Author: Jack Norton

In a shock move, Richard Graham announced his resignation from the Western Force this afternoon. He will be leaving at the end of this season to join the Reds for 2013 where he’ll become the head coach and Ewen McKenzie will take a less hands-on role as director of coaching. Graham was due to coach two more seasons in the west, but was approached by the Reds to take up the position from next year. Going from head coach of a struggling team to the defending champions is a step up for Woody, who said: ‘As a career coach I…

The Waratahs are back to square one after a performance full of missed tackles and missed opportunities against the Chiefs in Hamilton. A dangerous Chiefs team pounced on anything the Waratahs let their way and created a few moments of brilliance of their own in a three try to one win. Despite the Tahs having the weight of possession, the teams went into the sheds with the Chiefs up 13 points to 10. The first half never really go into much of a rhythm. Both teams made good breaks and the Tahs were probably the dominant side. Tom Kingston scored…

The Waratahs won a tight and entertaining game against the Sharks, in a thrilling return to afternoon Super Rugby at the SFS. Tahs flyer Tom Kingston scored in the corner with five minutes to go, Berrick Barnes converted and the Tahs held onto the 34-30 lead for the win. The emotion on the Waratahs’ faces after the game said it all. They finally showed they could do it in a close one and buried the hatchet from their round four performance against the Force. The teams went into the sheds with the score at 17-13 to the Sharks. The first…

The Force have come away deserving one-point winners against a Waratahs side that lacked both intent and execution. David Pocock’s men held onto their 21-20 lead when a last-minute charge from Tahs led to a turnover after the bell and a kick into touch from Nathan Charles. Last week’s game against the Highlanders took it out of the Tahs, and Michael Foley echoed that in his post-game interview, though it was no excuse for the dour and uninspired performance they strung together. The Waratahs were on top early on and a try to Adam Ashley-Cooper off the back of a…

The Waratahs are on their first overseas mission of the year and need to beat an in-form Highlanders outfit to keep their season on track. The Highlanders are two from two after beating both the Chiefs and Crusaders and have been a bit of a surprise packet in the early rounds. Whether they can keep it up remains to be seen and the Tahs should present them with a fairly formidable challenge. If the Tahs manage to lose it could well be now that the wheels start to fall off. Serious finals contenders can only afford to drop a couple…

The Waratahs made up for last week’s loss against the Reds with a solid, if not emphatic, bonus point win against the Rebels in Melbourne. In  a spiteful and reasonably fast-paced encounter, the Tahs came away with two tries to Tom Carter, one to Sekope Kepu and another to Bernard Foley. The Rebels’ only try came from Bryce’s whistle after a solid attacking maul was pulled down, but more on that later. The Tahs had the general ascendancy through the first half and went to oranges up 22-6. The Rebel sc(r)um held up pretty well and apart from the general…

Last night’s curtain raiser for Tahs v. Reds got almost as much attention as the main event, and with good reason. Sebastien Chabal, the French Caveman, pulled on the black and gold hoops of Balmain in their 19-5 win over local rivals Petersham. This one-off signing brought more attention to subbies rugby since, well, last time Balmain had a famous international play for them. Chabal definitely proved his worth during the game, bagging a try and providing a definite spark in both attack and defence. To find out what it was like to train and play with a 62-Test veteran,…

 I sat through it again. To put it politely, it wasn’t particularly fun, but I’m going to pretend it made me a better fan/analyst/master of my shakras. The game was hard to rate. It wasn’t horrible and the Wallabies came closer to scoring than I remembered, but they never looked like really getting near the All Blacks. Mostly that gave us some middling player ratings with no stand outs but no ‘tell your story walking’ performances either (no, I don’t think QC deserves all the criticism he’s copped). Every single All Black would have received a higher rating than their…

They might have gone down in the hunt for a record-breaking seventh Shute Shield title, but Sydney University’s rugby club has still been pretty damn successful over the last few years. Five Uni players are in the Australian squad facing New Zealand on Sunday: Dan Vickerman, Berrick Barnes, Ben McCalman, Luke Burgess and Nick Phipps. Six premierships and a record number of elite players, all from a club that was in danger of being kicked out of NSW Premier Rugby in the mid-1990s after years of bad results. Their success is based on the creation and development of their Elite…

University 46 – 6 Randwick It was déjà vu all over again as Sydney University bulldozed their way to a sixth successive Shute Shield at a wet Concord Oval. In doing so the Students equaled Randwick’s own winning streak of 1987  to 1992, and only compounded the ‘Wicks depression of losing yet again to the men in blue and gold. While both teams scraped into finals contention, Uni had good wins over Easts and Souths while Randwick got past Manly and minor premiers Eastwood. The Students saved their best until last and were dominant over Randwick in every area…

Saturday 25/9 Randwick 23 – 21 Eastwood They scraped into finals contention in sixth spot, and now Randwick are heading to the Shute Shield grand final after defeating Eastwood yesterday. Despite leading 10-3 at oranges, Eastwood never looked like shutting the ‘Wicks out of the game in what was a disappointing end for the minor premiers. Both teams had Wallabies in their ranks, although those in green were most conspicuous, with Rocky Elsom in Randwick colours after a six-year absence. Elsom’s absence showed early on, as there seemed to be some confusion about his role and what lines he was…

Saturday 18/9 University 47 – 17 Eastern Suburbs Yesterday s first final between Easts and a resurgent Uni was not as close-fought an encounter as some might have predicted. The possibility of a Wallaby-esque lead capitulation aside, the Students had the game well and truly sewn up at half-time. They ran into the sheds up 29-3 after dominating almost all facets of the game for the first 40 minutes. The return of Dean Mumm, Luke Burgess and Berrick Barnes to Uni ranks for this final was a significant boost, with Barnes making good use of his first starting performance in…

It definitely wasn’t the Bledisloe furnace of AMI stadium Christchurch, and it didn’t compare to Loftus Versfeld or Suncorp on any level. But there was more atmosphere than ANZ as Balmain and Epping ran onto Blackmore Park in Leichhardt yesterday afternoon. Around 2000 fans lined the oval in arguably the biggest crowd to ever see a third division subbies game. They were there to watch Drew Mitchell and Mat Giteau pull on the black and gold of Balmain. Schmoo and Gits ran on wearing 15 and 10 respectively. Some might argue this put them both out of position but as…