Monday’s rugby news has Bill Pulver left embarrassed by the AAMI Park pitch, and considering the ARU’s stadia options, Steve Hansen’s on the whole coaching side of the England-Australia series, some good fortune for the Western Force and an opportunity for improving your skills.
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Pulver left “embarrassed”
ARU head honcho Bill Pulver was “embarrassed” by the state of the AAMI Park pitch, according to the SMH. The pitch’s performance on Saturday night also has many in the ARU considering tearing up an agreement to play a Wallabies game there in 2017.
Pulver, who no doubt was feeling the pressure to please seated between World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont and RFU chief Ian Ritchie, said:
“It was not the sort of surface we should have been playing on. I was concerned but I’d been told that it would be fine and on the night clearly it wasn’t. The English officials…had contacted me a few months before the game to ask about the quality of the surface.” (Those concerns turned out to be well-founded.)
Pulver also added very stern words vis-a-vis future use of AAMI Park: “They’ve got to get to our satisfaction, that the next time that we play it will be an adequate surface, so there’s a fair bit of work to be done. We require them to deliver a surface that is safe to play on at an international level so that’s a conversation we will be having from here forward to make sure there’s an appropriate resolution.”
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Cheika’s Been Bullied
That’s according to All Blacks boss Steve Hansen, who reckons that Michael Cheika’s refusal to engage in mind games meant that Eddie Jones’ words dictated the mood of both camps.
Stuff.co.nz reports that Hansen said, possibly stroking his chin at the time, “It’s been interesting watching the Jones-Cheika battle. Cheika’s not come back, he’s letting Eddie have a free rein – to the point where it actually seems like he’s letting Eddie bully him in the media.”
“I don’t know if that’s because they know each other that well, or if there’s a pecking order from the old days,” the All Blacks coach continued, before adding “But that’s gone on to the park, hasn’t it?”
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Force Win Rugby 10s
Amidst managerial upheaval – Michael Foley was relieved of his duties last week – the Western Force played all the aces to win the Mauritius Rugby 10s tournament, held this weekend.
Their rag tag playing group of Super regulars, Future Force players and local subbies, captained by Kane Koteka (10 Super caps), beat the Brumbies 7-0 in the final, with scrumhalf and Nedlands local Michael Ruru, taking out the player of the tournament award.
Tagged as #rugbyinparadise, the Force group clearly didn’t treat this comp as a holiday, pipping much more fancied sides like the Sharks, Saracens and Toulon, to the tile.
“We had a lot of belief in our own group and we never thought we were underdogs ourselves,” Koteka said after the game. “We just played our own game and it came off. They were the favourites for the tournament and here was a lot of pressure on them. To go down must be pretty heartbreaking for them, but we’re just happy to get the win.”
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ARU Coaching Seminar
The ARU are to hold a coaching conference early next month during the Australian Schoolboy Championships.
On 5 July, all the bignames in Australian rugby will descend on St Ignatius College, Riverview and chat all things coaching and performance. The keynote speakers will include Michael Cheika, World Cup winning coach Rod Macqueen, and chief ARU medico Dr Warren McDonald.
Also speaking will be the Wallabies resident scrummaging wizard, Mario Ledesma, as well as Hayden Master (Wallabies Head of Athletic Performance), strength and conditioning coach Brad Harrington, Wallabies analyst Cathal Garvey, u20s national team coach Adrian Thompson, North Harbour Rays coach Julian Huxley as well as match officials Andrew Lees and Angus Gardner.
For more information, and to register your interest, head over here.
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