Hola. Como estas? I hope our fellow Gagger audience (all six of us) are Pizza Pockets, revved-up, fighting fit and primed to tackle whatever is coming our way today. There’s a bit to get through this week (as ever), and I have a management review due in 2hrs, so let’s get cracking and rip through the menu.
Before I launch into my musings, I’ll insert here that this is a fan-run site and contributions are more than welcome. Please feel free to reach out to me (HERE) be it with an article, an idea, or an opinion piece, and barring the merest check for decency and decorum, you can then tell your mum you’re a published journalist. Or there’s also the ‘Submit a Story’ option on the home page if you want to do your own thing. So feel free to have a crack as the more opinions and ideas and folk to share the load, the merrier we (and our significant others) all are.
Nutta’s Team of the Week (Rd13)
For the thirteenth time this year we’ll dive into the team of the week selected from the Aussie Super teams. As a reminder, the selection criteria is merely if you played for an Aussie Super franchise then you can get picked. But be aware, I’m not picking on the basis of Wobbly qualification, merely who in those teams played well enough to get picked.
- Matt Gibbon – has bounced back well after the shit-show of two weeks ago
- Tom Horton – was gutsy, mobile and accurate
- Allan Ala’alotoa – his side of the scrum wasn’t the problem and good D
- Josh Canham – certainly has skills and did enough to hold off Swain
- Izack Rodda – was getting back to his bully-boy best
- Liam Wright – does the 1%ers so well and sets the bar so high
- Brad Wilkin – had a cracker of a game for the Scum
- Rob Valetini – was simply a rock for an otherwise surprisingly ineffective Donkeys
- Harrison Goddard – unlike near every other 9, he got his basics right
- Noah Lolesio – predictable, not rock-star, but reliable and got the job done
- Lachie Anderson – a double pie gets a jersey
- Hamish Stewart – was just a class act in the Force midfield
- Bayley Kuenzle – made a great duo with Stewy and rock solid D
- Ollie Sapsford – creative, elusive and fun to watch
- Tom Wright – had a solid match, but still gives me the heebie-jeebies at times
- Jay Fonokalafi – the Concreter did everything he could
- Peni Ravai – I genuinely love watching this guy play
- Sam Talakai – was completely reliable around his meat & potato play
- Jeremy Williams – is showing his wares and gets better each week lately
- Jed Holloway – NSW without him are just so much weaker
- Nic White – played well but still makes me uneasy at times
- Hunter Paisami – has really matured in his play and developed a smarter kick game
- Ben Donaldson – he clearly has skills and seems much more reliable at the moment
Other Thoughts:
- Frankly, that was a weekend I’d rather forget for Aussie rugby. Coming into the business end of the Super season, when we need to be firing and refining our execution, our performances were just so generally poor it was quite concerning. At this point it’d be too easy to rip into and get lost in ad-hominem attacks on all sorts of folk in leadership roles, but again, I don’t want to do that. The best of a bad lot were the Force, but that was at the expense of a completely clueless NSW. And the Donkeys win wasn’t really a win, but was more good luck and only that. But that said, they did win. And that’s something. The Reds forgot what time kickoff was to give the Drua a head start they then couldn’t reel back in. And Damian McKenzie, alongside poor Rebs goal kicking, ruined the Rebels night. There are two ways to look at it I guess: either it was the crap weekend we had to have to get the garbage out of our system, or it was the big red flag signal that the wheels are coming off. We’ll see which one it was in the coming fortnight.
- Out of interest, was Bradley Amituanai, coming on for the Tahs at no18 in the 65th minute of their loss to the Force to then cop a serve of cheese from referee Jordan Way less than 1 minute after getting on-field, the fastest yellow card we have seen? I can’t think of one faster, but only because KARL hasn’t got to me yet.
- I am keen to hear what Suliasi Vunivalu is going to get by way of suspension for his double-cheese and vino burger for tripping on the weekend versus the Drua. That both cheeses were warranted for the sin of ‘tripping’ cannot be disputed – they were both clear incidents of ‘sticking the foot out’. But how the judiciary views the offence, in light of some of the other suspensions dished out this year and the (flawed) logic that scaffolded them, will be intriguing.
- Crusaders lock Quinten Strange needs to buy himself a lottery ticket, for surely his luck must change. He was the guy who slapped the ball out of play in the final act of the Brumbies match against the Cru in Canberra on Saturday, and in doing so got himself cheesed, a penalty try awarded and so gifted the match to the Donkeys. Yes, what he did was illegal. And the ref was 100% correct in the decision. But, in those circumstances, under that pressure, who would’ve done anything differently? Be honest now…
Around the Campfires…
Country rugby is in full swing about the place and a couple of the results that came to my attention were…
The Coonamble Rams travelled the 2hrs to Nyngan and the home of the mighty Bogan Bulls last Saturday. Sadly, they came away empty handed after the women’s went to the Bulls by ‘a lot to not much’ and then the Bulls followed up with an emphatic 20-0 win in the blokes. Nonetheless I understand the real action was at the bowling club afterwards for the dinner and player auction. However, details of what ensued surrounding that event are scarce (and probably best left that way).
I made mention last week of the COL Cup, put on the line each year since 2019 when Wagga Ag College meets Wagga Waratahs in the first round. It’s a commemorative and fund-raising event in memory of an Ag College lad who died of an epilepsy incident in 2018. All reports were that it was a cracking day of rugby out at Beres Ellwood Oval at CSU Wagga; honours were split fairly evenly with 2nd grade being a 19-all draw, women’s going to the Aggies 19-15 and 1sts going to the Tahs 27-21.
The weekend’s other results in Southern Inland Rugby made for an interesting table as we see Wagga City continuing their winning ways after thumping CSU Reddies by 69-8 and so now being 6 from 6 for 29pts. Aggies hold their spot in 2nd despite their loss to Tahs at 4 from 5 on 21pts. But now we see Tumut Bulls, fresh from their 50-7 whacking of Griffith Blacks, leap to 3rd on table with 3 from 6 on 17pts, 2pts clear of the Wagga Waratahs who are at 3 from 5 on 15. The game in hand is having an impact, which will balance out as the season wears on.
Over in the multitude of Central West competitions, the Canowindra Pythons travelled to mighty Molong over the weekend to take on the Magpies in what turned out to be an enthralling, if chilly and windy game with multiple lead swaps that went down to the closing minutes. Basically, the Pythons skipped out to an early lead with a pie to no6 Hugh Breen but then try matched try with Molong’s hooker, Hobbs, and Riley White at breakaway featuring heavily. After oranges the Molong black and whites pulled clear with pies to Hugh Foy and Hobbs (again) and so went into the closing stages of the match up by a solitary point. This spurred both sides to more dashing and daring-do and so it fell to the Pythons no10 Tye Ashe to attempt a penalty some 3 minutes from time, which he slotted to make it 6 from 6 off the tee for the day. And despite the mayhem of the closing kickoff efforts, the Canowindra lads held on to take a 1pt win. Canowindra gave their points to lock Andy Townsend, no12 Hayden Tom and split a point between Craig McKenzie and Dan Bowd.
In the Monaro & South Coast (ACT 2nd Div) comp, the Hall Bushrangers had a hard day out, losing a nailbiter in the men’s to the Bungendore Mudchooks, but getting fairly well spanked in the women’s by ADFA. The Braidwood Redbacks made it 3 from 3 for their 30th anniversary season (so far) with a heart-in-mouth 33-31 win over the Yass Rams. Now to be accurate, the Redbacks have 1 catch-up game to play due to inclement weather (v Batesman Bay Boars) and have had their bye already, so their 2nd spot on the ladder with 3 from 3 on 15pts is a more than fair reflection of their status. Accordingly, all eyes quietly turn to the Jindabyne Bush Pigs challenge in a fortnight’s time. The Bush Pigs top the table on 4 from 4 with 20pts, and are undefeated in the last two seasons. So they are acknowledged as top dogs (or top pigs I guess). But, the Redbacks are quietly circling.
Meanwhile the Taralga Tigers, following their 71-5 thumping of the struggling Cooma Red Devils lads, are quietly climbing the Monaro table as well. And the chat about town is that they are gathering momentum. So watch for a late season push by the Tigers as they look to reestablish their glory years and chase title premiership number 6(?) since 2000.
In other results about the countryside, the Mudgee Wombats had a solid 54-24 win over Parkes Boars at Spicer Park, while Dubbo Rhinos got home against CSU Mitchell at Bathurst. The Wombats win sees them at 4 from 4 for 20pts, 1pt ahead of Narromine Gorillas on 3 from 4 for 19pts.
And over in the Central West Premier competition, Bathurst Bulldogs continued their early season form by downing Cowra Eagles by 69-5 in Bathurst over the weekend. That result sees the Bulldogs move out to 5 from 5 on 25pts, well clear of 2nd placed Forbes Platypi on 3 from 5 and 17pts. Also on the weekend past, local rivalries were on full display as Orange Emus scored an impressive 45-7 win over Orange City, with the win pushing the Emus into clear 3rd spot at 3 from 5 but only 15pts as they have missed 2 BPs so far.
Boorowa Goldies had a mixed day against Grenfell Panthers, with the ladies going down to the Grenfell Grendals by 27-14, but the men swinging the other way by a substantial 68-12.
But in what was undoubtedly the turn-up of the weekend, down the NSW South Coast in the IDRU Premiership, the year-to-date unbeaten Kiama Cows had their reign unceremoniously abbreviated by a rampaging Shoalhaven to the tune of 31-14. With Kiama taking the 2nds earlier in the day 17-12, folk expected the 1st grade fixture would be a pitched battle, but from the ref’s opening whistle it seemed the Kiama lads left their intent in the milking sheds.
The local source waxed lyrical (fairly? with bias? I dunno…) that, despite an all-conquering Kiama scrum, the Shoalies had a number of critical players return for this fray and they clicked straight into gear with tradesman like efficiency at the breakdown complementing a well-organised defensive pattern and a smooth attacking structure to set up two early pies before the match was even 10min old. They then went on with the good start to thoroughly outplay the Cows across the first stanza, racking up four pies in total, with 3 sauce squirts to super-boot Keiran Brandon, to go to oranges with a formidable 26-0 lead.
After the break, the herd had clearly awoken and the Cows came out snorting to stampede in 2 pies of their own in reply. And so at 26-14 it was looking to be ‘game on’. However, the fightback was short lived, and came to a general halt once Shoalies Steven Brandon swooped on a Cows loose ball around halfway and, after demonstrating Lionel Messi-esque skills to dribble his way upfield, bagged a pie to put the game to rest.
Comments from the coaches were that, for the Cows, big centre Mick Taylor was very impressive and if it were not for his contribution the result could have been even worse. Also getting a nod were youngsters Dante Patrick, Jeromy Cairns, Rueben Thomas and Darius Mafileo who showed good signs. Naturally, Shoalies coach Will Miller was very happy, particularly with his charges’ domination at the breakdown and general defence. And off the back of the piggies efforts, Harri Hibbs, Jack Watts and Keiran and Steven Brandon made hay all day.
That’s about it from me today, Cobbers. Super Rugby is getting down to the serious stuff, and I have to say that our best is starting to look not good enough. So here’s hoping for a good week of training and recovery there.
And as regards your local club, well get yourself sorted and get on down to support them. They are weaker without you. So grab your mate, grab your kids, grab your missus (but don’t grab anyone else’s missus) while you get on down to pay the gate guys, buy a few ales and show your colours for your community.
