Author: Nutta

Along with a lot of others I read the Shute Shield results of Eastwood vs Penrith over last weekend with a mix of incredulity, a bit of sorrow for the Penrith boys and an extra dose of chagrin after the Super results of the weekend. But then it also got me thinking about the health and direction of Sydney rugby in general. The Premier Sydney Shute Shield competition (let’s just call it Shute to keep it simple) used to be touted as the best club rugby in the world. Not so long ago (the 80’s and the early 90’s) the best…

Matt Rowley wrote an interesting piece on the state of Aussie rugby recently. I largely agreed with him. I started typing a reply. But on reviewing before posting I realized it was a mess of my various whinges about all sorts of things. So in-line with my new year’s resolution to be more positive I thought to start by not complaining but by suggesting alternatives. I thought I would throw up some ideas on what I will do to fix rugby in Australia when it finally becomes “The Republic of Nutta” (the revolution is coming…). So I hereby put forward…

Does Ewen McKenzie choose the game plan for the Wallabies first, or the players?

I need to be up-front. I am not a fan of yours. I never really have been. That’s not your fault. It’s my problem. I have been critical of Australian rugby’s development of what I call ‘proper fronties’ (or distinct lack thereof) over recent years. Matt Dunning and then you came to emulate everything I was finding frustrating. Maybe it was unfair. Actually no, it was unfair. But you became the focus of my angst at the bigger picture and I confess to regularly giving you in particular a fair spray (which I’m sure you heard through a TV screen…

Back in the mid-1980s – a glorious time of proper lineouts, ridiculous haircuts and crap music – I was a young snapper just starting to play senior rugby in country NSW. I had a coach who was a cliched sheep farmer with an amazing knowledge of the game and a broad drawl that I could tell hundreds of anecdotes about. Well, we had a game come up against the zone champions – they were massive, fast, skilled, undefeated, blah blah blah… we had no form to think we could win, but sure as shite we weren’t going to be beaten…