Author: Shane Sullivan

If you look at the cold hard facts this should be a dead easy win for the wallabies. The third ranked side in the world against the tenth. A southern hemisphere giant against a pacific island minnow. But like most things things just aren’t that simple.  So let me tell you a story that Reg Roberts reminded me of on the Green and Gold Rugby Podcast. How Fiji saved Australian Rugby Reg could tell this beautifully, Lee Grant might be able to give you a first hand account. Both could tell it better than me. 65 years ago in 1952…

The Blues took their home game against the Reds to Apia in Samoa. In my opinion inspirational idea even if ticket prices kept many fans away. The Blues were hot favourites for this game and deservedly so as no Aussie side has beaten a Kiwi team since march 1892. Or so it seems. The Match The Reds started slowly with knock ons, thighthead scrum loses and loose kicks handing the Blues a mountain of procession. Seven minutes in the Blues were up 12-0 with good tries to Rene Ranger and Reiko Ioane and deservedly so. The Reds, despite flubbing a…

After the disappointment of being robbed of a win against our oldest enemy it’s a little daunting to turn around and looked towards this weekends game against the Chiefs. Their eight to one win records looks pretty phat next to the Reds two and seven and the 0-15 win record for Aussies sides doesn’t help build confidence. So here then, are the key matchups. Duh: Cruden v Cooper So Aaron Cruden didn’t win World Rugby’s Player of the year and maybe he’s not the best flyhalf in New Zealand But he’s damned close. With 106 Super Rugby caps and 47 for the…

I’m not going to lie to you, I tried to get out of this. We are in the middle of the biggest storm of the season and my internet’s been down for twelve hours. But that’s not my biggest issue. My biggest hurdle is talking up the stuttering Reds against the well oiled machine they call the Hurricanes. The boys and girls in the match thread lost the plot and have been cracking ‘Reds under the bed’ jokes for days. The job is daunting so I put the word out about my predicament  and… nothing. So here I am with…

In Super Rugby it doesn’t take long before phrases like ‘crunch game’ and ‘must win’ start to get thrown around. The Reds are one from three and need a win on an around the world trip to keep in touch of the front runners. One win from five games is not going to do that. On the face of things the Lions game looks the less likely game to give them that win but… and it’s a big but, the Reds generally go alright against the lions. The Lions have won the last two games but the margin in these…

There aren’t many top tier countries that Australia has had the wood on lately but Wales is one of them building up an enviable winning record in the process. Wales has been disrupted with injuries. While Australia hasn’t exactly set the world on fire with their play this year. So Wales look to break their Aussie hoodoo and the Wallabies look to rescue a pretty sad season. Only one thing is certain, someone is going to be disappointed. The Match Australia dominated the first half in possession, territory and on the scoreboard scoring three tries to nil to finish the…

I’m sure Qld Country were expecting an improved showing coming into NRC 2016, but things haven’t gone to plan. For the Sydney Rays though everything is coming up roses. They’ve gone home with maximum points from their two outings while country are yet to earn a point. Queensland Country will be out to turn things around but it’s a big ask against the competition front runners. The Match The rain had fallen steadily all day on the Gold Coast, but by kick off time things were looking a little better. The rain held off during the game but for a…

Reigning ‘Australia’s Greatest Athlete’ Quade Cooper has joined the Queensland Reds on a three year deal. Cooper won the competition with a score of 995 points from eleven events with wins in ‘Rugby Oz Tag’, Rowing and Basketball but it was his all-round skills that most impressed the judges. In his spare time he has racked up 100+ games for the Reds scoring a record 770 points, 15 games for Toulon, 58 games for Australia, three games for the East Coast Aces, three for Brisbane City and the subject of thousands of YouTube videos. Yes Quade Cooper is back at…

In case you missed it the Wallabies went down to New Zealand 29-9 last Saturday. In many articles and news items around Australia this has been praised as a much improved effort from the flogging the week before. But you just have to ask yourself was it? What really changed? Isn’t 29-9 and four tries to none still a flogging? What Was The Plan? How were the Wallabies going to win this game? How were they going to Score or even get into a scoring position? I’m not naive enough to believe there wasn’t a plan but I’m finding it…

Queensland Country must start this year with a new air of confidence. An improved roster and new coaches including Wallaby legend Toutai Kefu and all round legend Brad Thorn. The guys from the capital won’t be push overs. Lets face it they never are. Both teams have had a very short lead into this match with only a few training sessions together. The team who can gel first will probably win the game. (DUH) The Match The game started with a bang for Country with Taniela Tupou playing pinball with opposition players but after the first couple of minutes the Vikings…

The Wallabies are looking for redemption after a sound beating at the hands of New Zealand last weekend. Can they make a dent in what appears to huge chasm between the teams? The Match The Wallabies came out with more fire than we had seen from them all year. The All Blacks were clearly expecting it and there was a lot of niggle from both teams. Again the Wallabies were making things harder for themselves. Kerevi kicked out on the full, Aaron Smith picked up Australia’s scrum ball  and losing two early lineouts. Australia’s lineout scapegoat,Rob Simmons has a wry…

When the boss put the call out for volunteers for Bledisloe two pieces the silence hung thick in the air. Days later I found myself with some time to spare so I grabbed the template and pasted it into the editor. Interestingly the old post we use as a template is the 2013 Waratahs v BI lions game. Cheika was the coach and he’d just called Bernard Foley back from the Aussie Sevens team for the match. The article was upbeat and Cheika was enthusiastic and full of confidence. Three and a bit years later and Cheika and Foley have…

Everyone is wondering what team the Wallaby coach’s will trot out after the disaster that was Bledisloe one. In rugby forums and on blogs punters have been spewing forth team after team of their own particular favourites and the next big things. I, of course, know much more than all of them put together and have a team I’d like to see run out as well. Usually I accept that I haven’t been in camp for weeks and seen the games that the players have played and leave it to the experts with all the inside knowledge. So what would…

Queensland country’s NRC history is polar opposite to Queenslands other NRC side. While City has won two NRC championships and held the Horan Little Shield for all of the 2015 season. Country on the other hand have two eighth place finishes to their name. But this year things have changed. A new coaching regime and a pretty good roster (despite losing Lukan Tui to city) should see them win more than their share of matches in 2016. History: Queensland country has a proud history tracking back to 1886 and I could waffle on for a bit about it but I…

The mighty reds are taking on some ‘team’ from Melbourne but that is just a sideshow to the main event. Tonight’s main event for me is Greg Holmes last match in red. 143 matches over 12 years at both tighthead and loosehead prop. 27 test match on top. There are other players playing their last game tonight but Holmsy’s my favourite and stands head and shoulders above the lot of them. So here then, are the key matchups. No bullshit: Liam Gill v Sean McMahon As liam Fn Gill prepares to leave Ballymore he still has a points to prove…

Saturday afternoon rugby returns to Brisbane this weekend when the Reds take on the new boys from Japan. Normally you would expect a club with a long, proud history to easily dispatch a brand new club whose players were thrown together a few weeks before the season started. But these aren’t normal times. The Reds started the year with great set pieces, a rookie halves pairing, an untried back line and the wrong coach. 13 rounds later they still have great set pieces but except for a few bright points in the backs everything else seems to be depressingly beige.…

By suspending five players the Hurricanes have handed the Reds their best chance to take a scalp way above them on the Super Rugby ladder. The Match The first half The first half was for the most part fairly even. The Hurricanes scored a great looking try off the very first scrum of the game. Beauden Barrett took the pass off the scrum and cross kicked beautifully into Wes Goosen’s hands. Ayumu Goromaru missed the cover tackle. Barrett then missed the conversion in the strong wind assisting the Reds. The Reds scored from a couple of penalty shots and were…

There is high controversy in the Hurricanes camp with five players stood down for a ‘curfew breach’. Julian and Ardie Savea, Cory Jane and Victor Vito, along with reserve prop Chris Eves are said to have missed the teams self imposed bed time by 18 minutes. The punishment seems to far out weigh the crime but the Reds will take any chance they can get. Embed from Getty Images While the loss of these quality players will hurt the Hurricanes is it enough of a disruption to give the Reds a hope of winning? Can a backline already weakened by…

There was a period around 2011 when the Crusaders were our bunnies but no more. For a few years it’s been one way traffic for the Crusaders and the Reds have been barely a speed hump. And today should be no different. Which leaves me in a great place where I can just simple enjoy the rugby and not worry about a win. Unless we’re in with a sniff and then I’m stuffed. The Match Things went pretty much to script in the first ten minutes. Campbell Magnay coughed up the ball from the kick off and the Crusaders switched…

Good news drop bear fans. We’re a chance of winning this game against the Cheetahs. The Reds sit just one position below their 13 position and are just four points behind them. But it’s going to take another step up from the Reds. The Cheetahs play an exciting brand of rugby and they score a lot of tries. About twice as many as the Reds do, but they also let in a lot of tries. So what do the Reds need to do to win this? The Cheetahs haven’t named their team yet but I’m going to have a crack…