Watch: Tongan Thor to debut, and a look at the Wallabies' young guns
Michael Cheika has always aimed to breed new life into his team with young and exciting players.
He has continued this idea during the Wallabies’ second half of the season where we have seen the selection of new players Blake Enever, Lukhan Tui, Jordan Uelese and Taniela Tupou. Tupou’s potential has been recognised by being named on the bench to potentially make his debut against Scotland this weekend.
Here’s a closer look at some of the future stars of Australian rugby:
Blake Enever is now 26 with plenty of potential but had a relatively slow start to his professional rugby career. Enever was signed by the Queensland Reds in 2012 after an impressive campaign for the Australian U20s the previous year however during his 3 year stint at the Reds he only took the field once. Enever began to make a name for himself in 2015 when he moved south to the Brumbies and he established himself as a hard hitting lock forward in the Brumbies’ pack. He made his debut for the Wallabies last weekend against England which came as a surprise to him when he was a late call up due to an Adam Coleman thumb injury. Enever was only told he would be making his debut on Friday at lunch time just before the captain’s run.
Lukhan Tui is only a 21-year-old but he makes up for it with his physical presence on the field, being 123kg and 6’6″. After being noticed in the 2015 Australian U20s, Tui he’s been playing for the Queensland Reds for the past two seasons and got called up to make his international debut for Australia against South Africa in Bloemfontein earlier this season. Being originally born in New Zealand, he has to suffer the indignity of his family still supporting the All Blacks even when he was playing against them in the Wallabies’ Bledisloe Cup win in Brisbane. Despite injuring his thumb against the Barbarians in Sydney, Tui is back on the bench this weekend alongside fellow Reds teammate Taniela Tupou.
Like Tui, Jordan Uelese was also born in New Zealand but now calls Australia home after moving to Melbourne when he was 11. At only 20 years old Uelese made his debut for the Rebels this year and went on to make three appearances for the struggling Melbourne side. Despite his limited opportunities Cheika saw potential in young Uelese and named him on the bench in round 3 of the Rugby Championship in Perth. Uelese was named in the squad for the end of year tour but has not had any opportunities being stuck behind veterans Stephen Moore and Tatafu Polota-Nau. With Moore stepping aside from professional rugby next year and Uelese being only 20 years old, there is certainly huge potential in the future.
Taniela Tupou has been well known for a number of years after becoming a YouTube sensation from his ‘Tongan Thor’ schoolboy highlights. Despite being born in Tonga and going to school in New Zealand, Tupou’s desire has been to play for Australia. However, he’s been unable to play for the Wallabies until now as he has only just qualified through World Rugby’s residency rules. It has taken Tupou some time to adapt to professional rugby particularly in the complex area of scrummaging, but he has been working on his game and will be ready to make the most of his opportunity if he takes the field for the Wallabies on Saturday at Murrayfield.
READ MORE:
Will the Wallabies unleash the Tongan Thor?
Former Wallaby captain announces retirement from all forms of rugby
Comments on RugbyPass
An 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
1 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 Crusades , you can keep going.
1 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!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 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.
24 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.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to comments