BLL has gone off to join Hoss in the yoga and wellness retreat. I managed to get a pic of him setting up for some meditation by the river. He texted me an update “KARL, managed to find Hoss but his leotards won’t fit me. Between me and Hoss it looks like Sasquatch and Jabba running for the buffet. Not liking the vegan dinners and no alcohol but the mind is certainly resting. Can you do Monday for me, the interweb thingy isn’t working here and I really don’t know what’s going on.”
No worries mate, the Kiwi’s got your back – even if I need a lawnmower to find it. Not a whole lot happening this week on the home front but a quick update on the Wallaroos and with Keith also stepped up to assist. Together we managed to find a couple of things to write about.
Wallaroos steal last minute win over Boks and head into finals of WXV2 Competition.
The Wallaroos came from behind in the last minute to get a great win over South Africa in Cape Town and have set themselves up for a title winning game against Scotland next week. The ladies scored five tries with Siokapesi Palu, Georgina Friedrichs, Eva Karpani, Desiree Miller and Maya Stewart all crossing the line. Stewart now holds the record for the most tries scored by a Wallaroo with 14.
It was an entertaining match with the Wallaroos going out fast to score twice, South Africa responding with a good charge down try and then the Wallaroos coming back with a try to Karpani. In addition to this the Wallaroos had two tries disallowed before half time. A bit of a lazy carry saw Cecelia Smith drop the ball over the line after a great team move that set up the space and then Desiree Miller was denied one with a knock on being ruled in the lead up. Things were looking good with Australia were on top in the first half going in for oranges 21-12 ahead.
Just after the break a head high tackle saw lock Atasi Lanai head to the bin; however, this didn’t stop good play from the Wallaroos and Desiree Millar managed a good try down the wing. Stewart then scored her record breaking try down the other wing before the Springbok ladies brought on their version of the “Bomb Squad” and started taking a bit of ascendency. Tries to Zintle Mpupha and Micke Gunter took the match into a one-score game and with some hard pressure on the line it appeared that they might be able to come up with the goods and level the game. However, Ash Masters, equalling Liz Patu’s 33 cap record in this match, came up with a good steal on the line to win the ball and Australia held on for a great 33-26 triumph.
Not everything in the game went to plan and while the ladies look very good with the ball in hand, they need to work on their scrum as giving away 5 or 6 penalties there helped keep the Boks in the game. It almost seemed they switched off when leading 33-14 and 8 mins to go, but maybe it was just the pressure from the Boks who saw their chances of winning the competition disappearing and so stepped up. The ladies back row was very good in both attack and defence and Molokai at 10 had a good game with great hands and some good kicking.
On the whole the ladies will be pleased with this result. Digging in and winning with a solid defence at the end along with some great running tries has demonstrated their improvement this year. They still have a way to go and would improve a lot with some of the ladies from the 7s coming into this team instead of playing in the NRLW matches. However, on the right path and next week should be a great match.
Other results in the WXV are:
- WXV1 – USA 14 lost to France 22
- NZ play England tomorrow morning.
- WXV2 – Japan 13 lost to Scotland 19.
- WXV3 – Fiji 17 lost to Samoa 45 and
- WXV3 – Netherlands 0 lost to Spain 20.
NRL holds upper hand in the chase for talent despite Rugby Australia’s best efforts in ongoing code war
From Keith and reported on ABC here by Luke Petony it seems the NRL are still pretty bullish that they are winning the war for the best players. The article describes the Australian U18 rugby side meeting the NZ Schoolboys team in Hamilton with several players in the Australian side who play both codes. This isn’t anything new and even when I was coaching in Canberra, a lot of my U18 side had players who played rugby on Saturday and league on Sunday. The article does talk about the rugby winning the battle for Zach Fittler, whose dad Brad who was an above average mungo, and how he has selected the Waratahs over NRL. The article goes on to talk about how he and Joseph Suaalii excelled at both sports and also the number of other high profile league players like Wally Lewis, Ricky Stuart, etc, played both games.
Kieth’s view
It makes pretty depressing reading. I suppose it makes sense when you look at the finances of the respective codes and where the money is going. The NRL’s financial war chest knocks RA’s into a cocked hat particularly when we are looking at the BIL tour and RWC to replenish the coffers. ARLC chair Peter V’landys declared last February $420 million would be spent on league’s participation and pathways over the next five years saying that $82.8 million was committed to these areas in 2023, an increase of $9.7million on the previous year. This is funding that RA can only dream about while acknowledging a $9.2M deficit in 2023 and having to borrow $80M to try and stay afloat before the BIL and RWC influx (which may or may not occur).
The article then goes on to outline the troubles with rugby and how the poor performances by the Wallabies and SR teams are helping to turn players to league.
What I find worrying is that while Aussie Super Rugby is shrinking and there doesn’t appear to be a plan to expand the player/coach base through a second tier competition of some description, the NRL are planning to expand their own competition from 17-20 teams in the next decade. If this materialises it’s pretty clear where the next generation of young cross code players will be heading.
Karl’s view
While Keith is right to have his concerns about this, for me there’s less to be worried about. I’m not so sure that RA should be trying to go head to head with the NRL. To me it seems like they’ll only be putting time and money into a lost cause that’ll mean they have both less time and money to put into the work where they can actually make a difference. Sure, Australia will lose players to league, and maybe a lot of good ones, but both the NRL and AFL only want a particular type of player and they aren’t the ones that matter the most in rugby. I find it interesting that in all the discussion about Suaalii and where he might play there isn’t that much of a shortage of good rugby players with instinctive rugby skills that haven’t deteriorated (if they ever existed anyway) by playing mungo games. I read one post where players were talking about how Ikitau had to move so that he could play 13 for the Wallabies.
Now for me this is a bigger issue than some 18 year old wannabe going to league instead of playing rugby. Cool go there and have fun with the mungoes if that’s what you want. What I am concerned about more is a player who was good at school, mainly because he was bigger and stronger than his non-Pacific Island heritage cohorts, being looked at for a prime Wallaby position and pushing out one of the best players they have BEFORE he even demonstrates that he’s good enough to play Super Rugby, let alone internationals. If this is how RA and the powers that be are looking at things, then it is no wonder they are in so much trouble.
The arrogance of this person telling everyone he’s going on the NH tour before he even talks to the coach about and not getting any sanction for it just shows me how much of a disaster this is going to be for rugby. He may turn out to be a good rugby player one day. Hopefully better than Folau who was good at two things and crap at everything else that was important, but the real issue with rugby here isn’t so much trying to fit good young players into a decreasing pool of SR, but the myopic short sightedness of administrators here who are creating bigger issues for the team and coaches with decisions that don’t make sense.
