Author: Nutta

Gudday Cobbers, I hope this little blurb of mine finds you fighting fit and punching well above your weight.As usual there’s plenty going on in our great sport this week. From the Samoan women knocking over the Fijians, to the French dealing out proper punishments to domestic abusers, even if they are national rugby players, with prop Mohamed Haouas being sentenced to a year in jail after hitting his wife (some other folk could learn from that example) and through to the U20 Aussies and Kiwis ripping into each other in a two-test series that the Aussies won on aggregate…

Hello Cobbers, I hope we’re feeling fighting fit, peachy keen and pumped for another week.As usual, the weekend just gone threw up enough permutations to baffle the best of us in terms of what it means for the Super competition table and the outcomes as we all eye off the impending finals.But one incident in particular did grab my attention not just in and of itself, but also in the modern context of head injury, safety, CTE and simply concern over ‘high’ and dangerous contact in general. In Friday night’s match between the Queensland Reds and the Otago Highlanders in…

Hey Cobbers, I hope this finds you all fighting fit and pumped up for the new week.I, like many others, watched a fantastic game of women’s rugby on Saturday night as the Wallaroos defeated the Fijiana 22-05 in Sydney. Full credit must go, as ever, to the ladies from the wee Pacific nation who punched well above their weight all night. But at the end of it, the combined resources and effort of the Australian provinces were not to be outdone and the Wallaroos came away with a pretty emphatic victory to send retiring captain Shannon Parry out with a…

Gudday Cobbers,Hello from Covid isolation! This thing’s a bugger, isn’t it? Ah well. Ce sera sera.On the weekend just passed I happened to be out and about in country NSW, and by mix of design and accident I found myself at yet another rugby oval where they had a commemorative day, a bit of a reunion for an 80s premiership side and a ladies day all at once. As such the day’s proceedings between Wagga Waratahs and Wagga Ag College at the Charles Sturt University campus for the COL Cup (commemorating Andy “Col” Stanham) was a fantastic day out. In…

Hey Cobbers,I hope this week’s missive finds you happy, fat and well into your respective rugby team’s status in the season thus far. And if not, give yourself an uppercut and ask yourself ‘Why not?’ as there’s lots of good stuff going on around the place. So get out there and get involved.And in the midst of whatever you’re following locally, there was also plenty of Super Rugby to be consumed. And after some of the to & fro last week about Super-level player depth, squad and player availability, drafts, the ‘necessity’ (or otherwise) of poaching players from league, and…

Hola amigos and welcome to the Chewsday Chew for 2 May 2023. I hope your weekend was fun-filled, jam-packed and cinnamon sprinkled so that now you’re rolling through this week on a completely au-natural high.Club Corner – Wasps of Forest Lake (Qld)Pad Wan Rhys Bosley asked me to give these folks a plug, so here goes…Beyond the imposing shadows of grey concrete stadiums with their over-priced tickets and cold pies, past the lines of debussing, coiffured hair, rugby professionals in matching tracksuits and hyper expensive headphones and somewhere yonder the ramblings of talking heads on TV, we all know that…

Hey Cobbers, being ANZAC day, I thought I’d do something a little different and research some Wallabies who served.However, the more I dug, the more I unearthed. And I quickly realised there was no way I could either cover the material or do it justice in this format. So I narrowed my focus to just WW1 to keep it manageable. Plus I looked to include some Kiwi content as well given ‘ANZAC’ just doesn’t work without the ‘NZ’ bit. But even that narrowed scope got out of control really fast. So I narrowed it down again to what happened to…

Hey Cobbers All,I trust this finds you all in good spirits and enjoying our national farewell to summer we seem to have between Easter and ANZAC Day. I’m fighting the flu today so forgive me if I’m a bit more direct than usual.Watching Eddie Jones and his Wallaby training squad permutations is as interesting as ever. Matty Faessler, Izaia Perese, Rhys van Nek, Rory Scott, Harry Wilson and Ryan Smith have all rolled in while Ned Hanigan, David Porecki, Len Ikitau, Blake Schoupp and Darcy Swain are all on the bus out with tickets booked via the concussion protocols. Pete…

G’day Cobbers,I hope this missive finds you all feeling unified and balanced as you come off the Easter weekend, clean out the car, pack away the tent, grease down your camp ovens and stow away the sleeping bags until the next sojourn into the scrub, or however you spent it.Part of me wants to talk about the Reds. The poor buggers. Another part of me wants to let them go through the throes of agony in peace without another nosey bastard lifting the scabs and aggravating the sores. So, all I’m really going to say about the Pink Koalas is…

Morning Cobbers,I hope today finds you peachy keen and deeply engaged in what’s important in life, rugby musings. So strap yourself in and let’s see how we go.Waratahs ‘having a go’ – where’s that been?The match between the ACT Brumbies and the NSW Waratahs on Saturday night was intriguing on many fronts. But the element I want to focus on here is regarding professionalism and, bluntly, where has that level of performance intensity and professionalism from the Waratahs been since the season started?To get a few obvious statements out of the road, the Donkeys were guilty (in my opinion) of…

Hey Cobbers,Well, I hope you’re all feeling unified, especially about having all our Aussie rugby ships sailing in the one, cohesive direction into a great southern future.Not having the Six Nations this weekend certainly gave me a little more space to watch the Super rugby. Yeh, thanks for that. And my summary isn’t too different from Charlie’s on Monday:We all know Super form is not a good predictor of World Cup form. In 2019, along with the Sunwolves and the Blues, Australian provinces made up the bottom 3rd of the Super table and yet we still made the 1/4 finals…

Hey cobbers & dobbers all,I hope this finds you all in a peachy mood this fine Tuesday morning given the smashing cacophony of rugby that is seems to be available at every turn. Whether your team is winning or losing, both the sheer mass and the general quality of the games we are surrounded by at the moment, is surely putting Joe Average Punter in a good place.Before I get to this weeks Nutta’s Aussie Super Team of the Week, I thought to touch on the Six Nations and a discussion from last week and clarify a few points from…

Hi ya cobbers,I’ve got a bit of double action going on today: a Club Corner and a Nutta’s Selection. So with a bit of ground to cover, without further ado, let’s just get it on!Club Corner: Renegades Rugby (Hills District – Sydney)Beyond the imposing shadows of grey concrete stadiums with their over-priced tickets and cold pies, past the lines of debussing, coiffured hair, rugby professionals in matching tracksuits and hyper expensive headphones and somewhere yonder the ramblings of talking heads on TV, we all know that the real heartbeat of rugby lies local. It’s our clubs that drive this game.…

Morning Cobbers,Due to technical hitches, the Daily News got hung up. No ones fault. It happens. But to keep some content up, I thought to give the Briars lads another shot seeing as, back in January, their moment in the sun was shot down by Kurtley Beale’s latest alleged situation.So it gives me great pleasure to give Briars a re-run…Beyond the imposing shadows of grey concrete stadiums with their over-priced tickets and cold pies, past the lines of debussing, coiffured hair, rugby professionals in matching tracksuits and hyper expensive headphones and somewhere yonder the ramblings of talking heads on TV,…

Hello cobbers,Being a bit of a history nut as I am, I was reliving old glories and watching the documentary “Rise & Rise of Australian Rugby – The Grand Slam” again the other day. For those who haven’t watched it, I highly recommend it for a number of reasons, but particularly just to build a picture of where we came from leading into the heady days of the 1990s and 2000 (and so perhaps how to get back there).Anyway, for reasons I can’t quite explain, I was listening to Alan Jones’ comments a bit more than I usually do. And,…

Hiya cobbers,Welcome to Round 3 of the Chewsday Chew for 2023.With no Super Rugby being played yet and with the 6Nations lads taking a weekend to catch up on admin and strikes and such, I confess to have been scratching around for a bit of content. To that end, I’ll take the opportunity to again remind our dear readers that we are a volunteer site. So, if anyone has something to say, or want to get something rugby related off their chest, or a just want to give this ‘writing game’ a crack, then feel free. Seriously, please do. Charlie…

Hello Cobbers,I hope that, after a suitably hefty 6Nations weekend feed of Haggis and Guinness followed by bread & butter pudding, you were able to roll over the other side of the Atlantic and sample some of the NFL’s finest of Kansas City burnt ends (the sweet & chewy bits that come off the ends of proper brisket), some cheesy corn and maybe just a bite or two of some Philly cheesesteaks to compensate for that pish the Seppos call beer.What a weekend of footy that was.Regarding the 6Nations and getting the English v Italian test (mess?) out of the…

Hello Cobbers,And welcome back for episode 1 of the Chewsday Chew for 2023.It has been a bit of a break since we were last in the normal routines. But that doesn’t mean there haven’t been some goings-on. In quick form we’ve had:So the Christmas & New Year break has not been bereft of stuff to talk about.And then, on the weekend passed, we saw the Scots pants the Poms, the Paddies dismiss the Jones and the Frogs only just get over the Pasta & Pizza lads. Just in passing, if the Italians had indeed finished the job and beaten the…

Hiya cobbers.Beyond the imposing shadows of grey concrete stadiums with their over-priced tickets and cold pies, past the lines of debussing, coiffured hair, rugby professionals in matching tracksuits and hyper expensive headphones and somewhere yonder the ramblings of talking heads on TV, we all know that the real heartbeat of rugby lies local. It’s our clubs that drive this game.So welcome to Club Corner.What’s this about? We want to promote clubs. Whose clubs? YOUR club. Why? Because you love your club. And we at G&GR know it’s folk like you and YOUR club that makes OUR game and so make THIS site…

Hiya cobbers.Beyond the imposing shadows of grey concrete stadiums with their over-priced tickets and cold pies, past the lines of debussing, coiffured hair, rugby professionals in matching tracksuits and hyper expensive headphones and somewhere yonder the ramblings of talking heads on TV, we all know that the real heartbeat of rugby lies local. It’s our clubs that drive this game. So welcome to Club Corner.What’s this about? We want to promote clubs. Whose clubs? YOUR club. Why? Because you love your club. And we at G&GR know it’s folk like you and YOUR club that makes OUR game and so make THIS…