Author: Slatts

Former World Cup winning Wallaby and QLD Reds' Captain, ‘Slatts’, has been very busy (mostly hangin’ out in Far-Northern-Japan, singin’ Karaoke and drinkin’ Nihonshyu) since his retirement from the game in the late 1990’s. Always keen for a yarn, and an opinion or two, Slatts is rugby commentary’s best keep secret. Dashingly HANDSOME and very intelligent-he’s one for the ladies!

With the Rugby Championship sucking most of our attention at the moment, it’s easy for us all to miss a very important movement. A movement that can underpin the strength of rugby’s future. What is this important movement, you’re asking? Well, it’s 7’s rugby. Whilst 7’s rugby often operates on the margins of the rugby operation, with its recent ascension to Olympic status, that’s about to change. And with rugby in Australia suffering, it can’t change quickly enough. Rugby has been given a golden (get it?) opportunity, one that every single other contact team-sport in Australia cannot offer the marketplace.…

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Well, it’s All Black, people! Yep, the land of the long white sheep-shagger has taken out the 2011 search for TBJ. And well done, bros. If it’s not gunna be the Wallabies, then I’m happy it’s you guys. Honest. Honest I am. And what a bloody good final. Easily the best one yet. Crikey, footy at that level, and it’s a cliché, but it’s all about taking your opportunities. And it showed that you don’t need 1,000 tries for a spectacle.  (But, let’s not kid ourselves, it bloody helps!) It was all Frenchy in the second half.  Look, I reckon…

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Wallabies, they go bye-bye! First up, congrats to the Kiwis. You guys thoroughly deserved the victory against the Wallabies. If it can’t be us, then, of course, we’re lookin’ faaaaa a southern hemi team to do the lap. Getting’ beaten by a better team, was, in the end of the day, what happened. There was not one stage of the game where you thought, oh crikey, we’re in this; we’re dominating. Didn’t happen, at all. Better team won, people! I won’t be wearin’ black but I’ll be screamin’ faaaaa ya! Use the ‘uckin’ video ref for high tackles, fa ‘uck…

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Great weekend to be an Aussie! How good was it? It was ‘uckin’ good! Sing with me people. ‘We are so good. We are so good! We are so bloooooody, bloody good!’ Oh crikey, it’s green and XXXX Golds all round! Not only did we win, but the Poms are already back home sippin’ hot beer, n eatin’ fish-n-chips. Classic! Bokke they go bye-bye! That game was enormous. It was brutally beautiful: tense, engaging, smothering. The occasion and the significance of the outcome made the game that much more special. My heart was pounding like Japanese Taiko drums being thumped…

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The Macca’s Search for TBJ Index gives us greater clarity and understanding in world rankings You know how there is a Macca’s in all the countries attending the search for TBJ. I bettchya you didn’t know that, or was even inclined to think about it. Well, that’s my special gift. Anyhoo, aren’t we all living in a better world, for that. Know, I remembered from undergrad uni work that there’s a Big Mac Index, and from memory it’s got somethin’ to do with purchasing power across the nations (I could be wrong and I’m too lazy to look it up!).…

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What is this search for TBJ all about? As we are halfway, or just a little bit over halfway, in the search for TBJ, I reckon we need to take a bitta stock. The search for TBJ — what is it all about? Is it simply a national and individual pee-pee measuring device? Is it all about promoting/marketing the code to the current and new markets? Is it simply the code’s biggest revenue generator? Well, you’ve probably guessed it: it’s a bitta all of ’em. Well it bloody should be. This search for TBJ has to be more than just…

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I cried, just a little bit, and other stuff! This is what I’ve been upta since Saturday night’s game: Howled at the moon; Finished a uni assignment; Dominated my nine-year-old son in beach touch footy; Burned and/or threw out anything lime/emerald green; Watched some AFL; Took a photo of my bare arse and emailed it to my rellies in Ireland; Refused to answer any international calls on my home landline or open any emails from Eire; Howled at the moon; Dominated my son in beach cricket; Punched a toy leprechaun in Noosa Big W; Been asked to leave Noosa Big…

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The first setta games How good was the first week of the search for TBJ? Bloody, bloody awesome, let me tell you. Most teams showed positive intent, and we nearly had a few upsets. If G&GR wasn’t such an upmarket media channel, I’d say I have a chub on. As a RWC team/squad it’s always a relief to go into the rectangle with two H’s, one at each end, go back in the sheds for oranges, and then back out into the rectangle with two H’s, one at each end, and emerge after eighty minutes with a W on the…

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G’day all! My role Crikey, guest columnist for G&GR? I laughed at the opportunity when I first put my name in the hat for consideration by the G&GR chiefs. Who would have thought a boy from Logan City (south of Brissie) could reach such a lofty position. I suppose if Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan can make it out of Nambour, there’s potential for us all. So, my role? What is it that I’ll be doing over the next set-a-six? My ‘brief’ was to offer some insightful analysis into this whole World Cup caper. But I’m pretty sure that’s way…

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