Monday’s Rugby News has Folau wanting more bombs, a rugby version of league’s 40-20 maybe, Dave Rennie speculation and Castle chats World Rugby & Sunwolves
[one_half last=”no”]
Folau 4 Foley
After catching the Waratahs to a decisive lead, with a spectacular up-and-under try, on Saturday night, Israel Folau has asked for more kicks to be kicked his way.
“It’s something that I’d like to see more of because I’m confident in my ability to try and get up and contest for the ball,” Folau said, according to the SMH. “It was always a tactic of ours as a team. We trained that all week and we were happy that it came off. We had a plan and we stuck to it.”
Scoring two tries on Saturday, Folau has now moved equal with Doug Howlett on 59 Super Rugby tries. Howlett’s probably thinking, if only I got to play the Sunwolves twice a year too.
Conveniently, that moves us onto the next point of order which is the Waratahs game against Sanzaar’s Sunwolves in Newcastle next weekend.
Last time, the Waratahs only managed to beat Sanzaar’s Sunwolves by 1 point. With the Rugby World Cup this year, this game would seem to be the perfect time to rest a few players.
Having beaten the Crusaders, Gibson will have the difficult task of managing complacency, player rotation and remembering to tell Bernard Foley to bomb the ball for Folau. In fact, Gibson admitted to the SMH that bombing it to Folau was something the Tahs hadn’t done all season and that they focused on doing it on Saturday night.
“The challenge going forward is not being complacent with that win and just making sure that our processes are still the same,” Folau said. “The Sunwolves are going to be tough. They almost got us over there last time, so there’s nothing to take lightly there.”
** Also check out our Shorks vs Rebels and Reds vs Brumbies reviews
[/one_half][one_half last=”yes”]
50-22?
World Rugby has been in Paris mulling over a few things, one of which is the potential introduction to rugby of league’s 40-20 rule.
The 50-22 rule, sorry LAW, would give the attacking team the lineout throw if they managed to kick the ball from within their half to inside the opposition’s 22.
This symposium World Rugby is having in Paris is a player welfare one, and this law, amongst 7 others, is being put forward in order to increase player safety. Which is pretty lame.
“Rather than just look at the laws to improve the game as a spectacle and then whether it has a player welfare impact, we have tried to devise laws that have a direct player welfare impact,” World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper said (via Fox Sports).
“That’s the first time we’ve looked at it in that sense.
“This is really about looking at the shape of the game and working out what can actually have a material effect on some of the outcomes we’re having in the injury rates.”
One of the other laws being bandied about is the ability to upgrade a yellow to a red, while the player is in the sin bin – the article doesn’t really flesh out how this one might work – and another is to move tackles below the waistline.
Word on the street is that some of the other laws will involve players asking consent if they can tackle another player, and scrums to be replaced by crab races.
The rules will be trialled in games after the Rugby World Cup.
[/one_half][one_half last=”no”]
Rennie Speculation
Glasgow’s Kiwi coach Dave Rennie has responded to speculation that he replace Michael Cheika as Wallabies coach and the next Great Hope of Australian rugby.
Cheika has said he’ll walk if Australia don’t win the 2019 World Cup, which means new Director of Rugby Scott Johnson will be looking for new candidates to take over at the end of the year.
Rennie pointed out his contract expiration date, 2020, to answer all speculative questions.
“It’s just a bit of speculation, as often happens when there’s a potential job up for grabs,” Rennie said, according to rugby.com.au.
“I certainly haven’t spoken to anyone, and my contract with Glasgow takes me through until the middle of 2020. I’d imagine from an international point of view most of these jobs are going to be gobbled up straight after a World Cup.
“I knew that was probably going to be the case when I signed on for another season, so it’s just speculation.
“You never say never, but what I’ve said is I’m assuming that, like a lot of teams, they’ll probably make changes in coaches immediately after the World Cup. That’s November 2019. I’m committed here until July 2020, so that’s why it’s unlikely.”
However, it’s likely that Rennie will have seen Folau’s try and noted down, “kick it to Folau” in preparation for a potential RA interview. Both Robbie Deans and Cheika joined the Wallabies halfway through their club contracts.
rugby.com.au also notes that RA may also been sniffing around Exeter’s English coach Rob Baxter. Baxter took the unfancied Chiefs to the 2016-17 title, and has also coached many Australians such as Dean Mumm and Lachie Turner
[/one_half][one_half last=”yes”]
Castle Concerned
RA boss Raelene Castle is a wee bit concerned that the changes to Super Rugby post Sunwolves will mean only 6 or 7 home games, and a loss of revenue, for Australian teams.
Given the circumstances – the JRFU backing out of underwriting the Sunwolves – Castle reluctantly agreed to cutting the Sunwolves. She also added their cutting would save everyone “tens of millions of dollars”, but also shared the concerns of a lack of home game revenue.
“That [less home games] was part of the modelling that we did to make sure we took those things into account when this decision was made,” she said according to Fox Sports.
“Do we believe that this [14 team] structure gives us the best platform to negotiate a good outcome with our broadcasters and commercial partners? Yes we do.
“It also frees up a window at the beginning of Super Rugby, 14 rounds, means you’ve got more time at the beginning to think of other innovative ways that our Super teams can work to deliver some commercial products in that lead in time period.”
Asked whether a trans-Tasman comp was on the cards, given South Africa’s skullduggery, Castle was a bit wink-wink, nudge-nudge.
“What we are looking to do is ensure that whether it is a current consistent structure with South Africa or whether we look to having an evolution of having more alignment to a Japanese type competition because of the work they are planning to do with their own professional competition, enabling us to have a more pragmatic conversation about their capability to join our structure in the future, that’s something we believe will give us options,” Castle said, going more cross-eyed the more she spoke business gobbledygook.
Castle also spoke about the mooted Nations League:
“I think we continue to take maybe five steps forward and two steps backwards, so I think we continue to edge our way forward,” Castle said.
“We’re starting to get to the real understanding of what the issues are for each of those countries involved in that potential competition because you’ve got 12 countries with 12 different government structures, 12 different commercial constructs, 12 different lots of history so when you try and bring those all to the table and get agreements that’s a very challenging thing to do.”
[/one_half]
