I would recommend this week’s great pod by the boys from The Dropped Kick Off. They asked the question: what would give up for Australia to win back the cup this year? Nathan initially suggested a finger. Nick went with he would listen to one of the many South African Twitter trolls for 10 minutes every day for the rest of the year and agree with them.
Personally, I will go on record in saying that Matthew Raynal got the call correct in the game a few years ago when he robbed the Wallabies of a deserved victory which saved Ian Foster’s job and consigned us to Eddie Jones.
WALLAROOS TEAM LIST TO FACE WALES.
After a disappointing loss to the Irish last week the Wallaroos face off against the Welsh this week. I’ll give them a pass in that not many have had the experience of touring and the Irish side are a settled combination. They were poor in some areas which are fixable and IMHO at least gave it a red hot go on the weekend.
1. Bridie O’Gorman (#180 – Sydney University) – 23 caps
2. Tania Naden (#197 – Uni-North Owls) – 15 caps
3. Eva Karpani (#171 – Onkaparinga) – 27 caps
4. Kaitlan Leaney (#179 – CSU Marlins) – 21 caps
5. Michaela Leonard (c) (#168 – Tuggeranong Vikings) – 28 caps
6. Siokapesi Palu (#194 – Rockdale Rangers) – 12 caps
7. Ashley Marsters (#117 – Booroondarra) – 30 caps
8. Tabua Tuinakauvadra (#200 – Tuggeranong Vikings) – 7 caps
9. Layne Morgan (#188 – Merewether Carlton) – 25 caps
10. Faitala Moleka (#199 – Blacktown Scorpions) – 12 caps
11. Desiree Miller (#204 – Eastern Suburbs) – 8 caps
12. Trilleen Pomare (#155 – Wanneroo) – 29 caps
13. Georgina Friedrichs (#178 – Wests Bulldogs) – 25 caps
14. Maya Stewart (#196 – Nelson Bay Gropers) – 12 caps
15. Caitlyn Halse (#210 – Southern Districts) – 2 caps
Reserves
16. Tiarna Molloy (#191 – Inverell Highlanders) – 4 caps
17. Alapeta Ngauamo (#215 – Wests Bulldogs) – 1 cap
18. Lydia Kavoa (#214 – Eastern Suburbs) – 2 caps
19. Atasi Lafai (#161 – Campbelltown Harlequins) – 14 caps
20. Lucy Dinnen (#216 – Wanneroo) – 1 cap
21. Natalie Wright (#213 – Wests Bulldogs) – 3 caps
22. Arabella McKenzie (#175 – Lightning Ridge Tigers) – 27 caps
23. Lori Cramer (#172 – University of Queensland) – 24 caps
English rugby not investing in grassroots.
For context the French league funnels 30% of its revenue to the Pro D2.
The financial future of the Championship, English club rugby’s second tier, is very uncertain according to several of the league’s clubs. It follows the Professional Game Partnership (PGP) agreed between the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and Premiership Rugby (PRL) for the next eight years.
Each Premiership club will receive £33m a season. But Championship clubs – which are not a part of the new deal – will currently each receive their lowest ever sum of £133,000 this season.
“The RFU have made it clear, based on funding, that we Championship clubs remain irrelevant,” Mark Lavery, director of rugby at Ampthill told BBC Sport. “The PGP deal was done between the RFU and PRL and the Championship clubs were excluded from the discussions, so this is not a whole-game solution,” he said. “It’s extraordinary when you consider we have had such a vast drop in funding since Covid despite Premiership clubs seeing a massive rise. What does that tell you? We were told it would go back up.”
Ampthill’s local rivals Bedford Blues feel similarly hard done by. “We are extremely disappointed by the latest developments,” said Bedford chief executive, Gareth Alred. “It’s hard to swallow the Premiership receiving a per-club increase from just over £2m to £3.3m each, when we have just suffered another blow. In the last cycle in 2016, we received £650,000 per club, now we are down to our lowest ever central investment of £133,000, yet they say they want us to be competitive.”
Cambridge RFC have felt the financial squeeze more than most. Along with Chinnor, they haven’t been included in this season’s Premiership Rugby Cup, a competition between clubs in the top two tiers. It’s cost them £125,000. “We have been left out in the cold,” said Cambridge chairman Tim Hague. “The compensation is not adequate and we didn’t think the overall funding would be this low. We can survive, but we will have to look at our costs and our investments.”
From 2025-26, as part of the PGP, a two-legged play-off will see the bottom-placed Premiership side and the winner of the Championship meet to decide who stays up or goes up – provided the second-tier club meets the minimum standard criteria for promotion. There is also increased flexibility in that criteria for entry into the Premiership, to help aspirational clubs reach the top flight.
But questions remain about how a Championship club can finance such a promotion bid. Championship clubs are not members of PRL so they would not benefit from the same financial support to compete in the Premiership. “Currently it appears the support of promotion and relegation is only lip service with the actual detail making it nigh on impossible, not to mention the unequitable funding when you actually reach the top table,” said Alred.
“Any additional money we get from the RFU goes on infrastructure not on the development of our playing squad,” Ampthill’s Lavery added. “There is still significant uncertainty about the funding of the competition – don’t forget we lost our Champions, Jersey last season.”
Jersey Reds went into liquidation last September leaving an 11-team competition. This increases to 12 teams this season with Chinnor’s promotion and potentially 14 sides in 2025-26.
Premiership Rugby ‘considering’ URC merger to create British and Irish league.
This is interesting news coming out of the north with lots of smoke and probably a bit of fire. To me it just makes sense for there to be a UK league in a modern society; running two leagues makes no sense when the distance from London to Edinburgh is approx. 600km and all of the teams within that league would fit in an area the size of Brisbane to Sydney.
The English teams would be heavily in favour of the options as I believe their league will go under in the next five years.
The most favourable option seems to be one that excludes the Saffas and the Italians. The interesting part of the play, if you are into such things, is that the Saffas don’t get voting rights in the URC until either next year or the year after, so they are exposed in terms of leverage in negotiations.
Link Here
Indigenous academy offer sees Pietsch taken by Force.
From our friends at the National Indigenous Times. I love some of the things the Force are doing. An offer to create an Indigenous pathway program at the Western Force has triggered Dylan Pietsch to switch Super Rugby teams next year. Western Force pulled off the unexpected coup in signing the Waratahs winger that may also include a positional switch in the move after formerly playing flanker in schoolboy and sevens rugby.
Pietsch officially requested a release from his NSW Rugby Union on Friday after the Force, who are financially backed by Andrew and Nicola Forrest, had been in talks with the Wiradjuri man since the conclusion of the Super Rugby competition at the end of June. NSWRU chief executive Phil Waugh relented, granting Pietsch an immediate release from his contract knowing former players of the defunct Melbourne Rebels are available.
While the 26-year-old, who has been capped three times for the Wallabies since debuting this year moves on for better playing opportunities, it is understood Pietsch – who actively practises Indigenous art outside of rugby – has been told there is also scope to participate in an Indigenous academy at the Western Force. The details of the role have not been made clear and it’s not connected to Pietsch’s multi-year contract, but it ties into the Forrests owning the majority share and controlling interest of the Force.
Pietsch joins the Force after a capable 2024 Super Rugby Pacific season crossing for four tries in 12 appearances for the Waratahs, leading to his Wallabies Test call-up after watching from the sidelines all of last year in the Australian training squad under former coach Eddie Jones.
“I feel like the Western Force are on the up at the moment and I am really excited to play my part in it,” Pietsch said in a statement. “The Force play a fast-style of rugby where they like to move the ball, which suits me. I believe that can bring out my strengths with carrying and ball-running on the edges. My Wallabies ambition is a big thing too. Now I have had a taste of international rugby, I want to play consistent footy and I feel I can play my best footy with the Force. I feel this move can help propel me forward.”
Pietsch has appeared 38 times in Super Rugby, all for his home state, and has scored 14 tries since senior coaches in Sydney suggested the undersized loose forward play wing in 2022. While enjoying his time out wide, Pietsch has quietly been hinting a desire to slide towards the midfield and take on the bone-crunching inside centre role.
Pietsch is familiar with many new Force teammates from his time with the Australian sevens side and early on for the Waratahs, and would be keen play off the left shoulder of his Randwick clubmate and Force flyhalf, Ben Donaldson. “I’m really excited to play with a good group of boys,” Pietsch said. “I room with Donno (Ben Donaldson) on every Wallabies tour. I know a fair few of them – Jeremy Williams, Will Harris, Tom Horton and many more. It’s good to have those relationships going into a new team; it makes the transition a lot easier.” The names Pietsch listed were all running around in his 2022 debut season with New South Wales.
The relocation west could well also link Pietsch up with Darug and Kamilaroi man, Kurtley Beale, should the 35-year-old be offered a second season in Perth. Though Pietsch may well eventually play in the No.12 jersey, Force coach Simon Cron wasn’t giving much away on the announcement of the key signing. Waugh, who in his Waratahs and Wallabies heyday also played openside flanker, told Pietsch inside centre was up for grabs under new NSW and former ACT Brumbies coach, Dan McKellar. “He is a genuine winger, who brings pace and power out wide,” Cron said. “He also has a really driven personality type that will fit in really well with our group. The best players have that inner drive and he definitely has it, so we are excited about getting Dylan over after his Wallabies’ duties. For us, it’s really important we get depth in the back three as it will only help others in the squad to develop and get better.”
