{"id":85081,"date":"2025-08-21T13:53:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T13:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/85081\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T13:53:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T13:53:14","slug":"how-fastest-man-in-australian-rugby-compares-to-kolbe-and-arendse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/85081\/","title":{"rendered":"How ‘fastest man in Australian rugby’ compares to Kolbe and Arendse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wagga Wagga native Corey Toole<\/a> will make his Wallabies debut against South Africa<\/a> in Cape Town on Saturday evening, with head coach Joe Schmidt drawing comparisons between the winger and some of the Springboks\u2019 most lethal backs.<\/p>\n

An Olympian with the Australia<\/a> Sevens side at Paris 2024, Toole has emerged from the ACT Brumbies<\/a> to earn his first Test start. He comes in on the left wing for Dylan Pietsch<\/a>, who fractured his jaw in last weekend\u2019s win over the Springboks at Ellis Park.<\/p>\n

It is one of three changes to Schmidt\u2019s starting XV, with Rob Valetini<\/a> restored at number eight in place of skipper Harry Wilson<\/a>, and Tom Robertson<\/a> starting at loosehead prop after James Slipper<\/a> returned home under HIA protocols.<\/p>\n

Schmidt said Toole\u2019s transition from sevens to the Test arena would be a steep learning curve but praised his progress since joining the Wallabies squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Corey is a great young kid. He\u2019s obviously come in from the sevens program, and it\u2019s something that a number of the South African speedsters have done as well; they\u2019ve played both sevens and fifteens. He\u2019s adapting well to the game, and this will be a big, steep learning curve for him,\u201d said Schmidt when asked about the \u2018fastest man in Australian rugby\u2019- who has been clocked at 10.2 metres a second.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had guys of equal speed, the likes of Derby Lancaster, again who came across from sevens and is in our wider group. You want to try to grow their game a little bit and get them comfortable transitioning from sevens to fifteens. There\u2019s a lot less space to move in, and you\u2019ve got to become pretty proficient around the contact area. Corey\u2019s worked really hard at that.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got better and better contesting ball in the air. Because he\u2019s that quick, he has that elevation. I don\u2019t think anyone quite has the same elevation as Cheslin [Kolbe], but when you talk about speed and size, I think Kurt-Lee Arendse<\/a> and Cheslin are a good example of that.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we\u2019ve got Canan Moodie<\/a> starting this week against us. He\u2019s a taller young man, but very athletic as well. So that aerial contest will be very competitive again. It\u2019s something we didn\u2019t win at the start of the Test match last weekend, and on the back of that they got a real kick into their momentum, which made it difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schmidt also explained why he\u2019s preferred Toole to start ahead of veteran Kellaway, despite the enormity of the game. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think Andrew Kellaway<\/a> for us has played probably as much as any other back, certainly in the 23 and often starting last year. And so I had a chat with Andrew and we just felt for Corey to get the best opportunity, it\u2019s easier to start than it is to come off the bench. You get more reps at training.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one of the things that happened last week as well, just around trying to integrate someone and get them as ready as possible. With James O\u2019Connor last week, we didn\u2019t bring him off the bench for his first game in his kind of reincarnation as a Wallaby, because we wanted him to get the flow of the week.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so while this week has been reasonably compact by the time we travelled down from Johannesburg, I think Corey\u2019s acquitted himself really well so far.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wagga Wagga native Corey Toole will make his Wallabies debut against South Africa in Cape Town on Saturday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-85081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85081","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=85081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}