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'Certainly good enough': Wallabies assistant adamant team can win RWC

(Photo by Timothy Rogers/Getty Images)

The Wallabies have vowed to wield the axe on serial penalty offenders in a bid to defy the doomsayers by winning next year’s Rugby World Cup in France.

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Former World Cup captain Stirling Mortlock unleashed on the side after Saturday’s shock 28-27 loss to Italy, labelling the performance a “train wreck”.

Mortlock claimed the Wallabies were “no chance” of winning the 2023 World Cup, and demanded the coaches fix “systemic” discipline issues once and for all.

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But while acknowledging the discipline issues, Wallabies assistant Dan McKellar is adamant Australia remain capable of laying their hands on the Webb Ellis Cup for a third time.

“What you’ll find is the 33 (players) that go to the World Cup next year are certainly good enough to win that trophy,” McKellar said.

But with Australia being the most penalised tier-one team in international rugby, McKellar concedes ill-discipline is a problem that the coaching staff are still trying to fix.

When asked about what the consequences will be for repeat offenders, McKellar had a simple answer.

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“Selection,” he said.

“There’s players who we have conversations with who we feel are repeat offenders, and there’s conversations in the background with the coaches, and obviously selection has an impact around that as well.

Rugby is a complex game. You’re going to give penalties away. But it’s the silly penalties that you can easily avoid that are hurting us at critical moments.

“There were a number of offside penalties there (against Italy) and some effort areas where we’ve got to be better.”

McKellar said his team were taking “100 per cent ownership” of its discipline issues rather than heaping any of the blame on to referees.

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“It’s on us. And as coaches and players, we’ve got to fix it,” he said.

“The fix is within the room. We can’t be pointing the finger and blaming the officials.”

The Wallabies’ task will get a whole lot harder this weekend when they take on world No.1 Ireland in Dublin.

McKellar insists the coaching group remain united despite overseeing heartbreaking one-point losses to France and Italy over the past fortnight.

“One thing with Dave Rennie is you won’t come across a more composed individual,” McKellar said.

“The reality is we’re under a little bit of stress at the moment, and you need a leader who will keep the group tight.

“We’re as tight as we ever have been.”

Rennie made 12 changes ahead of the loss to the Azzurri as part of a rotation policy, and it’s expected there will be more mass changes this week as the Wallabies welcome back a host of first-choice players.

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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson names his 35-man All Blacks squad for France series

As always with Razor slightly unorthodox with a few surprises. Last year Blackadder was rushed back into the starting 15 after a long injury lay off and no game time, this year on the back of a good body of work in which he was immense in the final he doesn’t even make the squad. But Finau, who possibly wouldn’t have even been starting for the Chiefs if Parker was fit is the only specialist 6 in the squad. Likewise Havili, great season and a great final, much better than last year by all measures but doesn’t make the cut.


6 mid fielders when 4 will do, but only 5 loosies when 7 would be useful -> Maybe Lakai and Parker come in? No 3rd choice at 10 meaning if one of BB or DMac sustain a mid to long term injury there is no one they are specifically trusting to come into the team and be able to close out matches - maybe they think Love is the 3rd best 10 in NZ?


Great to see Tavatavanawai straight in on the back of a huge season - he should 100% be in the 23. There have been players before like Stevenson or Sotutu who had the season of the their lives and didn’t get picked, so this is great and a little surprising to see.


Only 4 locks and no lock cover among the loosies named. This seems like an area we need to be developing more players rather than concentrating the talent pool down further. Maybe when Darry is fit he finds his way back in, but it would be good to see Lord or whoever the 6th best lock is around the squad too.


One thing I continue to find strange about ABs selection going back many years is that they are obsessed with backs being able to cover multiple positions, but they don’t take advantage of this in any way. The fact that we have 3 players who can play 12, and 3 that can play 13, doesn’t stop them from selecting ALB to cover 12 and 13 giving them 4 options at each position - what is the point of this? Likewise Love, I really like him, especially at 10, But they have Jordan, BB, Dmac who all play 15 at test level, as well as JB who is world class at 15 to cover, so why take up another spot in the squad with yet another 15? Why do we need four options for every position in the backs except 10, which is arguably the most important one where we have not been able to develop a new test player for 8 or 9 years.


And unless there is a big change this year they also don’t use all these utility backs to enable a 6-2 bench split, and will instead pick a specialist winger on the bench to come on and play the last 10 minutes.

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