Friday’s rugby news has Cheika’s Wallabies plan, Folau winning the John Eales medal, Andrew Walker on the Beale affair and record RWC interest.
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Cheika outlines plans
New Wallabies coach Michael Cheika has immediately outlined his plans for success in the lead in to the 2015 World Cup. Emphasising the need to execute a certain identity on the field, Cheika will adopt a number of the successful elements of the Waratahs approach.
He said he would focus on instilling “hard work, physicality and creating our style of play exactly how we want our supporters to see us.” Meanwhile, the ARU are looking to appoint a technical advisor to the coach who would brief the ARU regularly on the goings on of the team.
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Folau wins John Eales medal
Israel Folau has been named the top Wallaby performer of the year, taking out the John Eales medal last night. With 314 votes, Folau finished ahead of skipper Michael Hooper (232), prop James Slipper (208) and centre Tevita Kuridrani (202).
Folau, who played all 15 Tests from last year’s 2013 Spring Tour, said he was “honoured and privileged” to win the award and praised Cheika and his Waratahs team-mates. The Wallabies fullback notably comes off contract at the end of this season.
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Walker warns ARU
Former Wallaby Andrew Walker has warned the ARU that they are pushing Kurtley Beale to the NRL. Walker endured plenty of his own off-field controversies while displaying his brilliant talent as a dual international.
He said that the ARU should have dealt with the incident immediately in-house, also saying, “They should’ve cuddled him, embraced him and said, ‘mate, we’ll look after you’, not left him out to dry.”
EDIT: There is breaking news on today’s Beale investigation. The Waratah playmaker appears set to argue that the messages were sent by a third party, while there may also be some kind of tampering as Beale’s phone records do not match with Patston’s. Neither McKenzie or Patston will appear for cross-examination, while it is being reported that Michael Cheika does want Beale on the tour of Europe.
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RWC shows record ticket sales
The 2015 Rugby World Cup is boasting record sales, with demand outweighing supply in most of the tournamnet’s fixtures. A total of 950,000 tickets were sold in the September general sale (from the 12th to the 29th), with unprecedented demand for the pool and knock-out stages.
Further, England Rugby 2015 has received applications for more than 5 million tickets, with results coming out on Saturday. Tickets will go back on sale by the end of November.
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