Author: Nutta

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Hey Cobbers, Welcome to episode 23 of the Chewsday Chew. Again I say I’m amazed to have made it this far. I thank you all for showing up each week, leaving a comment (or in Yowie’s case, 27 or so) and adding your tuppence, thruppence, pound for a round, insult or general injury to the agglomerate for the bonhomie of the mass. In the midst of poodling about for inspiration, I was drawn to the general chit-chat of the last week. Therein I noted the comments often turned to pride, legacy and regret following the Wobblies v Pumas game.…

Konichiwa Bitches. Why the facile, pop, shallow intro linked to an equally as puerile music clip? Because the Wobblies performance on the weekend gone deserves about the same depth of recognition. It showed about the same level of complexity, gravitas and contribution to the larger good of rugby. That’s why. Seriously, when considering the rugby-nous, the emotional maturity and game smarts of our squad displayed last Sunday morning, I’ve seen more depth in a coat of paint. I’ve seen more organised structure in fairy -floss. I’ve savoured more complexity in supermarket green cordial. And I’ve seen goldfish show more application…

Gudday Cobbers Welcome to Episode 21 of the Chewsday Chew. ‘They said you’d never make it…’ https://youtu.be/VJrg4YLeV90 Ok, so after philosophising for a few weeks due to having sweet bugger all else in the way of real rugby to talk about, I’ll be taking a different approach for the next few weeks. We are going to pick a Best Match Day 23 from the Wobblies, Desperados, Catholics and Grandes Aterradores based on the previous weekend performance in isolation. Then we will compile the results week on week and finish up with the Southern Hemisphere best out of the players who took…

Here’s cheers to all you cobbers out there! Welcome to Episode 20 of the Chewsday Chew. I hope you’re all well, fit, healthy, a touch fat and wallowing in the good things in life. I confess I was scratching about for something to write about this week. I was beginning to feel a little panicked by my distinctly uninspired palette of topics on about Friday or so. However, I was saved when I caught a bit of the Garma Festival via the ABC and SBS over the weekend as that then got me thinking about the impact that First Nations players have…

Hey all you rugby zombies out there in TV land… Welcome to Episode 19 of the Chewsday Chew. I have to say that after the veritable tornado, the smorgasbord, the awe-inspiring tsunami of rugby we have had to digest over the last 4 weeks or so via my new best mate Stan, I confess to being a bit (more) of a gibbering idiot over the weekend just gone as I withdraw off the high. Sans 97 hours of rugby played to be squeezed into 48 hours of viewing pleasure, I was forced to the more mundane domesticated duties like cleaning…

Hi Ya Cobbers and Diggers All Welcome to Episode 18 of the Chewsday Chew. Today I thought to have a wee chat about rugby Commentators and ask should we expect a commentator to know the laws of our game? Now in case you have been living under a veritable rugby-commentary rock for the last two or three years, or if you are in fact one of those people who truthfully can watch a game of rugby on TV with the sound turned down (in which case we best discuss the other elements of your sociopathy firstly), the motivation for this…

Hello Cobbers, Welcome to Episode 17 of the Chewsday Chew. I’m luvin’ rugby at the moment. I don’t know if it’s Stan and their hugely improved and comprehensive coverage compared to the drivel previously offered by Fux, or if Kiwi coaches and Aussie players in with the northerners are finally getting them up to speed enough to take on us southerners (or the southerners losing their advantage gap?), or if the footy is actually ‘better’ (and there is a whole other argument) or what it is. But whatever it is, I’m watching more, enjoying it more and am generally just…

Hello cobbers all – even the English ones, Welcome to Episode 16 of the Chewsday Chew. The purpose herein is not to write something overly sagacious, complicated or mesmerising, but rather to pose a simple observation, question or proposition and let the good readers of this esteemed site share their opinions thereafter. Call it the lazy man’s attempt to fill a void by poking our collective bear of rugby knowledge to share their reflections and lift the average beyond the humdrum. And in that vein, I hope you’re all not too bloated, bestuffed, over-indulged, tapped-out and suffering intolerable indigestive rugby…

Hello Cobbers! Welcome to Episode 15 of the Chewsday Chew. The purpose herein is not to write something overly sagacious, complicated or mesmerising, but rather to pose a simple observation, question or proposition and let the good readers of this esteemed site share their opinions thereafter. Call it the lazy man’s attempt to fill a void by poking our collective bear of rugby knowledge to share their reflections and lift the average beyond the humdrum. So to that end, I must say I was left somewhat perplexed over the weekend by RA’s attempts to market the upcoming English Tests. To…

Hiya Cobbers, I hope you all had your fill of rugby over the weekend. What with the Super Final wherein the Cru executed the Blu, the Gallagher Premiership wherein the Tigers parried the Sarries and the United Rugby Championship wherein the Stormers steaked the Bulls, there was a veritable rugby smorgasbord to gorge on no matter what your preferred style of rare meat slapping into other rare meat. The Cru and the Blu played typical Super style speed-rugby, the Sarries and Tigers seemed to kick, kick, and kick some more but still provided an extremely enticing match while the Jaapies…

Hey Cobbers, And a happy June long weekend to you all. I hope you all dodged double demerits, Maccas drive-thru queues, road ragers and traffic jams for long enough to actually do something enjoyable over the break. Personally, I had a school reunion and so only caught bits and pieces of the rugby. Thankfully that included missing much of the live telecast of the Blues v Brumbies match while between too many lies, pies and minor exaggerations of how much faster, stronger and funnier we used to be. And I have to say that after watching the game today (Monday),…

Hiya Cobbers Top of the morning to the lot of you and I hope you’re not too sad and sorry from the weekend’s results. If you are, then not to worry as the Donkeys won at least, ending the season for the Hurricanes on a typically balmy June evening in Canberra. But not everything was smooth sailing either on and off the field in the Brumbies victory. We made it hard for ourselves. As a usually unashamed fan of the Donkeys, not the least because we tend to make life uncomfortable for those who generally consider themselves as otherwise ‘born…