World cup

Cardiff: Midway through 2011 Andrew Fifita was unwanted and even he doubted he would be good enough to represent Australia.

Now the Cronulla prop has continued his rapid rise by being named as the only debutant in Australia's opening World Cup team to play England on Sunday morning.

Fifita will start from the interchange bench in a squad which features 13 players who played in Australia's 32-12 win against New Zealand earlier this year.

Nate Myles was the only player available for selection from the mid-year Test who will not play.
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Players from grand finalists Sydney Roosters and Manly have been overlooked for selection while Brent Tate clinched the centre spot vacated by Justin Hodges ahead of NSW centre pairing Michael Jennings and Josh Morris.

While Tate will play his first Test since 2010 it was Fifita who smiled the most as the team completed a training session in wet conditions at the University of Glamorgan in Wales.

Fifita's rise has been swift. He was let go by Australian coach Tim Sheens during his time at the Wests Tigers, before linking with Cronulla last year.

He made his Origin debut, playing all three games for NSW this year and with his contract expiring at the Sharks next year is among the most sought after players in the NRL.

“I didn't think I had it in me,” Fifita said. “Guys like Matt Scott and Jimmy Tamou are tremendous players.

“I had a couple of good games at club footy and that got me a look in at Origin and I tried so hard just to stay up there. It's really given me the strength to play more rep games.”

Sheens has opted for an agile side as the team prepares to confront a forward dominated English team led by James Graham, Sam Burgess and Lee Mossop.

Fifita is the only prop on the interchange bench with Corey Parker to play his second Test. NSW captain Paul Gallen has been named at lock but will spend time up front.

Fifita, who is slowly overcoming the flu, skipped his honeymoon after marrying Nikkita just one day before flying out with the Kangaroos squad, leaving the couples young baby at home.

“Now she is proud of me,” Fifita said. “If I had come over here with a crap attitude and didn't get selected she would have been devastated and upset.

“When I made that phone call that I would be making my Test debut, she was that happy.”

The 24-year-old struggled to play it cool when Sheens announced the team to the touring squad.

“He pulled us all together just before training and yelled out the team,” Fifita said. “When he yelled out my name, I was that happy. I just sat there saying 'yep, yep, yep'. I didn't smile but I was really happy.

“I was that stoked, but I had to try and keep it under cover, I wanted to scream but I didn't.”

Australia: Team: Billy Slater, Brett Morris, Greg Inglis, Brent Tate, Darius Boyd, Johnathan Thurston, Cooper Cronk, Matthew Scott, Cameron Smith ©, James Tamou, Greg Bird, Sam Thaiday, Paul Gallen. Interchange: Andrew Fifita, Luke Lewis, _Robbie Farah_, Corey Parker

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/andrew-fifita-the-only-new-face-in-kangaroos-side-to-face-england-in-world-cup-opener-20131023-2w1y9.html#ixzz2ibztzfrK
 
Jennings was unlucky in my opinion , but you know how Tate lifts for big games

No other surprises in my opinion apart from possibly Farah's selection
 
@happy tiger said:
@Balmain Boy said:
@pHyR3 said:
I'm confused, doesn't everyone get FTA. that's the point right?

i dont have foxtel or satelite.

Foxtel subscribers only get access to the FTA channels Foxtel volunteers to provide for free.

From Foxtel on Facebook "not all FTA channels give broadcasting rights to Foxtel. As open broadcast channels are something we provide for free and is not part of your subscription you would need to take up with them [the actual channels]."

So basically we would have to upgrade to an HD package, or fiddle around with separate devices and cables to get access to what we should already have..!

But whether you have Foxtel or not , as long as you have a HD TV it would be just a matter of switching your Foxtel off and you should be able to get Channel 73 or 7 mate as it is called

At worst you would just have to auto tune your TV , but I have both so if I switch off my Foxtel off all the regular TV channels automatically return as they are pre tuned

However if you don't have a HD TV or a HD tuner , your royally screwed You can pick up a HD tuner for less than $100

The other option which is more expensive is to buy a hard drive digital recorder (which we have )

Comes in handy when you want to record stuff that you keep on hard drive ( or disc if you want ) Panasonic have one for about $400 that has about 500 hours of recording space and it acts as your HD tuner as well

We use it for kids movies , movies , sports events etc Very handy in my opinion

Hope this helps

But as the games are all on in the middle of the night you have to record them (unless you're some crazy international rugby league nut!). So I'd have to buy a separate HDD for my TV so I can record a few games here and there. I record everything else on my IQ box and rarely watch a FTA channel. Not worth it. And I'm sure I'm not the only one in that position.

And it is surprising the Farah made the team. Smith is an 80 min player. So are all the halves. Does Australia really need Farah/DCE on the bench? Complete waste. Luke Lewis is utility enough. How often does a halfback/hooker get injured? Most commonly its forwards or backs if anyone.

You might as well put a winger on the bench. Oh wait, it's Sheens. He might even do that!
 
Balmain Boy you can get cheaper DVD recorders but they have less recording space Hardly Normal have one for $170 which has about 320 g You would be able to get them even cheaper than that

I'm not saying everyone can or can't afford it

Maybe if you want ,watch it at a mates place and bring a carton of grog
 
@happy tiger said:
@smeghead said:
Tedesco picked in the centres for Italy.

Terrible decision

Someone said he played very well in the centres v England in the trial

Wouldn't be surprised at all, he has his speed back and his 1-on-1 defense is exceptional. Only thing that could be a weakness is his defensive decision making, something Lawrence has struggled with for a few years now.

_Posted using RoarFEED 2013_
 
Can't believe James Graham has been left out of the England team for the match against the Aussies. Surely he is a thousand times better than some of the useless hacks they have picked in their pack.
Must have done something wrong during the week you would think?
 
@Fade To Black said:
Can't believe James Graham has been left out of the England team for the match against the Aussies. Surely he is a thousand times better than some of the useless hacks they have picked in their pack.
Must have done something wrong during the week you would think?

Heard he was involved in a "drinking session" with Gareth Hock

_Posted using RoarFEED 2013_
 
@Blake93 said:
@Fade To Black said:
Can't believe James Graham has been left out of the England team for the match against the Aussies. Surely he is a thousand times better than some of the useless hacks they have picked in their pack.
Must have done something wrong during the week you would think?

Heard he was involved in a "drinking session" with Gareth Hock

_Posted using RoarFEED 2013_

Yep they were given a 7 day drinking ban

From the story I read a lot more players involved , but Graham has been made the scapegoat
 
@happy tiger said:
@Blake93 said:
@Fade To Black said:
Can't believe James Graham has been left out of the England team for the match against the Aussies. Surely he is a thousand times better than some of the useless hacks they have picked in their pack.
Must have done something wrong during the week you would think?

Heard he was involved in a "drinking session" with Gareth Hock

_Posted using RoarFEED 2013_

Yep they were given a 7 day drinking ban

From the story I read a lot more players involved , but Graham has been made the scapegoat

As far as their chances of beating Australia go, surely they could of made a scapegoat out of one of the less talented blokes? :slight_smile:
 
@Fade To Black said:
@happy tiger said:
@Blake93 said:
@Fade To Black said:
Can't believe James Graham has been left out of the England team for the match against the Aussies. Surely he is a thousand times better than some of the useless hacks they have picked in their pack.
Must have done something wrong during the week you would think?

Heard he was involved in a "drinking session" with Gareth Hock

_Posted using RoarFEED 2013_

Yep they were given a 7 day drinking ban

From the story I read a lot more players involved , but Graham has been made the scapegoat

As far as their chances of beating Australia go, surely they could of made a scapegoat out of one of the less talented blokes? :slight_smile:

Most Pommie footballers are untalented :laughing:
 
@happy tiger said:
@Blake93 said:
@Fade To Black said:
Can't believe James Graham has been left out of the England team for the match against the Aussies. Surely he is a thousand times better than some of the useless hacks they have picked in their pack.
Must have done something wrong during the week you would think?

Heard he was involved in a "drinking session" with Gareth Hock

_Posted using RoarFEED 2013_

Yep they were given a 7 day drinking ban

From the story I read a lot more players involved , but Graham has been made the scapegoat

From what I heard there were about six others involved and Hock claims he was made the scape goat. Graham got off lightly with a one match ban. Don't know who the others were, probably weren't in the top 17.

_Posted using RoarFEED 2013_
 
@happy tiger said:
Balmain Boy you can get cheaper DVD recorders but they have less recording space Hardly Normal have one for $170 which has about 320 g You would be able to get them even cheaper than that

I'm not saying everyone can or can't afford it

Maybe if you want ,watch it at a mates place and bring a carton of grog

Another option is to buy a HD set top box with USB recording and attach a portable hard drive to record - JB Hifi sell them for around 50 bucks.
 
Have just read the conversation re 7mate etc to watch the games . I have Foxtel HD cable and can't find the channel needed. Was hoping to record the game and watch it tomorrow as I have bad footy withdrawal. Am I screwed????

_Posted using RoarFEED 2013_
 
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