Tuesday’s Rugby News is actually ok. The Tahs are going play club rugby this weekend, Slack wants Cheika to have selectors, Aidan Toua wants to stay as does Karmichael.
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No Karmichael
Karmichael Hunt is out of Bledisloe contention, after the mercurial footballer-cum-caveman got the old syndesmosis of the old ankle.
“Karmichael is going to be out for six to eight weeks I’d say,” Michael Cheika said, via the SMH. “He ended up having a small operation on his syndesmosis injury. He’s got nothing doing for the first 10 days and then we’ll start working on him and his fitness levels so that as soon as he’s ready to go, he comes straight back in.
“He’s very disappointed but there’s nothing you can do about it when the injury happens, you’ve got to get on with it. It makes an opportunity for someone else in the team now.”
It’s believed Quade Cooper won’t be called up as Hunt’s replacement, nor will anyone else.
“I wouldn’t be bringing anyone in for Karmichael,” Cheika told rugby.com.au.
“We’ve got quite a big squad here so the concept is these guys are the players at the national level that we’re interested in, so we’re looking out for their fitness, medical, make sure they’re up to date, even once they leave the squad,” he said.
“It’s not just, ‘Try and make the squad,’ – we’ll take this bigger group right the way through until the end of November, so even when they’re back playing NRC, in those competitions that we’re still making sure there’s a certain fitness load and I suppose knowledge of our place so if they ever drop back in straight away that’ll happen.”
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Fitness Fitness Fitness
Cheika’s been getting his charges FIT FIT FIT ahead of the Bledisloe and Rugby Championship, and the SMH has all the goss.
The Wallabies are in Newcastle for 5 days and have spent most of that time running up things.
“The games against New Zealand will be the most intense games these guys play in their careers,” Cheika said. Guess they better get used to running uphill.
“We have to go in there ready to play at that intensity for the full duration of the match. The first couple of weeks of our preparation is about getting ourselves to a physical and mental level where we believe we can go out and win the game. We might go visiting around the city. I have been told there are some nice hills around. We will find a nice spot in the middle and the end of the week and see if we can have a bit of fun.”
More than just getting those billows blowing, the conditioning sessions are about intensity and passion and all those other things Cheika loves.
“The guys have been playing footy for six months now,” he said. “We need to turn the key inside their minds to get them to the next level up. Every day counts, every session counts. We started on a good note this morning and will keep that running. To be able to push yourself, you need to have a strong mindset. Your mind will tell you to pull up every time if you let it.”
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Fans Have Say
The Wallabies v Barbarians match will be played in the afternoon after fans voted so in the online poll. 50% said they wanted a 3pm game, over a 5pm and 7pm game. Figures like that shouldn’t be a shock with the governing body, but they are because it’s so out of touch.
38% plumped for the women’s 7s match as the half-time entertainment, instead of the junior match, relay race, and prize competition options, and four clubs (Warringah, Roseville Juniors, Old Ignatians and Orange Emus) given the chance to run their canteen at the game.
Also, a as yet-unnamed Shute Shield player will be the ’24th’ man for the Barbarians.
The game is set to take place on Saturday October 28 at Allianz Stadium.
All this stuff comes from this rugby.com.au article; and you can find out more on yourugbymatch.com
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Tricky Kiwis
Wayne Smith has written an interesting piece about the NZRU not really being straightforward on it’s long term strategy.
In short, Smith writes, the ARU are none the wiser as to the actions the NZRU are thinking of taking post-2020 (aka end of current broadcast agreement). However, the ARU are currently trying to cut a team (as partly requested by the Kiwis, to make Super better, and also for much talked about other reasons), and the real pickle is that if NZ and Australia come together for a trans-Tasman competition, the ARU might need that cut team.
“Frankly, Australia is growing just a tad weary of this peevish Kiwi behaviour,” Smith writes. “It might look from afar like benign disinterest, but in fact the NZRU behaviour is driven very much by animosity — first for Australia “stealing” the Kiwis’ share of the 2003 World Cup and then by not supporting its ultimately successful bid for the 2011 World Cup.
“Somewhat counterintuitively, the ARU had supported the Japanese bid, not New Zealand’s.
“To say the least, the Kiwis were unimpressed. The New Zealanders felt they had been outsmarted by John O’Neill in 2003 and abandoned by Gary Flowers when the World Cup vote was taken in 2005. And in retrospect, these were far from the ARU’s finest hours. But, for heaven’s sake, it was 12 years ago, New Zealand. Get over it!”
Smith, not only optimistic that the Kiwis can get over slights, also has a pleasant thing to say about one B. Pulver.
“One of the major successes of Bill Pulver’s troubled time as ARU chief executive has been rebuilding international relations and it’s fair to say he has been particularly accommodating where the Kiwis are concerned. Yet through it all, the Steve Tew-led Kiwis have maintained the rage.
“Indeed, all indications are that when the New Zealanders “war gamed” the various post-broadcast deal scenarios, it was Australia they were prepared to snub, not South Africa.”
And to save time, and also any threats that we’re just re-printing the Australian, Smith ends the piece talking about how it’s silly for the Kiwis to romanticise the Boks when South Africa have won 2/15 of the last games between them and the All Blacks, whereas the Wallabies have 5/22 Bledisloe games.
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