Thursday’s Rugby News has young & brash Rebels, old & brash Karmichaels, homegrown & brash Forces, and stupid & silly Johan Goosen.
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Rebels Confident
Rebels coach Tony McGahan has put on a brave face when talking to News Ltd., telling the Daily Telegraph that’s he’s confident his unexpectedly youthful side can beat the Blues TONIGHT SUPER RUGBY STARTS TONIGHT YEAH BABY WOOOOO
Several Rebels stars have been ruled out of this game, meaning several youngster have to fill the gaps in the squad.
Sean McMahon, James Hanson, Toby Smith, Sefa Naivalu and Marika Koroibete have all been scratched from the teamsheet, as have second rowers Dominic Day and Sam Jeffries, and winger Dom Shipperley.
“We’re a bit disappointed we picked up a few injuries in the last couple of weeks,” McGahan said. “It leaves us a little bit short. But the whole squad has been working really hard and everyone is eager to play.
“We didn’t get a result against any Kiwi side last year so really that’s our immediate thought.
“We’ll have some small adaptations (to the game plan), you can only play with the group that you’re given at any point in time,” McGahan continued. “All in all, the philosophy of how we want to do things certainly won’t change.”
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Karmichael Hunter(er)
Karmichael Hunt is raring to get back out on the field, telling my boy Vince Rugari of AAP that he’s feeling better than ever.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been physically able to play some really good football,” said Hunt, who hasn’t really done much in the past few years, having been injured/in trouble during his time at the Reds and playing AFL for the Gold Coast Suns.
“I definitely feel like it was an experiment for me down on the Gold Coast and for me to be able to do what I did was an accomplishment,” the Reds wing continued. “But you’ve got Gary Ablett running around getting 45 touches and K Hunt in the midfield there just scrapping for 14. It’s a big difference”
“Now I finally feel like I’m able to do what I can do.”
While Hunt is looking forward to impressing for the Reds, he unsurprisingly has an eye on a Wallabies cap.
“It’s always on the agenda,” Hunt said. “I talk with Cheik off and on. If we get there, we get there. If not, we’ll keep chipping away.”
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Wessels Vested in Vestern Force
Western Force coach Dave Wessels says the Force will fight, fight, fight in the first month of Super Rugby to prove they belong in the competition.
A big factor in their coming tenacity will be the fact the Force have eight (8) WA-bred players in their squad for the weekend’s game against the Waratahs.
Dane and Ross Haylett-Petty, Curtis Rona, Kane Koteka, Richard Hardwick, Chance Peni, Luke Burton and Ryan Louwrens are all Perth lads. Combine that with the fact the Perth Pigs are the current NRC champions, and Wessels reckons the Force have very strong hand. A triple aces or something like that.
“Our club now is 12 years old, so if you take a kid who is 22/23 now and is starting to play regular Super Rugby, he was 10 years old when the club was formed.” began Wessels, talking to the Daily Telegraph.
“So we are getting the first wave of players who started to play because there is Super Rugby in Perth. We now have more locally produced players than ever in the team and a huge number of those starting on the weekend,”
“It would be really silly to stop that, just as we are starting to see the fruits of that labour come through the system and benefit Australian rugby more widely.
“Dane is a perfect example of that, and his younger brother Ross has the potential to be a Wallaby too. These are local boys who would probably never play for the Wallabies if there was no Super Rugby team in Perth.”
Given that SANZAAR next meet on 7 March -two weeks away, Wessels’ month plan might do the trick.
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What A Goosen
If you need a refresher on Johan Goosen, he was the 24-year-old South African fullback who “retired” from rugby last year. At the time Goosen was playing for French club Racing 92, and since his surprise retirement Racing 92 owner Jacky Lorenzetti has been hounding him with legal threats.
That’s because many suspect Goosen retired so he could back out of a contract that ran until 2020 – Goosen’s official reason for retiring from rugby was so he could take up a job as a commercial director at a saddle-horse stud farm in South Africa, as you do.
Meanwhile, Lorenzetti has been threatening any club that signed him with a €1 million compo case.
Anyway, the news here is that SA Rugby Mag (via Pundit Arena) is claiming that Goosen might turn out for the Cheetahs this coming season, with reports he was there-or-there-abouts with the Cheetahs squad in pre-season.
On the other hand, Cheetahs coach Franco Smith played the rumours down (“I have not thought it possible, because to my knowledge, Johan is contracted in France until 2020. We have not made him an offer or invited him back.”) and the Cheetahs CEO more or less said, “Yo, I had touching that dawg.”
It’ll be interesting to see where this story goes. And you can’t say Goosen isn’t an interesting bloke. He recently had a case of the Dick Cheneys, shooting his mate mate in the leg while out hunting.
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