Author: Shane Sullivan

The man who knows all things rugby in Queensland, Jim Tucker, Broke the news yesterday that Brad Thorn and Quade Cooper had had an ‘honest conversation’. Honest conversations with coaches are never a good thing and word is Quade is not training with the Reds anymore. There has been no official word from the Queensland Rugby Union yet, but Jim rarely gets things wrong. The reaction from the fans has covered the entire gamut of emotions from ‘OH MY FUCKING GOD ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY’ to ‘yawn, Quade is so 2011’. My reaction was ‘What!’…Then nothing. Players, coaches and staff…

The long Welsh Australian rivalry continues. The Wallabies have dominated this contest and most pundits have predicted this to continue. Wales, I’m sure, have other plans. The Match The First Half A great half of rugby from both teams with the Wallabies leading on the scoreboard and have most of the play and possession. Australia scored three tries to one with the first to Tatafu Polota-Nau who drove a lineout maul ten metres to score in the right corner. The second to Adam Coleman running the hard line and catching a beautifully timed  ‘flat’ pass from Will Genia and scoring untouched…

The Wallabies don’t play Japan very often, but it shouldn’t be hard to work out how they think the script should pan out. Top three against a minow sitting outside the top ten. The Wallabies will think they can overpower the Brave Blossoms, while they will hope to use their speed and guile to go around the Aussies. The Match First half The Wallabies were up 14 -3 after 20 minutes of the game thanks to two very well worked tries. The first to Samu Kerevi was simple numbers after the Wallabies had moved the ball from sideline to sideline…

Bond university’s #1 field is famous for the huge mound in its centre. That didn’t stop a great crowd enjoying a festival of rugby starting with a win for University of Queensland in the AON uni 7,s. The  Queensland Red took out the Australian U16 Championship before the NRC game started. And the Under 15 final after. The Match The first half was a hard fought affair with Queensland Country’s defence the difference. That defence came at a cost for both teams with Melbourne losing Siliva Siliva, Semisi Tupou and Kiotone Ratu to injuries and Queensland having both wingers in…

This week the 2018 Super Rugby draw arrived and besides from the shock of having the Sunwolves in the Australian conference. ( I don’t know why I was shocked, I mean what else was going to happen) And no Force in our conference! But besides from that, I was like… Meh! I’m a rusted on fan. I played my first game in 1978 when I was 14 and played well into my thirties and only stopped when my body stopped working like it’s supposed to. I’ve been to every test match and Super Rugby game since… Well, it’s so long I can’t remember…

Here’s a quick quiz for all my fellow Reds tragics. How many head coaches have there been at Ballymore since 1997? Ten! that’s 10! John Connolly (1989–2000) Mark McBain (2001–02) Andrew Slack (2003) Jeff Miller (2004–06) Eddie Jones (2007) Phil Mooney (2008–09) Ewen McKenzie (2010–13) Richard Graham (2014–16) Matt O’Connor & Nick Stiles (2016) Nick Stiles (2016–) Knuckles and Link account for eight of those years so the other eight coaches only lasted a year and a half each! So why am I surprised to hear that the rumours of another coaching change? Actually, I was surprised but after a…

Neither side can win the Rugby Championship but who gives a toss. This is still test match rugby! I think this will be close. Argentina have been managing 50-60 minutes of great rugby and then fading. The Wallabies have been hot and cold. Anything could happen! The Match 1st half Having just watched the All Blacks pick apart South Africa 50-0 I was looking forward to seeing another great contest. And it was a contest with Argentina taking a 13-10 lead at halftime but it wasn’t pretty rugby. In fact, it was bloody ugly. Argentina scored the first try bashing…

What difference a few days make. A few days ago the Wallabies were coming off a ‘glorious’ defeat at the hands of the All Blacks and all was right with Aussie Rugby. South Africa had taken care of the Pumas with relative ease so obviously, almost All Black toppling, Australia would blow past the Argies with ease. But the world doesn’t work like that. Australia blew a decent lead and looked scrappy to draw against South Africa. And now Los Puma is the almost All Black toppling super team at least for half a game. So who do we have…

I’ve read that Michael Cheika had ‘blasted the ref’ over some decisions in the game last night. When I watched the presser I found it nothing like the headline. What do you think?

Where do you start with Aussie rugby? They have absolutely nothing to lose tonight. If they can somehow upset New Zealand’s rhythm they may be able to make a competition of this. The Match The first half was a roller coaster for Australian Rugby supporters! The Wallabies scored three tries but every one of them involved some luck. From Folau’s intercept through Hoopers easy run in, to the ball bouncing off Will Genia’s $800000 knee the ball bounced the Australian’s way. But more important than the luck was an added enthusiasm to get up hard in defence, to compete at the breakdown…

The Brumbies are looking for some much needed momentum going into their finals match against whichever Kiwi juggernaut they draw in the pool. The reds are scrambling for a much needed moral boosting win after yet another horror season once again driven by what seems like poor fitness and bad coaching. The Brumbies welcome back their fantastic halfback Tomas Cubelli and have the inspirational Leali’ifano running the water while the Reds have lost Higgers, Kerevi and Hendrick Tui. The Match The first half I was expecting much and sometimes you get what you expect. The Brumbies, well Aiden Toua, absolutely…

Barker v Alloys By Up_the_guts. Coming into the game Baker were clear favourites, and their performance showed us why, coming up trumps with a 36-5 victory over Aloys. Both teams tested each other out early, but not long into the first half a good driving maul allowed for Will Lloyd (B) to touch down for his first try. Soon after, Barker again found themselves deep in Aloys’ 22 and there was nothing stopping Luke Reimer (B) from charging over for their second try. Max Brennan (A) then received a yellow card from the kick off for contact in the air on…

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…