Author: Peter Mitchell

Italy will travel to Brisbane this Saturday for the third and final mid season test for Australia. Can Australia restore some pride in the jersey or is another upset on the cards. Over the last two weekends Australia beat Fiji in Melbourne before losing to Scotland in Sydney. Over the same period Italy have lost to Scotland in Singapore and then Fiji in Suva. Michael Cheika has shuffled the squad with Rob Horne replacing Tevita Kuridrani at outside centre. Jack Dempsey is the only debutante, earning a bench place at Richard Hardwick’s expense. Lopeti Timani steps into the number eight jersey as…

The fiercely competitive Scots travel to Sydney to throw down against the Wallabies fresh off their victory over the Fijians. Another weekend, another afternoon rugby fixture appeasing rugby purists everywhere. Scotland will be out to avenge their last two heart breaking losses at the hands of the  Wallabies while the home team will want to bury their loss to the Scots last time they played them in Australia. Australia Australia comfortably defeated Fiji last weekend (37-14) and while that might have been expected, it at least gives the men in gold some momentum going into this match. Presumably with this in…

South Africa’s Southern Kings visit Perth’s NIB stadium to lock horns with the Western Force on Sunday afternoon. THE TEAMS Force The biggest change here is the season ending injury to young halfback Ryan Louwrens. Force coach David Wessels described him as the form Australian half in super rugby this super season. He is a loss no doubt, but look out for backrower/scrumhalf Michael Ruru, unfortunately for us he’s a Kiwi, but an exciting prospect nonetheless. In other news Ben McCalman is back in the squad, the veteran Wallaby making his way back from injury via the bench. Kings The Kings…

This edition looks at the fun and fantasy of players playing out of position. We all have theories about how to get the best out of a player’s skill set or to perhaps get the best players on the field at the same time. The smaller player pools available to the NRC clubs let us see these shufflings happen with regularity, often with sexy results. Tom Staniforth is a young lock with the Vikings, however due to a glut of second rowers he’s been rolled out in blindside flanker. While that’s not a stretch for a lock’s skill set, he…

Before this year’s NRC there were question marks about whether Australia had any depth at half back and there were good reasons for that. During the Super Rugby season this year, you might have been fooled into thinking there are no decent Australian half backs. The Brumbies fielded an Argentinian in Tomás Cubelli and the Force relied on former All Black Alby Mathewson when he wasn’t injured. Come the Rugby Championship you would have been tricked again, thinking: “there’s no good Australian based halfbacks”. Will Genia usurped the Tahs’ Nic Phipps to gobble up the test minutes and was often…

This is the first in a series of articles focusing on the effect the NRC is having on Australian Rugby. Ita Vaea was an up and coming number eight with the Brumbies when in 2012 he was diagnosed with a condition which caused blood clots. At this time doctors advised Vaea that he must retire from rugby to focus on his health, which he did, missing the 2013 and 2014 Super Rugby seasons. In those two years off, Vaea worked with medical staff on controlling his condition, a goal that was achieved in time for the birth of the NRC.…

England clinched the series in Melbourne last Saturday but the show must go on with the final match of the series to be played out in Sydney. Pride is on the line for Australia, while the tourists will be keen demoralise their hosts with a clean sweep. Australia The Wallabies have made a few of changes to their starting line up with locking duo Sam Carter and Rory Arnold dropped from the twenty three. Rob Simmons regains his starting spot from the first test and large human Will Skelton joins him in the second row, his first taste of test rugby this…

With England drawing first blood in game one last weekend, the series heads down to Melbourne for the second installment. It’s do or die for Australia, while the tourists will be keen to keep their boots on the throats of their opponents. Australia The Wallabies have made a few necessary changes ahead of Saturday’s match. David Pocock suffered a fractured eye socket and is out for the series while lock Rob Simmons is out with a back injury. Pocock has been replaced by the contagiously energetic Sean McMahon, moving from the bench, while the Brumbies’ Sam Carter replaces Simmons from…

The league-leading Brumbies crossed the Nullarbor to do battle with the Force on a sticky Friday evening in Perth. Would the Ponies continue their strong form? Or would the home team shock the visitors with the expansive style of rugby they have promised? First Half The first half saw the Brumbies come out of the blocks in typical fashion, dominating possession and they had their first points from a Lealiifano penalty before two minutes passed. The Force were resolute in defence and perhaps the Brumbies were a little impatient when Pocock threw a rushed pass which Lealiifano couldn’t reel in, the…

Following an epic Rugby World Cup Final here are Green and Gold Rugby’s five observations: 1. The Lineout There are many aspects of the wallabies’ game that have improved significantly since Michael Cheika has taken the reigns. One that hasn’t improved though is the lineout. There was a time when Australians couldn’t scrummage but would dominate the lineout, now or scrum is solid, but the lineout just isn’t performing. The All Blacks have shown themselves to the best exponents of the discipline all tournament, the theme continuing as they won sixteen of their own throws and a couple of Australia’s.…

The Greater Sydney Rams have earned their first win of the season, edging out Sydney rivals the North Harbour Rays, 23-21 in a see-sawing affair. All signs were pointing to a try-fest, the weather was fine, the loser was set to have one hand on the wooden spoon and both the Rams and the Rays are know for being attacking threats, usually flailing in defence, conceding 6 and 6.5 tries a game consecutively.-Review by Nelson Dale The Match FIRST HALF Only minutes after the first whistle, halfback Dewitt Roos, who has been one of the Rams strongest players in the…

1. Women’s Sevens Book a Place at the Rio Olympic Games We kick off this week’s Tuesday Top Five with our most successful national rugby team, once again doing us proud. In some great news, the Australian women’s rugby sevens team has qualified for the Rio Olympic Games. Winning all three pool games in Amsterdam the Australians put their qualification beyond doubt. Fresh from winning the Twickenham tournament the Aussies travelled to Amsterdam for the sixth and final tournament of the season. Australia comfortably beat Russia (29-7), China (48-0) and England (24-7) in the pool stage, cruising into the knockout…

Here’s the latest installment of the Tuesday Top Five. Kev sees red, Crusaders and Sharks get carded, Hurricanes dazzle, Super Sefa takes off and the Brumbies lead Super Rugby in defense. 5. Big Kev Sees Red Twenty minutes into the Rebels v Reds fixture in Melbourne James Horwill earned his second red card of the season. That’s right, his second red card in seven games. It was the primary reason the Reds lost, at the time Horwill was dismissed Queensland were up 3-12 and looking dominant. Playing with a man down for three quarters of the match was always going…

The Brumbies have gone down by two points at the death to the Chiefs after leading for much of the second half. It was an epic match that continues the rivalry between these two clubs over the last few seasons. The Match The first half was a real showcase of running rugby from both teams. After Aaron Cruden and Christian Lealiifano traded penalties Nic White had a go from 48 meters to put the Brumbies in the lead 3-6. While the Brumbies mostly decided against kicking at goal and were determined to score tries it was Chiefs who drew first…

After what seems an age the dawn of a new Super Rugby season is upon us. On Friday night we will see two of Australia’s most storied franchises resume hostilities in Canberra. The Reds will enter hoping to put the last season behind them with a strengthened squad, while the Brumbies enter the fray with an eye to hit the ground running with changes of their own. Background Last season began with an identical fixture, the Reds winning thanks to some Lachie Turner magic and some Jesse Mogg tragic. It was a match that didn’t bear too much on either…

The Wallabies were well beaten by a determined England side at Twickenham on Saturday in a match that displayed two typically opposing methods of playing rugby. Here are five observations I have made regarding the fixture: The Scrum Predictably the English targeted the Wallaby scrum, with predictable results. It has been a hallmark of Australian rugby to lag behind the top nations when it comes to the dark arts, just when you think we have turned a corner, or look to be competitive we get a result like this. But were we really that bad? On the highlights it looks…

With the final spring tour match upon us it’s easy to switch off and think: “Whatever happens we just building towards 2015 now”. Well that’s loser talk. We still have England to play, this is the real prize. Win and the tour is a success, the old enemy vanquished. Lose and we yet again have to deal with those English fans that don’t understand much more about Rugby than the fact that they have beaten us at it. Join me on a video odyssey as we take a trip down memory lane. Reminding ourselves of famous victories and firing ourselves…

The Wallabies second test of their spring tour took them to France where a vengeful home side inflicted the first loss in Michael Cheika’s short reign as Wallaby coach. Losing by three the Wallabies could have definitely snatched this one at the death but in fairness they were chasing France for most of the match. Here are some observations I made from the match: Were We Up For it? Clearly the French were, but the Wallabies seemed lacking in intensity. During a rugby match their are always ebbs and flows with regard to momentum and like all sport emotion plays…

Another test against Wales another close win for the men in gold. The Wallabies dominated possession but Wales were a shot for victory right up until the final whistle. Here are my ratings: [one_third last=”no”] James Slipper Lost the ball in contact early and was up against it in the scrum. He was busy, but didn’t have his best game in gold, conceded a penalty try. 5 [/one_third] [one_third last=”no”] Saia Faingaa Had a few typically effective “chopping” tackles, but had a few errors too. 5[/one_third] [one_third last=”yes”] Sekope Kepu Seemed a little off the pace and was part of the…

So it has come to the final match of the inaugural NRC season. After nine rounds of frenetic footy and two epic semi final matches we have separated the wheat from the chaff. Eight teams began the season, now only the cream remain, battled hardened and tested they square off in Ballymore for a chance to be the first team to hold aloft the toast rack telephone that represents total domination of their fellow Australians. Who will be the 2014 NRC champion, Brisbane City? or Perth Spirit? Brisbane City v Perth Spirit The Journey Brisbane city have looked pretty good…