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Watch: ‘Wallaby in the making’ steals the show vs Fijian Drua

(Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)

Winger Ben O’Donnell stole the show during a thrilling first half between the Brumbies and Fijian Drua in Canberra, and is even being talked about as a “Wallaby in the making.”

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Heading into this round eight clash, the Brumbies would’ve been considered the heavy favourites – and they played like it early on.

The Brumbies shot out of the blocks at a rapid speed, and it was former Australian sevens ace Ben O’Donnell who led the way.

After getting the ball inside the Drua’s 22 early on, the Brumbies’ backs spread the ball wide right. Fullback Tom Wright drew in a couple of defenders before the offloading the ball to his flying winger.

O’Donnell had a bit of work to do – but really, he made it look easy – as the 27-year-old ran in for the opener in just the fourth minute.

The winger nearly had a second a few minutes later too, only for the try to be ruled out by the TMO for a forward pass.

But the winger going wasn’t going to be denied a second time.

Sometimes athletes need a bit of luck to go their way, and O’Donnell had it in spades as he crossed for his brace inside the opening 15 minutes.

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Centre Len Ikitau put a clever left-foot grubber kick in-behind the Drua defence, and the flying winger managed to get a toe to the ball as he chased after it.

But the ball went straight into Drua halfback Peni Matawalu – only for it to bounce right back to O’Donnell, who ended up crossing in the left corner.

After just 13 minutes, O’Donnell had a double, and almost had a hat-trick to his name as well. The speedster had shown plenty of skill and poise with both of his efforts.

O’Donnell made his Super Rugby Pacific debut earlier this season, having become Brumby No. 250, and certainly hasn’t looked out of place during his breakdown campaign so far.

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isaac 571 days ago

He was good getting those meat pies....but he thing with aussies OS...one good game and you're Wallaby material...relax...let the man breathe...if he gets another three hatricks this season that yes...if no...relax ...let him bide his time

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Flankly 2 hours 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?

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