Tuesday’s Rugby News has Eddie pulling the strings, James O’Connor teaching crims about how to be a thug, Reece Robinson kicking more, and Force players doing what they can.
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Media Matador
England coach Eddie Jones has successfully drawn attention away from his side’s rather mediocre 36-15 win over Italy on the weekend by complaining about Italy’s tactics.
As you might have seen on GAGR’s Facebook, Italy pulled off the Chiefs’ tactic from last year of not contesting rucks. In short, this meant there was technically no offside and the Italians could interfere with the English scrumhalf.
“That wasn’t rugby today, if that’s rugby I’m going to retire, I don’t want to be involved in that,” Jones said of the tactic.
“If your halfback can’t pass the ball, there’s something wrong with the game. If the 10 can’t see the ball, how do you play rugby?
“We lost the ruck from the game and it ceases to become rugby so if you paid for your ticket, ask for your money back. I can’t answer questions on rugby because there wasn’t any today,” added Jones, who compared the tactic to the famous, and hilarious, underarm ball.
England struggled with the tactic, only winning the game in the last quarter with the score being 17-15 after 60 minutes.
For his part, this is what the Italian coach said:
“What do people want us to do? Be normal, lay down and get beaten? We can’t be normal, we have to be Italy,” said Irishman Conor O’Shea.
“It’s nothing new but when Australia or Toulouse did it, it was fantastic but when Italy do it, it’s wrong. We did not come here to roll over.
“It’s about time Italy got some respect,” he added.
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Hard Life
If mention of the underarm ball still has you chuckling, here’s some more comedy.
The Daily Telegraph reports that James O’Connor and Ali Williams were in “cell hell” after being busted for buying drugs, with the two being “locked in separate police cells alongside hardened French gangsters and drug dealers.”
The two were forced to spend 40 hours in the slammer for the First Fleet-era punitive crime of buying several hours of escapism from a rather dreary 2017.
The report continues: “The 26-year-old former Wallaby and 35-year-old former All Black spent a number of hours alongside these [hardened criminals]…a Paris police source confirmed that while O’Connor and Williams have no issues tackling 120kg behemoths on the rugby field, they looked decidedly shaky in their cells early on Saturday morning.”
While O’Connor returned a positive result for cocaine (oh noes!), because he didn’t actually handle any cocaine, he got lighter off than Williams, who has been charged with buying cocaine. Yep. That means Williams has to go to French court and may have his working visa revoked.
It may get worse for the pair, with the Top 14 considering “severe” suspensions for the two.
On top of that, as reported yesterday, straightedge’s Ben Barba is in line to take James O’Connor’s place at Toulon, both this weekend and possibly into the future.
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Golden Fleece Reece
Reece Robinson is like that kid who came back from summer holidays heaps different. Did you see him on the weekend? The league re-import has convinced the power that be that he can kick!
Without Bernard “Iceman” Foley on the weekend, the Tahs relied on Robinson’s boot to get them over the line against the Force. And that he did, scoring four penalties and one conversion, only missing one kick in the process.
This comes after Robinson kicked seven from nine in the Highlanders trial game.
“I’d done a bit of kicking before back in my league days, but I wasn’t expecting it,” Robinson said to the SMH. “Happy with the way it’s going, but missed the easiest one at the end.
“Since Bernard’s injured, someone has to step up and ‘Gibbo’ just said I might as well have a crack.”
Foley, who has flown with the Tahs to South Africa, is still recovering from concussion, and Waratahs Daryl Gibson is cautious to re-introduce him.
So, Robinson looks set to continue his shoeing duties.
“Reecey kicked very well,” Gibson said. “He was calm, very composed, bangs it over. He certainly kept that pressure on the scoreboard early. He did very well.”
(Gibbo? Reecey? Where’s the Badge when you need him?)
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To Be Reckoned With
The Force players are doing their best to keep themselves in a job, rugby.com.au reports, with the players ramping up support on social media.
“We had a couple of players going up to the commercial department, asking about how they could support it and creative ideas about how to get behind the road safety (campaign) and the guys in the commercial department said that’s just never happened before,” Force coach Dave Wessels said.
“We’re pretty enthusiastic about the cause and I think we’re going to make a very real difference to Western Australia, which is ultimately what we want to try and do.”
“I am very lucky that we’ve just got a fantastic bunch of guys. They’re very mature, good guys. From that perspective, I want to do the best by them and it motivates me to work as hard as I can.”
Wessels goes on to say that he’s attempting to create as much of a player-led culture as he can at the club – a player-led culture that will surely get up to no funny buggers when Matt Hodgson, a man who is rumoured to bleed cement, is there.
“Hodgo is the Western Force. His whole attitude is just brilliant – the way he looks after his body and different things to be able to do what he does at his age,” Wessels said.
“I guess I probably think of leadership – the key to me about leadership is you create a fantastic vibe but you are never the vibe yourself,” Wessels continued. “You want, if you are not there one day, for the players to be able to perform exactly like they were if you were around.
“That takes time, but you don’t ever want to be the centre of attention and I think you’ve got to allow that space for the players.”
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