Tuesday’s Rugby News has all the Rebels owner wagging his finger, Bernard Foley out indefinitely, what Cheika reckons, and the Boks introduce a Giteau Law
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Cox Takes Stand
Melbourne Rebels boss Andrew Cox is rather bullish about his team’s chances of sticking around, telling the SMH that the ARU can’t afford to cut the team.
Cox’s Imperium Capital Group bought the Rebels from the ARU in 2015, and are the only privately-owned Australian team. Coincidentally or not, the Rebels also have a points difference of -103 after two games.
“Economically I doubt the ARU could afford to do it,” Cox said. “We’ve got stadium deals, new facilities we’ve invested a lot of money in and there’s significant issues with that.
“We’re a very important market for Fox (pay television) as we’re the second best advertising market in Australia so there’s a whole host of things that make it highly unlikely.”
While he was yapping away, Cox also found time to give the thumbs up to under-fire Rebels coach Tony McGahan:
“Tony is doing a great job,” Cox said. “We’ve got a tough draw, there’s no question about that … the season is more than two games and we would hope we’re putting in place things to ensure we perform at a much better level on the park than we have been.”
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Foley Still Out
Bernard Foley has been ruled out indefinitely by the Waratahs, after repeatedly failing fitness tests. Foley suffered a concussion in pre-season, and his inability to recover from that is the specific cause of his woes.
“His concussion is not improving and is still experiencing symptoms so we believed the best thing for him right now is to return to Sydney,” coach Daryl Gibson told the SMH. “He’s going to see a neurologist and have some more tests and hopefully that’ll set him on the right course to improve.
“[It’s] terribly frustrating for him at the moment. He wants to be out on the field and he’s just not quite 100 per cent and in that zone where we certainly can’t let him play.
“It’s pretty much post-concussion syndrome. He’s feeling very heavy in his head, low-grade headaches, particularly when exercising. It’s one of those things that a number of players have suffered in the past and it does improve over time.”
It’s not looking good for Foley. As Gibson says, he’s off to see a neurologist (basically a specialist in the nervous system) and as he further explains, Foley could be goneskies for a season.
“It’s a really unknown one. Post-concussion syndromes can last for, in some cases … the likes of Charlie Ngatai, he lost a whole season. We hope he recovers quickly and can re-join. This is his first experience of post-concussion, so it’s all new to him. I certainly empathise with him because I had ten weeks out so I understand what he’s going through.”
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Cheika Reika-ns
Michael Cheika is of the opinion that talent being spread too thinly ain’t an excuse for poor performances from Australian teams.
“Players can play well whether they’re playing in five teams or four teams, nothing stops chaps stepping up to the mark and tackling people and putting their mark on the game,” said Cheika, who continued to play 30-years-odd-old footballers on the verge of retirement instead of blooding, say, Jed Holloway and Andrew Kellaway, when he was Tahs coach.
“Sometimes we look too much for excuses; ‘Oh we’ve expanded or we’ve got too many teams or this or that’. Bring it right back to the footy and say, ‘Let’s just play better, let’s make our involvements in the game count’.
“That might be more difficult over five teams, it may not be. What I don’t want to have is [people saying] ‘We are where we are because we have five teams’, because that’s not necessarily true. Players who are playing in those five teams can still play good footy.
“Playing better will come from hard work, being fitter, being better at our skills, better decision-making.”
While Cheika would prefer to have 5 teams, he’s prepared to accept 4 if it’s in the best interests of Australian rugby.
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Saffer Giteau
South Africa have latched onto Cheika’s strategic masterplan* to end New Zealand’s dominance of international rugby, by introducing their own Giteau Law.
From the November internationals onwards, Springboks with more than 30 caps can bugger off to Europe instead of, say, playing for the Cheetahs, and still be expected to be considered for international selection. This new rule however won’t be applicable in World Cup years – which gives it 3 international windows for the SARU to figure out.
“We are sending a message to young players that if they wish to play for the Springboks, then they must remain in South Africa,” the president of SA Rugby Mark Alexander said, according to rugby.com.au.
“We have also retained flexibility for the coach to select exceptional players who may be based overseas provided they have a proven track record of 30 Tests for the Springboks,” he added, saying the policy would be reviewed periodically in conjunction with the national coach.
Here’s a stat:
12 of the Boks’ 31-man squad for the 2015 Rugby World Cup were contracted to overseas-based clubs, while 40 players from South Africa’s 6 Super Rugby teams signed contracts with teams outside of the country at the end of the 2016 competition.
Hopefully, the inconvenience caused by Springboks and Wallabies turning out for test rugby will convince NH sides to increasingly throw money at Kiwis, who have to stay in NZ if they wanna play for the ABs.
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