Tuesday’s Rugby News has an eager Blake Enever, a pondering Michael Cheika, an angry Alan Jones, and a speculative New Zealand Rugby Board.
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Enever Eager
Blake Enever, the surprise package in the Wallabies squad, is eager to prove to errybody that he has what it takes to give away a stupid yellow card against the Scottish, or whatever it is that Wallabies locks are supposed to do.
“It’s really exciting,” Enever said, excited, to rugby.com.au.
“Obviously I am over the moon to get the call up, be part of the squad and just be in the mix with these great players.
“It would be unreal to be able to debut for the Wallabies. It would be a dream come true.”
Enever’s selection is a surprise also given than he isn’t a first-choice lock at his club, the Brumbies. Rory Arnold and Sam Carter are the 4 and 5 there; Arnold’s not in the team due to injury, while Carter isn’t in favour (but was picked in June).
“I’ve been in and around for a while now but I’ve just been trying to get better day by day,” he said.
“I’ve been exposed to a lot of good coaches along the way and I’m just really grateful for the opportunity.
“The way they express the squad is that it’s a level playing field and if you’re training well you are going to get the opportunities, as we have seen over the last couple of months. I think you just have to go hard every day at training, do your best and hopefully those opportunities will come.”
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Thanks But No Banks
Michael Cheika has enlightened us all as to why he didn’t choose Brumbies fans’ favourite Tom Banks in the Wallabies squad, when he did choose Melbourne Rebels young gun Jack Maddocks.
With Folau sitting out, and DHP out for the season with surgery, the Wallabies are in dire need of a new fullback. Not that they don’t have options, and not that Maddocks is actually going to play – he’s a development player.
Still, disappointment/outrage and all that.
“We’ve got Dane (Haylett-Petty) who’s out and Israel (Folau) who’s not coming I wanted to start getting another genuine fullback,” Cheika told rugby.com.au.
“He’s got that little bit of X factor. Everyone else in that backline, we’ve been working with this year and I feel like I wanted to continue that.
“Banks trained with us and is definitely in calculations – he had a fine game (for the Barbarians) and will look forward to Super Rugby next year.”
So, instead of Folau, who? Karmichael Hunt? Kurtley Beale? Who Cheika, who? Except for Quade, of course.
“I’ve been happy with the coverage we’ve had all throughout the season so far, having just those three guys [I think Cheika means Bernard Foley, Kurtley Beale and Reece Hodge], then we’ve got Billy Meakes who’s a 12 now, we can put Billy there and also Karmichael as a 12,” he said.
“A guy like Kyle Godwin would be the one who has been there before who missed out but we’ve got a heap of coverage there.
“(It was) more the fact now with Izzy not there, I want to have that little bit of something different.”
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Alan Jones Angry Again
Alan Jones reckons that Australian rugby ain’t too bad, it just needs a bit more chat. You know, some talk. Talkback. Talkback radio. Australian rugby needs more talkback radio.
In particular, he’s upset that the ARU (or Rugby Australia as they’re now known), didn’t support Alan Jones’ Barbarians as much as Alan Jones thinks they should have.
Last week, ARU (or Rugby Australia?) chairman Cameron Clyne said the Barbarians wasn’t the ARU’s to promote:
“It’s a Barbarians game, they invite us to play. It’s not our game to promote, it’s theirs to promote. It wasn’t even supposed to be here. Our job is to put a team on the field.”
And when the ARU said it wasn’t their gig, they really mean it. According to the SMH, the SCG Trust helped out “at last minute” to sort out a program.
“Alan Jones,” Alan Jones didn’t begin.
“Mr Pulver and Mr Clyne, your performance was disgraceful and continues to be disgraceful,” Jones continued. “Go, for God’s sake, and relieve us of this tedium of indifference and inefficiency.
“If this was the best that rugby can do, it ought to hand over to others who can do better.
“The defence from Pulver and Cameron Clyne, still chairman and wasting our money with lawyers before a Senate inquiry into Australian rugby, what was the argument? It wasn’t their problem.
“Well Mr Clyne, in case you’re dumb as well as duplicitous, let me tell our listeners a few things. You were paid $1.6 million for the game. If it wasn’t a home game for you, why did your team, the Wallabies, take the home dressing room?
“What did Clyne and Pulver say, ‘it’s just our job to put a team on the field … it’s not our game to promote’. So the Australian Rugby Union are not here to promote rugby? Not here to promote what took place?
“The rugby union might not like me saying what it is but I’m echoing the sentiments of hundreds of people who have written to me.”
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Bledisloe-san
Fox Sports is bombastically reporting that NZ is taking one of its 2 home 2018 Bledisloes to Japan next year.
The Wallabies have played the All Blacks in Japan before, in 2009, and the last time there was a non-WC Bledisloe outside overseas was in 2010, with *that* game in Hong Kong.
The Bledisloe is set to take place in late October 2018, a week before the ABs play Japan in Japan (set for 3 November 2018).
Obviously, this game will be played a year before the 2019 Rugby World Cup is set to land and grace Nippon with its presence and healing properties.
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