Mad Monday with Brisneyland Local #41: a week to go til the sh1t gets real!

Happy Monday G&GRs. Apologies for last week; I travelled south to help a mate out, and low and behold the Hossman dragged me into an adventure I wasn’t quite prepared for. But despite KARL’s account of the story (BTW KARL thanks for filling in at short notice), I didn’t kick the walls in to get the big man out. It was a Newcastle prison, so the cells are more like kindegarten rooms (turns out Novocastrians aren’t that bright, they just have to undo the child proof lock). I got him out and returned him to the Ponderosa, the authorities won’t know to look for him there, they usually find him outside the TAB!

I don’t know about you lot, but I have really immersed myself in the Olympics this week. Watching sports I rarely watch, and know even less than nothing about them. But loving them nonetheless. There really is a lot to be said about the endeavours of humans. With a week to go before the Rugby Championships, as mentioned above, 💩 is about to get real. This is where the contenders go up against the wannabes. A chance for Argentina and Australia to prove to New Zealand and South Africa that they have what it takes.

So let’s look at the forthcoming tournament and have a bit of a nosey parker around the other rugby news of the weekend. So strap yourself in, grab a big cup of you know what ☕, and let’s get it on.

The Rugby Championships

The southern hemisphere’s answer to the Six Nations, the Rugby Championship was formerly known as the Tri Nations Series which ran from 1996–2011. The competition is contested annually by Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. In 2012 the Argentinians were invited to join the fray, and there’s hope in the coming year or so Fiji and potentially Japan could join the mix.

For 2024 the schedule looks like:

Round one pits the Wallabies against the Dutch Dirt Farmers in a Saturday afternoon game at the fortress that is Suncorp Stadium. The second game sees the Darkness up against the FISMs at Sky Stadium in Wellington.

The squad and some discussion around it was covered in Hoss’s Friday news. But despite most Wallabies fans fears, the Saffas don’t have the best track record here in Australia, and especially at Suncorp. It’s a bit like the Wallabies’ view of Eden Park. On top of that Razzie rates Joe Schmidt very highly as a coach, and knows he’ll get the most out of his Wallaby players with a good game plan. But that said, the Bokke are in fine form and are bringing a cracking squad with 22 RWC winners in it. Which should be a fearful proposition for those in Cadbury gold.

For the second game, this despite Razor’s tinkering with the NZ squad further, is likely to be a shake out for the their matches up against the Sprinboks.

LSL back home at the Reds

As covered in the Queenalnd Reds news here, LSL has returned home to God’s Country. The Queensland Rugby Union announced the signing of Wallabies forward Lukhan Salakaia-Loto for the 2025 season. The ‘big fella’ will return home to the Queensland Reds as a far more experienced player due to stints with England’s Northampton Saints (2022-23) and the Melbourne Rebels (2024).

Having only just turned 27, LSL still has many years to go, and will add all he’s learnt from 32 Tests and 77 Super Rugby appearances to the Reds pack in 2025. In addition to LSL, Josh Canham, Matt Gibbon, Filipo Daugunu, and Lachie Anderson have now been signed by head coach Les Kiss and Sam Cordingley, the QRU’s General Manager-Professional Rugby, as new talent for the 2025 squad.

I back the Reds for a cracking season for 2025.

TJ Perenara off to Nipponville

Long serving and yappy little All Blacks scrumhalf TJ Perenara is the next experienced All BLack to chase the yen and head to the land of Yamazake! The Hurricanes No.9 is set to join Black Rams Tokyo, despite playing for Red Hurricanes in Japan in a 2021 sabbatical. Perenara has played 81 Tests for the Darkness and made 163 appearances for the Hurricanes.

TJ was a member of the All Blacks’ World Cup win in 2015, won Super Rugby with the Canes in 2016 and is the current Super Rugby leading try scorer. With a plethora of new young scrumhalves coming through, his miracle recovery from a double ruptured Achilles served well for the All Blacks leading into the July Test series. But with Cam Roigard coming back from injury, and Cortez Ratima and Finlay Christie nipping at his heels, I think the Rugby Championships may just be TJ’s swan song.

When Aussie teams have been playing against him, he used to drive me nuts. But there’s never been any doubt that this man was a true star. Good luck TJ and bon voyage.

Anyway enough of this old man jibbering on, over to you G&GRs. Have at it.