FORMER WALLABIES CAPTAIN James Horwill has surprisingly been included in Australia’s squad for next month’s three-Test series against England.
Horwill was sensationally left out of Australia’s Rugby World Cup campaign last year but the 30-year-old returns to the international fold in Michael Cheika’s initial 39-man squad.
Now plying his trade for Harlequins in the Premiership, Horwill is one of four overseas-based players selected for the series in Australia, which gets underway in Brisbane on June 11.
Bordeaux prop Sekope Kepu, Leroy Houston and Taqele Naiyaravoro have also been named.
Aside from Horwill’s surprise inclusion, there are 10 debutants in the squad as ex-Wallabies coach Eddie Jones prepares to lead England down under.
Code-hopper Karmichael Hunt, Eto Nabuli and Joe Powell are among the rookies.
“We’ve been working with an initial squad of 60 players we identified, which has been reduced to 39 for this camp. We’ll trim that number down to 30 for each Test, so competition for spots is everything,” Cheika said on Thursday.
“Our first week in camp will target a high intensity training attitude, building on combinations within that environment. We want to build on the identity we’ve worked hard on establishing over the past 18 months.”
“We have selected this squad with one eye on the now and one on the future and there’s a huge focus on building depth within the squad,” Cheika added.
“For example, we want to work with three tight fives and four number 7s, looking to build that competition within that type of combination.”
After the series opens at Suncorp Stadium, the Wallabies will then host England in Melbourne (June 18) and Sydney (June 25).
Australia squad in full: Allan Alaalatoa, Rory Arnold, Sam Carter, Adam Coleman, Scott Fardy, Israel Folau, Bernard Foley, Nick Frisby, Liam Gill, James Hanson, Mike Harris, Dane Haylett-Petty, Greg Holmes, Michael Hooper, Rob Horne, James Horwill, Leroy Houston, Karmichael Hunt, Sekope Kepu Samu Kerevi, Tevita Kuridrani, Christian Lealiifano, Ben McCalman, Sean McMahon Stephen Moore, Luke Morahan, Dean Mumm, Eto Nabuli, Taqele Naiyaravoro, Wycliff Palu, Nick Phipps, David Pocock, Tatafu Polota-Nau, Joe Powell, Rob Simmons, Scott Sio, Will Skelton, James Slipper, Toby Smith.
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As a pool fan, houllier blamed all around him/ yes bad cross from ginola but what about the centre back that the striker strolled past
The French do love to hate each other don’t they…
Players make mistakes, and that one will haunt Ginola for the rest of his life, no two ways about it. Gerard falling on his arse against Chelsea and Jesper Olson passing the ball into the path of Butragueno in the But 1986 World Cup spring to mind.
But France’s World Cup hopes weren’t just shattered in the match against Bulgaria. The full facts are as follows; With two matches left to play in their group, both of them at home, France needed just 1 point. First up was Israel, who France had beaten 4-0 in Tel Aviv, and hadn’t a single win to their name, and Bulgaria who had already beaten France in Sofia, so they should have had a fair idea of what they were dealing with.
The French led both games (2-1 and 1-0 respectively) but went on to lose both, I believe, in injury time.
Houllier has repeatedly blamed Ginola for the entire failure due to his part in the Bulgaria defeat, but the blame lies with himself more so than anyone else.
What an emphatic collapse, I remember it fondly.
The Israel game was the biggest Mess up by far, instead they blame the defeat where they lost in the last minute to the eventual World cup semi finalists
yea finals should have kept the ball down at the corner flag and killed off the game but what about the keeper getting beaten at his near post.
* finals is typo for ginola in my post above
If it was an Irish player today he would have passed it back instead of take the shot!