Monday’s Rugby News has Johan Ackermann being smart, Andrew Hore being dumb, Daryl Gibson being honest and a wrap-up of the Women’s National Champs.
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Ackermann A-Ok
Lions coach Johan Ackermann is a really really cool guy. On an entirely unrelated note, he’s put fist to chin and opined that Australian rugby shouldn’t be written off.
“It is difficult to judge the Australian teams,” Ackermann told the Canberra Times.
“You just look at the Brumbies and they’ve got seven bonus points and that shows they’ve been in the games. [Wallabies coach] Michael Cheika made a comment that if they put the best team out there, he still believes they will be competitive. I still believe there is a lot of quality in Australian rugby and players. I don’t think one can read too much into it.
“There are always challenges, it’s the same in South Africa. Is it viable to have five or six teams? I don’t want to get into that debate because someone is going to get hurt.”
Meanwhile, Stephen Larkham also had his bit to say on his team’s performance.
“We’re clear of all the Australian teams but it’s not great,” Larkham began.
“Our focus is certainly not on the other games in the conference or the competition. We’re off to Africa [to play the Kings and Jags] on Monday. We’ve got a plan and the solution for us is pretty simple – just get the best result next week.
“In terms of confidence, the effort is 100 per cent there. The guys are throwing the ball around and they’re trying desperately to score tries. But it just didn’t come.
“The guys are pushing hard, but they continue to make some mistakes and that’s definitely hurting us.”
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Hore Ruins It For Everybody
Andrew Hore, the NSWRU CEO who has been doing alright so far, trotted out the old “rugby makes you better” line, in the process ironically making himself look like an out of touch knob.
“If you want your kids to be happy, and be good people, there’s a higher probability of achieving that through rugby and the opportunities that come through rugby,” Hore told the Sundi Telegraph.
“You don’t have to be an elite player to gain those opportunities because it is an international sport. We know we haven’t got the same amount of money as the other sports, but what we do have is a history of growing great people, and giving them opportunity.”
He also added that the Waratahs are “another source of income to feed the community game” and “winning the Super comp, no doubt about it, is great. It brings in money, raises the profile of the sport, but at the end of the day the very essence of the sport, from the bush to the beach, is the core beliefs of rugby and the fact that we make great people”.
Ok, so far so good. But here comes the real clanger.
“And the other thing rugby’s got is that it’s global.
“A kid could grow up and be a pretty ordinary rugby player, but that young man might also get in with a good peer group, goes to school, gets an education, puts his headshield, mouthguard and boots in a bag, flies over to London, jumps in a lower grade footy club there, meets a guy who works in a bank, and before you know it, earning millions. That’s the beauty of this sport.”
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Daryl Gibson Honest
Daryl Gibson has been rather frank about Australian rugby, telling the SMH that he himself is surprised the Waratahs are still in finals contention.
“All the Australian conference teams would be surprised that they’re still in contention but that’s the conference system where we all have an opportunity,” Gibson said. “We’ve had time to reflect on the last three games and where we’ve got to get to. With the results over the weekend, it brings everything back and everyone is a contender.”
Gibson knows his team’s been a bit rubbish, and he’s cottoned on to a solution.
“The focus is really playing to our capability for the full 80 minutes,” Gibson opined. “That’s the strongest message around our performance. We’re very competitive against New Zealand teams for periods of the game but they are more consistent over 80 minutes. When we put that together as a team, we’re going to be pretty strong and that’s the real challenge.
“We’ve given some teams considerable leads: the Blues, Crusaders, Hurricanes … We were giving up significant leads and then staging a pretty impressive fightback in all those games. The key for us is making sure we start well and play that rugby we can play for the full 80 minutes.”
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Women’s Champs
The Women’s National XVs Championships were held somewhere over the weekend, Sydney taking home the trophy for a third year in a row. Which is funny, because didn’t the AFL only invent women’s sport this year? Hmm
The tournament featured teams representing Sydney (NSW Metro), NSW Country, Queensland, ACT, Victoria, WA, SA Barbarians and the Australian Defence Force (ADF).
Sydney beat the ACT 34-0 in the final. Sydney captain, flyhalf Ash Hewson, told rugby.com.au, “It just shows what depth we’ve got at Sydney and we’ve probably got the best competition in the country and we showed today we are the best team in Australia. We did show resolve.. Everyone wants to knock us off our perch after coming first the last two years but we stayed composed and it’s a testament to our girls.”
With the Women’s World Cup to be held later this year in Ireland, Hewson promoted the benefits of the Women’s National XVs Champs.
“I think it’s just the best preparation we’ve had for a World Cup,” she said. Even this tournament, it’s stepped up another notch.
“There’s been a bit of a gap between our national competition and international matches but the last few years because of nationals and the development of young girls, it’s the best preparation we can hope for.”
Meanwhile, in the other placed-playoffs, Queensland beat WA 27-13 to come 3rd, the ADF saw off NSW Country 10-7 in the 5th-placed playoff, and the SA Barbarians snuck past Victoria 17-12 to grab 7th overall.
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