Author: Reg Roberts

In the words of that great New England metal band, Staind, “It’s been a while….” Not since the post-NRC Grand Final glow of  Brisbane City’s much celebrated victory have Green and Gold Rugby been able to assemble their crack team of rugby-loving ‘Avengers’ for one of their infamous rugby wang-offs. Well, it has taken the imminent launch of the 2015 Super Rugby season to get this thing off the ground again and boy are we excited! I mean Steve actually passed out through sheer exhilaration part way through this podcast episode! Before he does though, together with Will the Bravehearted,…

The Queensland Reds and the Melbourne Rebels travelled to Cairns in Far North Queensland to kick start their respective 2015 Super Rugby campaigns. The Rebels ended up winners 28-13, continuing on from their excellent 2014 pre-season form in a match that was, quite frankly, a tough watch. Pre-season trials are traditionally cursed with dropped ball, missed passes, skewed kicks and questionable defence. This was pretty much the case in this game, only heightened by the fact that the game was played at a humidity level over 90%. Whilst the game was promoted as one whereby ‘Super Rugby came to FNQ’, and…

The Green & Gold Rugby Wallaby Player of the Year award has entered its sixth year and continues to be the premier, and largest, fan-driven player award in Australian Rugby. Forget your generic “Fan Favourite” award, this one is not a popularity contest but rather the culmination of a match-by-match analysis for each Wallaby Test in a calendar year. After each Test our highly knowledgeable (passionate, engaged, verbose etc) forum members provide their 3-2-1s. That is, their best three players for the Wallabies in that Test, providing us an overall top three players for each match. Adding these final scores…

There’s been a heap of discussion on all forums about the Wallaby Forward pack and especially performance at scrums. But what about other aspects of their game? The poster known as ForceFan on our Forum has done some excellent analysis of his self-compiled stats. Recognising that it’s difficult to get reliable rugby stats, and frustrated by nothing being available on Ruck stats, and having some time on his hands, he decided to gather some ruck stats of his own. So who was working hard for the Wallabies and actually making an impact in this important aspect of the game. The following data was…

I have no idea if Bill Pulver is a republican or a royalist, but I reckon he’d feel a degree of affinity with old Queen Liz’s year a couple of decades ago when she described it as an annus horribilis. It’s a shame really as it should have been a year to be celebrating. The Wallabies managed to win seven tests in a row, then the Waratahs won the Super Rugby title and you’d like to think even the inaugural NRC brought a smile to the face of someone at HQ. However it seemed that any form of on-field success that…

The Aussies started their new Cheika-led test campaign in the UK and Europe with a high spirited 33-28 win over the Welsh in Cardiff. Here are five aspects of the game that stood out to me. 1. Folau’s try scoring frenzy It’s gotta be hard to be Israel Folau doesn’t it? Too often he just can’t seem to win. Only last month folk were complaining that his winning of the John Eales Medal was some sort of conspiracy to keep him connected to rugby. Entering this test it was the fact that he hadn’t scored a try since the Perth…

We bring in the big guns for this show as Sean Maloney, from Fox Sports, joins Matt Gagger and myself in celebrating all that was the NRC. Sure I tend to focus a fair bit on Brisbane’s big Grand Final win, but we also review the season as a whole and cast an eye on the tournament’s future. We give a wrap up of the first Wallaby game under the Cheika regime – their solid win against the bloody exciting Barbarians and look forward to the Welsh test and the emergence of Sean McMahon. Finally we wrap up with a little look to…

Way back in 2007, you know – the first time we tried a national rugby competition (don’t mention 3rd tier…), one of the few elements of the tournament that exceeded the current iteration, was the television commercial. Most of you have probably seen it, but for those who haven’t here it is below: [youtube id=”0x3PT3XMTe4″ width=”600″ height=”350″] It remains a cracking piece of work, capturing so effectively the theme of the tournament – “hey you, just because you don’t know the names of the players, doesn’t mean the quality isn’t there”. Ok, so perhaps I’ve taken some artistic licence on…

The domestic Australian rugby season culminates this weekend with the NRC Grand Final at Ballymore. Joining us on the show tonight is the original City slicker – I mean skipper, Dave McDuling who talks us through his team’s preparations for the big one against Perth Spirit on Saturday night. Brett, Hugh and Reg then delve a little deeper into the NRC finals and make our tips for the big match before moving on to some of the other rugby news of the week, including a preview of the Wallabies v Barbarians game. As the season wraps up we want to again thank our…

The coach of the Wests Harlequin Under 9 Rugby team is the code’s latest coaching casualty, after apparently losing the confidence of the playing group. Players remained ttight-lipped this morning, but the dissension was believed to have stemmed from the coach’s decision mid season to ban Snakes at half time.  Another source said the angst was caused by the brand of Snake the kids were served up after the game. “They’d repeatedly asked for Allens – they are far softer and a lot less chewy,” the source said. “You’ve got to remember, there are two kids in the team with braces.…

This is just between Hugh and I, but this week’s show is just about rugby. It’s bloody Bledisloe Week and we spend most of our time talking about the bloody Bledisloe. On field. Nothing else. Plus it is the Swoop’s 100th test so we take the time to reminisce about one of the great Wallabies of the professional age. #swoop100 We argue over the Wallaby touring squad to head to Europe although we do both agree the team should be captained by an open side flanker from the Manly club. But can’t agree on which one. We wrap up with…

It’s fire side chat time. Brett McKay, Hugh Cavill and Rugby Reg get together to chat about the best Wallaby performance of the year – our heartbreaking loss to the Springboks in Cape Town. Putting that behind us, we then celebrate all things NRC. Oh and how we celebrate. We talk players, coaches, officials, marketing, crowds, broadcast, live streaming and the future. If you’re a fan or a critic, have a listen and give us your view below.

Brisbane City Head Coach,Nick Stiles, joins us to give us the inside scoop on Brisbane’s NRC season so far and preview the all important City v QLD Country match on Sunday – the big news being the imminent return of Quade Cooper.  Of course we don’t miss the opportunity to talk the Tongan Thor nor the Reds’ 2014 season disappointments. After Stilesy, it’s on to Cyclopath, Braveheart and myself to run through the rugby news of the week and pretend we know what we’re talking about. Enjoy the show!

With Queensland Country heading back to Ballymore on Thursday night, to take on the Greater Sydney Rams, we got Country’s ‘Spirit Leader’ Beau Robinson on this week’s rugby podcast. Beau gives us insight on the tough start his boys have had to the season and discusses some of the differences, both on and off the field, with the newest form of our national rugby competition. Then the Hugh and Stu join me to dissect the recent Wallaby performances and take a look at their upcoming tour to South Africa and Argentina. Oh, and if Stu is back, you know Melbourne…

Whilst we Wallaby fans have spent two weeks wringing our collective hands and furrowing our collective brows at our team’s most recent performance, a 50 point thrashing at the hands of the All Blacks, Springbok fans haven’t necessarily been jumping for glee over their own team’s performances. Two tight wins over the Pumas was below the standard set by the proud South African fans. But wins are wins and Australia entered this test desperate for them. Ewen McKenzie has yet to experience victory over the Boks in Rugby Championship Rugby and Perth would prove to be another hoodoo broken for…

In this rugby podcast we chew the fat with former Wallaby, former Red, former Waratah and former Force, and now HSBC Ambassador, Brendan Cannon to try to work out just what went wrong in Auckland and where we will turn it around in Perth v the Boks. Then after Canno, we try sleeping with the enemy and discuss the Wallaby v Bok test with a real South African!!!!! Oh, and James O’Connor also gets a mention.

Well it’s a big day for the Queensland Reds, I mean the St.George Queensland Reds, in particular their fans. Today is the day, or tonight is the night, that the squad for season 2015 will be announced and we can expect to see one K. Hunt and one J. O’Connor finally confirmed as signees. It won’t be a full squad, with a few spots to be kept open to be either filled with players from the NRC, or by some bigger name players with whom negotiations continue. However in preparation for what  will hopefully be some encouraging news later tonight,…

So the new National Rugby Championship (NRC) kicks off tomorrow night when Brisbane City take on the Sydney Stars at Ballymore. Despite being in the midst of a couple of Bledisloe test matches, there seems to be genuine excitement about Australia’s next iteration of a provincial championship. We understand the goal of the competition, and it’s challenges. We’ve met the teams and the coaches and are forming our allegiances. But let’s learn a bit more about what exactly these guys are playing for – the NRC trophy! Described by some as a sailing ship on squashed bean bag, there’s actually…

We’re lucky enough to once again have one of HSBC’s Ambassadors, and another Wallaby legend, in Owen Finegan on the show. And this show is alllllll Melon! This one’s so big I’ve bumbed the GAGR regulars. We chat about his career with the Wallabies, and some of those famous Bledisloe moments. We discuss his take on the Wallabies’ performance in Sydney and our chances this weekend in Auckland. And just when you think we’re all ‘rugbied’ out we turn our attention to the NRC.

NSW is just loving rugby at the moment with this weekend’s Bledisloe Cup test against the kiwis a culmination of a massive few weeks. We catch up with Wallaby legend, and HSBC Ambassador, Steve Larkham to discuss the big game, particularly his thoughts on the selection of Kurtley Beale as flyhalf. Bernie also gives us some insight as to the Brumbies’ planning for next year including the role the NRC will play. Following on from Steve Larkham, our own Brumbie Steve joins myself and Will (aka Braveheart) to talk more about the Wallabies, the Bledisloe, the NRC, the Wallaroos and…