Author: Shane Sullivan

Tuesday’s rugby news looks at, Australia’s sevens squad for Spain, and big changes for Ballymore.Sevens Squads28 lucky Aussies are off to Spain for the Malaga and Seville legs of the World Sevens Tour.The Aussie Women’s Sevens will look to claim their third-consecutive Sevens World Series title for the second time, last achieving this feat during the 2015-16 World Series.Meanwhile, the Australian Men’s program will travel with a new leader, as Henry Hutchison temporarily replaces Nick Malouf as the men’s team captain, with Malouf taking leave from the program to get married.After a nail-biting final in Dubai, the men’s team will…

G’Day G&GRs! A very sleep-deprived BL coming at you. Staying up late/getting up early to watch the Festival of Rugby that has been going on in the Northern Hemisphere is killing me. Loving the games (except the Wallabies), as it is just such a bonus to have this much rugby on offer. Anyway, settle back for the ramblings of a mad man.Fiji fights valiantly in close loss to the TaffsDespite being down to 13 players twice during the game, and playing most of it with only14 players, the Flying Fijians, made the Taffy boys work their arses off for the…

England Love/Hate our EddieOver at the SMH GRob has a good article about our very own Eddie Jones. Eddie has polarised fans where ever he has coached, and his time at the helm of England’s rugby side has been no different.They love his win rate which, as it hovers in the high 70s, is the best an England coach has ever achieved.But they don’t much like his methods and, once or twice a year and usually following a loss, the antipathy boils over into something akin to hate.The Australian is too hard, too mean, too quick to throw players on…

Tuesday’s rugby news sees CFS to the Brumbies, Canada out of the big show, Japan name their squadBrumbies sign former Red Chris Feauai-SautiaEwen McKenzie signed CFS in 2011 and over the next nine or ten years the clearly talented player managed 82 appearances for the Reds. The Reds kept re-signing him despite a string of leg injuries because he was clearly up to Super Rugby standard, but in 2020 they decided to cut their losses and let him go. As a fan of the Reds and Chris, I hope a new program at the Brumbies allows him to reach his…

Six Argentinian players went on the road trip to the Hotel California and won’t feature today. Australia is in the somewhat unusual position of being on the cusp of four wins in a row. The wallabies need to account for a weakened Puma and do it handily to maintain momentum.The MatchIf I could sum up the first quarter of this game in one word, it would be vanilla. Australia led 3-0, but Argentina had missed their own penalty chance and a drop goal. While the Wallabies seemed to have the best of general play and were in complete control defensively,…

The Wallabies are riding high after two straight wins against the world cup holders, while Argentina have lost four straight in the RC. The South Americans will look to restore pride and have the two draws against Australia to draw confidence from. Australia are looking for three wins in a row for the first time in a very long time.The MatchAustralia had a bipolar start. They gave away a kickable penalty and lost a contestable kick receipt, but then they latched onto a loose ball, marched up field through a Kerevi run and Hodge barged through to score a converted…

After last week surprise win by the Wallabies, the Springbok will be keener than ever to live up to their World Champ tag. The MatchThe Boks immediately showed a change of game plan. Ditching the midfield kick in favour of running the ball and kicking to the corner instead of taking the shot at goal. But it was the Wallabies who were first to score after Etsebeth had flubbed their chance at the other end by crawling along the ground. Len Ikitau went over, after a series of penalties, marched his side up the field. Ikitau slipped the tackle and…

Tuesday’s Rugby News looks at Dave Rennie’s reaction to the Aussie win, the Force welcoming Mark Ozich, Frustration with Bank’s to continue, and some rambling about life and Jordy Petaia.’It’s A Start’It’s been a tough start to the Rugby Championship for the Wallabies. Two games at one of the true fortress’s in world rugby. Eden park followed by another drubbing in the lockdown delayed game in Perth. No one could forgive Wallabies coach Dave Rennie for being a little relieved after his side manged a nail biting win over the World Champion South African’s but, he was as pragmatic as…

The series is gone, but our guys are looking to save some face with a win at fortress Perth.The Match As with most games between these two sides, the first 15 minutes was very even. New Zealand score a couple of penalties to lead 6-0, but things were starting to loosen up. Then Beauden Barrett grubbered through, NZ recovered and two quick inside passes and his brother Jordie scored the try. High drama at the 22 minute mark as try scorer Jordie Barrett jumps high to take a bomb and secures it easily, but on the way down he sticks…

Tuesday’s Rugby News takes a look at the new Super Rugby comp, a player draft, the Hospital cup final, and someone being naughty.Super Rugby Pacific Is HereGaGR’s own Nathan Williamson is reporting that Super Rugby Pacific is going to kick off next year.The twelve team, consisting of the five Aussie, the five Kiwi Super Rugby sides, the Fijian Drua and Moana Pacifika is set to start on February 18, 2022Teams will play each other once across the 14-week regular season, along with playing three teams twice, with an added focus on delivering more local derbies following the success of Super…

It’s the last chance saloon for the Wallabies Bledisloe dreams of 2021, while the All Blacks just keep doing All Black stuff and looking awesome and stuff. Oh and humble, I forgot how humble they are. The Match It was a mixed start for both sides with dropped catches and knock ons all over the park. Australia committed the biggest crime by gifting another cut out pass directly into the arms of NZ centre Rieko Ioane who ran … well it was a long way to dot down under the posts. The All Blacks a good enough already, they just…

G’Day GAGR’s! Hard to concentrate on the ruggers when to quote Big Darryl Eastlake… “By gees …. By Jingo… By Crikey…. We’ve got sports coming out of our assholes!” With the Olympics distracting life, I will try and slip some rugby in. Rona ruins Rugby schedule yet Again! Well as of close of business Monday, it looks like with the current Wuhan Flu debacle, the Trans-Transman travel bubble is shot. It now looks like instead of a Test in twiggy Land (Perth) bookended by games in Auckland and Wellington, the Perpetually NZ Cup (AKA the Bledisloe) will now commence with…

Tuesday’s news looks at justice for Marika, Tupou winning the Stan Pilecki Medal, RA to fight Koroibete charge! Okay, I’ll admit it, Marika Koroibete’s hit on French captain and big girl’s blouse Anthony Jelonch was slightly high and deserved a yellow card. But the actions of France’s captain Anthony Jelonch in the next five seconds deserve international condemmation. Firstly, he grabbed an unrelated part of his face, and secondly he fell to the ground screaming for attention like a five-year-old in the playground who’d burned his bot bot on the slippery slide. It was a seriously shameful display that should…

Tonight is the first proper test for Dave Rennie’s Wallabies. If his black period is to be successful, the Wallabies need to start knocking off teams ranked higher than them. Even teams missing most of their top ranked players. Even teams who’ve been in lockdown for weeks. The Match The wallabies started a little skittishly and invited the French into their 22 with an unforgivable scrum stuff up. The ball squirted out the side straight into french hands and only a couple of phases later Le Bleu were in through number 11 Gabin Villiere. The Wallabies looked to have hit…

Tuesday’s rugby news looks at the first Wallaby team of the year, Kerevi’s Olympic bid, Alred kicking on, and another big signing for the Force. Wallabies named! WALLABIES TEAM TO PLAY FRANCE 1. James Slipper (100 Tests) 2. Brandon Paenga-Amosa (8 Tests) 3. Allan Alaalatoa (43 Tests) 4. Matt Philip (9 Tests) 5. Lukhan Salakaia-Loto (25 Tests) 6. Rob Valetini (4 Tests) 7. Michael Hooper (c) (105 Tests) 8. Harry Wilson (6 Tests) 9. Jake Gordon (5 Tests) 10. Noah Lolesio (2 Tests) 11. Marika Koroibete (32 Tests) 12. Matt To’omua (54 Tests) 13. Hunter Paisami (6 Tests) 14. Tom…

Today’s news looks at the departures from down south, the Blues win, the All Blacks squad, and Rob Penney is pissed. Rebels losing key players! The Rebels have confirmed that Wallabies Marika Koroibete, Isi Naisarani and, Dane Haylett-Petty are moving on to greener pastures. Isi Naisarani and Marika Koroibete are off to Japan to secure their financial futures while DHP, Who’s still dealing with long term concussion symptoms hasn’t declared what he is up to next year. All three are big losses for the club but 28-year-old Koroibete was just named Players’ Player following an outstanding 2021 campaign, with the winger scoring…

Tuesday’s Rugby news looks at the Tahs dirty dozen, Carter Gordon’s dream rebel run, Sinckler’s late call up, Green And Gold Rugby · The Dropped Kick-Off 23 – Sugar High (Q&A VI) [one_half last=”no”] 12 Straight for the Tahs! The Waratah’s horror season continued with their twelfth loss on trot. The Tahs have no problem scoring points and their players seem to be competent tackles but like that very old comedy record my father played when I was a child, there’s a hole in the bucket. They say defence is all about attitude, if so, what does that say…

The late injury to James O’Connor threw the Reds back line into disarray. Bryce Hegarty moved into Fly half and the rumour was Hamish Stewart would trot out in the 15 jersey. But wait, there’s more. Bryce Hegarty did his hammy and Hamish Stewart was the new, new fly half while, 19-year-old, Mac Grealy debuted at fullback. The Match Despite the disruptions, the Reds were surprisingly coherent for most of the opening stanza. I guess it’s a sign of a good coaching set up when players slot in without much problem. The blues kicked an early penalty, but the Reds…

Well maybe not! Due to issues beyond our control there is no news today, but that doesn’t mean you guys can’t supply the topics yourselves. I mean, you wang on about anything you want anyway, don’t let us slow you down. BTW: Was Harry Wilson the only bright spot for the Aussie sides last weekend? The real news will be back tomorrow.

Due to an amazing response from our community the Rugby News is back on track. We now have most days covered. But I’ve talked to our new writers, and we’d love a little wriggle room in our numbers. You could be looking to simply give back to this community or are looking for exposure in the sports media field, as others have done, we can help you out. Contact me at sully@greenandgoldrugby.com Monday’s Rugby News is dominated by Trans Tasman rugby just like the Aussie rugby sides were by the Kiwi’s. I’ve been stuck at work all weekend so most…