Tuesday’s top rugby news sees ‘Super B’ edging closer, more concussion concerns, a Reds’ injury update and words exchanged over Beale.
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Time for ‘Super B’?
Players from the ARU’s national youth academy were yesterday advised that it would be shut down, leading many to believe a ‘Super B’ tournament will be set up for 2014. The proposal would see sides from the five Australian franchises play a season of home and away games. The academy, set up by David Nucifora, had been controversial. It was criticised for making Super Rugby coaches less likely to pick young players, as they were away training in a different environment with a different tactical focus for much of each week.
As always money is an issue, with conflict between the ARU and the franchises over who should pay for the new tournament. ARU boss Bill Pulver has also spoken about rule innovations such as a shorter running time, banning penalty goals and focus on short-arm penalties as a way to make any ‘Super B’ tournament attractive to fans and broadcasters.
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Handling of concussion attacked
There were plenty of concerns raised around George Smith being allowed to return to the field during the third Lions Test despite being heavily concussed. Now further concerns have been raised from a pretty good source, former IRB medical advisor Dr Barry O’Driscoll. O’Driscoll has expressed his concerns in this area before, with the introduction of the Pitch Side Concussion Assessment prompting him to quit the IRB.
O’Driscoll has written to the IRB after seeing the Smith incident saying that the current process is “totally discredited” with “no scientific, medical or rugby basis for the safety of this process.” He agrees with the World Conference on Concussion in Sport’s position that there should be no return to play on the day of a player suffering concussion. With this issue becoming an increasingly serious one in sports worldwide it will be interesting to see how the IRB handles it from here on out.
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Reds injury update
Despite some good injury news coming out of the Reds camp, they still face a number of issues in the lead up to Saturday’s clash with the Crusaders. First off, the good news is that Wallabies James Horwill and Will Genia have recovered from the injuries that kept them out of the clash with the Waratahs and will be available to play.
However, the Reds have a number of injury concerns in their backline. Anthony Fainga’a is struggling to overcome a hamstring injury and Ewen McKenzie believes the centre is only “touch and go” to recover in time. Inside centre Mike Harris also suffered a hamstring strain on the weekend and is unavailable for the ‘saders clash. Rod Davies is another definitely out for the Reds after suffering a major knee injury, though Dom Shipperley will step in to replace him.
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Beale’s management slams Rebels
Following the news the Rebels would no longer be looking to retain the services of Wallaby Kurtley Beale for next year, there have been plenty of words exchanged on the issue. Beale’s manager Isaac Moses was rather critical of how the Melbourne side treated his client saying “I have dealt with football clubs in three codes in this country and internationally and I can’t remember encountering dealings such as this one … The entire affair has been handled appallingly.”
Rebels chief Rob Clarke was a little bemused by the outburst from Moses and reiterated the Rebels’ support for Beale. Dismissing Moses’ conduct as “amateur”, Clarke said he was unsure what it was in the club’s simple statement clarifying their stance on the player that had so angered his manager.
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