Friday’s Rugby News

Come on Cheika!

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika may have brought himself into the firing line of an already fuming rugby public, when he announced that  he was confident that the demise of an Australian Super Rugby team will not result in a flood of talent being lost overseas.

With people and players concerned about whether a team being cut will trigger a tsunmai of player movements, Cheika made it clear that ““No-one’s going to be told to go anywhere,” when he fronted the media.

“There will be a roundtable around how we reallocate but the player will always have the choice of what he wants to do.”

“Speaking about the numbers there’s a natural attrition at the end of a season of players leaving, retiring, or not being re-signed in a normal year. Plus the foreign player content that isn’t eligible for Australia. We’ll have to look at how our players fit back into there but I don’t think that number will be huge, it will be more about giving them certainty about their futures.”

Cheika’s comments may seem like false hope for many players right now, with the cutting of a team meaning that twenty percent of them are already guaranteed to not have jobs at the end of the year.

Cross’s Crazy Deathmatch

Just in case there wasn’t enough ideas about how to manage the Super Rugby cull, former Wallaby Ryan Cross says that a three match sudden death series between the Western Force and the Melbourne Rebels would be a great idea to decide which team should remain in Super Rugby.

Speaking on Fox Sports, Cross admitted that while the process of deciding which team will be cut is already late in it’s stages, he admitted that the idea would be a great one, even if it would be difficult to execute.

“Why not? Just throwing it out there. Imagine: you got a three game series. Imagine the game over there in Perth, the Sea of Blue would be going crazy, the things riding on it would be huge.

“I don’t think it’ll happen, I think the decision has already been made… but it’s a pretty interesting concept, and maybe something they should look at, but they won’t.”

Well, at least he’s honest about it’s chances. But hey, I reckon a three match series sounds a hell of a lot better than everything happening behind closed doors. At least it’ll give half the fans something to cheer about.

Big names back for Reds. Again.

Quade Cooper, Karmicheal Hunt and Izaia Perese are back again for the Reds for this weekends game against the Southern Kings. The match is a must win for the Reds, who are currently on a six match losing streak.

Samu Kerevi will captain the side for the first time ever, with Nick Frisby and Andrew Ready starting on the bench after being left out of the squad that got flogged by the Brumbies in Canberra.

While the Kings are still seen as a lowly club with only one win to their name, they have been playing with more vigour and style this year and did challenge the Force last week. Those expecting an easy match probably won’t get it here.

Let’s just say, if the Reds somehow manage to lose this one, expect Ballymore to be burnt down by angry supporters.

Aussies Ready for Singapore

Following a much improved performance in Hong Kong, the Aussie Mens Sevens team will be looking to back up their efforts with a good result in Singapore.

Coach Andy Friend has stuck with consistency and named a relatively unchanged squad to the one that brought home the bronze medal in Hong Kong last week, which is their best performance so far this year.

“This group has continued to improve and last week marked a real turning point for the side, showing that they can beat top four teams when they back themselves,” he said.

“The challenge now is to not rest on our laurels and lift our performance this week in Singapore.”

The only change will be the substitution of Boyd Killingworth (concussion) for Tom Kingston into the starting lineup. The Aussies face Samoa, Kenya and Argentina in the opening pool round on Saturday.