Thanks KARL for a great Hump day contribution
Male Players Given Permission to Wear Tights and Leggings
Cue all of the silly jokes but this is actually a serious issue. From the Scotsman
Male Players have been granted permission to use tights, leggings with immediate effect by the governing body WR. This reflect the growing use of artificial pitches particularly int he Northern hemisphere.
The law change will apply to all levels of the game in a bid to protect players from abrasions.
Edinburgh have moved to a new stadium with artificial turf this season and Glasgow Warriors have played on a 4G surface since 2016.
A statement from the game’s governing body, World Rugby, said: “Players at all levels of rugby will be able to wear tights or leggings for matches after the World Rugby Executive Committee approved an amendment to the laws of the game with immediate effect.
“Currently permissible for women, Law 4 will be extended to all participants with immediate effect, enabling the wearing of tights or leggings that meet criteria outlined under the law.”
World Rugby said change has been made on welfare and accessibility grounds and reflects the growing worldwide use of artificial surfaces at both the elite and community levels.
I have been told that being tackled on a rare warm day on a 4G pitch basically gives you carpet burns and if you look at the WR7’s when they play it in Toronto the players are basically strapped up like a 38yo 5th grade prop.
Australia and New Zealand miss out on the World 7’s Due to Covid 19
Sydney and Hamilton have missed out on the WR7’s series next year due to the dreaded Rona. Frankly doubt care as I think we have done fairly well with the rest of our Rugby all things considered.
The good news is HK returns and if I had the capacity I would go to Spain who replace Sydney. Just lock it in now I think that would be a great weekend.
The series will have 10 men’s and seven women’s rounds over six months. The first round in Dubai will be behind closed doors from November 26-27 followed by another on December 3-4 with fans in attendance at The Sevens Stadium.
The men’s series will also have a North American round in Vancouver (February 26-27) and Los Angeles (March 5-6) before moving to Asia, where Hong Kong will host a men’s and women’s event (April 1-3) after a gap of two years.
That will be followed by a men’s event in Singapore (April 9-10)
Personally the South Stand in HK holds a special place in my heart. Met some guys from the Beijing Rugby Club there once i cannot remember some finer details.
Petaia set for fullback stint with Barbarians as Rennie clears up Cooper confusion
As reported by Hoss’s Are nemeses and former GAGR royalty Nathan W at rugby.com.au
Just to show the the Axiom “In Rennie we trust” is true He may use the BaBa’s game to showcase Jordan Pataia at fullback in a match against Samoa.
‘We’d like to see Jordie play a lot of 15 at Super level before considering him at Test level and the plan is from a Barbarians point of view, Jordie will stay and play No.15 in that game.”
Meanwhile, Rennie has shed some light over the selection of Quade Cooper for the exhibition game, which the flyhalf denied.
Cooper was announced as part of the squad last week, but took to social media to deny any involvement in the game.
“(We) jumped the gun on that one there. We’d spoken to Quade, but he’s got a club to go back to, too,” Rennie said. “We’re obviously keen for him to tour and stay another week, but obviously that makes it a little more difficult.
“He was certainly interested but he hadn’t committed. All good, no damage done.”
Nice to have an adult in charge isn’t it.
‘F*** you, you’re a liar, don’t ever talk to me ever again’
Last week I was drawn to an article about an Australian agent who has RA offside as he looks after his clients first. This week while listening to the Rugby Pod Podcast this came up as a topic and it was was followed up by our good friends at Rugbypass
Ex-England international Andy Goode has recalled the tempestuous time in his lengthy career when an agent unsuccessfully tried to convince him to sign for relegation-threatened Rotherham rather than re-join Leicester. The story emerged on the latest edition of The Rugby Pod, the show that the former out-half hosts with ex-Scotland lock Jim Hamilton.
As quoted
“Very early in my career when I was leaving Saracens, I had an agent at the time who was trying to push me to play for Rotherham because it suited him,” explained Goode on the show. “He was like, ‘Mate, go to Rotherham, just go there until the end of the season, play well and then we will get you a deal somewhere else’. It transpired that this agent owed Rotherham a bit of a favour. He was mates with the head coach at the time. I’m like, ‘I ain’t going to Rotherham for love nor money’. Nothing against Rotherham but they had played eight, lost eight and were definitely going down.
“I said, ‘I ain’t playing. There is no interest there’. The flip side of that, Dean (Richards) had phoned me directly and said, ‘Andy, I want you to come back to Leicester’. I said, ‘I’ll drive up there now and sign the contract’. So I phoned my agent on the way up to Leicester and I’m like, ‘Have you spoken to anyone else, have you spoken to Leicester, I heard they might be keen?’ ‘Yeah, I spoke to them, they’re not keen on you at all’.
“At that point, I basically told him: ‘F*** you, you’re a liar, don’t ever talk to me ever again’. I did my own deal with Leicester at which point I needed a lawyer who turned out to be Duncan Sandlant, who was then my agent for 15 years. Rugby is a kind of very strange place in reality and when you are negotiating contracts you need someone who you can trust implicitly.
It must be difficult for particularly for19 to 22 year old guys there are good agents and bad agents and they have dreams at that age.
