{"id":112506,"date":"2021-08-06T05:06:47","date_gmt":"2021-08-06T05:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=112506"},"modified":"2021-08-06T05:59:10","modified_gmt":"2021-08-06T05:59:10","slug":"the-brave-call-for-wallabies-mission-improbable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=112506","title":{"rendered":"The 'brave call' for Wallabies' mission improbable"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wallabies legend Tim Horan has applauded coach Dave Rennie's hardline stance in standing down three players from Saturday's opening Bledisloe Cup<\/a> Test at Eden Park.<\/p>\n

Marika Koroibete<\/a>, Isi Naisarani and Pone Fa'amausili were all scratched from selection calculations after late night boozing in their hotel room after a team dinner and drinks bonding session last Saturday.<\/p>\n

Plenty of coaches and management teams over the years would have swept it under the carpet – particularly given Koroibete is clearly one of Australia's best players.<\/p>\n

Watch every match of the Bledisloe Cup and The Rugby Championship with live, ad-free and on-demand coverage starting this Saturday August\u00a07 on\u00a0Stan Sport<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While the Wallabies will no doubt miss Koroibete's 'follow me' attitude against the All Blacks, Horan believes the decision will pay dividends in the long run.<\/p>\n

"They stayed out a couple of hours too long to have a drink," Horan told Mark Levy on Wide World of Sports radio.<\/a><\/p>\n

"It was all in the hotel, in the COVID bubble but he said 'this is the time you've got to stop drinking' and the boys kept having a few drinks.<\/p>\n

"He said 'no, you're not going to play this weekend.' It's a brave call but the right call in terms of the culture and leadership piece. I think that'll steel this Wallabies team on."<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Wallabies recall Petaia for banned Koroibete<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Rennie shows off guitar skills in Aussie camp<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> All Blacks hand Ioane brothers starts for opener<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Mitchell<\/p>\n

Andrew Kellaway and Jordan Petaia will now start on the wing for the Wallabies<\/a> while young gun Harry Wilson is back at No.8 for Naisarani.<\/p>\n

The All Blacks haven't lost to the Wallabies at Eden Park since 1986, before most of the current Australia players were born.<\/p>\n

They again start overwhelming favourites but their 2019 Rugby World Cup disappointment, coupled with some mediocre performances under coach Ian Foster, has opened up a couple of chinks in their armour.<\/p>\n

\"Rennie<\/p>\n

"Haven't won there for a long time and I think these young kids from the Wallabies are keen to make history," Horan said.<\/p>\n

"I definitely give the Wallabies a big chance. Two Test matches in a row now in Auckland, you've got to win at least one to be a chance of getting your hands on the Bledisloe Cup.<\/p>\n

"Difficult but I think what Dave Rennie's doing, he's singing songs with them off the field, getting a pretty solid culture there and there's a young crew there that probably don't have a great deal of fear about the All Blacks.<\/p>\n

"They certainly respect them but certainly want to create some history."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Petaia's first Test of 2021 will be closely watched as he goes head-to-head with Rieko Ioane out wide.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old's ability is unquestioned but he simply hasn't been able to stay on the field and grow confidence through consistent performances.<\/p>\n

"A wonderful player and he's had a lot of injuries for such a young guy \u2013 three or four big injuries," Horan said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"He's had a Lisfranc injury to his foot, he's done his hamstring, his chest, his quad about nine weeks ago.<\/p>\n

"I spoke to him about five weeks ago and he said he was about a week or two off.<\/p>\n

"He's obviously been in the Wallaby camp for a period of time so he'll play on the wing.<\/p>\n

"This time last year he lost his father so he's very keen to continue playing for the Wallabies and show what he can do."<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportAU\/status\/1423159009679339522?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wallabies legend Tim Horan has applauded coach Dave Rennie's hardline stance in standing down three players from Saturday's opening Bledisloe Cup Test at Eden Park. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112506"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112506"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112508,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112506\/revisions\/112508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}