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Kurtley Beale's top five fly-halves

Kurtley Beale /PA

Racing 92 fullback Kurtley Beale has urged British and Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland to pick teammate Finn Russell at flyhalf against South Africa, after ranking the Scot in the top five No10s he has played with.

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The Australian joined Christina Mahon, Ryan Wilson and another Racing teammate Simon Zebo on RugbyPass Offload this week, and was asked where Russell ranks among the flyhalves he has played with.

In a career that has seen the 32-year-old play in Australia, England and France, as well as for the Wallabies, he has played with some of the most stylish and creative flyhalves this century, and included Russell in his top five.

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Kurtley Beale guests on The Offload:

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Kurtley Beale guests on The Offload:

“I’ve been very lucky to have played with a lot of great flyhalves,” the 92-cap Wallaby said. “I’ll rank the top five. Matt Giteau, Quade Cooper, Bernard Foley, Danny Cipriani and I’d throw in Finn there as well.

“I think if you look at those, Quade and Finn are quite similar players. Creative, X-factor, great vision, just awesome skills. So I think Finny-boy would be up there with one of the most exciting players I’ve ever played with. That’s for sure.”

Beale was then asked whether Russell should start at No10 for the Lions against the Springboks later this year. Gatland will announce his squad in three weeks and Russell faces stiff competition from Owen Farrell, Johnny Sexton and Dan Biggar.

“I’d throw him in there, absolutely,” Beale said. “Because you could go with Farrell or Sexton, which is great, but you know what you’re going to get out of those guys. It could be safe houses, for sure, but you put Finn behind a big forward pack going forward and it’s happy days for Finny boy. And with the backs outside him, Finn would just have a field day. He’s done everything he can to put himself in the best position to get selected there and we’ll wait and see.”

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G
GrahamVF 1 hour ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

"has SA actually EVER helped to develop another union to maturity like NZ has with Japan," yes - Argentina. You obviously don't know the history of Argentinian rugby. SA were touring there on long development tours in the 1950's

We continued the Junior Bok tours to the Argentine through to the early 70's

My coach at Grey High was Giepie Wentzel who toured Argentine as a fly half. He told me about how every Argentinian rugby club has pictures of Van Heerden and Danie Craven on prominent display. Yes we have developed a nation far more than NZ has done for Japan. And BTW Sa players were playing and coaching in Japan long before the Kiwis arrived. Fourie du Preez and many others were playing there 15 years ago.


"Isaac Van Heerden's reputation as an innovative coach had spread to Argentina, and he was invited to Buenos Aires to help the Pumas prepare for their first visit to South Africa in 1965.[1][2] Despite Argentina faring badly in this tour,[2] it was the start of a long and happy relationship between Van Heerden and the Pumas. Izak van Heerden took leave from his teaching post in Durban, relocated to Argentina, learnt fluent Spanish, and would revolutionise Argentine play in the late 1960s, laying the way open for great players such as Hugo Porta.[1][2] Van Heerden virtually invented the "tight loose" form of play, an area in which the Argentines would come to excel, and which would become a hallmark of their playing style. The Pumas repaid the initial debt, by beating the Junior Springboks at Ellis Park, and emerged as one of the better modern rugby nations, thanks largely to the talents of this Durban schoolmaster.[1]"


After the promise made by Junior Springbok manager JF Louw at the end of a 12-game tour to Argentina in 1959 – ‘I will do everything to ensure we invite you to tour our country’ – there were concerns about the strength of Argentinian rugby. South African Rugby Board president Danie Craven sent coach Izak van Heerden to help the Pumas prepare and they repaid the favour by beating the Junior Springboks at Ellis Park.

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