Former NRL star Curtis Rona in Wallabies squad, Reds bad boys Nick Frisby, Andrew Ready omitted

PAYTO & PANDA: After just four Super Rugby games, Curtis Rona has made the cut for a Wallabies training squad, while two boozy Reds have been omitted.

​CURTIS Rona has taken his first step towards becoming a Wallaby after being invited to a Michael Cheika “catch-up” camp in Canberra this weekend.

But the horror week of dumped Reds duo Nick Frisby and Andrew Ready only got worse with news they’re not on the list for the three-day Wallaby powwow.

Frisby, who was a Wallaby last year, and Ready, who was on the fringes, are among the notable absentees. They were dropped by Reds coach Nick Stiles this week on form, but it didn’t help they also missed a recovery session on Sunday after going for beers following the Reds’ loss to the Hurricanes the night before.

Curtis Rona will attend a Wallabies camp in Canberra.

Cheika doesn’t publish the list of invitees to his mid-season catch-ups, but Leroy Houston is also not going; fuelling speculation he is looking for a return to Europe. Houston has yet to play a game for the Reds this year after coming home on a two-year contract amid much fanfare last year.

Rona will fly to Canberra on Sunday night with other Force attendees after they play the Kings in Perth.

The power running of the ex-NRL centre has caught the eye of Cheika.

Other new faces who’ll be at the catch-up will be Reds rookie centre Duncan Paia’aua and backrower Adam Korczyk.

Frisby has been omitted from the squad. Picture: Peter Wallis

Force halfback Ryan Louwrens was on Cheika’s radar before he suffered an ACL injury.

Nick Phipps and Joe Powell will attend but Jake Gordon is not going; although the starting NSW No.9 is on a wider scouting list of Cheika.

HENRY ON THE HOP

AUSTRALIAN Sevens young gun Henry Hutchison has decided to make the leap to Super Rugby and has signed with the Melbourne Rebels for next season.

Hutchison played in the Rio Olympics but has opted to bypass the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast next year to pursue his 15-a-side ambitions.

PODCAST: Payto and Panda are joined by special guest Brendan Cannon

Such is the youth of the Aussie sevens squad, Hutchison is one of the most senior players in the team — aged just 20.

Though Hutchison was a centre at schoolboys level, the speedster is likely to play on the wing for the Rebels.

Hutchison will play in the Hong Kong sevens this weekend with the Australian side.

ALI FINED

ALI Williams has been charged $2118 (1500 euro) after being convicted of buying cocaine outside a Paris nightclub alongside former Wallaby James O’Connor.

Williams appeared in a Paris court and pleaded guilty to buying and possessing the drug after being arrested in possession of 2.4 grams of cocaine in February.

Williams arrives at the Paris courthouse.

O’Connor was fined a smaller amount last month because he did not physically touch the drugs.

But the pair must still face a French rugby hearing next week that will determine their futures.

O’Connor’s contract at Toulon expires at the end of this season and he may be moved on. Williams plays for Racing 92, who have already indicated the former All Blacks lock will be sacked over the scandal.

BEAVER SWITCH

FORGET Cooper Cronk. A Kangaroo legend made a very quiet code-switch in the past fortnight and it escaped many people’s attention.

Former Manly icon Steve “Beaver” Menzies wound back the clock and played with the Classic Wallabies in the Hong Kong Tens this week.

Menzies was roped into duty for the Classics by his good mate Sam Harris, the former Sea Eagle and Waratah. Beaver even warmed up for the event by playing fifth grade for the Warringah Rats last weekend.

The Classic Wallabies also welcomed back big Dell — Wendell Sailor — and had a good mix of former stars and rising ones. Classics organiser Stephen Hoiles led the team, which also contained Morgan Turinui, Lachlan Mackay, Pat Phibbs and Brendan Williams and rising sevens stars like Dylan Pietsch and Stephan Van de Walt.

The Classics, whose sponsor Kerry Hotels funded the trip, did four coaching clinics in Hong Kong as well.

“Playing in tournaments is a good way of bringing the old guys together and having some potential future Wallabies in the squad makes this a really unique tour,” said Hoiles.

“Our main focus though is to try and make an impact at grassroots level.”

POP QUIZ

Which one of those Classic Wallabies held Cronk out of the 2000 Australian schoolboys team? Claim your prize if you picked Lachlan Mackay, who wore the No.10. Cronk was the reserve five-eighth. Turinui captained the 2000 Aussie schools side.

SLIPPERY POLL

THOSE Roy Morgan poll numbers — 55,000 people play rugby — keep popping up in hot takes so we decided to dig into them a bit.

An official from the polling company said a single question about sports participation was included in a large booklet covering many topics.

It read: “Which of the following sports do you frequently participate in?”. There were no parameters around what “participate” captured and a Roy Morgan official told us the person taking the poll could decide that themselves.

A person could potentially view kicking the soccer ball with the kids in the park as regular participation.

The poll was for people aged 15-plus and algorithms are used to weight poll responses from differing age groups and genders.

Participation figures are a dark art and take it as gospel every sport bulks up the numbers by setting a low bar of “experiences”, such as five PE lessons.

Club XVs are the true guide for rugby. The ARU say there are 70,000 people aged 14-plus playing club XVs, and about another 70,000 playing rugby at schools. The two figures don’t overlap. There are also about 15,000 kids between 5 and 15 playing XVs rugby.

SPOTTED

Michael Cheika sipping coffee in trendy Surry Hills, just up the road from his former workplace at 2 Holt Street; the headquarters for NewsCorp. Cheika was a copyboy when he left school but later made a fortune in the rag trade.

THE RETIRING TYPE

HATS off to Tom Carter, the Sydney Uni stalwart. Despite retiring at the end of every season for the last five seasons, Carter will bring up his 200th grade game for the Students this weekend. Well played Tom, a true rugby man.