Tuesday’s Rugby News has Stephen Moore news, Brumbies and Waratahs saying stuff about each other, and the England winning the sevens.
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Moore Benched
You read that headline right. Stephen Moore will be benched BENCHED “for a game” in the Reds upcoming South Africa/Argentina tour says the Daily Tele.
That means golden boy Andrew Ready, who knows what’s what (i.e. he follows me on Twitter) will get a starting shot.
“When we signed Stephen, we knew we had to manage his load with starts and some time off the bench,” Reds coach Nick Stiles said.
“By using him later in the game, it gives us great experience beside some of our young replacement props and that is something we’ll look at on this tour.”
34-year-old Moore played for the first 40 in the game against the Crusaders, and Stiles is probably thinking now that his tactics (vis-a-vis on field experience) need some touching up.
“We haven’t fired a shot against these blokes in years and we’ve gone from a team that loses by 50 points to a team that’s been beaten on the buzzer,” Stiles said.
“A lot of the boys will take confidence we can compete with good teams and the key now is to come away with wins.”
On their tour, the Reds will play the Lions and Jaguares, and luckily for Stiles, those two sides duked it out in the wee hours of Sunday morning.
“Both sides scored four tries, ran the ball and threw it wide, so the meek and mild defence of the Reds in recent seasons would not stand up,” Stiles said.
“We have worked really hard on making big defence part of our identity again and that’s dominant hits, tackles that force turnovers and the desire to scramble for each other.”
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Brumbies Wary
The Brumbies are doing that thing where they’re asked about their feelings, but because they’re footballers, they don’t really say much but “yeah nah you know?”
“When you play the Tahs it’s always tough,” Brumbies captain Sam Carter said.
“It doesn’t matter if they’re coming back from South Africa or they’re coming off a loss or a win at whatever. We’re going to have to step up our game next week.”
See? Luckily there’s that whole Scott Fardy thing going on to keep things interesting.
“We’re trying to be tactical and smart about how we approach the whole season,” coach Stephen Larkham said.
“The good thing is “Fards” [please Mr Prime Minister if you’re truly worried about getting Australia back on track, banning shit nicknames should be first on your list] is rested up and we have an eight-day turnaround before our next game.”
“Fards is a world-class player and we’re just being smart with how we’re managing him,” Larkham said.
“I am not going to say in terms of our selection but you can put two and two together and know he’s a world class player. We’ll make the right decision.”
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Waratahs Want To Win
Now it’s the Waratahs time to speak, something about how disappointed they are in themselves because they lost etc etc.
“We are frustrated by our own inconsistency in our game — sometimes the Waratahs are beating the Waratahs. It’s disappointing,” Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson said to the Daily Tele.
“That’s what is under our control. They did well to capitalise on our errors and our mistakes. At times we looked good with the ball in hand and at times looked good on defence. It is just at times the concentration has lapsed and that let us down.
“The work on that we will take away from this tour is definitely our discipline…I can’t speak for the other teams but we are working through our own issues
“Brumbies-Waratahs is a big fixture, particularly given where both teams are at and the points in the conference. Any game against Australian opposition is going to be crucial.”
See? Luckily there’s the whole ‘should Folau play at 13?’ fiasco.
“At the moment everything is up for review,” Gibson continued.
“It’s more looking at our effectiveness. Are our combinations working and have we got our men in the right spots?”
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England Win In Canada
England saw off South Africa to win their second leg of the 2016-17 World Series Sevens. Guess who’s won the other four legs? South Africa.
The English swatted the Blitzbokke 19-7 in the final, with Fiji beating the Americans 28-24 to the bronze medal.
England coach Simon Amor was really, really, really enthused by his side’s performances. In particular, Amor loved England’s record thumping of Fiji in the semi-final (40-7!)
“We put in a really good performance there against an exceptional Fiji team,” he said, according to rugby.com.au.
“You’ve got to control possession and we did that very well. I’m incredibly proud of the boys.”
Meanwhile, the Good Guys were unfortunately beaten by New Zealand 21-0 in the fifth-place playoff, which left coach and GAGR mate Andy Friend a bit sad.
“We created opportunities but in those key moments of execution we weren’t able to finish it off,” said the Australia coach.
“After a good showing in Sydney and a better showing in Vegas, I was hoping we’d go better this weekend, so it is disappointing.”
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