Star power missing as Anzac side miss out on world's highest-paid player
Mounga's agent Cameron McIntyre confirmed that the world's highest-paid player has not recovered from the injury sustained playing for Japanese club Toshiba Brave Lupus.
Mo'unga, who is reportedly on a $2m deal, had previously spoken of his wish to play in the fixture after speaking to former New Zealand coach Ian Foster, who will be an assistant for the AUNZ side.
'I miss the big Test match setting, the big arenas, this (AUNZ game) will be the closest I'll get to it while I'm in Japan,' Mo'unga previously told rugbyjp.com.
The news of Mo'unga's unavailability comes on the back of former Wallabies skipper Michael Hooper revealing that he turned down an invitation to represent the combined Australia and New Zealand side in Adelaide on 12 July.
Speaking on Stan Sport's Inside Line Hooper stated that he would have liked to have seen a Barbarians style team with the best players possible from New Zealand and Australia, while also underlining the logistical difficulties in putting the team together.
'I would have loved to have seen it be an Australian New Zealand Barbarians team...the trouble is trying to make it all work,' Hooper said.
'I mentioned around the length and the layover between games for some people, some guys are coming to the back end of the season.
'Maybe they don't want to keep training for another eight weeks because it's going to be a daunting task (to face the Lions).'
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Kasatkina blown away at Wimby by old Russian teammate
Daria Kasatkina's dream of a barnstorming run in her first Wimbledon in Australian colours has been shattered -- ironically, by an old Russian teammate. The new recruit to the green-and-gold was dismantled in a rain-interrupted third-round match on Saturday 6-2 6-3 by Liudmila Samsonova, who had been part of the same Russian outfit that won the Billie Jean King Cup back four years earlier. It was a fairly tame and deflating end to the seven-strong Australian women's challenge at Wimbledon, with 16th seed Kasatkina having hoped to rekindle some of the form that dragged her to the quarter-final at the grass-court slam back in 2018. But having complained of a dip in form as she faced new pressures following her switch of allegiance from Russia to Australia in March, Kasatkina really looked out of sorts and couldn't conjure up any real resistance to 19th seed Samsonova in a one-sided affair. The rising 26-year-old Samsonova, who had already outgunned the other big Australian hope, teenage flyer Maya Joint, in the opening round, had simply far too much firepower for Kasatkina, whose defensive skills couldn't prevent the barrage of 22 winners that flew past her. Seeking to become the first Australian woman into the fourth round since Ajla Tomljanovic three years ago, Kasatkina was on the back foot from the start and played an awful error-littered service game to be broken to love for 4-2 in the opener. A double fault gifted another break and the first set to Samsonova in 27 minutes and when 2-0 down and at deuce on her opponent's serve in the second set, the rains came to at least give her the chance to regroup. When they got back on No.3 court two hours later, the break seemed to have worked wonders for Kasatkina as she immediately won the first two points to earn the break back, only for the Samsonova barrage to resume as she again broke to love. With the match on her racquet, Samsonova let Kasatkina back into it at 3-3 with her sloppiest game, but then reeled off the final three games. The Australian saved three match points at the death but there was an inevitability about Samsonova then completing her victory in just over an hour-and-a-quarter. Daria Kasatkina's dream of a barnstorming run in her first Wimbledon in Australian colours has been shattered -- ironically, by an old Russian teammate. The new recruit to the green-and-gold was dismantled in a rain-interrupted third-round match on Saturday 6-2 6-3 by Liudmila Samsonova, who had been part of the same Russian outfit that won the Billie Jean King Cup back four years earlier. It was a fairly tame and deflating end to the seven-strong Australian women's challenge at Wimbledon, with 16th seed Kasatkina having hoped to rekindle some of the form that dragged her to the quarter-final at the grass-court slam back in 2018. But having complained of a dip in form as she faced new pressures following her switch of allegiance from Russia to Australia in March, Kasatkina really looked out of sorts and couldn't conjure up any real resistance to 19th seed Samsonova in a one-sided affair. The rising 26-year-old Samsonova, who had already outgunned the other big Australian hope, teenage flyer Maya Joint, in the opening round, had simply far too much firepower for Kasatkina, whose defensive skills couldn't prevent the barrage of 22 winners that flew past her. Seeking to become the first Australian woman into the fourth round since Ajla Tomljanovic three years ago, Kasatkina was on the back foot from the start and played an awful error-littered service game to be broken to love for 4-2 in the opener. A double fault gifted another break and the first set to Samsonova in 27 minutes and when 2-0 down and at deuce on her opponent's serve in the second set, the rains came to at least give her the chance to regroup. When they got back on No.3 court two hours later, the break seemed to have worked wonders for Kasatkina as she immediately won the first two points to earn the break back, only for the Samsonova barrage to resume as she again broke to love. With the match on her racquet, Samsonova let Kasatkina back into it at 3-3 with her sloppiest game, but then reeled off the final three games. The Australian saved three match points at the death but there was an inevitability about Samsonova then completing her victory in just over an hour-and-a-quarter. Daria Kasatkina's dream of a barnstorming run in her first Wimbledon in Australian colours has been shattered -- ironically, by an old Russian teammate. The new recruit to the green-and-gold was dismantled in a rain-interrupted third-round match on Saturday 6-2 6-3 by Liudmila Samsonova, who had been part of the same Russian outfit that won the Billie Jean King Cup back four years earlier. It was a fairly tame and deflating end to the seven-strong Australian women's challenge at Wimbledon, with 16th seed Kasatkina having hoped to rekindle some of the form that dragged her to the quarter-final at the grass-court slam back in 2018. But having complained of a dip in form as she faced new pressures following her switch of allegiance from Russia to Australia in March, Kasatkina really looked out of sorts and couldn't conjure up any real resistance to 19th seed Samsonova in a one-sided affair. The rising 26-year-old Samsonova, who had already outgunned the other big Australian hope, teenage flyer Maya Joint, in the opening round, had simply far too much firepower for Kasatkina, whose defensive skills couldn't prevent the barrage of 22 winners that flew past her. Seeking to become the first Australian woman into the fourth round since Ajla Tomljanovic three years ago, Kasatkina was on the back foot from the start and played an awful error-littered service game to be broken to love for 4-2 in the opener. A double fault gifted another break and the first set to Samsonova in 27 minutes and when 2-0 down and at deuce on her opponent's serve in the second set, the rains came to at least give her the chance to regroup. When they got back on No.3 court two hours later, the break seemed to have worked wonders for Kasatkina as she immediately won the first two points to earn the break back, only for the Samsonova barrage to resume as she again broke to love. With the match on her racquet, Samsonova let Kasatkina back into it at 3-3 with her sloppiest game, but then reeled off the final three games. The Australian saved three match points at the death but there was an inevitability about Samsonova then completing her victory in just over an hour-and-a-quarter. Daria Kasatkina's dream of a barnstorming run in her first Wimbledon in Australian colours has been shattered -- ironically, by an old Russian teammate. The new recruit to the green-and-gold was dismantled in a rain-interrupted third-round match on Saturday 6-2 6-3 by Liudmila Samsonova, who had been part of the same Russian outfit that won the Billie Jean King Cup back four years earlier. It was a fairly tame and deflating end to the seven-strong Australian women's challenge at Wimbledon, with 16th seed Kasatkina having hoped to rekindle some of the form that dragged her to the quarter-final at the grass-court slam back in 2018. But having complained of a dip in form as she faced new pressures following her switch of allegiance from Russia to Australia in March, Kasatkina really looked out of sorts and couldn't conjure up any real resistance to 19th seed Samsonova in a one-sided affair. The rising 26-year-old Samsonova, who had already outgunned the other big Australian hope, teenage flyer Maya Joint, in the opening round, had simply far too much firepower for Kasatkina, whose defensive skills couldn't prevent the barrage of 22 winners that flew past her. Seeking to become the first Australian woman into the fourth round since Ajla Tomljanovic three years ago, Kasatkina was on the back foot from the start and played an awful error-littered service game to be broken to love for 4-2 in the opener. A double fault gifted another break and the first set to Samsonova in 27 minutes and when 2-0 down and at deuce on her opponent's serve in the second set, the rains came to at least give her the chance to regroup. When they got back on No.3 court two hours later, the break seemed to have worked wonders for Kasatkina as she immediately won the first two points to earn the break back, only for the Samsonova barrage to resume as she again broke to love. With the match on her racquet, Samsonova let Kasatkina back into it at 3-3 with her sloppiest game, but then reeled off the final three games. The Australian saved three match points at the death but there was an inevitability about Samsonova then completing her victory in just over an hour-and-a-quarter.
The Advertiser
an hour ago
- The Advertiser
'We showed them': Lion-hearted Waratahs hit back
Stand-in skipper Hugh Sinclair has taken aim at the naysayers after the NSW Waratahs exposed some chinks in the British and Irish Lions' armour in a spirited 21-10 loss to the vaunted tourists in Sydney. Written off by bookmakers and even many of their faithful fans, the understrength Waratahs were given a standing ovation after threatening to pull off a first win over the Lions since 1959 on Saturday night. The gritty showing came after one media outlet penned a piece predicting the Waratahs could suffer a worse defeat than the record-breaking 96-19 loss to the Crusaders in 2002 "Super proud. Super, super proud. The Aussie media had a crack at us thinking we're going to get beat by 90 or 50 or 60 and we showed them," the retiring Sinclair said after deputising for regular captain Jake Gordon, who is in camp with the Wallabies in Newcastle. "I wouldn't mind a bit of positivity from a bit of them for the next couple of weeks. It'd be nice. "Look, we showed up. The boys showed up and we just asked for effort the whole game. "Obviously it was scrappy and the Lions will be disappointed with that but we showed they're beatable. "There are 15 blokes on a field, put some pressure on and, yeah, things can happen." But Andy Farrell's star-studded outfit ultimately survived a major scare to remain unbeaten in three matches in Australia this tour. Unlike in their 54-7 drubbing of the Western Force and 52-12 win over the Queensland Reds on Wednesday night, though, the Lions were anything but convincing. Some of the best of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales were downright dreadful for much of the contest. With 14 changes, including two debutants, from the side that crushed the Reds four nights ago, the Lions struggled to gel and their attack was clunky. "We got the win in the but still a lot to work on," said Lions scrumhalf and man of the match Alex Mitchell. While Waratahs coach Dan McKellar would have been chuffed with his team's efforts, Farrell could have been excused for pulling his hair out. Some of the blunders from the Lions were comical, with several big-name stars likely playing themselves out of contention for the first Test against Australia in Brisbane on July 19. Like the Western Force and Reds before them, the Waratahs took the fight to the Lions in the first half and only trailed 14-5 at the break after winger Darby Lancaster scored a try he will likely never forget in the 36th minute. The Lions needed 12 minutes to post their first points through a try to Huw Jones before the Welsh centre grabbed a second after the half-hour halftime margin would have been closer had the TMO not overturned a try to Waratahs flanker Charlie Gamble 29 minutes in after lock Fergus Lee-Warner was ruled to have caused obstruction in the preceding lineout. After out-scoring the Force and Reds by a combined 64-0 in the second half, the tourists were expected to again shift up a gear after the interval. Instead, the Waratahs did with hooker Ethan Dobbins finishing off a driving maul to edge the home team to within four points of the hottest of hot favourites. A desperate try-saving tackle from prop Tom Lambert on Lions flanker Josh van der Flier typified the spirit in the Tahs ranks as McKellar's men fought tooth and nail for a famous victory. Defending for their the lives, the Waratahs had the 40,458 fans, including former PM John Howard, believing a fairytale win was on the offing. But just as the Lions appeared anxious and panicky, Waratahs flyhalf Jack Bowen made a meal of a short-arm penalty to gift Farrell's side onto the attack. Lions star Mitchell scored barely a minute later to snuff out the comeback. Still the end 11-point defeat made a mockery of bookmakers offering the Waratahs a 40-point start and will no doubt instil Schmidt and his Wallabies hopefuls plenty of optimism. Stand-in skipper Hugh Sinclair has taken aim at the naysayers after the NSW Waratahs exposed some chinks in the British and Irish Lions' armour in a spirited 21-10 loss to the vaunted tourists in Sydney. Written off by bookmakers and even many of their faithful fans, the understrength Waratahs were given a standing ovation after threatening to pull off a first win over the Lions since 1959 on Saturday night. The gritty showing came after one media outlet penned a piece predicting the Waratahs could suffer a worse defeat than the record-breaking 96-19 loss to the Crusaders in 2002 "Super proud. Super, super proud. The Aussie media had a crack at us thinking we're going to get beat by 90 or 50 or 60 and we showed them," the retiring Sinclair said after deputising for regular captain Jake Gordon, who is in camp with the Wallabies in Newcastle. "I wouldn't mind a bit of positivity from a bit of them for the next couple of weeks. It'd be nice. "Look, we showed up. The boys showed up and we just asked for effort the whole game. "Obviously it was scrappy and the Lions will be disappointed with that but we showed they're beatable. "There are 15 blokes on a field, put some pressure on and, yeah, things can happen." But Andy Farrell's star-studded outfit ultimately survived a major scare to remain unbeaten in three matches in Australia this tour. Unlike in their 54-7 drubbing of the Western Force and 52-12 win over the Queensland Reds on Wednesday night, though, the Lions were anything but convincing. Some of the best of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales were downright dreadful for much of the contest. With 14 changes, including two debutants, from the side that crushed the Reds four nights ago, the Lions struggled to gel and their attack was clunky. "We got the win in the but still a lot to work on," said Lions scrumhalf and man of the match Alex Mitchell. While Waratahs coach Dan McKellar would have been chuffed with his team's efforts, Farrell could have been excused for pulling his hair out. Some of the blunders from the Lions were comical, with several big-name stars likely playing themselves out of contention for the first Test against Australia in Brisbane on July 19. Like the Western Force and Reds before them, the Waratahs took the fight to the Lions in the first half and only trailed 14-5 at the break after winger Darby Lancaster scored a try he will likely never forget in the 36th minute. The Lions needed 12 minutes to post their first points through a try to Huw Jones before the Welsh centre grabbed a second after the half-hour halftime margin would have been closer had the TMO not overturned a try to Waratahs flanker Charlie Gamble 29 minutes in after lock Fergus Lee-Warner was ruled to have caused obstruction in the preceding lineout. After out-scoring the Force and Reds by a combined 64-0 in the second half, the tourists were expected to again shift up a gear after the interval. Instead, the Waratahs did with hooker Ethan Dobbins finishing off a driving maul to edge the home team to within four points of the hottest of hot favourites. A desperate try-saving tackle from prop Tom Lambert on Lions flanker Josh van der Flier typified the spirit in the Tahs ranks as McKellar's men fought tooth and nail for a famous victory. Defending for their the lives, the Waratahs had the 40,458 fans, including former PM John Howard, believing a fairytale win was on the offing. But just as the Lions appeared anxious and panicky, Waratahs flyhalf Jack Bowen made a meal of a short-arm penalty to gift Farrell's side onto the attack. Lions star Mitchell scored barely a minute later to snuff out the comeback. Still the end 11-point defeat made a mockery of bookmakers offering the Waratahs a 40-point start and will no doubt instil Schmidt and his Wallabies hopefuls plenty of optimism. Stand-in skipper Hugh Sinclair has taken aim at the naysayers after the NSW Waratahs exposed some chinks in the British and Irish Lions' armour in a spirited 21-10 loss to the vaunted tourists in Sydney. Written off by bookmakers and even many of their faithful fans, the understrength Waratahs were given a standing ovation after threatening to pull off a first win over the Lions since 1959 on Saturday night. The gritty showing came after one media outlet penned a piece predicting the Waratahs could suffer a worse defeat than the record-breaking 96-19 loss to the Crusaders in 2002 "Super proud. Super, super proud. The Aussie media had a crack at us thinking we're going to get beat by 90 or 50 or 60 and we showed them," the retiring Sinclair said after deputising for regular captain Jake Gordon, who is in camp with the Wallabies in Newcastle. "I wouldn't mind a bit of positivity from a bit of them for the next couple of weeks. It'd be nice. "Look, we showed up. The boys showed up and we just asked for effort the whole game. "Obviously it was scrappy and the Lions will be disappointed with that but we showed they're beatable. "There are 15 blokes on a field, put some pressure on and, yeah, things can happen." But Andy Farrell's star-studded outfit ultimately survived a major scare to remain unbeaten in three matches in Australia this tour. Unlike in their 54-7 drubbing of the Western Force and 52-12 win over the Queensland Reds on Wednesday night, though, the Lions were anything but convincing. Some of the best of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales were downright dreadful for much of the contest. With 14 changes, including two debutants, from the side that crushed the Reds four nights ago, the Lions struggled to gel and their attack was clunky. "We got the win in the but still a lot to work on," said Lions scrumhalf and man of the match Alex Mitchell. While Waratahs coach Dan McKellar would have been chuffed with his team's efforts, Farrell could have been excused for pulling his hair out. Some of the blunders from the Lions were comical, with several big-name stars likely playing themselves out of contention for the first Test against Australia in Brisbane on July 19. Like the Western Force and Reds before them, the Waratahs took the fight to the Lions in the first half and only trailed 14-5 at the break after winger Darby Lancaster scored a try he will likely never forget in the 36th minute. The Lions needed 12 minutes to post their first points through a try to Huw Jones before the Welsh centre grabbed a second after the half-hour halftime margin would have been closer had the TMO not overturned a try to Waratahs flanker Charlie Gamble 29 minutes in after lock Fergus Lee-Warner was ruled to have caused obstruction in the preceding lineout. After out-scoring the Force and Reds by a combined 64-0 in the second half, the tourists were expected to again shift up a gear after the interval. Instead, the Waratahs did with hooker Ethan Dobbins finishing off a driving maul to edge the home team to within four points of the hottest of hot favourites. A desperate try-saving tackle from prop Tom Lambert on Lions flanker Josh van der Flier typified the spirit in the Tahs ranks as McKellar's men fought tooth and nail for a famous victory. Defending for their the lives, the Waratahs had the 40,458 fans, including former PM John Howard, believing a fairytale win was on the offing. But just as the Lions appeared anxious and panicky, Waratahs flyhalf Jack Bowen made a meal of a short-arm penalty to gift Farrell's side onto the attack. Lions star Mitchell scored barely a minute later to snuff out the comeback. Still the end 11-point defeat made a mockery of bookmakers offering the Waratahs a 40-point start and will no doubt instil Schmidt and his Wallabies hopefuls plenty of optimism.
Perth Now
2 hours ago
- Perth Now
Kasatkina blown away at Wimby by old Russian teammate
Daria Kasatkina's dream of a barnstorming run in her first Wimbledon in Australian colours has been shattered -- ironically, by an old Russian teammate. The new recruit to the green-and-gold was dismantled in a rain-interrupted third-round match on Saturday 6-2 6-3 by Liudmila Samsonova, who had been part of the same Russian outfit that won the Billie Jean King Cup back four years earlier. It was a fairly tame and deflating end to the seven-strong Australian women's challenge at Wimbledon, with 16th seed Kasatkina having hoped to rekindle some of the form that dragged her to the quarter-final at the grass-court slam back in 2018. But having complained of a dip in form as she faced new pressures following her switch of allegiance from Russia to Australia in March, Kasatkina really looked out of sorts and couldn't conjure up any real resistance to 19th seed Samsonova in a one-sided affair. The rising 26-year-old Samsonova, who had already outgunned the other big Australian hope, teenage flyer Maya Joint, in the opening round, had simply far too much firepower for Kasatkina, whose defensive skills couldn't prevent the barrage of 22 winners that flew past her. Seeking to become the first Australian woman into the fourth round since Ajla Tomljanovic three years ago, Kasatkina was on the back foot from the start and played an awful error-littered service game to be broken to love for 4-2 in the opener. A double fault gifted another break and the first set to Samsonova in 27 minutes and when 2-0 down and at deuce on her opponent's serve in the second set, the rains came to at least give her the chance to regroup. When they got back on No.3 court two hours later, the break seemed to have worked wonders for Kasatkina as she immediately won the first two points to earn the break back, only for the Samsonova barrage to resume as she again broke to love. With the match on her racquet, Samsonova let Kasatkina back into it at 3-3 with her sloppiest game, but then reeled off the final three games. The Australian saved three match points at the death but there was an inevitability about Samsonova then completing her victory in just over an hour-and-a-quarter.
