Tuesday’s Rugby News has two drawn out sagas, a very expensive Will Genia maybe going to the Rebels, and Adam Korczyk all physical like.
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Drawn Out Saga 1
The bug fiasco, which every lazy journalist is calling Bug Gate, but really should be calling Bugarama, is still going on, with all the accused and such in court yesterday.
So this is how it’s played out so far. Almost a year ago, the All Blacks found a bug in their hotel room. They knew for a week but magically decided to tell the meedja the Saturday before the 1st Bledisloe. Cheika obvs wasn’t impressed, as accusations that the Wallabies were to blame were obviously going to be raised.
Earlier this year, the NSW Police charged the ABs security manager Adrian Gard with planting the bug, and making it all up and so on. And yesterday was his day in court.
Gard, who has pleaded not guilty, employed Charles Carter and his company The Bug Sweepers to, uh, sweep for bugs. Carter was at the trial as a witness.
“[Carter] told the court Gard had asked him to carry out a sweep for bugs at North Sydney Oval where the All Blacks were training on Monday August 15 and later at the team hotel,” reports the SMH.
“Mr Carter checked if any bugs had been placed under ground near where the All Blacks were training but found nothing.
“He said team management had suspected they had been bugged before and wanted to make sure there were no listening devices hidden near the players to record their lineout calls.
“Mr Carter later checked the hotel and found two chairs in the team’s meeting room which had given off “alerts”. He urged Gard to quarantine the chairs and to check them for bugs.”
Darren Shand, the ABs’ team manager also gave evidence. Shandy basically recounted that Gard had told him to come see this chair, and showed Shand the bug and the ripped up chair.
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Drawn Out Saga 2
Meanwhile, Twiggy Forrest has slapped the ARU yet again, officially announcing his 2-for-1 loan deal thingy. In other words, he’ll loan anyone willing to pay for an Own the Force share the $1000 needed, with the amount payable to RugbyWA and not him (thereby doubling the money they get).
In a statement, found on the Western Force website, Forrest said:
“I want to be very clear to the ARU. You try to cut the Road Safety Western Force, you have to go through me first and then all of our players and then our supporters and then all of the parents of young players and, indeed, all proud Western Australians,“ Forrest said.
“This is bigger than just a rugby game. I stand behind all of these amazing people who believe in a fair go and the right for Australians to support rugby union as a national sport, not just one reduced to the eastern seaboard.
“The Western Force has heart. It is punching way above its weight. It is producing a crop of Wallabies. It is growing its junior player base. It has the backing of its community,”
“How on earth can the ARU even consider causing harm to such a team and indeed to this rugby community?”
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Genia Going
The Courier Mail is reporting that Will Genia is probably going to join the Melbourne Rebels (if they exist) next year.
Genia preferred to return to the Queensland Reds, but as they’d already signed 3 halves for next year, and Genia was to have cost $800k p/a (half of that covered by the ARU), they said no.
The man himself confirmed to the meedja yesterday that his deal to return to Australia is done and dusted.
“It’s pretty much finalised, I’ve just got to nut out the last little bits of the detail, it should be announced soon,” Genia said.
“I don’t know where it is. I’m back, I signed a contract with Australian rugby in November last year, that was always going to happen, and my release [from Stade Francais and Bath] was done a month before the June Tests.
“It’s more about trying to nut out the details with the Super Rugby club, and that’s pretty much done.”
As mentioned before, Genia preferred the Reds.
“I understand, particularly with Queensland, that coming back at this point in time with their squad being full [and my wage demands being ridiculous] it’s going to be quite tough, so I’ll just have to wait and I’ve been allowed to concentrate on other things like playing in June,” Genia said.
“It’s not been something that’s bothered me too much, because for the back part of the year I’m back home in Queensland outside of being here in camp with the boys.”
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Korczyk Happy
Reds forward Adam Korczyk was a surprise selection in the Wallabies squad, and unsurprisingly he’s loving it.
The Kiwi-born Queenslander of Polish extraction told rugby.com.au the following:
“The next coming week I’ll be trying to get as much as I can from Hoops and that. The main thing for me is get this knowledge down and then just play footy after that.”
Hmm ok. So it turns out that Cheika like Korczyk because of one attribute. You can guess what.
“He told me he’s enjoyed my physicality,” Korczyk said, the he being Cheika.
“I think that’s a big thing with Cheik, he enjoys the physical play and being a lineout jumping backrower probably helps as well, so more options in the lineout and probably the main thing is probably that physicality.
“I wasn’t the biggest bloke, I was probably just tall when I was playing junior rugby but I think the last year with the knee injury, I had time to actually hit the gym a bit more and get my body prepared,” continued Korczyk.
“When I made my actual debut in 2015 I wasn’t too good, I was probably a bit skinny and that but with the year under my belt that’s probably enhanced it a bit more.”
And if you’re reading his name and don’t know how to pronounce, go with ‘Korchik‘.
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