Author: Reg Roberts

The second round of the AON Uni 7s kicks off this weekend in Sydney as Macquarie University take their turn as hosts. After a highly successful inaugral tournament in Tasmania a couple of weeks ago, this is a perfect opportunity for Sydney-based rugby fans to experience high quality sevens rugby. Call it a pre-cursor to the Sydney International 7s next year.  To cap it off, the Sydney Rays will be making their 2017 NRC debut at the same ground at 3pm on Sunday arvo when they host the surprise packets of the first round, the Greater Sydney Rams. While there…

NRC2017 kicked off just where we remember 2016 finished. Plenty of points, some weak defensive structures, some gun youngsters and experienced stars. In all it was a fantastic weekend of rugby and one we would like to see continuing for the next couple of months. We welcomed the Fijian Drua with a high scoring affair in Brisbane. The Canberra Vikings fought back to win a high scoring affair in Canberra. The Rams upset the Eagles, to claim the Horan-Little Shield, in a high scoring affair in Sydney while the Spirit held off a spirited Melbourne Rising team in a high…

After a tough year for Australian Rugby, last weekend was one of the more positive experiences for fans of the game here. An excellent first run of the National Womens 7s series, a massive crowd at the Shute Shield and a Wallaby performance the likes we haven’t seen since the 2015 RWC. This weekend the focus is pretty much solely on the National Rugby Championship with bugger all rugby happening elsewhere. Let’s hope the positive rugby vibe can continue with a show of force at all games. There’s plenty to look forward to as we enter Round 1, so let’s…

The biggest change with the Rams this year is more than just the name from “Western Sydney” back to “Greater Sydney”.  It comes with Eastwood Rugby Club basically taking over the club. After doing an exceptional job of engaging with the strong Pacific Islander supporter base around their Concord Oval base last year, the new Rams will play all home games at Eastwood’s TG Milner ground. Arguably everyone’s second side last year, the change has caused raised a few eyebrows amongst their passionate supporter base.  It seems they’ve taken a while to warm to the new arrangements, which sees no…

After crushing the competition in the first two years of the NRC, Brisbane City came crashing back to earth via a terrible 2016 campaign. An impressive title win in 2014 was followed by an undefeated season in 2015 to defend their inaugural title. Unfortunately in 2016 it all fell apart and Brisbane finished with the season at 2nd bottom on the table with, in the biggest contrast from previous years,  the lowest points for stats of the competition.  An equally bad defensive performance, where they let in the 2nd most points, at least showed that Brisbane had a well rounded…

The AON Uni 7s kicks off this Friday at the somewhat uncharted territory, from a rugby perspective, of the University of Tasmanian in Launceston. For those still in the dark about this competition check out our announcements on this groundbreaking competition here and here. As has been said many times there is so much to gain from this tournament with the development of new talent at the forefront. Perhaps one of the most fascinating aspects of the competition will be how the Aussie squad members go against each other. As some of the best athletes in Australia they have all…

Between you and me, I reckon the Wallabies are the underdogs this weekend as they take on the All Blacks in the first Bledisloe Cup match of the season. Call it just a hunch, but I think we fans need to be wary. The reality of this match is quite conceivably season defining.  If the Wallabies put together another insipid type of performance we saw in June then a hammering by the darkness will follow. If that happens in front of an apathetic Sydney crowd then the flow on for the rest of the season will be significant.  Ticket sales…

This was (yet another) tough season to be a Reds supporter. Watching the matches was tough enough let alone reviewing them, so the thought of actually writing a season review was fairly uninviting. There’s an old saying, though, that a problem shared is a problem halved. Once again, GAGR has gone over and above this however and split the problem four ways. We’ve gathered some of our regular Queensland correspondents together to breakdown the season together. So over to you Shane “Sully” Sullivan, Kate Elizabeth and Sucker for Red (SFR). Oh, and I’ll help out too. Season Rating: Sully – D. The…

Queensland Premier Rugby’s 2017 regular season wrapped up last week which means all roads lead to Ballymore this weekend as finals fever hits. The might Red Heavies, the University of Queensland Rugby Union Club, finished an incredible season having just dropped a single match and stand tall as Horsley Cup holders as Minor Premiers.  With an almighty 437 point positive points differential, the Students are tough to tip against on their hunt for forth premiership since 2010.  The balance of the top four are GPS, Sunnybank and the Wests Bulldogs who make their first finals appearance in Premier Grade for a decade.…

The ARU have released their draw for the 2017 National Rugby Championship and, as is seemingly traditional, there is plenty to take from it. Firstly there are nine teams involved including both the Melbourne Rising and the Perth Spirit, who are affiliated to their respective Super Rugby teams (Rebels and Force) both of whom are fighting for survival in next year’s Super Rugby competition. Fiji is the much heralded new team in the comp and become the first international team in the tournament, through the assistance of World Rugby.  The Fijians will travel for two games, then host for two…

Wallaby coach Michael Cheika has named an eclectic group of names in his latest Wallaby squad. The players, who will initially gather at their state training bases, will ultimately set up camp in Newcastle from 24-29 July. The Force have been rewarded for a strong season with nine players in the squad, including returning Wallaby front rowers Pek Cowan and Tetra Faulkner. Uncapped players include Jermaine Ainsley, Billy Meakes and Curtis Rona. Other rookies in the squad include Sef Fa’agase (Reds), Adam Korczyk (Reds), Izack Rodda (Reds), Taniela Tupou (Reds), Jordan Uelese (Rebels), Marika Koroibete (Rebels), Campbell Magnay (Reds) and…

Welcome back to Super Rugby everyone. Hello? HELLO?  IS THERE ANYONE THERE? Oh well. Let’s do this anyway. The top of the conference Brumbies travel to Brisbane this week to take on the Queensland Reds. The Friday night fixture at Suncorp Stadium sits in NAIDOC week and will be Queensland Rugby’s annual Indigenous game. While the new jerseys look special, it’s the performance of the players wearing them that will have the home crowd most on edge. The Brumbies have already secured the conference top spot and will be the only Australian team to feature in the finals. Their target…

The Wallabies kicked off their 2017 international campaign with a return to afternoon rugby by taking on the Flying Fijians in Melbourne. After a disappointing 2016 season and a borderline horrendous Super Rugby season, the pressure was on the Aussies to win back the many rugby fans who are so disgruntled with the code at the moment. For the Fijians it was a rare visit to Australia for a test match, the first since 2010, and a chance to make a strong statement in front of their many Australian based fans and to World Rugby as a whole. The Match…

The local derbies in the Australian conference have actually produced some bloody decent content this year. Something that would be more widely acknowledged if the sceptics would just remove their turd-coloured glasses for 90 minutes. This match up, perhaps the local derby with the loosest definition of the word ‘local’, can hopefully step up to the plate and deliver more entertaining rugby. Finals Context Both teams theoretically can still make the finals but, given neither gained points last weekend, are really dependant on the Brumbies and Waratahs choking at the business end of the season. The Force currently sit on…

As we reported last week (here) the ground breaking Aon Women’s Uni 7s Series kicks off later this year with eight teams playing in four tournaments down the East Coast of Australia. For the first time, Universities will be the vessels for delivering an elite national competition in Australia as the University of New England, Macquarie University, the University of Tasmania, the University of Adelaide, the University of Canberra, Griffith University, Bond University and the University of Queensland come together to battle it out on the national stage. The teams will each comprise a mix of students and non-students (with…

This week we enter Round 12 of the competition which means we have just half a dozen games before the Super Rugby finals commence. While many Australian Rugby fans (if there any such thing at the moment) will be relieved when this Super Rugby season finishes, we must not forget that under this quirky SANZAAR competition, one of our teams will actually host a Quarter Final. Put aside how undeserving that is, considering our top ranked team is in 10th position in a ‘traditional’ table. A home town Quarter Final will be a godsend for all of our struggling teams…

Just a little over one year after the Australian Women’s 7s team celebrated their Gold Medal at the Rio Olympics Closing Ceremony, a national competition will kick off featuring many of the Olympic champions. The ARU today announced details of the AON Women’s 7s Series which will commence with a two day tournament at the University of Tasmania on August 25 and 26 this year.  In a ground breaking initiative, the ARU are partnering with Universities across Australia to deliver an elite level national 7s competition. The eight competing universities will be the University of Canberra (ACT), University of Adelaide (SA), University…

The Bob Templeton Cup is the prize, but bragging rights will be the year-long reward, as the Queensland Reds host the New South Wales Waratahs this Saturday night at Suncorp Stadium. Each team’s season lays precariously on the edge of oblivion with sole focus now on results in the Australian conference. With wins against the foreign teams a rarity, which Aussie team that makes the finals will be determined largely on when they face off in local derbies. Form The Waratahs season is in free-fall after being embarrassed by the (previously) bottom of the table Kings. The Kings were at…

The upcoming Wallabies squad selection is possibly the most contentious one in recent memory. With so many key Wallabies (in Cheika’s estimation) out of form (Phipps, Stephen Moore, almost all the locks), and with a relatively easy opposition for this June series, this could be a time for Michael Cheika to dust off his selector’s binoculars. Here’s a Wallabies XV, if there was to be a game on the weekend, and if they team was selected on form only. Hopefully, we can revisit this team in a few more weeks and see if anything’s changed. * Incumbent Wallaby in that position.…

The Reds host the Kings from South Africa at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night in a match that threatens to slip by almost completely unnoticed.  Easter weekend, two lowly ranked team, a traditionally poor drawing South African outfit, rugby in a national rut. The Stadium doors may need to be flung open to get any sort of crowd. While both teams have just the six competition points to their name, the Reds still have plenty to play for when compared to their African counterparts.  Currently the Kings sit on the bottom of their Africa 2 Conference trailing the high-flying Lions by 17…