.

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J
JW 5 hours ago
'Let's not sugarcoat it': Former All Black's urgent call to protect eligibility rules

Yep, no one knows what will happen. Thing is I think (this is me arguing a point here not a random debate with this one) they're better off trialing it now in a controlled environment than waiting to open it up in a knee jerk style reaction to a crumbling organtization and team. They can always stop it again.


The principle idea is that why would players leave just because the door is ajar?


BBBR decides to go but is not good enough to retain the jersey after doing it. NZ no longer need to do what I suggest by paying him to get back upto speed. That is solely a concept of a body that needs to do what I call pick and stick wth players. NZR can't hold onto everyone so they have to choose their BBBRs and if that player comes back from a sabbatical under par it's a priority to get him upto speed as fast as possible because half of his competition has been let go overseas because they can't hold onto them all. Changing eligibility removes that dilemma, if a BBBR isn't playing well you can be assured that someone else is (well the idea is that you can be more assured than if you only selected from domestic players).


So if someone decides they want to go overseas, they better do it with an org than is going to help improve them, otherwise theyre still basically as ineligible as if they would have been scorning a NZ Super side that would have given them the best chance to be an All Black.

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