Good Monday G&GRs, BLL went down to assist Hoss with his court case, rumour has it that he broke Hoss out of gaol by kicking the wall in and the two of them driving west in a stolen police car with the radio playing “Highway to Hell” on repeat. I’m not saying it’s true but, there’s word on the street about a large and a tall person robbing KFC and taking two months’ worth of fried chicken and leaving the money in the till. It’s a bit of a short one today and if he manages to stay ahead of the police we may see Brissy back next week.
Anyway team, grab your cup of rage stabiliser and enjoy the start of a new week. Not a lot of rugby in the weekend although we did have the men’s Olympic 7s play out and Scotland played (and won) against Uruguay. The women’s Olympic 7s games hadn’t started when I wrote this. And of course there was also some club rugby around the country. I refereed a 2nd Div senior 2nd game and was AR for the senior 1st game at 2:15 for Hills Rugby against Petersham. A great afternoon and some seriously good banter between the teams.
‘We can’t change it’: Australia miss out on bronze after captain sees red
As reported here on RugbyPass by AAP the mens 7s team missed out on a medal despite a very good tournament that had them reach the semi-finals. The semi-final game started well with Australia scoring first and despite some hard play by Fiji they went into the half time at 7 all. However, the second half was a different game. The rain came down and Australia struggled to retain the ball from the kickoff. four knockons gave the ball back to Fiji and they scored each time with some lovely passing and interplay between them.
France then beat South Africa in the other semi-final to join Fiji in the final. Australia played South Africa for the bronze medal and while there was some good play here that threatened the Boks, a red card for high tackle effectively ended Australia’s hopes for a medal despite an incredible comeback which saw the Boks needing to score after the siren to win. Gutted coach John Manenti hopes he saw the path for future success as he sat on the sideline watching as a Dupont inspired France took gold over Fiji and looked ahead to the Brisbane 2032 Games and what was needed. “We are not funded as a gold medal program and that’s what we’re trying to get to” he said. “Hopefully the powers that be can see we’re in that echelon, fighting for a medal here on a shoestring budget” Further adding “it’s LA (2028) into Brisbane and I’d like to think we can do what the French have just done.”
France handed the Fijians their first ever Olympic game loss beating them in the final by 28 to 7 with a masterful display of 7s rugby and some absolute magic from Dupont. He really has played well and his vision and ability to create something has been huge for the French 7s team. It will be really interesting to see how this team goes next year with him back playing XVs. And not to be too picky but despite his brilliance, he still hasn’t got a RWC medal – I know petty and uncalled for but tough.
To be honest I thought the Australian men’s 7s played well but at half time in the semi-final they looked tired and seemed to struggle with the tempo. I’d liked to’ve see both Toole and Nawaqanitawase come on as I think they’re both very good off the bench and may have made a difference. The team can, however, hold their heads high as they played well and losing the bronze medal match in an Olympic tournament is still the best they have reached.
Wallabies set to wheel out international big guns against Springboks
Reported here in SMH by Jonathon Drennan, Joe Schmidt is looking at maybe bringing in a couple of overseas Wallabies for the Rugby Championship games. The Wallabies are set to strengthen their squad with international reinforcements, potentially including second-rower Will Skelton and winger Marika Koroibete ahead of the first Test of the Rugby Championship against South Africa next month. According to Brennan, Schmidt will be forced to cast his selection net overseas to add class to his squad. Now I didn’t read the comments the same way. Speaking after the game against Georgia Schmidt confirmed he was open to bringing in overseas-based Wallabies, as long as they complemented his existing squad. What he actually said was “I think we’re open to bringing guys in,” Schmidt said. “But we’ve also been impressed with the guys that we’ve had, and while the performances have ebbed and flowed and we’re frustrated by that, when we’ve flowed we’ve actually looked pretty good, I think, with the players we have. So if we can supplement that with a couple of guys who make a difference, that’s great – but at the same time it means leaving someone out who’s contributed really well so far, so it’s just finding the balance there and trying to build from there.” To me this doesn’t sound like someone being forced to bringing players into the squad, but maybe I missed the tone of the comments seeing I only read them.
Skelton captained the Wallabies at the World Cup, but hasn’t played Test rugby since the opening victory over Georgia in France last September after injuring his calf in training. Koroibete has been playing under former Wallabies coach Robbie Deans in Japan for Saitama Wild Knights and last played for Australia against Portugal in our final game of the World Cup. Apparently the winger had changed his mind about retiring from the Wallabies after the World Cup due to the departure of Eddie Jones (that I can agree with). The Wallabies are set to announce their full Rugby Championship squad in two weeks ahead of next month’s Tests against South Africa in Brisbane and Perth.
I must admit I don’t see the need for bringing in players as much as some in the media seem to think they’re needed. I agree that Skelton will bring in a lot of experience, but I’m not sure his play will actually be much better than what we currently have from LSL, Frost, Smith or Blyth. As for Koriobete, I know I’m somewhat on the outer here, but for me he hasn’t done anything in the last few years that demonstrates he’s needed. His attack has been pretty average, he still loses the ball far too much in contact and his perpetual running out of the line only to miss a tackle just provides the opposition with attack opportunities that have led to tries against the Wallabies. I do find it interesting that Kerevi’s name isn’t in the mix and I think that now he has learnt how to distribute the ball he’s a lot better at 12 than he has been in the past.
Joe and the coaching team have certainly got a lot to think over and it will be interesting to see where they go when the team is announced. Having an Australian A team play against the English A team will certainly help and provide an opportunity to give some players an added run at a higher level than they get in club land here in Australia and I think Joe will use this to provide options going forward.
