Friday’s rugby news has Brad Thorn coming out of retirement, Wallabies to channel the 2011 Reds, Men’s Sevens team to play off for 7th and Anton Lienert-Brown called up to the All Blacks.
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Thorn to Return
Brad Thorn is set to be named in the Queensland Country NRC squad and come out of retirement at the age of 41.
Thorn has already been named as an assistant coach of Queensland Country be is expected to be announced as a player as well sometime next week.
“I didn’t actually retire because of my body,” Thorn said earlier this year.
“I retired because it seemed like I should — I turned 40.
“If you had of put the number 32 next to my name I would have signed another two-year contract.
“My body feels good.
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Wallabies to Channel Reds
The Wallabies will look to channel the Queensland Reds of 2011 for the upcoming Rugby Championship.
Bernard Foley says the Wallabies need more variation in their game which the Reds were very good at.
“You just look at the Reds when they won the competition in 2011, how well they utilised their kicking game; very efficient, very smart with it,” Foley said.
“So we’re looking to have a balanced game plan where we can challenge defences through our kicks, through our runs and also when their passing game’s on.
“We’re just looking to have variation in our game.
“Teams probably were able to defend our running game and our attacking game pretty easily last time we played, so we just want to keep that variation and keep challenging defences and also back-fields as well.
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Men’s to Play for 7th
The Aussie Men’s Sevens team will play off for 7th place at the Rio Olympics after losing to Argentina.
Australia were ahead 21-5 at halftime but Argentina kept them scoreless in the second half and came back to win 26-21.
Argentina will face New Zealand for 5th position whilst Australia will play France for 7th.
Fiji take on Great Britain for the Gold medal.
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Lienert-Brown Called Up
Young Chiefs centre Anton Lienert-Brown has been called up into the All Blacks squad as replacement for Sonny Bill Williams who has been ruled out of the Rugby Championship with an achilles injury.
Lienert-Brown joins Ryan Crotty, Malakai Fekitoa and George Moala as centres in the All Backs squad.
Lienert-Brown represented New Zealand in last year’s under-20 world championships and is coming off an impressive Super Rugby season for the Chiefs.
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