Monday’s Rugby News sees the results from the weekend, the latest from Izzy’s injury, the Rebels picking up the pieces, and Sio on the line.
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Back to Square One
It was a weekend where we were brought back to earth, with everyone (bar the Waratahs) having a bit of a shocker.
Friday night saw the much anticipated first Trans-Tasman derby between the Hurricanes and the Rebels in Melbourne. I wasn’t confident of the Stockade’s chances against a Hurricanes side this good, but at least if we could be competitive, and show that 2017 was far behind us, that would be enough. To the Rebels credit, they played okay for the first thirty minutes.
Then the score ended 19-50, so that went south quickly.
Yeah, that match sucked, but it didn’t piss me off as much as the result on Saturday night. The Brumbies hosted the Waratahs down in Canberra, and at first this match had the look of an old school armwrestle. Then, it became a bit of a stop-start affair, and borderline tedious by matches end. Eventually, the Tahs squeezed the hosts out of the game, winning 17-24.
Urgh, don’t get me wrong, the Tahs were the better team on the park. But I had no idea what was going on with the Brumbies game plan. The vast majority of the game they played in their own half, looking to run the ball. It was a game where they were starved of possession, but they did next to nothing with it when they got it. Add to that the silly scrum penalties, and Speight’s god-awful late tackle. It was a match full of coach killers for the horses.
The other results of the round started with the Chiefs surprising the Highlanders, winning 27-22. Then we got the biggest surprise of the all, when the Sharks put the Blues to the sword (breaking several records in the process), with their 40-63 win. That was a truly weird match.
That was followed by yet another surprise win, with the under performing Bulls putting in a solid effort to knock over the Stormers at home, 33-23. And finally, late last night, the Lions went down to the Crusaders in Jo’berg, 8-14.
In other results from the weekend, the Super W served up two big matches. In Melbourne, the Rebels Women put up a bit of fight, but were quickly overwhelmed by the Brumbies Women, 8-37.
The other match by comparison was an absolute classic, with Queensland Women scoring at the death to defeat the Western Force Women 30-32, in front of a jubilant crowd in Perth. It was a thriller from start of finish, I recommend you check out the highlights of the match here.
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Izzy is out
Well, after only playing a few minutes of the Tahs-Brumbies derby, Izzy Folau did something to his hammy and was off for the rest of the game. Well, it turns out he could now be out for up to a month.
Izzy has had issues with this hammy in the past, having last injured it during the British and Irish Lions tour of 2013. While his loss is a big one, even he admitted that Tahs fans could have a perfectly adequate substitute: exciting former Force winger Alex Newsome, who came on to replace Folau and had an absolute blinder of a night.
“He was one of our stand out players tonight and he did a great job,” he said to rugby.com.au.
“He’s done well for us all year so far, bringing that impact off the bench and tonight was no different.
“He’s a very confident guy, he’s real talkative around the group and speaks his mind, you can tell by the way that he plays the game.
“He’s been playing outstanding rugby all year and tonight he was great again.”
The Tahs also have an additional winger option in Cam Clark.
In the meantime, Izzy will be expected to have scans in the next week to reveal the scale of the injury.
“After the scan, I’ll sit down with the physios and medical team to make sure I get my rehab done and making sure that it’s not rushed or anything like that and hammy’s good ready to come back.
“We’ve got plenty of guys that haven’t had an opportunity yet to play this year like Clarky.
“The boys are doing well in those positions and there’s a lot of competition within the team, which is healthy, making sure everyone’s on their toes ready to compete.”
The Tahs will be up against the Moon Dogs, Reds and Lions in the next few weeks before having a bye. Izzy is now predicted to be back for the start of May, when the Tahs take on their first Kiwi opposition in the Blues.
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Back to the drawing board
It was a disappointing night for the Stockade, with yet another second half blowout.
The Rebels have plenty of work on, but one person who will be watching their progress is, surprisingly, Hurricanes coach Chris Boyd.
“They’ve got some pretty tricky games coming up, against the Jaguares and then off to Africa, so I think the next three or four weeks will tell where they are at,” Boyd said post-match.
“They’ve had a great start but they will need to push on to stake a realistic claim [to the title].”
“That’s twice now that they’ve had good starts and haven’t been able to hold on to that and turn it into a win so David (coach David Wessels) and his crew are probably sitting there saying, ‘we’ve got part of it right – how do we get the other bit right.”
The Canes skipper, Brad Shields admitted that they were a bit stumped in the first thirty minutes as the Rebels matched them physically. But, they expected them to burn out, which they did soon after.
Wessels admitted that the result has produced more positives than negatives in his mind, a comment that surprised many in the press conference.
“There were a lot of unknowns going into this game for us,” Wessels said to rugby.com.au.
“It was an opportunity to set a mark and (determine) what the things are that we need to improve and to be competitive at the top end.
“The Hurricanes are like the Man United of rugby and I thought in that first half we really played some good rugby.
“Losing Mafi at half time – who was having a great game – he was a pretty key part of our plan.
“That changed the momentum of the game but ultimately we lost the game because they controlled the field better.
“They strategically managed the field better and I thought a couple of times we gave them back-to-back penalties.
“Against a team like the Hurricanes you don’t get away with that.”
“I was really proud of the boys and the way we started but we can’t be a 40 minute team,” Skipper Adam Coleman added.
“In the second half I thought the intensity dropped off.
“We really want to let our performances do the talking and every time we leave the field we want to make sure our fans to be proud of us.
“It’s not about the result – it’s about our character and our heart and what we show on the field.”
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On the line…
Finally, down in Canberra, the Brumbies were left with long faces after their embarrassing home loss to the Tahs.
The loss this weekend was their fourth loss in a row against Aussie opposition, and if they lose to the Reds this coming weekend, it’ll be the first time in the Brums history that would have recorded five losses in a row against Aussie opposition.
It is looking increasingly like next week could be a ‘make or break’ scenario for the horses, and Scott Sio admitted that the team is now in must-win territory when he spoke to The Canberra Times.
“It’s a pretty tough pill to swallow, unfortunately we weren’t good enough to close it out and get the lead back at the end, but we’ll review and move forward quickly,” Sio said.
“We’ve just got to get back on the winning track and consistently winning. With two wins and three losses, pretty much every week is a must-win for us now.
“We’ll move forward quickly, that’s the nature of the game, new week, new team, new challenge. We’ve got to make sure we’re ready to go on Monday and that we’re ready for the Reds.
“It’s always a tough set-piece battle against the Reds and I’d expect no less from Brad Thorn.
“I didn’t get to play in the last game against them but I’m looking forward to the battle next week against a quality front row.
“We need to go back and see where we can keep improving our scrum, but I thought we had some good delivery on our ball [against the Waratahs] and put some good pressure on them.”
Dan McKellar echoed a lot of these thoughts, and also admitted that several key areas of execution cost the Brumbies the match.
“It’s just about making sure that in key moments in the game [that we deliver]. Our set-piece, at really important times, wasn’t executed how we wanted it to, that one scrum we were penalised then the lineouts a couple of times also.
“We turned the ball over and once you’ve got a team under pressure it’s a huge release and momentum shift, so it’s an area we’ve got to improve.”
Finally, to finish off the news on a more positive note, James Stannard has been officially discharged from hospital, two days after being the victim of a one-punch attack in Coogee. His prognosis is reportedly positive, and he is expected to make a statement to the media and NSW Police Force at some point today.
Brandon Quinn will replace him for the Mens squad in the Commonwealth Games, but his official replacement as captain is still to be confirmed.
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