Author: Charlie Mackay
By GoldyLocksGood morning, G&GR! What an honour it is to be part of the new-look newsweek at this esteemed institution. Like your local stalker or career politician, I’ve been loitering around the place for many years without really doing much, but I couldn’t risk letting the love fade away without putting my hand up first. So here we are, welcome to Wednesday! Changes afoot Rugby Australia chief propagandist William Nathanson reports the Wallabies have rung two squad changes ahead of the weekend’s clash with Argentina, with Pone Fa’amausili and Blake Schoupp called in as front-row coverage. Schoupp is understood to be covering…
Thanks to a new contributor, ‘Newtta’, for their contribution for today’s G&GR News. The author prefers to keep his identify as mysterious as Richie McCaw’s ability to influence referees. In any case, welcome, friend! Enjoy Newtta’s News, folks! Junior Wallabies Beat NZ in U20 World ChampionshipSee former G&GRian, Nathan Williamson’s, article for more here.The Kiwis spent the majority of the game with 14 men after a red card to Tom Allen in the 13th minute for a dangerous cleanout. Despite this, the Aussies didn’t have it all their own way as New Zealand defied the odds to take a 12…
Good Monday, GAGRs, and welcome to the news. We’ll have reflections from the Men’s and Women’s test matches, the latest in MLR news and two Super sides set to unveil their new coach. THE RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP 2023 – ROUND ONESpringboks 43 def Wallabies 12 Andrew Fontaine in the Guardian sums it up as well as any other person could:”Eddie Jones said he wanted a “robust performance” from his new-look Wallabies. He got an insipid debacle. He told media he had coached his men to play like “mongrel dogs”. He delivered a mob of mewling pussycats. He promised fans this week…
From the desk of JusWal – You’ve heard it before, too often I’m sure: South Africa and New Zealand (especially) never put their best effort into The Rugby Championship, née the Tri Nations tournament, in a Rugby World Cup year. The conventional narrative goes that they look forward to two good hit-outs against each other, and are content to risk losses to Australia and Argentina while resting their stars and giving game time to the squaddies. Thus, history shows that the Wallabies won the Tri Nations title in 2011 and TRC in 2015. Spoiling the theory, South Africa carried off…
TESTING POSITIVELet’s restart this whole shebang off with a bang: the first Wallabies 23 of 2023.Starters: 15 Tom Wright, 14 Suliasi Vunivalu, 13 Len Ikitau, 12 Reece Hodge, 11 Marika Koroibete, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Nic White, 8 Rob Valetini, 7 Michael Hooper (c), 6 Tom Hooper, 5 Will Skelton, 4 Nick Frost, 3 Allan Alaalatoa, 2 David Porecki, 1 James Slipper (c)Finishers: 16 Jordan Uelese, 17 Matt Gibbon, 18 Zane Nonggorr, 19 Richie Arnold, 20 Pete Samu, 21 Tate McDermott, 22 Samu Kerevi, 23 Carter GordonThe biggest and best news is Quade Cooper being fit in July, available and…
Greetings, G&GRs, and welcome to another Monday. It’ll be a quick one today with one piece of big news and some smaller articles from happenings around the world. WORLD LEAGUE UNVEILEDAccording to rugby.com.au, a new rugby union competition between tier one nations from the northern and southern hemisphere will be played every alternate year from 2026 to add a competitive edge to the July and November international windows, officials have confirmed.A ‘World League’ has been mooted for some time seeking to extract more revenue from the international windows and bring “context” to what have been friendly fixtures played traditionally in…
Greetings, G$&GRs, and welcome to the rugby news for this fine Monday. I trust you all had a rocking weekend full of rugby, in whatever way works for you. I myself had the fortune to referee in all four seasons of Melbourne yesterday so I was delighted to have a quiet Sunday at home. Our news today sees the finale of the Super Rugby Aotearoa Pacific, the announcement of the Wobbly squad, some of the U20s results and the concussion case kicks off in the UK. As an aside, if you happen to be in the region of Kayo Stadium…
Greetings, G&GRs, and welcome to Friday’s Rugby News aka the greatest thing since the Australians last won the Bledisloe Cup. Well, firstly, a message of desperation. As you’ve seen, our craparazzi numbers have dropped by two, first with the loss of some NSW Tart lover, Goss or something, followed by the esteemed HappyMan yesterday. While the rest of us craparazzi love our ranting writing, if there are any takers for a day a week/fortnight, or even the odd column, then please reach out. We can only do so much, folks. I mean, shit, the ‘Old Man Yelling at Clouds’ is…
Greetings, G&GRs, and welcome to Monday’s Rugby News. It is with much sadness that I bid the 2023 SRP season farewell from an Australian perspective, with the only possible representatives from Aus being the referees (extremely likely, though the capacity is TBC). We’ll do a post-mortem of the semi-finals matches, a look at three of the southern hemisphere Bill squads named over the weekend, a look at the departing Rabble players, Toulouse win the Top 14 trophy, WR supposedly finalising the pseudo-RWC World League, and a reflection on my own game from the weekend.SUPER RUGBY SEMI-FINALSCrusaders 52 def Blues 15…
Welcome, G&GRs, to the news day formerly known as inferior journalism compared to Mondays to Thursdays Friday’s Goss with some Hass, Hess, Hiss, Huss bloke… maybe the former Australian coach, Dean Rinny will know him? Or the local magistrate in the Hunter may let him out ‘on bail’.today we have the Tasmanian Yelling at Clouds 2.0, a preview of the SRP semi-finals, Hammer thinking expansion is a good idea among other ‘innovations’, and *gasp* Australian rugby is run by elitist Sydney private schoolboys. Who’da thunk it? To avoid the confusion of last week, I, Charlie, have written every bit, apart…
Happy Monday, G&GRs, and welcome to the news for today. Firstly, a “rah rah hip hip huzzah” to my royal namesake and for the associated long weekend. I’ll never say ‘no’ to a Monday away from the office! Secondly, it is time to bask in the glory of the ‘Hand of God’ in the Brumbies v Canes QF. We’ll have a look into the four quarter-finals from the weekend gone, and thoughts of what might happen in the semi-finals this coming weekend, some thoughts on the fate of the UK premiership from a player perspective, Eddie’s ‘Cunning Plan’, and JOC…
Greetings, G&GRs, and welcome to Friday’s Rugby News, now Hoss-free for one whole week! *cries*You’re all in luck though, he has sent us this postcard via His Majesty’s snail mail service:Fortunately, our own Apple Islander, Keith Butler (aka the old man who shouts at clouds) visited the Tasmanian version of the Ponderosa (which is startingly similar in looks and smell to the Taswegian gene pool) to bring you today’s topic of rugby-related work absenteeism, I mean, G&GR news for this fine Friday before a long weekend! Here’s optimistically hoping more Aussie sides than the Ponies make it through to the…
Morning G&GRs, and welcome to the 2023 quarter-final edition. Apologies to Moana, Rebels, Force and Highlander readers as your season is done; we’ll get to the requiem later. For those who’re supporters of the remaining eight sides, we’ll look ahead to the coming weekend’s “business end”. We have an all-but-confirmed RA CEO in the latest instalment of “jobs for the boys”, the Junior Wallaroos earn a series victory (on aggregate, shhh, Karl) against the Baby Blacks in “early Bledisloe jitters”, the Parisian Festival of the Gilbert looks set to earn big dosh in “show me the money”, and updated qualification…
Greetings, G&GRs, and welcome to yet another Melancholy Monday. We’ll review the penultimate round of the regular Super season, a look ahead at what promises to be quite the final round and results from around the globe. Hope your Monday is fine and dandy, folks! SUPER RUGBY ROUND 14Highlanders def Reds – match report hereRebels def Force – match report hereDrua def Moana Pasifika – match report hereCrusaders def Waratahs – match report hereBlues def Hurricanes – match report hereChiefs def Brumbies – match report hereWell, another mostly disappointing effort from the Australian Super sides over the weekend. The Reds…
Greetings, G&GRs, and welcome to yet another Monday news! Today, we’ll recap the Wallaroos v Fijiana test match, the 13th round of Super Rugby Pacific, the European finals, Sevens news and wondering what all the propaganda is about.WALLAROOS V FIJIANAThe Wallaroos sent captain Shannon Parry into retirement on a successful note, charging to a 22-5 win over Fijiana in the women’s rugby test at Sydney’s Allianz Stadium on Saturday in what I consider the main attraction with a men’s game tacked on afterwards.Winger Maya Stewart scored two tries (is Corey Toole the men’s version of Maya?) while outstanding flanker, and…
Greetings, G&GRs, and welcome to Monday’s Rugby News! Well, what a curious weekend that was, eh? I mean, there was an Australian winner in every game played this weekend (unlucky, Keith). That’s been all but unheard of for quite some time now. Apart from the Super Rugby weekend, news in from Fiji as World Rugby attempts to stabilise their union, a lesson in the law for the Stan commentary and some local referees bringing up the milestones. SUPER RUGBYThe Queensland side (allegedly pictured above) really did a double on many of us. Not only was I eating humble pie very…
Greetings, G&GRs, and a top o’ the mornin’ to ye all. Well, I’ll admit I, once again, haven’t got around to watching as much Super Rugby as I’d’ve liked, but, I did see the one game that mattered. In the famous words of the best Christmas movie made, “Yippie Ki Yay”, Keith! In other news, the Super W final has been played and won, extra detail about the WXV competition has been announced. SUPER RUGBYBrumbies def Rebels – match report hereTahs def Reds – match report hereBlues def Moana Pasifika – match report hereDrua def Hurricanes – match report hereCrusaders…
Good morning, GAGRs, and happy Monday to you all (except us Ponies fans *sigh*). Another round of super rugby celebrations of culture fading into mediocrity, some tough Super W semi-finals, a world record crowd at the Cabbage Patch and Hammer opening his gob again. Hooray!SUPER W – SEMI-FINALSFijiana def Waratahs – match report hereReds def Brumbies – match report hereThe Tahs will likely be spewing they gave away such a massive half-time lead, but thems the breaks of pro rugby – you have to take your chances and not let the other side in with a sniff. Similarly, the Brumbies…
G’day, G&GRs, and welcome to Monday’s news. In Melbourne this weekend, I’ve been lucky enough to see Danny Bhoy, Dylan Moran, Wil Anderson, Akmal Saleh and Ed Gamble at the Comedy Festival. Combined with the fact that my Ponies had a well-deserved bye and my time, and some interest, in watching rugby was, well, sweet FA. Indeed, about the only time I managed to get my eyeballs on the games was watching matches on my phone between shows! Nonetheless, I’m delighted that the Tahs got pantsed – again – even if that is a net negative for rugby in Australia,…
G’day G&GRs, and welcome to Monday’s Rugby News. Alas, time has seemingly disappeared this week so only the barest minimum (or what Wednesday’s craparazzi would call a “good effort”) of news today. We’ll recap the Super Rugby games and associated Aussie rah rah news, the Women’s Six Nations and a delightful piece of refereeing from a Welshman that isn’t Nigel Owens. Have a doozy, folks. SUPER RUGBY ROUND EIGHTBrumbies def Drua – match report hereReds def Moana Pasifika – match report hereChiefs def Hurricanes – match report hereTahs def Force – match report here SUPER WWaratahs def Reds – match…