Tuesday’s Rugby News has dreams being shattered, the Force gunning for a win, rule changes in France that could benefit us all and Joe Tomane’s crocked himself again.
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Tell Him He’s Dreamin’
It’s over.
Jarryd Hayne is not gonna go to Rio, as he has missed on a spot in the Fijian rugby sevens squad. Telling the world in a Facebook post yesterday, the Hayne Plane wrote:
“As much as I would have loved to go to Rio, I too knew I wasn’t ready yet. During my time with the team, I pushed my body above and beyond. I used all my experience as a professional athlete and have tried everyday and in every way possible to make this team and make it better but unfortunately, time has been against me.”
“I’ve loved every minute of training with the Fiji Rugby 7’s. Not only are they back to back world champions but they are a bunch of guys who have welcomed me into the team as one of their own family,” he continued.
“For now, I’ll be in camp with the team until mid-week before heading back home to Sydney for some time out and will determine my next steps from there. I’ll enjoy watching from afar and wish the team all the best of luck on their road to Rio.”
Much speculation is pointing to the Hayne again fulfilling his original dream of playing for the Parramatta Eels, but just in case he wants to make his secondary dream of playing for the Waratahs come true, Dean Mumm has told the SMH that he’d love to play with Hayne.
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Force Aim For Win
In what might come across as a change of strategy, the Western Force are desperately hoping for a win in Canberra this Saturday.
Winger Luke Morahan, who was given the captaincy after some team shenanigans in South Africa, told Sportsfan that he and the Force really really really want to win to finish out their season.
“We are massively desperate,” said he. “We want to win for each other and win for the Force fans. It’s going to be a tough encounter. The Brumbies are playing for a lot, but so are we.”
The Force have only won twice all season – away in Brisbane and away in Tokyo – so winning at the Donkey Dome is going to be even more of an uphill task.
Interim coach Dave Wessels is confident, pointing that he feels the team has built over the past two weeks.
“I feel the team has built over the past two weeks,” Wessels said. “In Bloemfontein our attack really fired (in the 30-29 loss to the Cheetahs), [and] there were parts of the game against the Stormers where our attack – particularly in that last quarter – was really starting to work.”[/one_half] [one_half last=”no”]
Rule Changes in France
Planet Rugby is reporting that there are going to be rule changes in how youth players are defined in the club rugby scene in France, with potentially big consequences for international rugby.
The Ligue Nationale de Rugby has decided that from now on, foreign players signed on youth contracts can no longer automatically count towards a club’s academy quota.
The league requires teams to have 55%, or 12 out of 23, of a matchday squad to come from the clubs’ academy. Academy-trained players, otherwise known as joueurs issus des filières de formation (JIFF), are counted as such if they’ve been registered with the FFR (the French RU) for five years by the age of 23, or have spent three years in an FFR-certified academy by the age of 21.
In short, this means that a lot more young French players will be featuring in the professional leagues in France. Lately, a lot of French clubs have been looking towards the Pacific Islands and other countries in order to suck up the best talent, stick them in the academy, and wait until they count as French-homegrown, instead of investing in French youth.
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Tomane Breaks Leg
Brumbies magic maker Joe Tomane is out for the rest of the Southern Hemisphere season after fracturing his leg during a club rugby game.
Tomane, who’s off to Montpellier next year, was playing in club rugby in order to get himself back to match fitness after recovering from another, unrelated knee injury.
“This is a tough pill to swallow, there’s no doubt,” Tomane said, according to Fox Sports. “Unfortunately these things happen in rugby and I won’t get to farewell everyone the way I would’ve liked, but that’s how it goes sometimes.”
“The Brumbies mean the world to me and I’ll now get to join our fans in cheering the boys on for the rest of the season. I still believe this team has what it takes to win the title this year, and I’ll be doing everything I can to help out the players, in whatever way I can. I cannot speak highly enough of how much I admire the players I have played alongside over the past five years.”
Tomane has fracturing his tibia, and is set to be out for two months. If everything goes to plan, he could potentially be able to make the last two games of the Rugby Championship, away in South Africa and Argentina in October. If not, he could always try rubbing his leg with cheese or horse placenta.
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