Northern Edition

Select Edition

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

Wallabies hooker to make return against Japan Wolfpack

Wallabies hooker Jordan Uelese

Wallabies hooker Jordan Uelese will take a step closer to a return to Super Rugby action when he lines up for the Rebels’ second team against Japan’s Wolfpack.

ADVERTISEMENT

The AAMI Park match is a curtain-raiser to Melbourne’s Super Rugby match against the Bulls on Friday night and is Uelese’s first game back on home turf since his knee reconstruction almost a year ago.

Uelese, who suffered the injury on the eve of the Ireland Test series, returned in Sydney club rugby last weekend for Gordon where he played 60 minutes.

“It took the first 10-20 minutes to get a feel for the game and catch my breath but it was great to get out there again,” said Uelese, who has two Test caps.

“The knee is fine, I definitely came out of the game unscathed … just normal body soreness given I hadn’t played a long time.”

The 22-year-old said he’d shed seven kilograms while on the sidelines while he’d also worked hard on improving his lineout throwing which he’d identifie d as a weakness.

Uelese will have a familiar face by his side in the Rising front row in 18-year-old brother Junior – with the match the first time the pair have ever played together.

ADVERTISEMENT

Uelese said that his little brother was anything but – weighing in at 130kg.

Melbourne bred Junior, whose actual name is Oveleni, went to boarding school for his senior years in Wellington, New Zealand, but has pledged his allegiance to Australia and has been training as a development player with the Rebels.

“When you are a Pacific Islander player and you are called Junior you know he is the complete opposite,” Uelese said.

“He is a big 130kg-plus prop and I have never played with him in my life.

“It will be exciting to pack down with him. He is a tight-head prop and I am a hooker, so it will be pretty special for me and my family.”

The Wolfpack are made up of players from Japan’s extended World Cup training squad and showed their talent with a 66-17 win over the Brumbies Runners last Sunday.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Rising will be comprised of current Rebels not playing Super Rugby on Friday and Victorian club players.

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

F
Flankly 0 minute ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 9 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
N
Nickers 38 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING Rugby fugitive Rocky Elsom in hiding after fleeing Ireland Rugby fugitive Rocky Elsom in hiding after fleeing Ireland
Search