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Wallabies confirm overseas trio for England series

(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images for the ARU)

Wallabies coach Dave Rennie has confirmed Quade Cooper, Samu Kerevi and Marika Koroibete will be his international selections for next month’s home test series against England.

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Rennie will name his full 35-player squad on Sunday ahead of the first Test in Perth on July 2.

But he has reached out to the Japan-based trio under the re-worked Giteau Law which allows him three overseas-based players for any series.

“It’s probably not that secret anyway but we’ve got Quade, Samu and Marika all coming back,” Rennie said at the announcement that the Wallabies will face South Africa on September 3 at the redeveloped Sydney Football Stadium.

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Picking an All Blacks squad to take on Ireland.

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Picking an All Blacks squad to take on Ireland.

“Quade and Samu are here in Sydney just getting medical checks and Marika went straight to Fiji to spend some time with his family and he’ll be back on the weekend.”

Winger Koroibete turned in a dominant display and scored a try as his Japanese club side Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights won the League One title last week.

Centre Kerevi was a stand-out for Suntory Sungoliath, who lost in the final.

“Marika was phenomenal so he hasn’t lost any of his physicality or his work ethic so we’re excited to see him back,” Rennie said.

“Marika is one of the best wingers in the world – I’m not sure there’s another winger with his work ethic and repeatability. He’s just top gear all day so we’re looking forward to getting that back.

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“Samu only played a couple of tests but was nominated for (World Rugby) Player of the Year (in 2021) which only highlights the impact he had.”

 

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Five-eighth Cooper helped his team Hanazono Kintetsu Liners earn promotion to the top division while Rennie was impressed with the way he mentored young playmaker Noah Lolesio during last year’s Rugby Championship.

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“You look at Quade, he had a massive impact and a really calming influence, he was so impressive with the group,” he said

“I thought he was great with Noah and even when Noah was playing and Quade wasn’t, he’d sit down at the computer with him and talk through a lot of things and his contribution to meetings was great.”

Rennie said he could look beyond at other overseas-based players outside that trio following the England series, with test matches looming against Argentina, the All Blacks and Springboks in the Rugby Championship.

That included giant La Rochelle lock Will Skelton, who was called up for last year’s Spring tour.

“We brought him in last year and he fitted in well. We’re not looking at bringing him in for England series but maybe after that,” he said.

Meanwhile, first-choice prop Taniela Tupou is tracking well to play against England following a serious calf injury.

“He (Tupou) has dropped some size, working really hard. He’s in a really good place mentally, really fresh,” Rennie said.

“We were a bit anxious three weeks ago but we’re pretty confident we’ll get him there for the first test.”

– Melissa Woods

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Ian 889 days ago

Arnold & Skelton are playing in a much stronger completion in France, so I’m surprised they haven’t been included. Nothing against the Japanese competion, but teams would struggle against stronger European teams etc.

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JW 2 minutes ago
Scott Robertson explains the new halves pairing for the All Blacks ahead of France

More indecision and excuses from Razor.


You've given a spot at 6 to Finau whom you haven't even had the courage to use off the bench in the last two games. Now the young enforcer is going into a big much with no rugby, we should expect a similar result to how Aumua struggled to impact a game after he'd hardly been given any chances of the bench either.


Weve now dropped a back three player who also wasn't even given any game time off the bench for someone coming in cold when they really need to have been playing constantly to perform at their best. There are just so many better pictures that should have been present rather than this mickey mouse selection.


I really hope Finau can overcome this, it won't be the first time he's had to. How is the bench even made up? Could you not just have included these changes in the article as well? I actually like BB coming back in, it highlights how courageous he is after sitting out through another concussion that could just as easily sent him back into months of symptoms again.


Dmac was also off his game last week, as was Ratima, with the poor platform Razor and his team have been setting the players up with. He needs to freedom to clear his mind from the clutter that saw him make so many bad decisions last week. It will still probably be a net loss for the team performance not having him on from the start but it should be better for them in the long run if he's allowed to just come on late and play his game trying to claw things back for the team.


With Roigard starting that might prove an outlet for the team to actually get on top first however. Along with Ardie busting a gut in his new role and emptying the tank by halftime, and being replaced by another new star, might mean that Dmac is just icing on the cake at the end.

10 Go to comments
F
Flankly 28 minutes ago
Jake White: If I was England coach, I’d have been livid

I am not an England fan, but still very disappointed at what Borthwick is serving up. Regardless of winning or losing, they should be executing the basics at a world class level. That was the reason they replaced Eddie with Steve. After two years England has not built the solid foundations that the RFU were presumably after. Its hard to see it as anything other than a coaching problem.


Having said that I really hope that Rassie has got his team fired up for the game. The Boks at maximum intensity and with no crises (eg red cards) would be expected to win this game. But it does not take much reduction in pressure for Bok teams to lose. The Boks lose when complacency sets in.


On Felix Jones, my guess is that they can't agree on a non-compete so they kept him on payroll for the duration of the Nov tests. The risk was that he would be hired by Rassie or Razor prior to the tests.


As relates to law tweaking, it feels like WR are more comfortable discussing changes in laws than insisting on implementation. For my money the biggest thing they could do is to be strict and consistent in officiating ruck behavior. In every game we see flopping, lazy lying, clearing of unbound players, making plays while off your feet, delays in placing the ball, side entry, offside line infringements, and similar nonsense. It's really really bad, and the WR attitude seems to be that we should turn a blind eye in pursuit of "flowing rugby". In truth it's just boring, because it randomizes the outcome.

9 Go to comments
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NH 2 hours ago
Battle of the breakdown to determine Wallabies’ grand slam future

Nice one John. I agree that defence (along with backfield kick receipt/positioning) remains their biggest issue, but that I did see some small improvements in it despite the scoreline like the additional jackal attempts from guys like tupou and the better linespeed in tight. But, I still see two issues - 1) yes they are jackaling, but as you point out they aren't slowing the ball down. I think some dark arts around committing an extra tackler, choke tackles, or a slower roll away etc could help at times as at the moment its too easy for oppo teams to get quick ball (they miss L wright). Do you have average ruck speed? I feel like teams are pretty happy these days to cop a tackle behind the ad line if they still get quick ball... and 2) I still think the defence wide of the 3-4th forward man out looks leaky and disconnected and if sua'ali'i is going to stay at 13 I think we could see some real pressure through that channel from other teams. The wallabies discipline has improved and so they are giving away less 3 pt opportunities and kicks into their 22 via penalty. Now, they need to be able to force teams to turnover the ball and hold them out. They scramble quite well once a break is made, but they seem to need the break to happen first... Hunter, marika and daugunu were other handy players to put ruck pressure on. Under rennie, they used to counter ruck quite effectively to put pressure on at the b/down as well.

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