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Video - Giant Wallaby Will Skelton 'atomises' Gareth Steenson

Will Skelton

Saracens will enter their Champions Cup final against Leinster buoyed by a 38-7 drubbing of Gallagher Premiership title rivals Exeter at Allianz Park.

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Although the league’s top two teams rested the vast majority of their stars for a fixture that served as a likely dress rehearsal for the climax to the season at Twickenham on June 1, it was still an impressive win.

And the five-try try rout has offered hope that Saracens could yet finish top of the table at Exeter’s expense with one round remaining in what would be a morale-boosting victory only given both sides are already assured of home semi-finals.

European champions Leinster await in Newcastle on Saturday as Mark McCall’s men chase a double that was given renewed impetus in changeable weather conditions that included sunshine, hail, strong winds and driving rain.

The brute strength of 6’8, 135kg Wallaby Will Skeltion made for one of the game’s biggest talking points.

Skelton was the architect of Nick Tompkins try by using his giant frame to power through a dense wall of white shirts, surging forwards and bumping off Gareth Steenson before feeding Tompkins the scoring pass.

Steenson was giving away 48kg to the Australian and was sent sprawling in the opposite direction.

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The commentator summed it up aptly: “Poor old Gareth Steenson, being atomised by a giant Wallaby!”

PA

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AM 40 minutes ago
'Freelancer' Izaia Perese shows the need for true inclusivity in Australian rugby

That's Cron's job though. Australia has had one of the most penalised scrums in international rugby for a long time. Just look at the scrum win loss percentage and scrum penalties. That is your evidence. AA has been the starter during that period. Pretty simple analysis. That Australia has had a poor scrum for a long time is hardly news. If bell and thor are not on the field they are woeful. So you are just plain wrong. They have very little time for the lions so doing the same old things that dont work is not going to get them there.


Ainsley is better than our next best tighthead options and has been playing well at scrum time for Lyon in the most competitive comp in the world. Superstar player? No. But better than the next best options. So that is a good enough guide. The scrummaging in the Prem is pretty good too so there is Sio's proof. Same analysis for him. Certainly better in both cases than Super, where the brumbies had the worst win loss and scrum pen in Super. Who plays there? Ohh yes... And the level of scrummaging in Super is well below the URC, prem and France with the SA teams out.


Nongorr is truly woeful. He's 130kg and gets shoved about. That just should not be happening at that weight for a specialist prop who has always played rugby cf pone with leauge. He has had enough time to develop at 23. You'd be better off with Pone who is at least good around the field for the moment and sending Nongorr on exchange to France or England to see if they can improve him with better coaching as happened with Skelton and Meafou. He isn't going to develop in time in super if he has it at all.


Latu is a better scrummaging hooker than BPA and Nasser. and he's the best aussie player over the ball at ruck time. McReight's super jackling percentage hasnt converted to international level but latu consistently does it at heniken level, which is similar to test level in the big games. With good coaching at La Rochelle he's much improved though still has the odd shocker. He should start the November games.

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