Happy Thursday Comrades. I for one am looking forward to this weeks Bled Two in NZ it should be a cracker. I am not as devastated about the game on the weekend as some and we were good in patches. Our Best is world class our brain fades are 6th grade at best.
As always this is a fan run site and any contribution is always welcome feel free to reach out to me at happyman@rugbydownunder.com be it with an article an idea or an opinion piece. Always remember this is a broad church so feel free to express your opinion as long as you are not some sweaty cellar based troll your opinion and diversity is welcome.
Are the Wallaby’s Refereed Differently – Opinion
Nothing to see here
Thanks to KARL for yesterday’s piece as I also had a chat to some friends who discussed with me how on earth he Kiwis did not get penalised in both of the lineout mauls in that game. It led me to consider a larger question are the Wallabies looked at by the Referees differently than the opposition they play against. While I also recognise my bias I would argue yes.
In my view this has been something we have brought upon ourselves with a fair bit of average behaviour towards the referees over the past decade or so and it will take another decade to undo the stench. Much like when our scrum was average in the early 2000’s it took another 5 years of being dominant for it to be recognised.
Marika K was given a yellow only after the Mark Talea try was disallowed and the TMO intervention. The Australians were not under penalty advantage had not repeatedly infringed and had not been warned. Wayne Barnes who I thought had a good game called the ball out of the ruck and then decides it was cynical I would argue a cynical penalty is much like porn you know it when you see it and this was not that. Again, the TT yellow which was warranted was only given after the TMO intervention and while it was a fair card I could find many instances where tackles like that are made and no intervention is made. The Connor Vest broken neck still shits me as an example as there was no penally and no sanction where everyone saw no arms tackle except for our Kiwi friends my favourite argument from them was he intended to wrap I intended to not drink red wine tonight and here we are.
Given the TMO’s love of an intervention watch the Argies game of two weeks ago I wonder why Johnny Hill was not sent off before Darcy Swain headbutted him. Obviously, players get as frustrated as the fans do when acts of foul play go unpunished.
Ultimately the Wallabies cannot take comfort from this “the game is rugby and the business is winning” so it is time to take care of business and not focus on these matters.I did not want to go to far into the weeds but you can all feel free.
JOC 2.0 will be with the Reds for a while.
Thanks to AllyOz for beating me to the punch but this is something I felt was worth a rerun.
Link here
“I feel very privileged to be staying in Queensland. This is my home, my team and an opportunity to continue playing with a group of men I have a lot of love and respect for,” O’Connor said in a statement.
“This contract also allows me to deliver on one of the main reasons I came back to Australia – to help develop the next generation of Rugby talent here at the Reds and also through coaching the junior pathways, which has been a passion of mine for some time.”
This is a long way from the prodigy who like many I felt was wasting his undoubted talent. I can honestly say as much as I disliked the 19 year old I think the 32 year old man had matured into a decent human being. His is exactly the type of IP that we need to keep onshore to upskill our young talent.
Stuart Hogg On Why He Retired just before the RWC
Link Here
Much Like Brian O’Driscoll a back knows when it is time. BOD recalls how he was playing against a guy who was not in his class and being run around made it clear to him when it was time.
I Stuart Hogg has revealed how the agony of pre-season training with Scotland convinced him to bring forward his planned retirement from playing. The recently-turned 31-year-old had announced earlier in 2023 that he would quit at the end of the upcoming Rugby World Cup in France, but he ultimately retired with immediate effect on July 9 after failing to reach the high standards he expected of himself at Test squad training.
“It was horrible, a horrible few weeks,” he said, explaining the build-up to last month’s surprise announcement. “I remember at this point last I was going, ‘I’m absolutely buggered, I feel emotionally and physically drained by the game’.
He leaves the game as one of the greatest Scottish players of his generation and at his peak probably the best fullback in the world.
U20 Trophy: The winner’s story
Here comes Spain into the top group.
Spain’s only previous experience of the World Rugby U20 Trophy before this year had ended with a heartbreaking, sudden-death 38-32 defeat to Samoa in the 2016 final.
But this time they were not to be denied, although their supporters inside the Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi would have feared the worst when Uruguay, the team that stood before them and promotion to the World Rugby U20 Championship, opened up a 15-0 lead inside the first 12 minutes of a breathtaking final.
Spain recovered brilliantly to score 24 unanswered points and lead by nine at half-time, but that cushion was cut to just four points, not once but twice, in a brilliant second half that went one way and then the other.
Even when Diego Gonzalez Blanco scored their fifth try, the game was not up because Marcel Sirvent Sanso’s missed conversion gave Los Teros a glimmer of hope that they could take Spain back to a painful place – extra time.
However, the European champions managed the last few minutes brilliantly, to hold on and celebrate a 39-32 victory that catapults them into the company of the best teams in international age-grade rugby.
Importantly for the game Scotland, Georgia and Samoa do not progress.
