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Wallaroos out to end 20-Test losing streak against Black Ferns
Queensland prop Bree-Anna Cheatham has been parachuted into the Wallaroos starting side, making her Test debut against New Zealand in Christchurch on Saturday.
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The Australian women will take on the Kiwis in a two-Test series, playing the second match in Adelaide on Saturday week, with the victors claiming the O’Reilly Cup.
The Wallaroos will look to end a 20-Test losing streak against the Black Ferns, most recently going down to their rivals 23-10 in the Pacific Four Series meeting in June.
Cheatham was part of that squad but didn’t take to the field after missing the entire Super W season due to injury.
However the hard-working loosehead forced her way into contention through state-based Wallaroos training and strong club form with Wests in Queensland Premier Rugby.
Brumbies No 8 Grace Kemp will make her starting debut in just her second Test match, after coming off the bench against Canada earlier this year.
Ashley Marsters and Bridie O’Gorman join Cheatham in the front row, while Michaela Leonard and Kaitlan Leaney will continue to develop their second-row partnership.
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Captain Shannon Parry and blindside flanker Emily Chancellor round out the back row.
NSW duo Iliseva Batibasaga and Arabella McKenzie will start in the halves, while Cecilia Smith and Georgina Friedrichs will continue their centre pairing.
Ivania Wong returns from a knee injury to start on the wing, and will be joined in the back three by Mahalia Murphy and Pauline Piliae-Rasabale.
Among the reserves, Waratahs centre Atasi Lafai, who was a Super W stand-out before sustaining a collarbone injury, will also make her return to Test rugby.
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Wallaroos coach Jay Tregonning said he was happy with the fitness of the players heading into the series.
“The team has come back into camp in better shape since our last campaign, showing that players have been putting in the hard yards in their respective states,” he said.
“We’re still building towards the World Cup, but we want to keep improving with every game and be competitive against the top teams in the world, which includes New Zealand.
“These two Test matches provide us with a great opportunity for further growth off the back of the Pacific Four campaign.”
Wallaroos: Pauline Piliae-Rasabale, Mahalia Murphy, Georgina Friedrichs, Cecilia Smith, Ivania Wong, Arabella McKenzie, Iliseva Batibasaga, Grace Kemp, Shannon Parry (c), Emily Chancellor, Kaitlan Leaney, Michaela Leonard, Bridie O’Gorman, Ashley Marsters, Bree-Anna Cheatham. Reserves: Adiana Talakai, Emily Robinson, Eva Karpani, Atasi Lafai, Piper Duck, Layne Morgan, Trilleen Pomare, Lori Cramer.
– Melissa Woods
Comments on RugbyPass
I am really looking forward to Leigh Halfpenny playing his first Super rugby game for the Crusaders Playing a long side his former Welsh and Scarlets team mate Johnny McNicoll.Johnny has been playing great, back in a Crusaders jersey.The attack has strengthened big time. Also looking forward to David Havili at 10. David is a class act, it also allows Dallas McLeod to remain at 12. A good thing.
1 Go to commentsIf he had stopped insisting on playing in the backrow, instead of wing, where everyone told him he should, he would have been a Bok years ago….
11 Go to comments‘Salads don’t win scrums’ 😂 I love that.
19 Go to commentsCan’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
16 Go to commentsI would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
16 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
84 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
2 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
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