{"id":578511,"date":"2025-11-18T15:11:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T15:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/578511\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T15:11:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T15:11:14","slug":"ben-donaldson-names-two-reasons-missed-selection-for-wallabies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/578511\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Donaldson names two reasons missed selection for Wallabies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Western Force fly-half Ben Donaldson has revealed the areas in which he needs to improve his game if he is to return to the Wallabies setup, after being dropped by Joe Schmidt.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 26-year-old playmaker appeared on The KOKO Show this week to discuss the Wallabies\u2019 recent performance against Ireland. Before they got onto the subject of the recent match, however, Donaldson fielded questions about his own absence from the squad.<\/p>\n

Donaldson<\/a> explained that head coach Joe Schmidt had been happy with the fly-halves who were playing during his recent injury, so there was no reason to change things around. He did admit that he was given a couple of pointers to work on, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne, just consistency. I think my game style \u2013 the way I play \u2013 I like to try things and express myself and move the ball, and sometimes that comes with errors. Obviously, as a 10, you\u2019re going to touch the ball; you\u2019re going to have a lot of errors. But I think just my consistency hasn\u2019t been great, whether it\u2019s in Super or for the Wallabies, that\u2019s one thing. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then just what Joe\u2019s told me around the contact area, my defence, my physicality, and then just the high ball as well. Obviously, the high ball is a massive part of the game, and the Wallabies<\/a> are probably struggling the most out of anyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo yeah, just those things I can keep working on, and that\u2019s what I\u2019ll be working on when I get back to pre-season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu has been overlooked for World Rugby Award<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Club vs Country<\/p>\n

Donaldson was asked what the dialogue is like with Western Force boss Simon Cron<\/a>, and how it differs from the advice given by Wallabies head coach Schmidt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe feedback is quite similar. Obviously, at the Force we play a brand that Crono wants the ten to drive. The 10 touches the ball the most out of anyone. We like to play with width. We like to move the ball,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Wallabies play a little bit differently. It\u2019s a lot off nine, it\u2019s a lot tighter. The ten doesn\u2019t run as much. He gives the forwards early ball so they can play. So that\u2019s probably where I maybe struggled a little bit when I came into the Wallabies, because it wasn\u2019t my natural game. <\/p>\n

\u201cCrono, at the Force, he\u2019s been awesome. He revolves a game plan around the ten because he knows that\u2019s my strength. He wants me to run. He wants me to move the ball and get involved. I\u2019ve just got to go out for the Force and play that way, and if I get another opportunity with the Wallabies, really take my strengths into the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Opinion: Ollie Lawrence steps out of Manu Tuilagi\u2019s \u2018shadow\u2019 to down the All Blacks 13 years after his predecessor did the same<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Western Force fly-half Ben Donaldson has revealed the areas in which he needs to improve his game if…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[186,183127,225,90462,12,4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-578511","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-ben-donaldson","10":"tag-home-page","11":"tag-internationals","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-rugby","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115571345718899565","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}