Ahead of this afternoons Bledisloe Cup at Accor Stadium Jules is joined by Christy Doran the Rugby editor for The Roar.
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1170 SEN Sydney
The Roar Rugby Union Editor Christy Doran - 21/9/24
Ryan Reynolds here for, I guess, my hundredth mint commercial. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Honestly, when I started this, I thought I'd only have to do like four of these. I mean, it's unlimited to premium wireless for $15 a month. How are there still people paying two or three times that much? I'm sorry, I shouldn't be victim blaming here. Give it a try at midmobile.com/save, whenever you're ready. $45 up from payment equivalent to $15 per month, new customers on first three month plan only, taxes and fees extra, speeds lower above 40 gigabytes by the city tales. Well, compared to years gone past this fixture, it's probably flat under the radar. A sum audit kicks off at 3.45 p.m. a core study in the first, Bledger's low cup fixture of the rugby championships, the Wallabies and the All Blacks. There is nothing quite like daytime. 40 both teams with a four and three start to the season, the All Blacks off back-to-back losses to the World Champion's spring box. The Wallabies licking their wounds after copping a hiding at the hands of Argentina coach Joe Schmidt has rung a few changes as he takes on his old team. And it is a milestone test as well for James Slipper, who today will become our most capped ever Wallaby. Christy Doran is the rugby editor at the Raw. He's on the line right now to set it all up for us. G'day, Christy. Hi, how are you good to join you, Joel? Thanks for sparing some of your time before kickoff, just as, well, if you wouldn't mind setting the scene for us, so how's the crowd building out there at a core study? Mate, I walked through about an hour ago and tried to beat the traffic nice and early, but there were thousands out there. It kind of brought me back to Paris last year to start the France, and there's a truckload of people, perfect conditions. There's a fair bit of gold. I was talking to a couple of people, Darren Coleman, the former worker, Coach Ron is the him. He got given a gold shirt, so lots of guys and girls and boys have been given lots of gold, which is nice, because often on a wintry kind of evening, generally speaking, the rugby championship, you can kind of get confused by thinking he's the game in the New Zealand, given how Blackhead often looks, but it's a picture perfect afternoon that the Wallom is in training in front of me, the All Blacks at the moment, just about to do some drills with the set pace, so it's perfect here, and hopefully it's not too loud here, being in the press box. No, no, it sounds good. Like I said, it's Atmos, and we love Atmos. Now, you wrote, interestingly, on the Raw, that obviously it's a mismatch on paper. It's very much a case of, I don't know, is it a case of throw the All Blacks form out the window? My fear here in this game, Chris, is that, you know, four and three back-to-back losses to New Zealand, maybe it's just taken some of the luster off these side-to-it-agrees that they just want to come out and make a statement today against the struggling Wallom side and restore their reputation. Well, that's my fear as well, and I think that's probably the fear of, I think there's going to be about 70,000 or more gear this afternoon, that's probably the fear of the vast majority, so you can underestimate this side, and the All Blacks are in the World Cup final last year. They've lost by a loan point. They go to South Africa, they lose it by four points, and then six points. So, you know, the box come in Australia, in Australia, and then the All Blacks nearly beat the back-to-back World Champions on their own soil. So, despite the fact it's a bit of a changing of the guard, there's four or five household days that are no longer with these All Blacks team, and it's still formidable. The Wallom is, you know, there's lots, a couple of secret lessons, and that's Joe Schmidt, the New Zealand coach who was with the All Blacks set up last year, Mike Crohn's 200 odd tests that he was with the All Blacks working with their set-peeds. So, there's anyone that can mark his mind and orchestrate an upset victory, those two, and I know that speaking to those around to all of these camps, they're definitely, you know, they, off the back of being embarrassed, they don't want history to repeat itself, and I think it'll be an entertaining game. There should be plenty of points in this one. Yeah, I spoke to Tom Wright during the week, and he said there's nothing quite like daytime footy, and certainly the whole crew are really looking forward to it, and given these conditions to 24, sunny in Sydney today, I think I'm expecting an up-tempo game. The breakdown battle I think is going to be so important, isn't it? Fraser McBride, a big fan, he's back in the side, a huge blast, in my opinion. Well, like Carla Tezano's a mission was a bit of a surprise, mind you, I mean, you know, they're coming up against arguably the best in the business scenario, so via. Oh, exactly, and Sam Kane as well, the former worldwide captain, who uses his songs on mute before he heads up to Japan, would say what he's been doing over the last couple of weeks in South Africa, so he's definitely not past it. Look, Fraser's got it, you know, this is a real test for him, because your right colour, Tezano, had really made a good taste of it from his first couple of opportunities. I think that Fraser will help the running element of the game. He's a great lean player, combines really well with the new captain, Harry Wilson, also another great combination we take with German, so that's probably part of the idea by having no string in there. The other element and some breaking news is that Bowdoin Barrett is going to miss the test, he's been ruled out, so that's seen Will Jordan move from the wing to fill that set of arrays, who's just a try scoring machine, comes on to the wing, and Harry Plummer, the former board of the Blues, a teammate, has come on to the bench, so I don't think that'll massively change. This is all black side, because they are the reigning world player of the year. They've got quality stuff out right from one to 15 and jeed on the bench, so the thing that the world has to do is stay with them, and if they can keep the score pretty close to one score margin midway through the second half, your legs haven't actually scored a point in the last 20 minutes for their last three matches, so you will imagine that without the leadership of White Lock and guys like Dame Cole, who Aaron Smith who departed last year, that there might be a few people including in the coaching box with Scott Robertson, start just to worry, and then those errors can start to creep into your game. Josh Smith's continued the changes in the back, so Hunter Pissamie returning to the side. The big change of course in the house, Nick White and Noel Alyssia taking over at half back and fly half respectively, respectively replacing Jake Gordon and Ben Donaldson, both of them admitted from the match day 23, just give us an explanation in and around those selections. I think it's a combination experience, Noel Alyssia has now played about 24 to 10, he made his day due actually, and his corresponding fixture four years ago, it wasn't a happy night when it was wet and miserable and they're all back with Richard Moana, he ran in a lot of points, but Alyssia had missed the last test with injury, he comes straight back in, and he's got a good partnership with Nick White as seen formed over a few years with the brand new before White went to a support this season, so the other thing about Nick White is he depends very quickly, Josh Smith would have analysed him when he was at the All Blacks, and they all acknowledge that Nick White got under the skin of a lot of All Black players, so that partly explains why he's coming into Jake Gordon, tough omission there, and Hunter Pissamie adds a lot of content to the midfield, another red, so he's got that combination with Guy by Taylor Wright Wilson, take the journey, so he comes back from injury having a collapsed couple of tests because of an NCO injury, but it's a stronger looking team, it's just when I don't know, a stronger looking Australian team can remotely stay with the considerable All Blacks on. Well that's a think so, and yeah if you just mentioned too, so Tom Wright returning from an ankle injury to start at full bag, Andrew Kellaway on the wing, instead of Max Jorgensen, America Coribeda, keeps his spot on the left wing wearing jersey number 11, Joe Schmidt he's placed his faith in local talent as any Christie rather than go overseas, I mean another freshing here, do they reassess how they select or who they select? I think they'll have to, there's six tests now before the British and Irish lines arrive, and the third test of that series next year will be paid here as well. He has totally backed those that will be playing Super AB next year, so guys like Isaac Rodar or Ned Harning and Locky Swinton, Jordan Walisi, and those that will paint Super AB this year, he's decided no, you're not around next year, I'm going to farewell you, and you compare that to Scott Robertson, even though guys like TJ Karanar and Stan Kane won't be around next year, he's decided that the leadership and the experience is vital to start a new tenure under Scott Fraser Robertson, I like that approach, I don't know Joe Schmidt's got the right approach at the moment, but he's a guy that's come from systems where continuity is absolutely important in islands and New Zealand, so he's not a hope that this side can make steady improvements and in 10 months time they'll be right to play the lines, but why it's a big ask, it's a big uphill battle off the back of the 40 point clubbing only two weeks ago in Argentina. Yeah I think we're just waiting for that 80 minute discipline performance aren't what you said Rob Valentini would probably be the only wallaby that would make a hybrid side, it's an indication of how much Australia are up against it, a quick one before we let you go, what is a past mark here, a gallant loss, would that be acceptable? Obviously ideally a win, but given the context and the circumstances, if you took them to 80 minutes and came within a whisk or would that be acceptable? Well Shane, I mean he's made a habit of every time they've had an opportunity to get restore the faith, they've blown it, whether or not it be off the back of the 25th day World Cup final, they lose the next five texts predominantly in Australia, the opening of the Sydney Football Stadium, the reopening of it, they paid one of their worst tests under Dave Reynolds, he got smoked by the spring box, obviously with Eddie Jones last year they lost against Argentina right at the death, this is a moment where even if you don't win, if the fans go home thinking you know what, they played well, they gave it a good crack, their handling was good, their set piece didn't collapse, you know what I might turn up next year, and that's the really important thing right now for this wallaby side, they might not win, but they've got to see some stability in this side and we're just going to see some steady improvement, Hanyella Super Angostell, they're the key, if the wallaby can match them up front and the set piece in their ball running, it'll allow Valentini and McBride to come into the game, so those two props have to play much more than the 40 minutes and 35 minutes that they did in Santa Fe, they need to play close to the 50 minutes and have the wallabies about level peeping. Just a very quick word and James Slipper, Christi, I mean I don't think many people would have tipped him to come Australia's most kept wallaby, but a wonderful reward for his endurance. Yeah exactly, anyone who's playing 140 tests in the front row, I wouldn't be anywhere nearer to not many would, and indeed he's the first to do, a George Regan gear, a lot of his former teammates, those that have put on the gold jersey, flew in for this game, really popular figure, understated, doesn't love the limelight, he's almost old school that's sold in the earth, which I think really resonates, not just teammates but with Australians, so hopefully he can make a good fit to the in the second half when he comes on, but where 140 tests, we should be celebrating this man and hopefully from an shame, but they give a couple of beers at the end of it and some smiles as well. Okay, kick off just over 10 minutes away, get a tip from me please Christi, before we let you go and enjoy the festivities. I hate to say it, I think yours will actually be two good 43 to 12, but look, if they can come with an incentive standpoint, so I think that's a reasonable effort, but they need to be competitive, and they have fingers crossed, but the crowd is building and the silence are going to be finishing their wound up in the next 12 minutes. Hopefully we got a great spectacle, thank you for giving up some of your time this Saturday afternoon, enjoy the match Christi, we'll catch all your great work on the Raw. Thanks a lot.