waiopehu oldboy
George Smith (75)
RIP, Poppy.
Well, there you goHopoate revealed how he secretly played rugby throughout his rugby league career.
“I played rugby in Tongan (rugby) tournaments every year even when I was playing first grade for Manly,” he said.
“Manly didn’t know, but they will know now.”
Pocock to feature in a two-part Australian Story 'True Grit' series airing on the ABC over the next two weeks...
https://player.vimeo.com/video/155452443
http://tv.press.abc.net.au/australian-story-true-grit-david-pocock
Between this, and the replacement of Ferdinand the Bull with a bloke in a bull suit, does that mean there are no more actual animal mascots in the ITM Cup?
Its not an actual animal, but the original Hawkeye the Magpie from the 60's is still at McLean Park on gamedays.
This is totally off-topic, but I got a real laugh from this scene in the Almighty Johnsons. For anyone who hasn't seen it, the Almighty Johnsons is a kiwi TV show about the Norse gods being reincarnated in Hawke's Bay - it's a mix of absolute crap and genuine genius. This scene is them meeting a bunch of the maori gods and having to come up with a response song.
Also, I acknowledge that a kiwi TV show about Hawke's Bay is literally the least appropriate thing possible to post in a thread titled 'Rugby news from unexpected places'.
Always good to see new junior clubs starting up. I hope they do well in Victoria
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/...b/news-story/1cfb9490ddbe493acf389d36f11f962f
A team representing Syria played in the Asian 7s tournament in India
http://www.newindianexpress.com/spo...War-for-Syrians/2016/02/21/article3288772.ece
Agustin Pichot recently posted a picture on instagram of the Real Madrid training facility, with a comment about a new project for the future of Argentine rugby starting to take shape. This comes after a similar visit last year to Barcelona and comments that a Spanish / Argentinian super rugby team could be possible given Spain is basically in the same time zone as South Africa. Sounds a bit out there but Pichot really is a driving force in the game at the moment and has made a lot of things happen. Interesting times.
After the first game of the Americas Rugby Championship he was very open about his desire to see Super Rugby really embrace new markets. He spoke primarily about the Americas itself but he may have more ambitious plans. In the post Houston interview he hinted at ambitions to see more Argentine involvement alongside at least one combined Sth American franchise. And of course Nth America. Even mentioned that there's an active working group within SANZAAR working on how to get this done.
Good info. I think it's the only way for the SANZAAR nations to fend off the financial threat of French and English rugby long term. It'll also accelerate the competitiveness of the global game, which will allow eventual expansion of the Rugby Championship as well (doubt it'll be too long until Japan are added for instance). This year's super rugby format is a bit messy but it's a clear bridge to further expansion and more sensible formats in future. Pichot can take care of the Americas and perhaps Europe. All we really need is a Japanese or Asian version of Pichot to drive the development of the professional game there!