G&GR goes global. Some last minute drop outs means that you’re stuck with me, the brains of the outfit, for Monday news. Not to everyone’s taste I know, but needs must when the devil drives.
Not Up Schmidt Creek.
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt has resisted the urge to make widespread changes following last week’s record loss to Argentina, making just two tweaks to his squad for upcoming Tests against New Zealand. Queensland duo Fraser McReight and Hunter Paisami return as the only new inclusions to the group that toured Argentina, both having recovered from injury. Wagga Wagga junior Corey Toole and inside centre David Feliuai are the only two uncapped players in the 36-man squad.
THE SQUAD
Forwards: Allan Alaalatoa, Angus Bell, Josh Canham, Matt Faessler, Nick Frost, Langi Gleeson, Tom Hooper, Isaac Kailea, Fraser McReight, Josh Nasser, Brandon Paenga-Amosa, Tom Robertson, Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, James Slipper, Carlo Tizzano, Taniela Tupou, Rob Valetini, Jeremy Williams, Harry Wilson
Backs: Ben Donaldson, David Feliuai, Josh Flook, Jake Gordon, Len Ikitau, Max Jorgensen, Andrew Kellaway, Marika Koroibete, Noah Lolesio, Tom Lynagh, Tate McDermott, Hunter Paisami, Dylan Pietsch, Hamish Stewart, Corey Toole, Nic White, Tom Wright
After the Argentina defeat, there have been calls for Schmidt to be more open to picking overseas-based players, and for Rugby Australia to relax eligibility restrictions. Japan-based Marika Koroibete is the only overseas-based player to have featured for the Wallabies in 2024. Samu Kerevi, Will Skelton, Tom Staniforth, Pete Samu, Jordan Uelese, Folau Fainga’a, Scott Sio, Richie Arnold, Matt Philip and Reece Hodge are among the players plying their trade overseas that could potentially help the Wallabies. In all honesty how many of these players would you select? For the moment, Schmidt is hoping stability from home-based players will yield results and I think this is the right approach.
Australia sit last on the Rugby Championship table with just one win from four matches, and the All Blacks are also struggling with a 1-3 record. World champions South Africa head the standings with a perfect 4-0 record.
IMO, last weekend’s game was a one off. After a week to rest and regroup we’ll be ready to give the Minstrels a game.
Maro says 30 games PFFT!
How Much is Too Much?
English Premiership clubs face the prospect of fines if they abuse new player-welfare regulations with the game limit coming down to 30 matches this season. Under the new Professional Game Partnership, to which the Rugby Players’ Association were co-signatories for the first time, the number of games a player is allowed to participate in is coming down from 35 to 30. While welfare safeguards have been routinely abused in the past, Christian Day, the general secretary of the RPA, has warned that the new framework does provide “teeth” for action to be taken against serial offenders.
There’s been a lot of chat of these pages recently about the lack of game time that our SR players are getting and how this impacts on player development, so I thought I’d stick in this little snippet I read in the UK’s Torygraph.
“If one specific club consistently breaches these welfare initiatives then the Professional Rugby Board [PRB] does have teeth,” Day said. “I think it will be an extreme case. It would need real mismanagement. But it is there. We see this whole agreement as a step forward and a modernisation of the system. The proof is always going to be in the pudding, but I am very hopeful that we’re going to see something slightly better than what we have seen previously.”
Now thirty games may seem a lot but just compare that with the amount of games our players may play in a Super Rugby season, even with internationals. All the more reason for making Super Rugby an 11 team league playing home and away. Teams like the Reds and the Tahs who are overloaded with players following the demise of the Rebel should be able to rotate players to cope with the increased workload. What has been decided on is just a complete clusterf#$k, but that doesn’t surprise me in the least.
It’s Madness I Tell You.
The Nutty Boys have returned.
Just when you thought things couldn’t get more complicated it’s been revealed that talks are going ahead regarding a merger between the URC and Premiership rugby. The massive elephant in the room is that this merger is rumoured to not include SA and Italian teams. Not surprisingly, this suggestion has drawn a fair bit of negative comment.
As with most things associated with today’s game it’s about money and this snippet from one of the Torygraph articles sums it up nicely. “It began as a collaboration to look at ways of cutting costs by sharing services and pool back-room resources to dramatically reduce the costs of running the competitions and increase shared revenues and attractiveness to investors by centralising resources.”
What’s really sticks in my craw is that in all the articles that I’ve read not a single word about about the views of the fans, but that’s typical of the game today putting the interests of investors first.
What this means for the European Cup competition is anyone’s guess but watch this space. It’s also been suggested from other sources that as an alternative a new Anglo/Welsh league. Now I must admit that I’m in favour of the latter, Welsh rugby has been going through a very bad patch but I hope (he said through gritted teeth) that they’re turning a corner and are going to climb out of the pit. Back in my playing days trips to Swansea, Neath and Newport were something to look forward to with a certain amount of trepidation, but returning home bearing a few sprig marks and running the Taffs close was well worth it. A renewal of old rivalries would draw the crowds and for the likes of Bristol, Bath, Gloucester and Exeter it’s a relatively short trip over the Severn Bridge. What’s not to like?
All is Not Lost.
Australia’s rugby women lost 36-10 to a fired up Irish team that sit four places below them in the world rankings. Letting in six tries wasn’t pretty but the ladies showed glimpses of what they can do with some neat backline moves which resulted in their best player, Maya Stewart, scoring two good tries. It was however the Irish flanker Aoife Wafer who stole the show with her player of the match display scoring two tries and creating general mayhem when she had the ball.
“We’re still building a new team and combination. We’re just still trying to work on that connection at the moment,” the Wallaroos’ captain Siokapesi Palu said. “Our attacking breakdown needs to improve because we can’t unleash our backline without securing that ball.”
Palu was putting on a brave face but it was a harsh lesson for a team that had been hoping to enjoy a statement win after their disappointing Pacific Four series this year when their winless campaign relegated them to the second-tier WXV 2 tournament.
The Wallaroos will have to regroup quickly before their next challenge on Saturday against Wales in Newport. They then go on to Cape Town for the WXV 2 event where they will face Wales again, hosts South Africa and Scotland
And on a final note the Red Roses and the Black Ferns put on a cracker of a game at Allianz Stadium (or Twickers as I prefer to call it) with the Roses coming out 24-12 winners. It really does piss me off when I see so many negative comments about the women’s game in the press, denigrating a team that has consistently outperformed their male counterparts.
Like the electricity in Swan Bay normal services will be resumed next Monday. Pip! Pip!
