Author: Nutta

McHamish on Eddie Jones from ABC Radio NationalHello cobbers,Continuing on the recent flow of news about RA spearing Dave Rennie for Eddie Jones, this interview of RA Chairman Hamish McLennan on ABC Radio National from Tuesday 17/1 morning is interesting to say the least.The Chairman of RA thinks our national players are soft, that EJ will fix that and that the days of ‘holding hands’ are over. He also thinks RA hasn’t done enough to highlight the differences of the sport to the Aussie public and that the Australian game is seen within Australia as being too elitist and thereby…

Hello cobbers, I hope you all had a merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year (so far anyway).Over the festive season the news can dry up a bit. And so we find ourselves with a few moments to reflect, surf some sites and look for some brief escapism when mid-shift on following the wife about on shopping expeditions or when we’re somewhere between our 2nd and 3rd helpings of the Christmas Day trifle that’s still in the fridge and passing the sniff test.So in aid of providing a little content to fill such moments of semi-conscious interweb surfing,…

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…

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.I’m a massive believer in the club as being the foundation, the heart and soul, the keeper of lore and the fulcrum of our sport, because I believe the very things that make our game great, its universality, its democracy and…

Hello Cobbers,Over the festive season the news can dry up a bit. But we also find ourselves with a few moments to ourselves to reflect, surf some sites and look for some brief escapism when mid-shift on pre-Christmas shopping expeditions or somewhere between our 2nd and 3rd helpings of post Christmas Day trifle.So in aid of providing a little content to fill such moments of semi-conscious interweb surfing, between reruns of The Griswolds Family Christmas and Die Hard, I thought to perhaps pre-write a few wee articles and drop them periodically.This one is about recognising and celebrating our more venerable…

Hello Cobbers all and welcome to the 37th (and last) Chewsday Chew of 2022.I appreciate that we’re all likely still on a high after our clutch win over the Taffs. But after that fleeting moment of goodwill and bonhomie, reality kicks back in and all I can say is thank Christ on His stick that year is over. Barring any more injury reports yet to surface (Achilles! Achilles! My Kingdom for an Achilles!), I think the best part of this year is in saying Sayonara and Adieu to one helluva annus horribilis for our beloved Wobblies.The Results – we can’t…

As I stop walking, I peer up and down the yellow lit corridor a final time and with shaky breath I try and swallow the knot of fear in my throat. The familiar sickly sweet aroma of decaying rodentry pervades the dank walls around me and I feel more than smell the mould, while the piercing clarity of dripping water blends unseen with the oppressive dank that cloys my lungs and chills my soul. Is this where I end my northern tour? As I turn to my task, the now familiar ball of uncertainty starts growing in my belly, expanding…

Gudday Cobbers and fellow self-appointed doyens (and doyennes) of the Aussie rugby frustratedari to the 36th publication of the Chewsday Chew,Once again I put fingers to keys and hope this missive finds you well enough and that you have all taken a moment to pause, shuffle in your seat, burp, fart and perhaps even take a wee walk about your backyard or lounge room to settle the stomach after the weekend’s degustation. Because if that weekend just passed was not a rugby feast of biblical proportions, then I don’t know what is.Briefly, if you watch nothing else from the weekend,…

Welcome, cobbers all.It’s my pleasure to bid each and every one of you well met to this, the 35th publication of The Chewsday Chew. So come, sit, read, think and comment away below, all with good health, the sun on your back and an open, honest heart.In contemplating what to chat about today, I was momentarily committed to write a bit about good sportsmanship and bonhomie. I mean, we’ve seen some spectacular examples of just that in our own game in recent times. But perhaps no greater example have we seen of late than what we saw exhibited between the…

Gudday Cobbers,Welcome to Episode 34 of the Chewsday Chew. I hope we’re all recovering from the Mr Creosote experience of rugby over the weekend. We certainly had the lot, in a bucket, with a wee wafer to the extent that I confess even my long-suffering wife looked sideways at my suggestion of watching the English v Argy game after dinner rather than The Block Auction. The things we do eh?We need to remind ourselves that, as with winery tours and office lunches at a sushi train, prudent consumption and pacing ourselves is the key for this month long rugby-in-November yum…

Hey Cobbers and welcome to episode 33 of the Chewsday Chew.Well, I hope you all had your fill of rugby over the weekend just passed. The smorgasbord of rugby already on offer from the Women’s World Cup has only been added to by the annual November test series coming back on-line. But as you guys have probably worked out by now, I’m not one for doing the news. So for a sound roll-up of the weekend’s events, I point you towards Charlie’s effort here.And while it grates me to the very cockles of my heart, maybe below the cockles, maybe…

Hey Cobbers,I hope episode 32 of the Chewsday Chew finds you all happy, a little fat and healthy.This past week saw two things catch my attention in tandem with each other:Jack Dempsey becoming Jock Dempsey, andThe brutal simplicity of Australian humour and its ability to make something so otherwise nondescript into a pejorative.Firstly, in case you’ve been living on another rugby planet and don’t know what I’m talking about, the 1.91m, 112kg and 28yr old backrower Jack Dempsey has been named as one of Scotland’s three uncapped squad members (along with Stafford McDowall and Murphy Walker) to play the autumn…

Konnichiwa, Comrades and welcome to Episode 31 of the Chewsday Chew.I’ve been trying to psyche myself up and pull together a multipart series on what I feel needs to be done, at multiple levels, to build Australian rugby into the self-sustaining power house for future world domination that it could and should be.However, it’s no-where near even close to a publishable state. In fact, right now it’s little more than a series of poorly written diatribes, some undeveloped thoughts and a few mad conspiracy theories.And whilst to some that may make it perfect fodder for publishing on this erstwhile site…

Bonsoir mes amis!In the current clime of Women’s World Cup, Aussie A and the ongoing sibling rivalry of NZRU and RA, I’m staying away from heavy topics this week and focussing on something more a little lighthearted.To that end, I have been playing around with ‘Teams of the Week’ for a while now, not only in terms of the recently-ended Rugby Championship, but also just, well, because such train-spotting activities give me a modicum of enjoyment and help me pass the time in Teams/Zoom meetings that really should have been emails. And so I thought I’d share one or three…

Hello Cobbers. I hope we’ve all enjoyed the long weekend just passed as brought to you for the purposes of acknowledging the birthday of the head of our favourite dysfunctional family, the British Royals. That said, resisting my urges, I’ll refrain from waxing too critical of the House of Windsor; I won’t compare them here to the Kardashians, or the House of Lannister. As a matter of fact, I’ll instead give a little plug here to the family of Saxe-Coburg-Gothas if for no other reason than to acknowledge they did get me two public holidays in two weeks. So they’re…

Hello Cobbers and welcome to episode 28 of the Chewsday Chew.Today is the culmination of the past few months of endeavour – to select a Team of the Week from each round of the (Southern) Rugby Championship, based on a direct jersey versus jersey basis, and to then compile each week’s results to arrive at the “Southern Belles” Team of the Tourny for the 2022 edition.Regarding a brief synopsis of this week’s games, firstly we saw the Wobblies capitulate against the Desperados (All Blacks) who were clearly in quite a mood for a game at their Mecca (Eden Park). After…

Hey Cobbers. And welcome ye all to the week 27 instalment of the Chewsday Chew.For those foolish enough to tune in to this Bat channel at this Bat time each week, herein lies this week’s update to Nutta’s Rugby Championship ‘Team of the Tourny’. For those not so foolish as to show up each week, read the previous line. Forgive me if it seems cowardly, but this week I’m staying away from doing a game review of the two matches, as it will be nigh impossible to do so without expressing opinions on refereeing, malicious clean outs, submarines, Green Peace,…

And a top of the morning to all out there in Gaggerland. I hope you’re all as mildly enthused as I am to bring you all episode 26 of the Chewsday Chew and give us all a bit of grist to chew over, comment on, argue about and lie in regards to during the ‘off’ week while we wait for the Rugby Championship to recommence with the two tests of Australia v New Zealand and Argentina v South Africa as per week 5 of 6 of this year’s tourny.Personally, the timing and location of the next test match between the…

Hiya Cobbers.Welcome to episode 25 of the Chewsday Chew as I continue the current journey of picking a Team of the Week from the Rugby Championship and then meld each week’s selections into an eventual Team of the Tourny.Usually about here I try to be a bit upbeat, a little cheeky and try to put a bit of a laugh in the day by having a bit of a daggy old TV ad inserted about now. Maybe a used-car ad or preferably a beer ad. Or maybe a funny pic. But not today. Today I thought I would just drop…

Buenos días comrades and welcome to episode 24 of the Chewsday Chew. We’re back on track this week and looking at continuing our attempt at accumulating the Team of the Tourny for the Year of Our Lord 2022 (Southern) Rugby Championship – The Southern Belles. And wasn’t it a weekend for the upset?Firstly, I must say I admire David Kidwell’s impact with the Grandes Aterradores. You can see above the secret squirrels happy snap I got of him planning defensive drills at Pumas training camp last week. And the simple fact was that the ravenous Argies started their match by…