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'It would be special': 33-year-old Wallabies lock narrows in on test debut

(Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

Cadeyrn Neville is that close to his elusive Wallabies debut he can practically taste it.

The 33-year-old, 202cm and 120kg behemoth, who spent more than a decade playing for three Super Rugby Pacific clubs, has also trekked over to Japan Rugby League One in search of a test debut.

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After a strong campaign with the Brumbies helping them to the semi-finals, the in-form Neville finally earned a call-up and is now firmly in the selection mix.

“It’s hard to sum up all the ways it would be special to me,” he told reporters.

“I’ve had a taste of it in various forms over the years but it’s good to just go through the season and be named in that squad and just come in sort of the orthodox way.

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      “I’d definitely relish it, I’m keeping focused on the work that I still need to do to get there.

      “I’m keen to rip in.”

      Neville is one of six uncapped players in the squad, joined by fellow Brumbies’ lock Nick Forst, NSW Waratahs duo David Porecki and Jed Holloway, Melbourne prop Pone Fa’amausili and Queensland speed machine Suliasi Vunivalu.

      Not only does he have the company of fellow Brumbies locks Darcy Swain and Nick Frost in his positional battle, he’s also got outgoing Brumbies coach and new Wallabies’ forwards mentor Dan McKellar in camp.

      “Structure-wise there’s a lot of similarity, so that’s an obviously big help for us,” he said.

      “You can come in and there’s a few things that’s just really the same thing with different names.

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      “Whenever you got to make a shift, the more you’re familiar with it already makes it a lot easier.”

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      The Wallabies will start getting into their work on Saturday with their first field training sessions, having headed into camp on the Sunshine Coast on Thursday ahead of next month’s three-test series against England.

      If selected, Perth’s first test on July 2 will bring Neville face-to-face with England superstar Maro Itoje, widely regarded as the best lock in rugby.

      Neville said getting the basics right and not worrying about individuals will hold the Wallabies’ forwards in good stead.

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      “I’m probably not thinking about the one-on-one battle too much, but rather distil it down into different points of contests,” he said.

      “Where we’re going to compete at the lineout on both sides of the ball, maul, scrum, breakdown, carry, tackle, all those sorts of things.

      “We’re in here 24-7 at the moment, we’ll be looking at all the ways we can come out on top in all those little contests.”

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      J
      JW 47 minutes ago
      'Matches between Les Bleus and the All Blacks are rarely for the faint-hearted.'

      Well a) poor French results doesn’t seem to effect the situation much. In fact one of the reasons given for this selection policy is that the French don’t tune in for foreign rugby content on the other side of the world, at a time when theyre not having their vino. So who would know the results? And b) this is the crux of the matter, they are legally abided to play them as part of WRs tier 1 reciprocal tours programme. The only real choice for the SH team is to treat it the same, which is fine when teams are happy to do that, but the AB’s have a totally anthesis policy/mentality so would never use the games in the same way.


      So alligned with b) the only real option is to complain to those in control. I suspect that’s why weve seen France reneging on the practice, and you can only be left to think that if they hadn’t reneged, WR would have done something more drastic about it. Which of course would mean not just telling them to bugger off when they want to tour, it’s no one playing them (from t1 at least) at all (assuming they have no interest in scheduling match’s outside the windows, like Ireland and NZ are doing).


      Then of course that means no involvement of France in the Nations Championship. Which means they are automatically the last ranked team in 6N to qualify, so the actual worst team in 6N gets to compete in it, making a mockery of the promotion and relegation WR wanted to happen between T1 and T2 for qualifying purposes. Yup, b) is just something nobody wants to happen. Well done FFR and LNR for making the tour work instead (how well is yet to be seen).

      112 Go to comments
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