Tuesday’s Rugby News makes up for the absent Labour Day/Queen’s Bday Monday Rugby News. There’s hair pulling, draw disappointment, no Perese, yes Coleman, Koroibete and ABs.
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La La La La
Michael Cheika insists that Israel Folau didn’t pull old mate’s hair, despite video evidence being to the contrary.
Folau only conceded a penalty at the time, though Sanzaar could look into the footage and give Folau some time on the naughty step.
When asked by a reporter about the incident, Cheika replied:
“[Folau] grabbed the guy around the collar, you’ve got to watch the vision. He gets penalised, ok, that’s a high tackle. He didn’t come in and grab him by the hair. Have you played rugby mate?”
The reporter, being a Saffer, obviously had.
“Have you ever tackled anyone by the hair? Exactly. Who tackles someone by the hair? Forget about it. It’s a non-issue.”
Hmm. Not a great look.
“The other bloke [Etzebeth] comes in and charges, doesn’t get him with the elbow but it was angling that way but nothing is said about it,” Cheika continued.
“He [Folau] didn’t whack him with his forearm or anything. The other guy comes charging in, he’s captain of the other team, elbow’s up, he doesn’t get him but if he does, what happens then?”
Dillyn Leyds, the hair pullee, “100%” reckons Folau pulled his hair, while Springboks coach Alister Coetzee was far more diplomatic about it all.
“I think the ref dealt with it,” Coetzee said, being reasonable but relatively sounding like the Dalai Lama. “I’ve got nothing to say about it. We’ll have a look at the video again and the necessary steps will be taken if there is steps to be taken.”
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Beale Hates Kissing Sister
Kurtley Beale has expressed his disappointment of another draw with the Springboks, telling everyone within earshot about it.
“It’s just a dull feeling, isn’t it?” Beale said post-match, according to the Daily Telegraph.
“There’s no proper result, I feel like it’s just a bit of a dead rubber kind of thing. It’s a lot of mixed emotions.”
”(Greg Martin) brought it up, obviously he loves his rugby league and so do I,” Beale continued.
“I think you’ve definitely got to look into it. Five minute break — or maybe a 10-minute break up on the Highveld just to get the oxygen in the lungs a bit.
”Both teams thought they should have won and for the fans, really, it probably would be better for them to get a certain result. But at the end of the day, we’re the players and we’re just playing the game.”
Talking of disappointment – disappointing performances – Beale reckons that the Wallabies aren’t 100% just yet because of inexperience. But it’s ok, cos they’re growing.
“I thought when the chances came, we took them, but we just couldn’t finish off and they’re work-ons we need to keep working on throughout the series and for the next few years, really,” Beale said.
“Young guys in big pressure moments, you can kind of see that their inexperience is coming out.
“But I really feel like we’re growing. That game for us was really good as a group to move forward and keep growing and learning off each other and putting ourselves in better positions in games.”
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Timani, Perese, Arnold Out
Lopeti Timani, Izaia Perese and Rory Arnold have all been told to go back to the NRC by Michael Cheika.
Timani hasn’t been able to challenge Sean McMahon for the no. 8 jersey, and Arnold, the shock omission, not having played in the last two tests.
But it is Perese who has really caught Cheika’s eyes, with the big fella telling the Daily Telegraph that the littler fella is ‘killing it’.
“He’s killing it,” Cheika said. “That’s why I don’t want him to stay here and just train.
“He’s in a very competitive position. I think he’s a guy who can defend in the midfield as well. He’s got that genuine pace; he’s got a great mindset and a great attitude. He’s coming along very nicely.
“I’m very happy with him but I want him to play footy. I could have kept him but I think he wants to play footy (too) and I think that’s the best thing.
“Lukhan (Tui) got in here from playing footy in NRC and got a look-in — if he was just training he wouldn’t have got on the field, so wherever we can, we want them to play footy.”
These are some very interesting events, seeing as everyone was saying this about Ned Hanigan except for Cheika.
Anyway, these peeps getting cut isn’t a biggie; the Wallabies are leaving South Africa for Argentina. Do you really want to fly 2/3rds the way around the world to not get picked?
The squad, minus those three, remains the same as the one in Africa.
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Nelson Mandela Plate > NRL
After his former team walked to another NRL title on Sunday, Marika Koroibete was quick to say he was quite chuffed with being a Wallaby thank you very much. Oh, that’s probably because he scored a double on Saturday night.
“It made me more hungry, knowing I had to earn my spot in the team and work hard,” Koroibete told the SMH. “That’s the mentality I had. Nothing about whether I had made the wrong decision. I just had to work to get in the team.
“There have been a few wingers there who have been better than me, so I just had to give it a crack and give it all I got for the Wallabies.”
The runner-up in the tipping comp, Hugh Cavill, gave old mate an 8/10 in his ratings, and it’ll be interesting to see where Koroibete goes from here.
“The boys are a hard-working side, so when the opportunity comes to score tries with the boys running out wide, all the credit goes back to the guys inside,” Koroibete said.
“I just didn’t want to let the boys down and I went from there. Especially playing South Africa at altitude, it was going to be a big 80 minutes and there was no wing on the bench.”
His boss is also happy too.
“I thought he played very well, he took his opportunities,” Cheika said.
“He had a couple of good scoring opportunities and he probably had an NRL tackle count in the first 20 minutes. He made about eight or nine. There’s still a few things to work out positionally but he had a standout performance.”
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Coleman Staying
Cheika has the ear of Adam Coleman, and is confident that the lock, the second biggest thing in Australia behind Mt Kosciuszko, will be staying in Australia.
Asked in South Africa, Cheika said, according to the SMH, “I have been talking to him and he’s been very clear where his head is at … I am feeling very confident.
“I take nothing for granted obviously but I feel very confident he has one big objective in his mind and that he’ll be here.
“We obviously have to do the right things, like in any negotiation process but I am sure that will happen. I am very comfortable for him to take his time as well.”
Cheika has also welcomed the announcement of Dave Wessels as Rebels coach for 2018 with that big grin of his.
“He has done an outstanding job in Perth and I say that because I have seen the players that have come in here and how they’ve come in with their attitude into the camp,” Cheika said.
“I would really like to see them stay in Australian rugby for sure.”
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Rugby Champo
The All Blacks, by the way, zipped up the Rugby Championship on Sundi morning, after seeing off the Pumas 36-10.
This is the All Blacks’ 79th Rugby Championship in a row.
The All Blacks raced to a 29-3 half-time lead, and despite Matt Todd being sin-binned just before half-time, and Kieran Read being shown a slice of cheese at around the 50-min walk, the Pumas just couldn’t get going. Yet again, the All Blacks didn’t win a 2nd half, the scores in the second 40 being 7-7.
“We ended up with a half of rugby that we aren’t overly excited about,” said New Zealand coach Steve Hansen (according to the BBC).
“But we’ve got some great lessons out of it for a young group of players – losing your skipper was great for us because we ended up needing someone to lead the team
“I’m very proud we came here and played very well in the first half and did things right. It’s a difficult place to play.”
The All Blacks now will fly off to see if they can go one better and beat the Springboks 58-0 next week.
Not flying with them will be Brodie Retallick. The lock unfortunately lost his unborn son over the week. I’m sure I’m with all those connected to GAGR in expressing our deep condolences with Retallick and his wife.
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