Lukhan Salakaia-Loto earns Wallabies call-up for South Africa Tests
Powerful lock Lukhan Salakaia-Loto has earned a return to the Wallabies’ squad for the two Tests in South Africa to kick off this year’s Rugby Championship, but injuries in the halves have forced coach Joe Schmidt to call on Nic White a week after his supposed retirement from international rugby,The Wallabies showed progress in the series against the British & Irish Lions and won the third Test to prevent a whitewash, but they cannot afford to rest heading into the clashes with the top-ranked Springboks, who beat the All Blacks in the 2023 World Cup final,The 35-player squad is similar to the one selected for the Lions series and includes Rob Valetini, the John Eales Medal winner who missed the third Test due to a calf injury, as well as veteran No 10 James O’Connor,But there are also some new faces, including three uncapped players,Salakaia-Loto, who has been out of the Australian squad so far this year, wins a place after starring for the First Nations & Pasifika XV against the Lions three weeks ago.
He played off the bench in the last of his 41 Wallabies appearances against Ireland late last year.Schmidt said the group has made “some positive steps” during the start of the international season but there is work ahead.“It’s pleasing to be able to keep the core of the group together, while also leaning on some depth and fresh bodies,” he said.“We’re very conscious of how difficult it is going to be, playing South Africa on their home turf over two consecutive weekends.”Fly half Tane Edmed has been called up due to the concussion suffered by Tom Lynagh in Sydney.
Lynagh himself was only thrust into the starting lineup for the Lions series following the neck injury to Noah Lolesio.Ben Donaldson has the inside running to start at No 10, having been named on the bench for all the Lions Tests, but O’Connor is well placed to don the gold again for the first time since 2022.Edmed made his Wallabies debut last year against Ireland but it ended three minutes after he came on due to a concussion.He has struggled to cement the No 10 at the Waratahs this year, and has signed a contract with the Brumbies to replace Lolesio, who is leaving Super Rugby to play in Japan.The 24-year-old said he thought he was in the mix for selection but to be named again is an honour.
“Despite the Super [Rugby] comp probably not going the way I would have liked, I always felt like I was a chance,” he said.“Everyone potentially could get injured or stuff can happen, so you can never kind of count yourself out.I’ve been ready and I’ve stayed ready.”There is more uncertainty at scrumhalf due to the hamstring injury to Jake Gordon that saw him miss the third Test.It means an SOS to White, who takes his place alongside Tate McDermott and the uncapped Brumby Ryan Lonergan in the squad.
Lonergan’s teammate in the ACT, winger Corey Toole, and new Queensland Reds recruit Aidan Ross are the other uncapped players named, although Ross played a single Test for New Zealand in 2022.He has moved from the Chiefs to the Reds this year.Western Force hooker Brandon Paenga-Amosa keeps his place after his belated call-up for the third Lions Test.His selection was made more likely by the retirement announcement this week of David Porecki.Sign up to The BreakdownThe latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week's action reviewedafter newsletter promotionYoung centre Josh Flook and hooker Josh Nasser joined their Reds teammate Salakaia-Loto as new faces in the squad, which will play the first Test against the Springboks in Johannesburg on 16 August.
The second Test is a week later in Cape Town.Edmed, who will travel to South Africa for the first time, said the presence of strong forwards Valetini and Will Skelton in the squad gives the Wallabies confidence, but the players are well aware of the task in front of them.“I’m not delusional to the fact that it’s going to be a very tough couple of games and I’m sure the squad’s the same, but we’re going to prepare as best we can, and I’m sure Joe and the squad are ready for the challenge,” he said.Forwards: Angus Bell, Nick Champion De Crespigny, Langi Gleeson, Tom Hooper, Fraser McReight, Josh Nasser, Zane Nonggorr, Brandon Paenga-Amosa, Billy Pollard, Tom Robertson, Aidan Ross, Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, Will Skelton, Carlo Tizzano, Taniela Tupou, Rob Valetini, Jeremy Williams, Harry WilsonBacks: Ben Donaldson, Tane Edmed, Josh Flook, Len Ikitau, Max Jorgensen, Andrew Kellaway, Ryan Lonergan, Tate McDermott, James O’Connor, Dylan Pietsch, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Nic White, Tom Wright
Bank’s base rate gift to borrowers is wrapped in an inflation warning | Phillip Inman
A reduction in interest rates by the Bank of England should rank as a joyful summer gift to borrowers weighed down by the high cost of mortgages and loans.Yet the latest quarter-point cut to the cost of borrowing, from 4.25% to 4%, is laced with so many warnings that any celebration will be muted.Most prominently, the Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) said in its latest assessment of the UK’s economic outlook that inflation is on course to peak at a higher rate in the second half of this year than previously forecast.Price spikes in food and energy and the higher cost of business services would push the consumer prices index to 4% in September, it said, before falling only slowly to an average of 3% in a year’s time
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I spoke to the AI avatar of a Leeds MP. How did it cope with my Yorkshire accent?
As anyone with even a trace of a regional dialect who has had to pay a parking fine can attest, voice recognition services struggle with accents. Now, people in Mark Sewards’ constituency in Leeds are likely to find the same problem with his AI variant.A chatbot billed as the first AI version of an MP responds in Sewards’ voice with advice, support or by offering to pass on a message to his team – but only if it understands you.The website, a virtual representation of the MP for Leeds South West and Morley – complete with a Pixar-style cartoon – was launched by a local startup to field questions from his constituents, some of whom have broad Leeds accents.I was interested to see how “Sewardsbot” would handle a conversation with someone from only a couple of miles away from his constituency border
OpenAI says latest ChatGPT upgrade is big step forward but still can’t do humans’ jobs
OpenAI has claimed to have taken a “significant step” towards artificial general intelligence (AGI) with the launch of its latest upgrade to ChatGPT, but has admitted there are still “many things” missing in its quest to create a system able to do humans’ jobs.The startup said its GPT-5 model, the underlying technology that will power its breakthrough AI chatbot, represents a big upgrade on its predecessors in areas such as coding and creative writing – and is also a lot less sycophantic.It said the upgrade was being made available to all of ChatGPT’s 700 million weekly users immediately.Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, called the model a “significant step forward” to achieving the theoretical state of AGI, which the startup defines as a highly autonomous system that outperforms humans at most economically valuable work – or, in other words, can do their jobs.However, Altman admitted GPT-5 had not reached that goal yet
The ultimate test: watching this glorious sporting summer has given me a headache | Emma John
There is a crick in my neck, a rick in my back, and a permanent ache behind my eyes. A friend refuses to offer sympathy. “You did this to yourself,” she says as I pop paracetamol. Thousands of hours of medical research are ploughed into elite sport, but where are the studies into the physical and mental demands of keeping up with it?While winter may be fiercely programmed, it’s the multi-disciplinary bunfight of summer that is the ultimate test of a sports fan. Right when our diaries demand we’re at our most sociable, our most available, our most outdoors, the calendar loses all sense of perspective and dumps events on us like it’s trying to save them from a burning building
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