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'I don't know why he is not an international player'
By AAP
Wallabies' giant Will Skelton has been selected for the Barbarians and will test out England in an emotional match before their tour to Australia.
Skelton, who scored one of his only two Test tries for the Wallabies at Twickenham eight years ago, will start in the Baa-Baas' second row on Sunday alongside former England international George Kruis, who'll be playing his last game.
And Skelton's selection has left the invitation side's French coach Fabien Galthie wondering why the big man isn't more of a regular fixture still for the Wallabies.
Skelton and Kruis were teammates at English club Saracens, with Six Nations-winning coach Galthie believing their rekindled partnership will be a fitting way for the 45-times capped England World Cup finalist to bow out.
"Will is big and good and clever. I don't know why he is not an international player now - maybe they manage players in their country, and overseas maybe not - but in this case it is an opportunity for us because Will wanted to play with George Kruis," said Galthie.
"It is like a present for George because they played at Saracens years ago. It is a nice story."
Skelton did feature with a 19th cap for Australia in the loss to Scotland at Murrayfield last November, his first appearance in the green and gold for five years.
The 30-year-old La Rochelle lock, who at 140kg and 2.03m tall remains one of the biggest players in the professional game, will be a formidable opponent for the home side, who are honing their final preparations before coach Eddie Jones names his touring squad.
Skelton last month led La Rochelle to a 24-21 win against Leinster in the European Champions Cup Final in Marseille, in which he was outstanding.
Australian Jones, defending an unbeaten coaching record for England against the Wallabies, will be hoping to stretch his sequence to 11 straight wins over his home country by winning the July series 3-0.
Kruis and Skel ton will be part of a team dominated by stars from Fr ance's grand slam-winning squad.
French players make up 10 of the starting line-up, with captain Charles Ollivon back in international action after being sidelined during the championship with injury.
The only other representatives are Fiji's Levani Botia and Georgia pair Beka Gigashvili and Davit Niniashvili, all of whom play their club rugby in France. There are also eight French players on the bench.
Galthie, who has led a training camp in Monaco this week, said: "It has been a good experience for us.
"We have 19 French players, so we are the British Barbarians with a French accent!"
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"Now we have one of the most competitive football markets in the world and we are the canary in the coalmine in terms of change and dealing with that."
And there lies the rub. We don't care about your problems with Aussie Rules or Rugby League. If you're in the job just to save your union from competition by making our fantastic game more like one-dimensional boring league then all the rest of your promises are just BS. We'll be watching you like hawks to try and keep you in line, but - like Beaumont - you'll probably be able to push through whatever you like and the game will lose once again, but this time potentially terminally. I believe that your selection could be the worst decision WR have ever made.
Go to commentsAnd Scott Robertson not going so well is he.
Not a bad effort but a correction. McKenzie was not born in NSW so is not a Tah. He was born in Victoria. Played for the Brumbies and coached Qld and also played and then later coached NSW, until the self entitled Tah players decided to stab him in the back. And who was the captain of the Tahs at the time leading the back stabbing. Well, well it was none other than Phil Waugh, current Rugby Australia CEO. Who recently tried to deny he had met Suallii at Hamish McLennan's house pre signing, until McLennan outed him recently as a bald faced liar as he was in fact there.
I doubt very much if McKenzie, who was also assistant coach to Eddie Jones in Jones first stint coaching Australia, would appreciate being labelled a Tah, given it was the Tahs Hooper and Beale and Cheika who stabbed him in the back again when he walked away thru lack of support from Hooper and Rugby Australia.
Schmidt might have theoretically better credentials, even tho he dumped Ireland in the brink but he had to start somewhere. You can't argue if you think he is great that Schmidt should never have been given an opportunity.
Schmidt lacks a crucial ingredient. He's not Australian. It does matter, which as a Bokke you would well know.
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