Brumbies best team in Australia but get the second-fewest players in the Wallabies sq
Iain Payten,
The Daily Telegraph
July 26, 2017 8:25pm
AUSTRALIA’S upside-down rugby year has continued with the country’s top-ranked Super Rugby side, the Brumbies, contributing the second-fewest players to the Wallabies squad.
Following their quarter-final appearance against the Hurricanes last weekend, Brumbies players will join the rest of the wider training Wallabies squad in Newcastle on Thursday, but they will only need one maxi-taxi from the airport.
Just seven Brumbies players were named despite their Australian conference title: Scott Sio, Alan Alalaatoa, Sam Carter, Rory Arnold, Joe Powell, Tevita Kuridrani and Henry Speight.
That’s only one more player than the Melbourne Rebels, who won just one game all season and still had six players picked. The Waratahs had 10 selected, the Western Force got 11 players picked and the Queensland Reds originally had 12 players in the squad. That has since reduced to 10 due to injuries to Karmichael Hunt and Eto Nabuli.
The Brumbies’ Wallaby regulars returned to Australian camp but there was no recall for flanker Scott Fardy — who has been released to depart for Leinster — or squad call-ups for impressive young winger Tom Banks or flanker Chris Alcock, who was superb all season.
The Wallabies finish their training camp in Newcastle on Saturday and return to home cities next week to engage in local training programs. They will return to the Hunter Valley on August 6 to another pre-Bledisloe training camp, before setting up in Penrith for a week ahead of the opening Bledisloe game at ANZ Stadium on August 19.
http://www.perthnow.com.au/sport/rug...fd28ba52d7c55a
