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Wallaby handed rare start at No. 10 as Australia XV name side for Bristol

Hamish Stewart poses during an Australia Wallabies Portrait Session on June 26, 2024 in Gold Coast, Australia. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images for ARU)

Newly capped Wallaby Hamish Stewart will be put to the test on Friday evening after being handed a rare start at flyhalf. Coach Rod Seib has chosen Stewart to steer the Australia XV around the park as the team’s chief playmaker in a clash with Bristol Bears in England.

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Stewart debuted for Australia’s top side in a tense 20-19 win over Argentina during The Rugby Championship, with coach Joe Schmidt starting him at inside centre. The 26-year-old retained that role for the second Test against Los Pumas in Santa Fe the following weekend.

It’s not like that was a surprise with Hunter Paisami going down injured and Stewart showing immense promise during Super Rugby Pacific with the Western Force. The Queenslander started every appearance for the Force last season in the No. 12 jumper.

While it’s true that Stewart’s first Super Rugby start came with the Queensland Reds at flyhalf on April 28, 2018, against Johannesburg’s Lions, the playmaker has since been selected in the midfield more often than not.

 

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Since moving out west before the 2022 Super Rugby campaign, Stewart has only slotted in at first five-eighth in two of 43 starts for the Force. That’s what makes this selection for Australia XV so surprising, with Rod Seib naming him to partner Issak Fines-Leleiwasa in the halves.

The only other Western Force player in the First XV is Wallaby Darcy Swain, who has been bestowed the honour of captaining the representative side. Swain will pack down in the Australia XV’s second row along with Queensland Reds lock Angus Blyth.

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Including Stewart, Fines-Leleiwasa, Swain and Blyth, this side includes nine Wallabies in the matchday 23, and an Olympian as well.

Tom Lambert joins Brumbies duo Lachlan Lonergan and Rhys van Nek up front, with Blyth and Swain set to pack down behind them. Rounding out the forward pack is Tom Hooper at blindside, Rory Scott at openside, and Queensland’s John Bryant at No. 8.

Fines-Leleiwasa and Stewart will look to provide quality ball to Joey Walton and Josh Flook in the midfield. Olympian Corey Toole will start on the left wing with Lachlan Anderson on the right, and the talented Andy Muirhead has been named at fullback.

On the bench, there’s a heavy mix of Western Force and ACT Brumbies representatives including Tom Horton, Harry Hoopert, Ryan Lonergan and Ollie Sapsford.

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“The group has had a great week here in Bristol and have prepared well for what’s going to be a great experience at Ashton Gate on Friday night,” coach Seib said in a statement.

“There’s a mix of players, with some having international experience, while others have earned an opportunity in Australian colours for the first time with all of them very much looking forward to the challenge.”

This match won’t be broadcast.

Australia XV to take on Bristol Bears

  1. Tom Lambert (NSW Waratahs)
  2. Lachlan Lonergan (ACT Brumbies)
  3. Rhys van Nek (ACT Brumbies)
  4. Angus Blyth (Queensland Reds)
  5. Darcy Swain (c) (Western Force)
  6. Tom Hooper (ACT Brumbies)
  7. Rory Scott (ACT Brumbies)
  8. John Bryant (Queensland Reds)
  9. Issak Fines-Leleiwasa (Western Force)
  10. Hamish Stewart (Western Force)
  11. Corey Toole (ACT Brumbies)
  12. Joey Walton (NSW Waratahs)
  13. Josh Flook (vc) (Queensland Reds)
  14. Lachlan Anderson (Queensland Reds)
  15. Andy Muirhead (ACT Brumbies)

Replacements

  1. Tom Horton (Western Force)
  2. Harry Hoopert (Western Force)

18 Tiaan Tauakipulu (Western Force)

  1. Ryan Smith (Queensland Reds)
  2. Luke Reimer (ACT Brumbies)
  3. Ryan Lonergan (ACT Brumbies)
  4. Ollie Sapsford (ACT Brumbies)
  5. Jock Campbell (Queensland Reds)

Australia XV Tour 2024

Australia XV v Bristol Bears, 7:45 pm GMT, Friday, November 8, Ashton Gate, Bristol

Australia XV v England A, 2:00 pm GMT, Sunday November 17, Twickenham Stoop, London

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1 Comment
O
OJohn 13 days ago

This is where Stewart should have been playing all along. But watch hoe cunningly the Tahs and kiwi coach Schmidt work. If he's not amazing in his first game he will be dumped immediately and a Tah player brought in. We have seen this over and over in Australian rugby

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JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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