Tuesday 23 June 2026
Good Morning GAGRs and welcome to Tuesday’s Rugby News, It’s another odd week for Australian rugby fans, with the men’s super rugby season done and dusted, and still more than a week until the Wallabies play their first test of the year against Ireland. There was of course the Super Rugby Pacific Final, which Bris summarised here in the Monday news, and the Super Rugby W was in action with the Force hosting the Reds, and the Drua hosting the Brumbies. So let’s have a bit of a look at the Super Rugby W games, and some general news.
Super Rugby W
Western Force vs Qld Reds
The Reds travelled west to Perth to take on the Western Force with both teams playing their second game of the season and both searching for their first win. Unfortunately for the Reds, the home side got the victory with a very good fightback after being down 17-7 with 20 minutes to play and having their centre Trilleen Pomare yellow carded for a tip tackle on the Reds Captain Jemma Bemrose. Credit to the Force, they got stuck in and Michaela Leonard found her way over the tryline to score and with Sam Wood converting it was game on at 14-17 down with 10 minutes to play. They left it to the last minute with replacement Ai Dickson scoring a very well worked try in the corner, which Sam Wood converted to put the Force up by 21-17. There was some final moments of drama though, with enough time for a kick off, which the Force won, and then kicked out before time was up, giving Qld one last throw of the dice, but they couldn’t get it done, with a missed kick for the line from a penalty landing in who else but Sam Wood’s hands, before being kicked out for full time and a scrappy 21-17 win.
The Reds will that was a great opportunity missed being in control of the match with 20 minutes to play, but unfortunately it’s an 80 minute game and the class of the Force squad got them home. Sam Wood was excellent around the park, and her kicking in play, and for goal was probably the difference between the sides, and definitely on the scoreboard. The Reds started well, and scored 3 good tries, including one from a lineout variation. Congrats to the Force on staying in the game and getting the win.
Fijian Drua vs Brumbies
The Brumbies headed to Fiji to to Ba to take on the Drua with both sides winning one from one from their first two games, and looking to shore up a spot in the finals. The Brumbies had 8 Wallaroos in the squad, and welcomed back number 8 Tabua Tuinakauvadra for this important clash. The final score was 42-25 to the Drua, but it was a close contest in the first half with The Drua combining pace and power to score three tries, and the Brumbies showing good handling and pace with wing Ashlea Bishop scoring a first half hat trick to make it 20 points each at half time.
It was advantage to the Brumbies to start the second half with the Drua centre Josivini Naihamu shown a yellow card late in the first half for a late charge down on the brumbies kicker. The Brumbies weren’t able to capitalise though with the Drua scoring twice, the first from a poorly executed kick in open play which invited the Drua to run it back (and they did), and the second from power in tight. At 30-20 up, the Drua had it all to play for.
A second yellow card to a Drua player though for repeated offsides invited the Brumbies score to make it 30-25 with 11 minutes to play. The Drua had the final say though with two more tries showing their pace and game awareness to make it 42-25 at full time.
After three rounds, the Fijian Drua are on top of the table with 2 wins, but the Waratahs have a game in hand and travel to Perth to take on the Western Force, while the Drua travel to Brisbane to take on the Reds at Ballymore.
The Reds have been competitive in both their games, and will fancy their chances of getting a win against the Drua.
Walsh to head up Women’s Rugby in Australia
Fresh from Coaching the Australian Women’s Sevens side to victory in the HSBC World Championships, Tim Walsh has been named as the new Director of Women’s High Performance by Rugby Australian. It feels like a great move by RA to harness Walsh’s passion and technical excellence for both the sevens and Wallaroos programs.
It’s also good timing for RA, with the Wallaroos players set to become full time athletes later this year, as they look to make up ground on the Black Ferns, Red Roses, Canada and the USA before a home World Cup in 2029. With the Olympics in 2028, and then the home World Cup in 2029, and the Home Olympics in 2032, there are fantastic opportunities for the Wallaroos and Australian sevens teams to grow and shine over the coming years. I’d love to see the Aussies follow the lead of Canada and have more of our players playing across both the fifteens and sevens squads.
Walsh certainly has a good record with the sevens program and while his simple objective is to “win more” it certainly is one that the fans will like and buy into.
Wallabies Squad Selections
Fraser McReight
Most fans have been surprised by some of the inclusions and omissions from the Wallabies Squad named by Joe Schmidt including yours truly, but at the end of the day, he is the coach and we fans are not, so when it comes time for the Wallabies to run out against Ireland next weekend in Sydney, I am sure we will all be cheering on the home side as they look for an elusive win against Ireland with the last one being in June 2018 at Lang Park in Brisbane. To be fair, this is the first time since 2018 that the Irish have played in Australia with the three more recent games (2022, 2024, 2025) being played in Dublin.
As a Wallabies fan, I’m wanting the Wallabies to win all three games against Ireland, France, and Italy, but more importantly I’m looking for them to be better defensively than they were on the end of season tour, and for some players make positive contributions. I’d expect to see Ryan Lonergan start at 9, with Tate off the bench, and Carter Gordon to get first crack at 10 due to his late season form, pace, and defensive capability. I’d also expect to see Ikitau and JAS at 12 and 13, and while JAS’s form and time on the field doesn’t warrant selection, I’d love to see him run at the line like he did against the Force. We all see the highlight reels of high ball catches, but until the Force game we haven’t really seen him completely committed to the hard running line, and committing the defence to make a hard tackle. He’s a big human and we need him to take the ball into the line more often rather than being the decoy, or trying to beat the line with footwork or an offload.
For what it’s worth, here’s my tips for the team to take on Ireland in the first test.
Starting – Angus Bell, Billy Pollard, 7As, Jeremy Williams, Josh Canham, Bobby V, Fraser McReight (c), Harry Wilson, Ryan Lonergan, Carter Gordon, Max Jorgenson, Len Ikitau, JAS, Dylan Pietsch, Jock Campbell.
Reserves – BPA, Aidan Ross, Zane Nonggorr, Lachlan Shaw, Charlie Cale, Tate McDermott, Ben Donaldson, Filipo Daugunu.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
That’s a wrap
As always, thanks for making it this far, I hope you have a great day.
Cheers
RAWF