Monday’s Rugby News is a BUMPER edition. Loads of England-Wallabies stuff, plus David Pocock news and all the results from Dubai.
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Dane Says Stay
Dane Haylett-Petty wants Wallabies fans – that means you! – to keep the faith with their darling national team, even after the Wallabies slumped to a 6-9, or 40%, win record this year.
“I think we’re definitely heading in the right direction and it’s a shame it has to come to an end but it does give us a chance to go back and keep working and keep moving forward,” DHP told the Daily Telegraph.
“We’ve blooded so many young, new players this year and there’s so much talent in Australia that without a doubt, there’s a bright future there.”
DHP said that the team is burning to get back out on the paddock, and write the wrongs of 2016. “It’s definitely frustrating, it would be nice to cap off the year and get some reward for all the hard work we’ve put in,” he said.
“I do think we’re one of the hardest-working teams out there. So it is frustrating but gives us an opportunity to now look at what we need to work on and it gives us a lot of time to work on it for June next year.”
The Count of Cottesloe also added his thoughts on his controversial sinbinning: “I felt like probably a penalty, bit rough. Yeah, I was definitely disappointed.”
Meanwhile, DHP expresses his true feelings.
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Eddie Wants 2019
The Cheshire Cat of World Rugby ain’t done with beating Australia 4-0 in 2016, cos he wants that dang 2019 World Cup.
“We’re progressing, we can’t get too ahead of ourselves,” Eddie Jones told the press. “We’re only the No.2 team in the world. We want to be No.1 so we have got a long way to go before we achieve that. The only record we’re interested in beating is being the No.1 team in the world and to do that you’ve got to win the World Cup.
“We’re hell-bent on achieving that. We’ve got the talent it’s just whether we get the desire and the cohesion right. There’s clocks around here that says how many days until the World Cup final, so we’ve got until the 2nd of November, 8pm Japan time to get ready. That’s what we’re aiming at. We want to be at our best that night. 1020 days, there you go.”
The 2003 England side won 14 wins a row, a feat now matched by Eddie’s England.
“The 2003 side is a much better side than we are,” Jones humblebragged. “They could win any number of ways. They had a very, very consistent scrum and lineout. We don’t have that yet. We’re getting there so they were a much better side than we are.”
All this chat raises the hardest question of all: who would a Wallabies fan want to see win out of England and New Zealand?
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Adios Pocock
Australian rugby doesn’t know it, but it’s currently in the throes of waving goodbye to best openside flanker in the world ala that scene at the end of the Lord of the Rings when the hobbits wave goodbye to Gandalf and Frodo.
David Pocock told the SMH the following:
“I think I’m someone who throws everything they’ve got into what they’re doing. I don’t want to get ahead of myself about the next World Cup, that’s why I’ve signed til 2019. I’ve loved being part of this team.
“A part of me was a bit concerned how I’m going to handle it, but we’ll see how we go,” he says. “It just seems like a long time to be totally away from the game and then come back. You have to back yourself, so I’m sure I’ll be right.”
“I probably didn’t think that I’d play beyond 28.” (Pocock will turn 29 in April). “In my head, 10 years was always a pretty good chunk of time and then I figured it’d be good to move on. I don’t know why I thought that. Having the two years out injured and then getting back into it last year, I’ve really enjoying being part of this Wallabies set-up.
“I’m really keen to get to this World Cup and be playing really good rugby then. Having some time off next year was in my mind the way to do it, to freshen up physically and mentally and then back myself to get back into some form.”
On his break, Pocock plans to go on a safari – hopefully without the bad influences of Glenn McGrath – and help his grandfather on his farm in Zimbabwe.
“There’s a lot of stuff outside of rugby I’m keen to explore,” Pocock says. “I’m just going into next year with an open mind and it’d be a real treat not having that pre-season just looming like most holidays when you get two weeks of nothing and then you have to do fitness again.”
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Moneybags Pocock
…on the other hand, the venerable GeeRob of the SMH reports that Pocock will be literally (well, not literally) handed sacks of cash by the ARU during his sabbatical.
Robinson says that the ARU have pulled out all stops to keep Pocock happy, offering him a three-year deal worth more that $4 million. That’s up there with Israel Folau’s current contract.
In his sabbatical year, for $750,00 all Pocock will have to do is do “three, one-hour meet and greets with individuals of the ARU’s choosing”, and presumbly try his best to not chain himself to any mining equipment.
And his 18 or so months away won’t be completely rugby free, as he’s also taken up a three-year deal with Japanese team Panasonic Wild Knights (the team of Robbie Deans, Berrick Barnes, Taqele Naiyaravoro, Shota Horie and Daniel Heenan).
Robinson adds this megabucks approach to keeping top talent is something of a Cheika move that the Wallabies coach introduced during his time in Tahland, and has a few quotes from Bill Pulver shoring up the ARU’s approach.
“I am very comfortable with what we do around that,” Pulver said. “We are at such a financial disadvantage that we have to be creative about the way we retain our talent. That means we will do our best to put a proposal in front of our very best that addresses their needs. We do that every year.
“We’re not going to stick our head in the sand and say there’s one way to contract people and take it or leave it. If you want to surround yourself with the best possible people then you need to be as flexible as possible.”
A crucial detail to this argument, Robinson adds, is the fact that the English Premiership will double its salary cap over the next four years to $12 million a year, and that Pocock signed his four-year deal in March after rejecting an offer from Wasps that was in the region of 2.4 million yearly dollaridoos.
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Loose Ends Tied
On the weekend, the Australian ran a print cartoon of Eddie Jones as a clown. Michael Cheika, true to his word, didn’t like the display.
“I don’t think that’s funny. I think that’s poor form myself,” he told the assembled press.
Earlier this year, the NZ Herald ran a cartoon of Cheika as a clown, and the Wallabies coach branding of that image as “disrespectful” earnt a lot of guffaws from jounralists in the media and All Black-supporting manchildren ini the comment sections of Australian rugby media.
At least Cheika remained consistent on his feelings.
For his part, this is what Jones said:
“I thought that was funny, The Australian used to have a good cartoonist and now they don’t,” Jones began, before slamdunking. “It’s probably because no one reads the paper now so they can’t afford to have a good cartoonist.”
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Sevens Results
Meanwhile, over the weekend the first leg of the 2016-17 World Sevens Series took place, and it wasn’t the best news for the Aussie mens and womens sides.
After romping their group and the finals- including beating the Poms 31-10 – the Pearls came up short against New Zealand in the final, losing 17-5, with Russia of all countries coming third.
The women’s side were overrun with injuries during the tournament, at one stage playing with five against the USA after Tiani Penitani and Brooke Anderson got themselves into strife. With Penitani needing a stretcher and the team physio overloaded, Alicia Quirk and Chloe Dalton, both physiotherapy grads, took to strapping up Anderson’s leg.
The blokes, meanwhile, finished 5th in a tourney that definitely had its shocks. One of those shocks was the Welsh shocking (in the Guardian’s words) Andy Friend’s charges 21-12 in the quarters after Australia had topped their group.
The other shock was South Africa blitzing the All Blacks 40-0 in another quarter final, with the Saffers going on to beat Fiji to the big prize. In the third place playoff, England beat Wales.
In other news, Uganda managed to finish 14th, after beating Japan and then narrowly losing to Canada 20-17 in the Shield final.
Want all the information? Check out the World Rugby site: Blokes and Sheilas
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