Qantas Wallabies named for historic Barbarians fixture

[travelling_gerry]

You misunderstand… its more professional for them to be in their Wallabies attire when on all Wallabies duties…. that includes training...

But for the past few years they’ve often been in their provincial training kits...

No they haven't. Like when?

One of the first things that happens when they assemble for camp and before any training is uniform issue.

[mudskipper]

as you seem to know all skip...will giteau be named in the test series programmes as a brumbies player or ewf?......me thinks it'll be the force......

To be honest... I'm just having a little fun with you guys... once the season starts they really just refer to them as Wallabies... but I think Gits likely feels he has meet his Force commitments and wants to look to the future... The Brumbies PR gig last week was set up to establish exacting that in the minds of the public… Journos will likely refer to him as " star playmaker going to the Brumbies" instead of "the Force’s flyhalf".... That’s just their way...

[Sheikh]

Yep, like it or not Giteau's now a Brumbie, the same way Sheehan and Fairbrother are now Force players.

People who know about rugby will know that Giteau was called up because of his form for us.

[travelling_gerry]

The thing is that its not TWF, EWF or some journo putting the team names next to the Wallabies.

Its the ARU.

[mudskipper]

No they haven't. Like when?

One of the first things that happens when they assemble for camp and before any training is uniform issue.

Gerry…. This may help….

Do you recognise these guys and their provincial strips training at a Wallabies training season, on the 22 May 2007 at Victoria Barracks in Paddington Sydney.... ? Well you'd be right, its Shep, Sharpe and Gits...

Yes you're clearly mistaken...

[travelling_gerry]

Actually that wasn't a Wallaby's training session.

It was when John Connolly named a squad of 60 prior to the RWC and almost every man and his dog were called to Sydney for fitness tests to name a Wallaby Squad.

Later there was a Wallaby squad announced and an Australia A squad announced.

There was a problem that year also with gear as it was the new Canterbury "man boob" design and true to Canterbury form the gear was late.

Connolly also used the late gear problem to fire up the training sessions by having the players wear their provincial gear to instill rivalry for positions.

(and it didn't take me 6 hours to google/bing it)


So while it happened once under rare circumstances its not an "Often" as you claim.

PS. Have you worked out why Rocky Elsom wasn't at the Wallaby training session at Leichardt Oval yesterday yet? Or are you still googling that to try prove me wrong.

[palitu]

ooo! is bing already a common word?

[travelling_gerry]

It is now

[KenyaQuin]

In looking at the team again (and looking for some way to bring this back to topic), I wonder whether the Giteau/Barnes combination will be as effective as the Giteau/O'Connor combination.

What we've seen this season is that what makes Giteau that more dangerous is having an inside centre super quick off the mark and who times his runs into the ball. While Barnes is a sublime player, I'm not yet convinced his combination with Giteau would be as lethal as a Giteau/O'Connor combination. I could be wrong, but will be something I'll watch out for this weekend.

On a related note, I think O'Connor's best position (if I were a coach) is at inside centre. Sure, he possibly would be good at fullback, maybe even great, but I believe Australia needs him at inside centre more than fullback. Having said that, would love to see him at fullback this weekend if only to disprove my theory.

I like Barnes but haven't seen much of the Reds this year enough to rate him..again, good opportunity this weekend to suss him out.

Surely Valo's second half season warranted a starting position, Burgess was pretty average.

As a result of comments above my starting backline against the Baabaas (purely from an entertainment point of view) would have been -

9. Valo
10. Gits
11. whoever
12. O'Connor
13. Cross
14. whatever
15. AAC

[WF2006]

whoever and whatever should be Shepherd and Cummins

[jargan83]

On a related note, I think O'Connor's best position (if I were a coach) is at inside centre. Sure, he possibly would be good at fullback, maybe even great, but I believe Australia needs him at inside centre more than fullback. Having said that, would love to see him at fullback this weekend if only to disprove my theory.

Given that O'Connor is starting from the bench hardly an arguement at the moment, He may well be used at 12 when he comes on.

Barnes did pretty well this season, deserves his place at 12

[mudskipper]

O'Connors a reserve back he will play where he is needed, Wing, 12 or Fullback...

I hope he get a run at 15 in the second half receiving plenty of nice balls from Giteau, which inspires him to sign with the Brumbies next week...

Oooppsss… I'd I say that out loud....