Tuesday’s Rugby News has more drama in court, the Wallaroos dumped by France, a surprise inclusion in the Wallabies squad and Beauden Barrett beating rush defence.
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Back To Court
RugbyWA has won an injunction to take their bid to stay alive to the Supreme Court of NSW. While this injunction obviously means the saga isn’t over, it effectively means the Force – and its players – can’t be cut just yet.
If this appeal is successful, this means that the case could be at the Supreme Court by Wednesday this week. That appeal, the SMH says, will be granted within a week.
“We’ve been given every encouragement by our legal team that it’s certainly possible,” Western Force chief executive Mark Sinderberry told ABC Radio (via the SMH). “We have a commitment to the game here in Western Australia to exhaust every possibility.”
Meanwhile Adam Coleman and Dane Haylett-Petty, two Force Wallabies whose preparation has no doubt been unduly disrupted by their own governing body, remained adamant they’d stick with the Force’s fight.
“The fight’s not over yet,” Coleman said. “However long it takes we’ll just wait.
“If we keep our mindset like that and really focus on keeping rugby alive at the Western Force, I think it’ll go a long way.”
Haylett-Petty added: “There’s mixed emotions at the moment. [We are] angry, confused and disappointed but I guess as a group we’re really sticking tight and the process is not done yet.
“There’s a lot of people back home fighting the good fight. We believe in all the administrators at RugbyWA and they’re doing everything they can to overturn this decision.”
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Wallaroos Cooked
The Wallaroos were walloped 48-0 by the French last night, which all but rules out their chances of progressing past the group stage in the Women’s World Cup.
Coach Paul Verrell has a good idea of what went wrong.
“We came up against a very good French side,” Verrell told rugby.com.au.
“They were very fit, well drilled, aggressive, they brought their number one game and we struggled to match them early on. We paid the price with the score that we got.”
It appears that, like their male counterparts, the Wallaroos were simply outplayed and outrun by the opposition.
“We just had to go back to how we played against Ireland, the aggressiveness and physicality that we had,” Verrell said.
“I think that was lacking in that game tonight.
“We stepped out again in the second half and improved but we just need to do that for 80 minutes.”
The Wallaroos are now off to see Japan, who held Ireland to a 24-14 loss.
“We saw Japan were very strong today against the Irish,” Verrell said. “They led for most of the game and just fell off the pace at the end.
“They’re a very well drilled side, a fit side and they’ll challenge us on Thursday.”
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Rush Hour
Beauden Barrett reckons rush defence won’t work on him (but clutch penalty kicking might lose his team a series).
“We do understand (rush defence) puts the person with the ball under a bit more pressure but there are opportunities elsewhere,” Barrett told the media (via rugby.com.au).
“More teams are starting to bring that line speed. If the Wallabies do bring that on Saturday, we’ve learned ways to deal with that.”
Asked about the Lions test, Barrett was philosophical.
“We were perhaps tested in areas where we haven’t been before, so that’s exactly what we wanted,” he said.
“We ask those hard questions of ourselves and of our teammates, and it gets the best out of the team.
“It is just what we needed.”
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Rodda A Wallaba
The Daily Telegraph is reporting that Izack Rodda is set to be in the Wallabies Bledisloe squad.
The 21-year-old lock looks set to beat out Reds teammates Kane Douglas and Rob Simmons for a spot on the bench, with Rory Arnold and Adam Coleman the second-row starters.
Chief lock Adam Coleman is excited for the young man.
“I think it’s unreal for young Izack Rodda to be in camp and potentially playing against the All Blacks this weekend,” Coleman said.
“I think it’s a massive achievement for him and his family.
“Then you’ve got Rory Arnold there, and Simmo and Kane Douglas in the mix, there’s definitely a variety of locks there.
“The All Blacks locks are some of the best in the world, what an opportunity to play against them.”
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