Author: Reg Roberts

Guess what we talk about this week? It’s fair to say we spend quite a bit of time focussed on the wonderful Waratahs’ 33-32 defeat of the Crusaders in the Super Rugby Final. What a win! We also look back and name our Australian Super Rugby team of the tournament and wang on about other rugby happenings this week. But yeah, its mostly about the final.

Green and Gold Rugby pundits love to play amateur selector.  Over the years we’ve posted stories picking current Wallaby teams; best ever Wallaby teams; favorite Wallaby teams; injured Wallaby teams; teams selected by height, weight, year of birth, place of birth, name, ethnicity – whatever. We love to have our say. One team that has been grossly overlooked, in my eyes, is that of the best ever Australian Sevens team. I have very fond recollections of watching some of those early Hong Kong Sevens tournaments with the likes of Moon, the Ellas, Lynagh and Campo playing for Australia. But I,…

Who would have believed we would have made it to 150? Well more specifically, how did you make it to 150? Anyway, we’re here now and we celebrate in style with Brumbies and Wallabies lock Sam Carter as we talk about his Wallaby debut and the Brumbies final campaign. We also manage to sneak in a bit of chat about the Waratahs as well as the newly released Buildcorp NRC draw. Join us as we blow up balloons and blow streamers to celebrate this momentous occasion.

I dare say when the 2014 Super Rugby draw was released late last year, the QRU head honchos at Ballymore would have been quietly chuffed about at least one aspect of it – the chance to close out the season with a home game against traditional rivals, the Waratahs. Of course back then the thinking would have been that the gap between the two teams on the ladder would not be as astronomical as it is this weekend. The prospect of a full-house at Suncorp as our beloved Reds chased their fourth finals appearance in a row was enough to shape…

This week we have the privilege of talking with Wallaby legend Greg Cornelsen – he of the ‘up the jumper’ move, the four tries in a Bledisloe and the great big bushy beard. Plus we rave about the Waratahs, worry about the Reds and confuse ourselves as to who to cheer for between the Force and the Brumbies. Oh, and yeah, the Rebels get a mention too. For those who don’t know who Greg is, before you jump head first into the podcast, take a second to check out the highlights of this 1978 Bledisloe Test match in Auckland. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bKu4_T3xtg

Super Rugby season is back after a mid-season hiatus and so we’re back too to look at the results of Week 17 with our 148th rugby podcast. The Tahs are on top, the Reds are resurgent, the Brumbies and Force and clinging to the hope of finals footy and the Rebels, well, they’re off to South Africa. We also have a special guest on the show in new Aussie 7s Coach, Geraint John. Geraint talks us through his hopes for the upcoming Glasgow Commonwealth Games and the future of 7s rugby in Australia. A national 7s competition and Olympic gold…

A far more open game of rugby on a delightful Sydney afternoon proved to be seventh heaven for the Wallabies, as they extended their undefeated home streak over the French to eleven games. The more significant ‘streak’ is that it is now seven wins in a row for Ewen’s Wallabies providing them an almost perfect lead in to the upcoming Bledisloe Cup and Rugby Championship battles to come. This 39-13 defeat of France was more Brisbane than Melbourne and matched strong forward work with some magic out wide – a formula sure to bring the crowds back as well as, hopefully,…

The latest episode of the Green and Gold Rugby Podcast chats to Wallaby legend Joe Roff, looks back at the 6-0 thrashing of the French in the 2nd test and tries to work out who the other 14 guys in the Wallaby team are other than Will Skelton.

Not a bad first up performance from the boys in gold right? Link’s coming ‘home’ test, his first as Australian coach in Brisbane, saw the Wallabies wallop a flaky French team, but how were the individual performances? The Wallabies have failed to win the first test of the year for three seasons now, so a 50-23 defeat of the French in the first test of the 2014 season was a confidence booster for the new-look test outfit.  The team was heralded as one that was picked on Super Rugby form, so how did that form translate onto the test stage?  Here’s how…

It’s a worrying time for the Australian Rugby Union.  The organisation is financially crippled with predictions of bankruptcy within years if not months. While our Super Rugby teams are enjoying varied success, the benefit to the sport as a whole is doubtful.  Bugger all Canberrans are turning up to watch the conference-leading Brumbies show there are more boring things in the nation’s capital than the National Museum.  The Waratahs have successfully succeeded in alienating their fans while the Force are just alienated from the rest of the country. The less said about the Reds and Rebels the better. So the…

We mix experience with innocence on the latest podcast as we welcome back an old favorite and introduce a new contributor. More importantly we review week 12 of Super Rugby which saw the Aussie teams come back to earth with a solid bump. All except the Waratahs who may or may not be Australia’s most likely chance of a Super Rugby title, depending on who you speak to (and their postcode). We also catch up with Reds and Wallaby lock, Rob Simmons, and try to work out just what is wrong with the Reds these days, as they head into…

We’ve served our suspended sentence and are back with Green and Gold Rugby’s own Cameron Treloar is back on the podcast to talk us through his views on Super Rugby, how the Wallaby team may shape up, who to watch out for on the upcoming French tour and just how Goddam important the NRC is.

The Reds start a two match tour of New Zealand this weekend with another ANZAC-themed game against the in-form Hurricanes. This will be a make or break tour for the Reds as they run the risk of falling out of touch of both the conference and competition leaders. The Form Whilst the Canes have won four games, just one more than the Reds, it is recent form that sets the two teams apart. Queensland have four losses (three by less than three points) in their last five games, while the resurgent Hurricanes have inverted this performance in winning four of…

We talk to Mark Sinderberry, CEO of the Western Force about how the Force are travelling this year, both on-field and off. Oh and we might also have a bit of a wang on about Izzy’s throat and Squeak’s fist.

We talk to Wallaby and Brumbies prop Ben Alexander about tight five play and review Super Rugby 2014 at the half way mark.

This weekend sees the first round of Queensland’s Premier Rugby competition kick off on Saturday afternoon.  In a year that has reshaped the Australian Rugby calendar, for lovers of old-school amateur grass-roots rugby, you just can’t go past this type of footy. As the development pathways in Australian Rugby become more apparent, through the introduction of the Junior Gold Cup, the national Under 20s championships, the greater focus on the Queensland A program via the Pacific Rugby Cup as well as the impending National Rugby Championship, the role of Premier Rugby is perhaps under question. Where Premier Rugby sits in…

The ARU have just named their squad of 26 players to represent Australia at the Women’s Rugby World Cup later this year. The Wallaroos squad was named on the back of a series of rigorous selection events including the recent completed National Women’s Sevens Championship, the Women’s National Championships, a National Selection camp and a number of satellite camps around the country. In preparation for the RWC the team will travel to New Zealand in June as part of a Tri-Nations tournament against the might Black Ferns from the host country, as well as Canada. A final squad for the…

For Love and Money: The game behind the game is a new book authored by Tony Dempsey.  It tells the ‘behind the scenes’ stories of some of the more significant battles between the ARU administration and the players as the game of Rugby has battled with professionalism this last two decades. Dempsey, for those who are not aware, is a former Waratah forward, circa early 1990s who went on a Wallaby tour in 1993. More significantly, and of more relevance to this book, Dempsey was the inaugural CEO of RUPA –the Rugby Union Players Association and was intimately involved in…

Some bloody good match ups on the cards in Round 3. Let’s take a look at the line-ups: Byes Sharks Remember, we’ll update the lists as the teams come in. Or you can get all the latest info on our Facebook, Twitter and Google plus pages.

So who was the overall winner? Oh boy was it tight in the end. Ironically both of the final contenders, in Scott Fardy and Quade Cooper, didn’t play a minute of rugby for the Wallabies in the Lions series. Fardy made his debut in the first Rugby Championship game against the Kiwis (turns out this was his first trip to a Wallabies Test!), while Quade returned to Test rugby from the bench. After finding his way in his first Test, Fardy soon won our hearts and he was our Man of the Match in  four of the next five matches,…