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Waratahs 2014

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Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
We're gonna miss Kingston this year, I think he's one that got away.

In a different universe where Hodge wasn't signed on a two year contract, I think we would have held on to Kingston. Under the circumstances, I think it was never going to be possible. Crawford and Betham outshone him in 2013.

The bloke in the Tahs squad who must be scratching his head must be Lance. The Tahs will gain depth but I don't see his career benefiting much from the move at this stage.

I think Lance is a guy who will excell under Cheika. I think he's a good footballer with strong core skills (particularly his defence). I'm hoping he'll force his way into the matchday 23 a fair bit this year. I think he has the potential to be an excellent footballer.
 

JSRF10

Dick Tooth (41)
With regards to Kingston this time last year he was probably chalked down as a bloke that Cheika wanted long term. However with the meteoric rise of Izzy and the development of Crawford and Betham something had to give if he wanted regular football. I think we'll only feel his loss if we have an injury crisis in the back 3.
 

gel

Ken Catchpole (46)
I think Lance is a guy who will excell under Cheika. I think he's a good footballer with strong core skills (particularly his defence). I'm hoping he'll force his way into the matchday 23 a fair bit this year. I think he has the potential to be an excellent footballer.
From run on 15 at the Reds, to hopefully maybe one day getting into the matchday 23 for the Tahs???

I don't think it serves Australian rugby any favours having a guy like him who is a run on super rugby level player sitting on the side lines biding his time.

Do the ARU have to authorise the super rugby signings and transfers? If so, surely they would have encouraged more towards the rebels or force, where he would be a run on player as well.

Just seems so silly to me.
 

RugbyReg

Rocky Elsom (76)
Staff member
it was his choice though. He's a NSWman pretty much. Went for them in Origin. His old man was obviously one of them (effectively). Good for him. Great team man Jono, unselfish too and may well be a key man for the Tahs off the field as much as on.

Any word as to his club allegiances? I assume Sydney Uni?
 

Lee Grant

John Eales (66)
The bloke in the Tahs squad who must be scratching his head must be Lance. The Tahs will gain depth but I don't see his career benefiting much from the move at this stage.

Did Jono sign when Foley was ostensibly going to the Rebels?

They are not exactly position for position but he might have been miffed when he heard Foley was staying, suspecting that it would impact on his game time even if indirectly.

I think I'm missing out on the Skelton hype. Big fella for sure, but I've generally seen him as slow with a tendency to fall over the gain line instead of bending/breaking it. I also know it was his first year with limited game time. What are the areas people see him improving on (or being exceptional in) this year?

He bent a line or two this morning at training. They were practising choke tackle type stuff but he kept running through blokes and spoiling the drill. And he did better than I thought in the beep tests.

As I have said before: the big thing for Will in 2014 will be to get to the level of playing a block of games for 60 minutes in Super Rugby. If it happens that he only gets the odd start, or none, then he has to show that he can play with forcefulness for the whole time he is on the park.

This is to show his worth to the Tahs, and is quite apart from putting his hand up to play at a higher level. First thing first.

He played the whole 80 minutes for the Tahs against the Lions so he should be a chance to prove his stamina in Super Rugby.

In other news Paddy Ryan and Nick Phipps are back training joining Pete Betham who came back from the tour to train last week.

Cliff Palu is running fast now but is not changing direction yet.

There was more colourful criticism of inexactness from the coach with the same adjective being used, and a lot of expletives like "gosh" and "darn".

Ya gotta love the guy: old school.
.
 

Badger

Bill McLean (32)
Didn't see this mentioned anywhere else so I have posted it here...

HSBC have been announced as a sponsor of the Wallabies.

http://www.rugby.com.au/wallabies/News/NewsArticle/tabid/1516/ArticleID/10645/Default.aspx

Interesting to note from a Tahs announcement in May 2013 regarding the conclusion of the HSBC sponsorship:

Explaining the decision not to extend the partnership, Mr Wolff (Head of Marketing for HSBC Bank Australia) said, "In the future, HSBC is shifting its global sponsorship strategy to focus on a smaller number of globally significant properties with international reach such as its principal partnership of the 2013 British and Irish Lions tour of Australia, several prominent golfing events on the world stage and the HSBC Sevens World Series rugby tournament which hosts an event on the Gold Coast each season.

http://www.waratahs.com.au/News/NewsArticle/ArticleID/9133.aspx

From this comment, my (incorrect) impression was that HSBC was focusing on events/occasions rather than supporting teams.

Anyway, it would have been fascinating to have been a fly on the wall when Tahs HQ heard about the new Wallabies/HSBC agreement.
 

Lee Grant

John Eales (66)
I had that impression also, but in hindsight what they said was apt.

The Wallabies are more globally significant than than the Waratahs are, and HSBC have switched—good hustle—and Oz Rugby still gets their sponsorship.
.
 

gel

Ken Catchpole (46)
it was his choice though. He's a NSWman pretty much. Went for them in Origin. His old man was obviously one of them (effectively). Good for him. Great team man Jono, unselfish too and may well be a key man for the Tahs off the field as much as on.

Any word as to his club allegiances? I assume Sydney Uni?

Fair enough. I just figured that given his schooling on the coast and uni that he might not have been so hardcore nsw.

Hope he does well and gets game time.
 

Crashy

John Solomon (38)
Yeah the whole HSBC sponsorship thing is an odd one.
As noted above HSBC said they were looking at sponsoring more global events – Wayne Smith in the Australian said last week that HSBC was to be announced as the Australian naming sponsor of Super Rugby - this would be announced as such last Monday.
As we saw the announcement was not as a naming sponsor of Supe, but as the ‘Official Bank’ of the Wallabies.
Perhaps the ARU forced a last minute change and I would be a bit cranky if I was the Sanzar/Tahs HQ.

So it would appear SupeRugby doesn’t have a naming sponsor, the Tahs don’t have a sleeve sponsor and the Force don’t have a major sponsor.

Anyone care to elaborate?
 

suckerforred

Chilla Wilson (44)
Did Jono sign when Foley was ostensibly going to the Rebels?

They are not exactly position for position but he might have been miffed when he heard Foley was staying, suspecting that it would impact on his game time even if indirectly.

.

I also think that he & Morahan made agreements with Tahs & Force respectively when it looked like Diggers was staying at the Reds & before Rocket was again injured. In hind sight I wonder is both of them are kicking them selves but such is life.

Jono is a good fullback. Just has come along at the wrong time with Izzy & Beale running around.
 

Westy

Bob McCowan (2)
...
He bent a line or two this morning at training. They were practising choke tackle type stuff but he kept running through blokes and spoiling the drill. And he did better than I thought in the beep tests.

As I have said before: the big thing for Will in 2014 will be to get to the level of playing a block of games for 60 minutes in Super Rugby. If it happens that he only gets the odd start, or none, then he has to show that he can play with forcefulness for the whole time he is on the park.

...
There was more colourful criticism of inexactness from the coach with the same adjective being used, and a lot of expletives like "gosh" and "darn".

Ya gotta love the guy: old school.
.

Thanks Lee - loving the training updates - with Skelton I'm holding opinion until he shows he is more effective than a straight one for one swap with Timani. I'm really happy with all news re Cheika coming out of the Waratah's camp - he sounds like he makes smart choices and doesn't suffer under performance. On a different note - any news on Ben Volavola - he looked the goods part way through last season but then faded at the end.
 

Hawko

Tony Shaw (54)
He bent a line or two this morning at training. They were practising choke tackle type stuff but he kept running through blokes and spoiling the drill. And he did better than I thought in the beep tests.

As I have said before: the big thing for Will in 2014 will be to get to the level of playing a block of games for 60 minutes in Super Rugby. If it happens that he only gets the odd start, or none, then he has to show that he can play with forcefulness for the whole time he is on the park.

This is to show his worth to the Tahs, and is quite apart from putting his hand up to play at a higher level. First thing first.

He played the whole 80 minutes for the Tahs against the Lions so he should be a chance to prove his stamina in Super Rugby.

In other news Paddy Ryan and Nick Phipps are back training joining Pete Betham who came back from the tour to train last week.

Cliff Palu is running fast now but is not changing direction yet.

There was more colourful criticism of inexactness from the coach with the same adjective being used, and a lot of expletives like "gosh" and "darn".

Ya gotta love the guy: old school.
.

I am not sure how to respond. Do I rejoice that we have a real linebreaker coming through or is it just that our forward physicality (a major reason we didn't make the six last year) is still totally piss-poor.

Ecstatic that Cliffy is running fast this early, he should be on track to start the season fit and fresh.

If Nick Phipps listens to his coach and learns to hit his 10 fast and in front every time we'll be off and running. If he doesn't then I expect a lot of blue language followed by lots of time on the bench. I think that's how Cheika works - perfect practise or else delivers perfect game performance (to misquote a former Wallaby coach).

Please keep the reports coming!
 

wamberal

Phil Kearns (64)
The bloke in the Tahs squad who must be scratching his head must be Lance. The Tahs will gain depth but I don't see his career benefiting much from the move at this stage.

Lance is a footballer with a huge heart, I can see him doing well under Cheika.
 

Westy

Bob McCowan (2)
Any news on this potgeiter bloke?


Former Springboks forward and hard man Jacques Potgieter will continue to play rugby in Japan until the end of 2017, despite continuing to play Super Rugby for the next two seasons.

Potgieter swapped the Bulls for the Waratahs, and hasn’t linked up with his new team as of yet.

The former Bull is still playing in the Japanese Top League, representing Fukuoka Sanix Blues, the same club that All Blacks lock Brad Thorn played with last season.

The Waratahs expect Potgieter to arrive in Sydney late January according to initial reports.

Gert van der Merwe confirmed to the Beeld that Potgieter was impressing the clubs coaches and was being well looked after by the team and their coach Yuichiro Fuiji.

“They take very, very good care of the South African rugby players,” Potgieter’s manager said.

http://www.sanzarrugby.com/superrug...in-japan-despite-playing-in-waratahs-colours/
 

p.Tah

John Thornett (49)
From the Canterbury website. The blue doesn't look as luminous as the blue in the Foley photo on the Tahs site
image.jpg
 
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