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\n Reece Walsh and Dylan Edwards are locked in battle for the Kangaroos No.1 jersey.
\n \u00a9Grant Trouville
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He may have enchanted the rugby league world but Clive Churchill Medal winner Reece Walsh is no certainty to be fullback in the Wembley Test against England next weekend, according to Australia coach Kevin Walters.<\/p>\n
Speaking after the Kangaroos trained at St Marys University in Twickenham with an opposed session against the French national squad, Walters revealed he would name his starting 13, preferred bench and reserves next Tuesday even though he is only required by domestic rules to pick a 21 in alphabetical order.<\/p>\n
But for those sure Brisbane superstar Walsh will be at the top of that sheet, Walters had a big surprise.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSome players pick themselves and others, there\u2019s still a battle on for positions,\u201d he told NRL.com in the middle of the university training pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cFullback role is a hotly contested one – and the centre position and then the bench. That\u2019s one as well that I reckon we\u2019ve got to get right with our flexibility and cover off on all the positions. They\u2019re the main headaches.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walsh looked on for part of the 90-minute session wearing a bib while Penrith\u2019s Dylan Edwards training against the tricolours.<\/p>\n
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\n Reece Walsh and Dylan Edwards are locked in battle for the Kangaroos No.1 jersey.
\n \u00a9Grant Trouville
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When it was suggested to Walters that Walsh missing out would be a bombshell because there is so much hype around him, he responded: \u201cThere is a lot… it\u2019s not (simple) because Dylan\u2019s been a good player for a long time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHis form last year for the Kangaroos was really good so it\u2019s not an easy decision but one I\u2019m happy to make given the candidates that are involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll speak to some of the senior players. Some of the senior ones are pretty close with Dylan as well. We\u2019ll have a good honest conversation and it is only for game one, whoever does get selected. It\u2019s obviously a three-Test series so…<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll get the opinions of the assistants as well and then basically it will be my final decision, yeah, on what we go with. I\u2019m pretty confident the right people I talk with will come up with the right decision on who plays.<\/p>\n
“I said to the players \u2018even if you\u2019re not contributing on match day, certainly through the week with our performances during training is really important\u2019. That\u2019s my memories from Kangaroo Tours.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another memory Walters would have of Kangaroo Tours would be the conjecture in 1994 between whether halves Allan Langer or Ricky Stuart would play in the first Test at Wembley, with coach Bob Fulton studiously giving both equal opportunity to impress in lead-up games and eventually going with both – Langer starting, Stuart off the bench – before losing 8-4 to a 12-man Great Britain.<\/p>\n
Walters said he had no reason to abide by the British custom of keeping the opposition guessing with a 21-man squad, trimmed to 19 later in the week and 17 on game day.<\/p>\n
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Great Britain v Australia – 1994 Third Test<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see a point in hiding things, who\u2019s playing where,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll name them in a team, certainly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The training venue – in the heart of upscale rugby union territory – boasts it is the only university in the world with men\u2019s, women\u2019s and wheelchair rugby league sides.<\/p>\n
The Aussies\u2019 use of the facility was brokered by former Rugby League European Federation chief Kevin Rudd, who coaches there and whose name has caused some amusement amongst the tourists.<\/p>\n
Many of Rudd\u2019s players stayed around to watch the big-name Aussies train, with winger Mark Nawaqanitawase wearing boots printed with a QR code directing anyone who gets close enough to scan them to his website.<\/p>\n
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Still the pinnacle: Yeo keen to start Ashes assault<\/p>\n
\u201cThe opportunity to train against Australia means so much to us that we\u2019ve just come over for this,\u201d said Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson, the sporting director with Les Chanticleers who play a World Cup qualifier against Jamaica on Saturday at Albi.<\/p>\n
Both the French and Aussie squads return tomorrow to the picturesque venue, where they are expected to engage in a more physical opposed session.<\/p>\n
England – whose players have the weekend off – will train at plush The Lansbury, not far away from the university, next week.<\/p>\n
The state-of-the-art facility is used by visiting rugby union teams including the All Blacks and was booked by England before the Aussies could arrange to stay or train there.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He may have enchanted the rugby league world but Clive Churchill Medal winner Reece Walsh is no certainty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-221374","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}