EXCLUSIVE: Will Skelton will not be going to the Rugby World Cup
Wallaby lock Will Skelton has ended speculation about his future by signing a new two-year deal with Saracens that rules him out of the World Cup in Japan unless Australian rugby chiefs relax their current stance.
Skelton joined Saracens in April 2017, on a two-year contract with the lock having previously played for the club on a short term deal before heading back to the Waratahs in Sydney for the Super Rugby season.
The 6ft 8in lock made a positive impression on everyone at the club, although they realised he needed to lose weight. Since his return, Skelton has transformed his shape, shedding two stone and becoming a major force for the defending Premiership champions who face Glasgow Warriors in a Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final at Allianz Park today.
RugbyPass understands the new contract has already been signed, with Skelton satisfying the club’s demands that if he stayed, international duty was out of the question as he is needed to fill the second row gaps created by England call-ups for Maro Itoje, George Kruis and Nick Isiekwe.
The 26-year-old has won 18 Test caps for the Wallabies and acknowledged when he arrived in 2017 that his test career was on hold saying; “One day I’d love to play for Australia again and if that opportunity comes up I will give everything I’ve got for my country.”
Having made his decision to stay, Skelton is unavailable for the World Cup as the Australian Rugby Union will only pick overseas players if they have 60 caps. However, former Wallaby captain James Horwill wants Australian rugby chiefs to use “creative thinking” to get the giant Saracens lock to Japan. The Gallagher Premiership season will not start until October 20 because of the World Cup which means Saracens could agree to release him for test duty if the ARU change their rules.
Horwill got first-hand experience of how well 6ft 8ins Skelton is playing as his fellow countryman grabbed two tries in a Man-of-the-Match performance in the win over Harlequins at the London Stadium. With the Wallabies currently struggling for form and head coach Michael Cheika under fire, bringing back Australia’s biggest forward could be a timely boost ahead of the World Cup.
Horwill, who has a European Challenge Cup last eight clash with Worcester, wants that to happen and said: “The ARU need to look at a few new options and you would like to see Will at the World Cup because he is playing so well and deserves to be involved. Each individual case is different and careers are getting shorter with guys retiring due to injury so you are probably seeing a thought process which is ‘I don’t want to miss out on an opportunity to make a lot of money because it is a finite career’ and so some guys will see it as a way of setting themselves up financially for the rest of their life.
“You cannot criticise players for thinking that way and so you do need to have some more creative thinking around Australia contracting and retaining players. In New Zealand they having more playing depth and are able to deal with it a lot better because each season there are players coming through who you have never heard of before. Suddenly those guys are tearing it up in Super Rugby and so New Zealand have more of a luxury while we in Australia are competing with other sports like AFL and rugby league. Therefore you have to be more creative in rugby union.
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“Will’s conditioning has always been questioned and he was always a big lump who could do a lot of things when he first came onto the scene. He is still tipping the scales at around 135-140 kgs and that says something about how big he was and Saracens have been able to get the best out of him. He doesn’t have to exude too much energy elsewhere on the park and they use his strengths and we saw on Saturday what he can do when he consistently performs.
“He is playing a lot of rugby for Saracens in all competitions and has been a key part of their success.
“Four years ago the ARU created a bit of leeway with the Giteau Rule for the last World Cup to allow players to be included and you want to play your best players at the tournament because it means so much. It is tough for Australia because they want to show loyalty to the guys at home and don’t want to open the floodgates because the financial restrictions the ARU have are quite well publicised. They are struggling with the financial offers over here in Europe.”
In other news: Premiership club after Cheika
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments