{"id":24920,"date":"2021-10-07T20:28:46","date_gmt":"2021-10-07T20:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yorunoteiou.com\/?p=24920"},"modified":"2021-10-07T20:28:46","modified_gmt":"2021-10-07T20:28:46","slug":"hodge-looks-for-consistent-wallabies-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/yorunoteiou.com\/?p=24920","title":{"rendered":"Hodge looks for consistent Wallabies role"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been a long wait for Wallabies back Reece Hodge, who has earned his first start since last year’s Rugby Championship when Australia face Argentina on Saturday.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Used mainly as a utility for the Wallabies playing five-eighth, centre, wing and fullback<\/a> since his debut in 2016 – Hodge came on to replace Tom Banks in Saturday’s win over South Africa when his good friend suffered an arm fracture<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Hodge has since been named in the No.15 jumper for this weekend’s game against Los Pumas and hopes to cement his role as first-choice with six Tests remaining in 2021 – although he says he will take things one game at a time.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

“It’s awesome to be able to get another starting berth after they’ve kind of been few and far between in the last couple of years,” Hodge said on Thursday.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

“More so just this weekend I’m just taking it one game at a time.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

“(It’s) a massive opportunity for dewadominoqq aplikasi<\/a> myself and the squad this week to put together three back to back wins that, we haven’t done in quite a while.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Hodge was a stellar replacement in the back-field in the 30-17 win over the Springboks, making smart defensive decisions and key cover tackles.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The only blight on his performance was under pressure of the high-ball through box-kicks from Springbok scrum-half Faf De Klerk, with that area a key focus in this week’s game preparation.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

“It’s a constant work on for our back three.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Obviously, I’m very disappointed with my start last week and probably a bit unlike me,” Hodge said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

“In probably over 100 professional games I’ve never kind of had those kind of issues on the high ball before.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

“So I’m going to take confidence out of that and then also the work I’ve done this week with the rest of the back three especially under the high ball… “<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Hodge’s first start for the year at fullback is the only change to the Wallabies’ back three, with last week’s two-try hero Marika Koroibete on the left wing and Melbourne Rebels flyer Andrew Kellaway on the right.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

While Hodge believes he can successfully use his big boot as a territorial weapon on the international stage he said he won’t stray from the overall team game plan.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

“It’s something you definitely look for as a space in the back-field, especially if you’ve caught it in your own half,” he said on the 50-22 kick rule.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

“But in saying that, we want to play an attacking style of rugby as well so I guess it’s about having balance in terms your decision making from the back.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been a long wait for Wallabies back Reece Hodge, who has earned his first s\u2026","protected":false},"author":8131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2298],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/yorunoteiou.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24920"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/yorunoteiou.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/yorunoteiou.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yorunoteiou.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yorunoteiou.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24920"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/yorunoteiou.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24921,"href":"http:\/\/yorunoteiou.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24920\/revisions\/24921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/yorunoteiou.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yorunoteiou.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yorunoteiou.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}