Author: KARL

Born in NZ and emigrated to Australia to be with my Australian wife I met whilst serving in the NZ Army. Proud to be an Australian by choice as well as a Kiwi. After more than 32 years in the NZ Army I am a huge believer in ANZAC. My dream is to see NZ No 1 and Australia No2 in world rankings. I played rugby for 43 odd years and have been refereeing for 13 love the game and the camaraderie it generates.

As we get closer to the weekend and the opening round of Super Rugby Pacific I can almost feel the tension in the air. No hump day feelings today as last week was nothing and this weekend is everything. Brumbies ready to push for Super Rugby title As reported in Rugby News here Allan Alaalatoa is excited rather than intimidated with meeting the Waratahs first up at the new Allianz Stadium. He’s loving the “buzz” around rugby at the moment saying “It’s everywhere… and that’s awesome” He further said that “As players, we want to be performing in front of…

Read More

Welcome back, team. Life is just so much better with good rugby on TV. I must admit I did enjoy the 7s rugby and watching the skills of some of these players, especially the women, was just an awesome experience. But Six Nations is just something else. As from 12:00 today last week’s games become memories of what was or could have been and we now start looking forward to what this weekend will bring. Aaron Smith’s and Beauden Barrett’s moves to Japan confirmed 3 things we learnt from the Six Nations Opening Round From Stuff in NZ here news…

Read More

So here we are, games all played for the year and it’s that time when we can sit back and reflect on the year that was. I hope you enjoy my last post for the year, it’s been a lot of fun doing this and the banter has, for the most part, been awesome. Special thanks to Yowie for stepping up and sharing the load with me as work wouldn’t allow me to do this every week. I’m thinking about a refereeing piece to put up over the break just to keep the site going so check in occasionally as…

Read More

Welcome to Hump Day fellow G&GRs. A day when we can start leaving the despair of the weekend behind us and start building up the hope and anticipation of the weekend coming. Or can we? With the plays that went on last weekend do any of us really have any expectation of a change this coming weekend? It seems to me that we’ve been spending a lot of time hoping for some positive changes, dreaming of wins we should actually expect but ever more falling further and further into the despair of having our expectations dashed yet again. As a…

Read More

Welcome team. Last week’s games can now be put to rest as we look forward to this weekend with some anticipation that the drivel we saw last week will be rectified. Or is it with a level of apprehension that we think the same poor performances will continue and so we approach the weekend with more hope than expectation and already mentally prepare ourselves for the worst with the hope that we will be pleasantly surprised? NZ Rugby to reduce height of tackles in club and 1st XV rugby New Zealand has taken the bull by the horns and will…

Read More

Welcome to Wednesday team. That day of the week where the morning is still filled with the reminiscence and disappointment of the weekend just gone and where, in the afternoon, hope again raises its head as we get closer to another two days off work when we can watch rugby again. This week it’s the Women’s Rugby World Cup in NZ and the As v Japan again. Happy hunting team World Rugby outlines legacy plans for women’s growth amid world record crowd World Rugby CEO Alan Gilpin is hoping a world-record crowd at Eden Park on October 8 can be…

Read More

Today’s news is brought to you from the great Soap Dodger, Keith. Being both old and a Pom he has no idea of technology and so I’m posting this on his behalf. Note at the end is a list of G&GR rugby players. If you’d like to be included send your particulars to Keith in the comments section. The Good? The Bad? and The Farkin’ Awful? Desperate times call for desperate measures and I can’t think of anything more desperate than, in the absence of our famed weekly correspondents, calling on a Soap Dodger to fill a hole. Once more…

Read More

Sorry for the delay team. I woke very early to return from NZ and had an appointment that took longer than expected. I’m getting old, which while being infinitely better than not being able to, does mean I get tired quicker these days and last night I crashed before I could write this. It’s certainly been an interesting last 5 days and with everything leading into the game of revenge this weekend I thought I’d add an opinion piece just to settle things down. Now I know there are some here who will take this to the ultimate level but…

Read More

Not quite the half way mark for the next game but time for the anger and disappointment of the last game to sink down and for some hope to gently start rising again as we contemplate what changes are needed to move the Wallabies forward. ‘Give these guys a chance’: Ex-Wallaby’s World Cup message for next gen amid No.10 crisis If there’s a player who knows what the next generation of Australian rugby stars might be feeling like at present it’s Berrick Barnes. On the basis of one starring match in his first season, against the Highlanders, he was plucked…

Read More

Welcome to the week before what will be a major game for the Wallabies this season. Make no mistake about it, this week is a defining game for the Wallabies this year. Win and they are on track for a good season. Lose and their season is looking like going downhill. If they lose questions will be asked about the players, selections, coaching team and management. However, it’s Wednesday which means it’s the day we put the disappointment of the last game behind us and we start looking forward with hope to the game this weekend. Good luck for the…

Read More

Sorry for the delay today team. Been a busy week and I still haven’t managed to watch last weekend’s games yet – hopefully today. However, today we stop reminiscing about last week and start looking forward to this weekend. Can the Wallabies continue their good run? Will the ABs fall again, and if so what will this mean for Foster? Wallabies focused on backing up ‘special’ performance With a great start to the RC despite injuries, late withdrawals and a slow start the Wallabies are now concentrating on backing up this week and maintaining top spot in the RC Last…

Read More

Right team, as from 12 today it’s time to stop with the disappointment of the past and start looking forward to the next game. It’s been 10 days since we played England and it’s 10 days until we play Argentina. Let’s look forward not backwards. Not a lot of information on where teams are at for the upcoming games and so there isn’t a lot to say about them. About all I’ve got is that I think the Wallabies need to beat the FISMs and at least 1 game against both the DDF and the ABs to be setting things…

Read More

Welcome to Hump Day. That day where the disappointment of last week slowly gets overtaken with the anticipation of the weekend’s games. Being the middle of the week it’s also a time for reflection and so today I’ll also attempt to answer a couple of the more talked about issues that came out of the games last week. Spoiler Alert! I’m a biased referee and (mostly) on the side of the referee so if you’re wanting to get confirmation on how it’s the referee’s fault and the laws are killing the game go read that “other site” – or possibly…

Read More

Welcome to another edition of the GAGR. It’s been a quiet weekend allowing time for reflection as we build up to the 1st Internationals of the year. Like all of you I’m hanging out for this one and hoping that DR has got the boys ready to give the Soap Dodgers a good smashing. Injuries in the Wallaby Camp It is more than 8 English straight wins since Jones took over in 2016 and this is not something that sits well with Australian supporters. Soon enough all the amateur selecting that’s happened so far this year will give way to…

Read More

Welcome to Hump Day team. Weekend and finals rugby getting closer while we still manage to bask in the glory of the week just gone. Some big games last weekend and certainly my SuperBru competition had a couple of games where no points were scored by any of the participants as the results were way different to expected. Not mentioned below but congratulations to the Australian men’s 7s on their latest win. They fought a good fight and never gave up. Well done. Some quiet complaints against the Rebels not playing for the Force In a post that seems to…

Read More

Welcome fellow rugby lovers. That beautiful game that embodies so much of which is good in this world. Remember from 12:00pm today the week only gets better as the weekend and more rugby approaches. Nic White commits to Brumbies, Australian Rugby until 2023 In news that will please most Wallaby fans as well as Brumbies fans Nic White has turned down a reported $1.0m deal from Japan to stay with Australia until after the next Rugby World Cup. With rumours swirling he would once again make the move overseas, White believes he still has plenty to achieve for club and…

Read More

Happy Hump Day fellow rugby fanatics. That day of the week where from 12:00 it just gets better. Tupou out for remainder of Super Rugby Pacific In news that will devastate most Reds fans, and the remainder of Australia when the Reds play any NZ team, Taniela Tupou will miss the remainder of the Super Pacific season after suffering a calf injury in Saturday night’s loss to the Chiefs. Scans on Sunday confirmed a strain with the Reds releasing a statement “he will seek further medical opinion…..but it is expected he will miss the remainder of the season” . There…

Read More

Happy Hump Day team. Hope your week improves from 12:00 today as the weekend gets closer by the hour Barrett Receives 4 Weeks In news that will please most of the readers of this site – being that most are Australian, Scott Barrett has been banned for four weeks for his dangerous hit in the weekend. With an initial entry point of six weeks the judiciary reduced his ban to four because of mitigating factors including Barrett’s acceptance of foul play, his expressed remorse and pleading guilty at the first available opportunity. In the same hearing Dickson and Aumua were…

Read More

Morning team. Bit of a short one today as I had to travel to Canberra last night and then had to do a presentation for the boss when I got there. I also had to do my Smart Rugby and season ready referee training so not a lot of time. Remember from midday the weekend gets closer. World Rugby Boss says Red Cards are protecting players Damon Murphy Red Cards Billy Proctor World Rugby boss, Alan Gilpin, said that while he has sympathy for players being sanctioned for contact made in a split second decision, and that he is mindful…

Read More

Morning team. Middle of the week! That day where the disappointment of the weekend is forgotten in the anticipation of the weekend games coming up. Judiciary showdown with the Reds The Queensland Reds will fight Tupou’s retrospective charge of foul play. A bullocking Tupou shunted Jahrome Brown from the ruck in the first half of the Reds tight loss in Canberra, referee Damon Murphy reviewing and clearing him of any discretion at the time. However the incident was referred to SANZAAR’s Foul Play Review Committee after a post game inspection deemed it a Red Card for high contact. That opinion…

Read More