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Why Marika Koroibete has been hailed as 'the premier winger in Australia'

Marika Koroibete. (Photo by Toru Hanai/Getty Images)

Melbourne Rebels coach Dave Wessels has lauded Marika Koroibete as “by quite some way” the best winger in Australia.

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Koroibete was the stand-out in his team’s 20-15 Super Rugby loss to the NSW Waratahs at AAMI Park on Friday night in what was a mostly frustrating, error-riddled performance by the Rebels.

Hungry for action, Koroibete wound up like a giant pinball as he charged down-field amongst his 131 run metres, with two line-breaks and two tackle busts boosting his hopes of World Cup selection.

He was unlucky not to score when he stopped just short of the line by a no-arms tackle from Waratah Curtis Rona, who was penalised but not yellow-carded for the illegal action.

And he also set up a second-half try for Will Genia when he picked the ball up from the back of the ruck and off-loaded to his halfback.

“He’s the quiet assassin,” Wessels said of the former NRL star, who has 18 Wallabies caps.

“I think his try-scoring, his ball carrying – all the obvious stuff everybody knows how good he is at those things – but we are really pleased about his efforts off the ball, his work rate off the ball, his work in contact.

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“He’s really developing into a world class winger for me – by quite some way he’s the premier winger in Australia at the moment.”

There were a few other Wallabies auditions at AAMI Park, with little splitting five-eighths Quade Cooper and Bernard Foley.

Rebels skipper Dane Haylett-Petty went up against Kurtley Beale for the vacant Test fullback jersey, with Israel Folau now out of the picture.

Beale decidedly got the points, with his Waratahs captain, and Test skipper Michael Hooper praising his running – with six tackle busts – and particularly his kicking game.

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“He likes the space and he also has a quality boot – I’d forgotten how good it was and the time he seems to have there,” Hooper said.

“Apart from one or two he put short the guy’s putting us out 45 metres back up with those sorts of exits.

“For a forward, not having to go straight into a a driving maul defence is nice.”

AAP

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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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